“Scarcity and Generosity”

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Jeremiah 8:18:9:1

Psalm 79:1-9

I am convinced that God has a sense of humour.

After all, consider my predicament this morning.  When I was interviewed to be the minister of this congregation, I indicated to the Search Committee that it would be my intention to follow the lectionary for our times of worship together.  As many of you know, the lectionary is a three-year cycle of suggested readings which are shaped by the seasons of the church. 

But then I read the suggested passage from the Gospel of Luke for this particular Sunday, this day when I first step into this pulpit as the minister of St. Andrew’s. 

And I was faced with a challenge. Jesus’ story of the dishonest manager is one of the most confusing parables in all of the Gospels. There are dimensions of this story which are so objectionable, in fact, that it was the reason why one of the most anti-Christian Roman emperors – a man often referred to as ‘Julian the Apostate’ in Christian history – attacked Christianity on the basis that any religion whose founder could commend such unethical behaviour must be suspect.

To make matters even worse, the only thing that is more dangerous than a preacher pontificating on some problematic parable is a minister who talks too much about money.  And today’s lectionary text ends with a rather pointed statement about money.  You cannot serve God and wealth.

There used to be a list of topics that were wisely avoided in polite company. Religion, politics, sex and money were at the top of that list. Now when it comes to the church, one cannot avoid the topic of religion; and when it comes to religion, one cannot avoid commenting, from time to time, on politics.  It used to be that sex was a great taboo subject, but it seems, these days, that in some parts of the church, there are some who have become completely preoccupied with the subject!

Which leaves only money.  Money is the one topic that still has the power to make us all squirm a little bit when it gets discussed in church.  A minister who preaches too much about the topic of money quickly becomes perceived as a proponent of the prosperity gospel; while ministers who avoid the subject altogether end up avoiding a subject that was a great concern to Jesus himself.  It is not an easy subject.

And thus, my dilemma.  For my first sermon as the minister of St. Andrew’s Church, the lectionary issues the challenge of preaching on Jesus’ most difficult parable about the issue of the contrast between being a servant of God or of wealth. 

What a way to begin! 

Today’s parable itself begins far more simply.

“There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.”

The dishonest manager had been ‘found out’; and he was afraid for his future. “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?’” he asked himself, “’I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.’”

The manager knew that his future was not bright. He feared that he would soon be cast into that terrible situation of financial scarcity.  He was convinced that he would not have enough.

And so, without any remorse for his crimes, he simply continued to do what he had always done.  He continued looking out for himself.

He started changing the amounts that were listed on the debtor’s invoices, thereby reducing their debts to his master. 

The debts that the man was canceling were not, of course, owed to him, personally – but he knew that he would garner a great deal of good will from the debtors.  He was, again, robbing from his employer, but he knew that he could later go back to those various debtors, remind them that he had reduced their invoices, and appeal to them for help. 

And this is where the parable becomes confusing.  In verse 8, we read Jesus’ words. “[H]is master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.”  The man was commended for his behaviour!

The story ends with a strange conclusion.  “Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth,” said Jesus, “so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”

So what is it that we are supposed to learn from this strange text?  Was Jesus intending his followers to imitate the unethical behaviour of that manager? And why does the Gospel of Luke connect this story of the dishonest manager with the passage which follows it, which offers to us the challenging reminder that we cannot serve God and wealth? 

There are two different perspectives on life that that are woven into this story, each of which offers to us a distinct perspective on the world. One of these perspectives is represented by the dishonest manager; and the other by Jesus himself. 

What are these two perspectives?  The first is the fear of scarcity, represented by the dishonest manager.

The manager acted out of a conviction that he would not have enough.  The text quotes him saying that he was unwilling to perform manual labour, or to beg – and, as these were the only options that he foresaw were open to him, he chose to continue in his dishonest ways in an attempt to overcome the scarcity that confronted him.  His fear that he would not have enough led him to act unethically.

This fear of scarcity, this fear that there is not enough is as common in the modern world as it ever was to the age in which Jesus lived.  After all, every day, we are inundated with the idea that there is ‘not enough’.

There is not enough money in our bank accounts for us to feel secure.  There is not enough time in the day to do everything that we need to get done.    There is not enough money in the pension plan to safeguard our retirement, not enough money in the city budget to maintain programmes for disadvantaged youth, not enough security in the airport to make us safe, not enough time to solve the environmental crisis.  There are not enough people in the congregation to do effective ministry; there is not enough money on the offering plate to accomplish the mission of the church.  There is not enough food in the world to feed every hungry stomach, not enough medicine to treat every preventable disease, not enough love to go around, so we must save and hoard what little we have for those who are nice to us.

And when we truly ‘buy into’ this fear of scarcity, we begin to act in objectionable ways, as did the dishonest manager. When we do not think that there is enough, we hoard what little we have to try to protect ourselves. When we do not think that there is enough, we limit our trust in God and our generosity towards others.  When we do not think that there is enough, we hold back from a wholehearted discipleship, hedging our bets in case this ‘Jesus thing’ does not entirely work out for us. 

And this is, in many ways, the perspective that Jesus critiques about wealth.  He knew that any culture which placed wealth at the center of life’s concerns would create individuals paralyzed by the fear of scarcity.  He knew that to set the acquisition of wealth as the ultimate concern of human life is an insatiable pursuit.  And he was right.  One of the richest men in American history was once asked, “How much is enough?”  And his reply was quite telling.  “Just a little more.”  When it comes to acquiring wealth, there will never be enough – we always want just a little more.

Which is not to suggest that the church should advocate some alternative economic system.  To speak about material wealth, in the context of faith, does not require us, as Christians, to buy into the debates of left vs. right, or capitalism vs. socialism, or free markets vs. local economies.  The Christian faith should never allow itself to be seduced by any ideological agenda or economic system.

Rather, what is at issue is a theologically informed, faith-shaped perspective on the world.  And the only way to develop such a perspective is to place our eyes firmly on the One who, in this text, represents a different way of seeing the world.  The other way of seeing things rests upon an assumption which underlies the entire Bible – and the assumption out of which Jesus himself functioned. 

This ‘other perspective’ is rooted in a confidence that the God before whom we bow is not limited by our assumptions of scarcity, or by our fear that there is not enough. 

Rather, the God before whom we bow is a God of overwhelming generosity.  As Art Van Seters once wrote, in an essay on the doctrine of the Trinity as the basis for Christian stewardship, “the Trinity exemplifies a community of mutual giving and receiving.  This...is the divine economy, God’s household that is...marked by overflowing generosity.”  At the very heart of God, there is a spirit of generosity.

Consider the number of times that God’s generosity is revealed in Scripture.  In the story of creation, a generous God gave to this world everything that would be needed to nourish life.  When the people of Israel thought that food and water in the wilderness were scarce, a generous God caused manna and quail to fall from the skies, and water to come flowing out of rocks.  When the wine gave out at the wedding reception in Cana, a generous God turned ordinary water into the most extraordinary wine – and kept the party going.   When the disciples of Jesus were afraid that they would not be able to feed the hungry multitude, a generous God turned five loaves and two fish into a feast for thousands with baskets left over.  When death seemed to have robbed Jesus of life itself, a generous God raised Jesus from the dead, and revealed to us that the seeming scarcity and brevity of human life gives way to a generous, abundant and eternal life in the presence of God.

And when Jesus described the life that he was offering to those who would follow him, what he promised was this – “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it in abundance.”  Which does not mean that our lives are free from struggle; or that financial security is a sign of divine favour.  But what it does mean is that to be followers of Jesus is to be a people whose confidence is placed in God’s generous grace. 

But how, one might ask, can we dare to speak of God’s abundance in a world in which so many live in poverty?  Does scarcity signal unfaithfulness, or that God has chosen not to bless them as much as God has blessed us?

Certainly not.

Rather, we must accept that there is, in fact, enough resources in this world for all to be fed, clothed and nourished.  No one needs to starve to death in miserable deprivation and poverty – but many do.  Which presents a question to us – that is, is the cause of deprivation in this world a problem of God’s generosity – which it is not – or is it a result of a lack of human generosity on the part of those in positions of power, and those of us who have more than we need?  It is a challenging question for all of us to ponder, this contrast between our fear of scarcity and our faith in the generosity of God.

But this is the nature of the contrast that stands at the heart of this strange story.  Jesus’ words that we cannot serve two masters remind us that we cannot simultaneously shape our lives by the assumption that there is not enough, and by the assumption that we live in God’s generous abundance.  We cannot live by fear and by faith.

So why, then, was the manager commended?  It is important to realize that the man was not commended for his unethical behaviour, but for the shrewd way that he had acted. And perhaps the reason why Jesus used him as an example was to challenge his followers to consider that if the dishonest manager could be so shrewd and effective in the use of material wealth when motivated by the fear of scarcity, then how much more effective would Jesus’ followers be in the use of their wealth if they lived by faith in an assumption of God’s generosity?  How effective might we be, in our common quest to seek the kingdom of God in this world, if we choose to set radical generosity as a guiding principle of our lives?

To put it another way, what if that oft-quoted troubadour of our time, Bono, was actually correct when he stated that “the God I believe in isn’t short of cash”? 

When I preached for the call, here, in April, I committed to you that there would be two questions that I would often ponder as we began our ministry together.  The first question was what we, as a congregation at St. Andrew’s, might do to grow together as a community.  The second question was what we might do to reach beyond ourselves onto the streets of this city, as we seek to build a compassionate community in which all people might come into a blessed state of communion. 

Christ’s invitation to a life of generosity lies at the heart of both of these questions.  Not only is generosity one of the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit at work within us, according to Galatians, but in a very practical way, if we are going to accomplish this congregation’s divine mission to serve in faith, hope and love in the core of the city of Toronto, then we must all root our faith in a confidence that there is a generous God at work among us and through us. 

To that end, I promise you that I will rarely, if ever, tell you that we do not have enough to perform the ministry that God has entrusted to us.  I will rarely, if ever, tell you that we do not have enough people, or money, or time, or energy, or ideas in order to be a creative, vibrant, faithful, joyful and life-giving community of faith.

But I commit to you that I will pray for the courage to often and to regularly invite you to be generous.  I will seek to live by, and to explicitly extend to you the opportunity to embrace a spirituality of joyful generosity in our life together. 

But please, even as I say this, remember this -- and, if you remember nothing else from this sermon, please remember this – generosity is not just about money. Generosity is never measured dollars and cents alone.  Rather, we are all called, as disciples together, to be generous with every one of the gifts that God has entrusted to us.  We are called to be financially generous; but we are also called to be generous with our time, our talents, our abilities, and most importantly with the love that we extend to one another in times of peace and in times of challenge. And the wonderful consequence of living generously, by faith, is that we will be liberated from this world’s fear of scarcity and from the cult of ‘not enough’, setting us free to serve a God of generous abundance.  It is by embracing a spirit of generosity that we reveal, to one another, and to this world, that we serve a generous God. 

We are Christians; we are people who have been captured by the Gospel; and, at its very heart, the Gospel is about generosity.  To a world which is so often paralyzed by the fear of scarcity, God offered the most generous gift that God could possibly offer – the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.  If we take the incarnation seriously, we begin to realize that there was no more generous gift that could have been given.  And we respond to God’s generosity by embracing a life of generous, abundant love in return.

And so, we are all left with a challenge.  Choose this day who you will serve, said Jesus, for you cannot serve God and wealth.  You cannot be a servant of fear and a servant of generosity.

For the love of God – may we all seek to live our lives in response to the infinitely generous love of God made known to us in Jesus Christ.