Shrewdness
Rev Dr Mark Porizky
9/23/07
Luke 16:1-9
A
book I purchased on impulse six months ago titled "The Worst-Case Scenario
Survival Handbook." It tells you how to cross a Piranha-infested river, how
to survive a sandstorm, how to navigate a minefield, how to foil a UFO abduction
and how to pass a bribe. Now I am not particularly worried about any of those
scenarios, but you never know.
However,
for some strange reason I have always wondered what to do in a falling elevator.
The answer is on page 89. It first of all cautions that "while there is
disagreement among the experts…"
I
don’t know about you but a line like that doesn’t fill me with a lot of
certainty as to any advice that may follow. So given that caution, here is what
you should do. "Flatten your body against the car floor…this should
distribute the force of impact, rather than concentrate it on one area of your
body. (Standing may be difficult anyway).
And
in case you always wondered "jumping just before the elevator hits the
bottom is not a viable alternative. The chances that you will time your jump
exactly right are infinitesimally small. Besides, the elevator will not remain
completely intact when it hits–it will likely collapse around you and crush
you if you are in the middle of your jump." So lie on the floor and cover
your face and head. And, um pray.
Why
this strange opening? Well, consider
this strange Scripture:
Then
Jesus
said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges
were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned
him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account
of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the
manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the
position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I
have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may
welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one,
he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A
hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down
quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you
owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take
your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager
because he had acted shrewdly;
for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own
generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for
yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you
into the eternal homes.
I
think that this story should have been in "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival
Handbook." Title it,
“What to do when you are fired?”
We
have one big problem with this story: Is
Jesus commending dishonest behavior?
I
first must caution you that "there is disagreement among the
experts…"
Now
why in the world would Jesus use a bad guy as a good example? Why would our Lord
seemingly praise a crook and suggest that he should be a role model in some way
for the children of God? It is no wonder that the telling of this parable has
troubled disciples for centuries? It would seem that if the Lord had needed an
exemplary person to use as an illustration, he could have found a thousand
better role models than this unjust steward, dishonest or shrewd manager, or
whatever you wish to call him
The sad truth is that there nothing but scoundrels exist in the whole of this parable, from the dishonest manager to the complicities debtors to the rich landlord himself. The manager, of course, could well be the patron saint of Enron! He provides us with a first century example of one who was more willing to "cook the books" and falsify records in an effort to protect his own hide. And then, as any expert scam artist would do, he got the master's debtors to agree to his corrupt scheme which would not only benefit them as well, but also provide excellent blackmail fodder if they should suddenly get a twinge of conscience at some later date.
And
there's nothing very commendable about the landlord himself, who ends up
praising the dishonest manager because of his shrewdness.
Notice that the Landlord is never praised in the parable for being an
honest man.
Now
the question for us is, 'How can we make sense of our Lord's teaching here, and
how can we apply it to our life as disciples today?' Obviously, Jesus is not
commending dishonesty. In the verses that follow these it’s clear that
honesty, even in small matters, will be rewarded and that dishonesty in
seemingly insignificant things means that a person cannot be trusted with
weightier concerns, especially matters related to the
Now
I have to confess, I don't particularly like the adjective "shrewd"
and I much prefer the old King James Version of this account, in which the Greek
word PHRONIMOS is translated as prudent. Tell me, would you rather be
characterized as "prudent" or "shrewd"? Prudence connotes
integrity, depth and virtue.
Of
course no one wants to be a "prude", but prudence itself is something
to which all of us aspire, and I guess I am old-fashioned enough to prefer it
still. "Prudence", after all, is a word you can trust; a trait you can
admire, and a virtue that evokes confidence. "Shrewd" may communicate
better to the modern mind, but it doesn't seem to have the integrity of the word
"prudence" and, in fact, it strikes me as somewhat suspicious and
shady. To be sure, they mean basically the same thing and both of them are
accurate translations of PHRONIMOS, but I don't feel quite the same about the
two words.
For
example, I didn't mind buying insurance from a company called "The
Prudential". It's a solid company with a solid name. Anyone who owns
"a piece of the rock" rather likes the word "Prudential".
But if a salesman were to call me up and say he represented "The Shrewd
Company", I doubt that I would listen for very long! A prudent person you
can trust. A shrewd person you had better keep an eye on --- right?
Maybe.
It’s easy to forget that whether one is prudent or shrewd, the actions
these words imply often both serve others even as they serve ourselves.
The
story is told of a man who had a weak heart, so that when his family learned
that he had the winning lottery ticket worth millions, they feared to tell him
lest the news give him a heart attack.
So
they sought the help of their priest who assured them he would do the needful.
“Tell me, my son,” said Father Murphy.
“If God, in his mercy, were to send you 30 million dollars, what would
you do?”
The
man replied, “Why, Father, I’d immediately give half of it to the Church.”
So
it seems to me that Jesus here is praising the virtue of prudence. Clearly there
is something in this dishonest manager that strikes him as commendable. Again,
it is not his dishonesty, but rather his PHRONIMOS, his prudence, which calls
forth the master's praise.
But
regardless, Jesus tells this parable to his disciples so that they could learn
something from this devious scoundrel. And what he wants his disciples to learn
is that the children of light ought to be at least as prudent in their dealings
with others as are the children of this age, or the ungodly.
That
is to say, PHRONIMOS is an admirable trait in Christians. While I prefer the
translation "prudent", this word can also be translated as clever,
cunning, sensible, discreet, shrewd, and practically wise.
Now
prudence may sound like an old-fashioned and out-dated virtue, but I would like
to assure you that it is a virtue in short supply and in great demand, and every
bit as much so today as when Jesus first brought this to the attention of the
first disciples.
Perhaps
the story is just that simple. Jesus tells the story about a manager, albeit a
dishonest one, who when faced with terrible catastrophe, recognizes the
catastrophe and immediately moves to do something about it.
Look at us in similar circumstances. When
adversity comes, we tend to freeze up, or we pull the covers over our head and
simply give up. We do this not only in our personal lives, but also in our
social lives as well. We look at this country’s terribly soaring crime rate
and we say to ourselves, “I am just one person, what can one person like me do
to change things?”
Your
boss comes in and tells you that you are the latest victim of “downsizing”
and you decide that your productive life is over.
Circle the wagons, move into a defensive posture, hunker down. Why fight
a hopeless cause?
This
parable says this is a miserly way to live. If even dishonest, unscrupulous
business people know how to move from the defensive to the offensive so quickly,
how much more so ought we? Be astute. Be smart. Savvy.
Why?
Because the future belongs to those who are shrewd! Because life goes better for
those who move decisively? Because it takes more than defense to win a football
game?
A
few years ago, evangelical activist, Jim Wallis, noted how inner-city gangs
ruthlessly defend their “turf,” how drug lords mark off a neighborhood and
make it theirs.
“I
want churches to learn from these guys,” he said. “I want some inner-city
churches who will say, ‘This is our turf and we control this neighborhood of
the six blocks around our church and we are going to do what’s necessary to
make sure you don’t trample our turf.”
Then
Wallis told a story of one inner-city church which posted some of their little
old ladies on each corner in foldout lawn chairs, armed with video cameras and
how overnight they changed an entire
Those old ladies were not simply savvy to the ways of the world, beating the world at its own game, rather than had a conviction about the real nature of the world, the true course of the future and they acted accordingly.
Shrewd.
Very shrewd. Jesus says that
maybe we ought to do the same. In
His name, and for His name, of course.
Will you pray with me now?
St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church, Groton
,
Web Site: WWW.SAPC-CT.ORG
Office Email: OFFICE@SAPC-CT.ORG
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