Saturday, September 17, 2016
Pentecost 18, Proper 20, September 18, 2016
Sermon for The Eighteenth
Sunday After Pentecost
Year C, Proper 20 ~ September
18, 2016
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
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.
+In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided
Trinity
So, today we learn from Jesus that we should cheat our
boss! This is one of my favorite passages, because it is obviously ironic, maybe
even comic. I also like it because it is a great cudgel with which to punish
literalists. Obviously, interpretation is necessary, and the Gospel itself even
supplies its own – if you don’t handle unrighteous
wealth properly, then you can’t expect anyone to entrust you with real
wealth. What is dishonest wealth anyway? – or unrighteous mammon? Wealth
just means well-being, usually material well-being, by convention. What
makes wealth unrighteous is reserving
well-being for the few and denying it to the many. Well-being turned into a
measure of division among human beings is unjust,
unrighteous. In fact, it is not
really wellbeing, at all.
The question remains, what
is the proper way to handle this unrighteous wealth? Give it away. That’s my
take. In effect that is what the crafty steward was doing. We have to bear in
mind that his master’s wealth was unjust.
In fact, one can argue from this parable that distinctions of rich and poor are
themselves unjust and sinful. So inequality in society is NOT the will of God,
but rather the opposite, and wealth that is not held for the common good is unrighteous mammon, or unjust wealth, which has no rights at
all.
This interpretation is
suggested and supported by the lectionary’s pairing with the stirring prophetic
passage from Amos.
[I always like to remember that Amos is the earliest full
Book of the whole Bible. It is thought to have reached its present form in the
middle of the 8th Century BC., which makes it a late contemporary of Homer,
older
than Buddha, the Bhagavad Gita, Confucius and Laotze. It is
also entirely possible that the Book of Amos was actually written by the
Prophet himself.]
It
is forever significant that this oldest book in the Bible is all about social
justice. Do you want to please God? Do you want to go to heaven when you die? Do
you want to get into harmony with Divine Will? Do you want to live a life fitting
for a human being? Do you want to use your time in this life profitably? Then
devote yourself to the poor and combat social injustice. Well, that is –
arguably – exactly what the dishonest steward was doing! Sure, he was doing it
out of selfish motives, but the effect was to reduce social inequality.
Another interpretative hint is today’s Collect,
which reminds us that we are placed among things that are passing away,
and asks for the grace to hold tight to what will endure. Well, money and
social inequality is passing away. The power of Empire is passing away. The
illusion of our divisions is passing away, and the sinful systems that arise
from that illusion are passing away. Amos called this ultimate passing the Day
of the Lord. He coined the term to refer to God’s victory
over human injustice – good news for widows and orphans, bad news – very bad
news – for their oppressors. The Day of Doom.
At the ancient beginning of our written scripture – at the door, as it
were, of our whole tradition – stands this denunciation of social injustice.
Our Divine Savior confirms it and underlines it. He tells us, “If nothing else,
dissociate yourself from this doomed, delusional way of life. Maybe it’s
impossible to avoid all contact with unrighteous
mammon - fair enough. But you don’t
have to hold on to it. Instead, use it against itself. Let go of it and invest it in the oppressed.
Use it to further the common good.”
The funniest part of this parable is the detail about the congratulatory
attitude of the Master, upon learning that the dishonest steward had cheated
him! That is unimaginable on the literal level, and I take it as another hint
that the story is not to be understood as literal advice about cheating the
boss. What is true is that all this wealth is illusory and passing away. It’s
doomed, and those who hold on tight to it and devote their lives to it are
doomed, too.
Unrighteous mammon will always let
us down, as the boss let down the steward. Better to establish solidarity with
the poor, the last who shall be first, the beneficiaries of the Kingdom of God.
AMEN
MARANATHA
COME, LORD JESUS!
