The theme for our congregation this year is “Finding Our Way.” And we are spending time in each of the liturgical seasons looking at various ways in which we do that. This fall, until Advent, we are examining the parables found in the gospel of Luke. Through these parables, we get stories about Jesus and his teachings, but as we listen to “HiStory” we hope to find ways to make that Our story as well. Most of the parables that Jesus tells are either about the Kindom of God (the kindom of God is like a mustard seed . . . ) or they are lessons in behavior (there was a father who had two sons . . . ). In fact, the parables right before this one in the gospel of Luke include some of the most well-known. The lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son all give examples of God’s extravagant mercy. And the parables after this one, of the rich man and Lazarus and the ten lepers, are moral lessons for our behavior regarding riches and gratitude. And in between them, we have the parable in today’s lesson. Jesus is gathered together with his disciples, we don’t know the occasion, and he tells them this story. There is a rich man. We know nothing of his personality or integrity, but he does have a manager whom he believes to be dishonest. He confronts the manager and lets him know of his intention to fire him. The manager doesn’t argue with the charges, which leads us to believe that the accusation may be true, but he immediately begins to try to figure out how he will survive after this. Once he is fired for dishonesty, it will be unlikely that he will find another job. He is left with the options of digging ditches or begging, and neither seem doable for him. He lives in a world where everything is about indebtedness, so he crafts a scheme. Going to each person who owes his master, he authorizes a reduction in their bill. They are grateful for the reductions, and as their indebtedness to the rich master decreases, they become indebted in a less tangible way to the manager. The rich master comes to town, learns of his manager’s crafty behavior, and ends up praising the very man he is about to fire for such a creative and shrewd ingenuity. It’s an intriguing parable, and as Jesus’ sayings are shared in the oral tradition, each person tries to put their own spin on what the story means. Jesus’ own words about the parable seem to have been lost, and by the time Luke writes the whole thing down, he has a collection of interpretations. And so he writes them all down, maybe even adding one of his own. “For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light,” says one. Another, not necessarily liking that, adds, “Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” The next one hears both of those and thinks, “that’s not what it means at all. Here, ‘Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.’” And then the last addition, maybe by Luke himself, “No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” We have the same problem with the story that all of these people had. It’s a hard story, and not easy to understand as a parable from Jesus. Let me point out a couple of things that may help us in our understanding. This story does not fit either of the categories of Jesus’ parables that I mentioned at the beginning. This is not a story that gives us an example of the kindom of God. And, this is not a story with a moral. It’s a story with meaning, but not a story where there is a clear moral to be drawn from the behavior of the participants. When Jesus told parables, he often used common images from the day. The kindom of God is like a mustard seed . . . There was a father with two sons . . . . A farmer sowed a field and weeds came up. So why not base a parable on a rich owner and a dishonest business manager? Both would have been images common to the people of Jesus’ day, people with whom they could identify, even if in the negative. It’s not like Jesus is the first to use a less than stellar example. Jacob, the “father” of the nation of Israel lied and cheated his way into a birthright and into property. And yet, he wrestles with an angel of God and his twelve sons become the basis for the 12 tribes of Israel. King David, the great king against whom all kings are measured, who united the nation of Israel and set aside a capitol city, King David slept with another man’s wife and then had the man killed to cover up his crime. Even Jesus himself was accused of picking and choosing which Jewish laws were important and which were not in a holy observance of God. So, hear the points of the story again, keeping in mind that this is not meant to be a model for moral behavior, nor an example of how God intends the world to be. Instead of focusing on the dishonesty, look at the craftiness, the resourcefulness, of the manager. He’s in a pickles, and he chooses the one thing that will make others indebted to him, even after he is fired. He forgives debt that is not his, but is his to manage, even if only for a few more days. And in his forgiveness, he indebts others to him. Maybe after this, one of them will help him get another job, despite his bad references. At the very least, he can show up to their homes for dinner and they will be obliged to let him in and feed him. Jesus is not offering a moral story about honesty or dishonesty, and God is played by no character in this parable. Instead, I can imagine Jesus looking at his disciples and saying, “See how clever he was! I want you to be clever like that.” If this story is still hard to hear, how about this one from the rabbinical tradition: A man once caught stealing was ordered by the king to be hanged. On the way to the gallows he said to the governor that he knew a wonderful secret and it would be a pity to allow it to die with him and he would like to disclose it to the king. He would put a seed of a pomegranate in the ground and through the secret taught to him by his father he would make it grow and bear fruit overnight. The thief was brought before the king and on the morrow the king, accompanied by the high officers of the state, came to the place where the thief was waiting for them. There the thief dug a hole and said, “This seed must only be put in the ground by a man who has never stolen or taken anything which did not belong to him. I being a thief cannot do it.” So he turned to the Vizier who, frightened, said that in his younger days he had retained something which did not belong to him. The treasurer said that dealing with such large sums, he might have entered too much or too little and even the king owned that he had kept a necklace of his father’s. The thief then said, “You are all mighty and powerful and want nothing and yet you cannot plan the seed, whilst I who have stolen a little because I was starving am to be hanged.” The king, pleased with the ruse of the thief, pardoned him. The rabbis aren’t condoning being a thief, but the story does make us smile a little and nod at the cleverness of the thief. David Wheeler told me a modern day story of craftiness about a priest who was interested in some vacant land near his church to build transitional housing for homeless women. He knew the owner of the business that owned the land, who was a parishioner, and he also knew the man was uncomfortable with heights. So he got the man up in a utility bucket to take a look at some work being done on the church, and while they were up there, he pointed out the vacant land and began to share his vision for it. The owner agreed to donate the land to the church before they returned to the ground. Dishonest? No. Crafty? Yes! What resources are at your hands? How can use you them for the greatest effect? I’m talking about everything from prayer to acts of social justice. We are in this world, and Jesus encourages us to use the resources of this world. Of all the endings to the parable, the one that I like the most is the “whoever is faithful in little is faithful in much.” Our behavior as crafty people of God doesn’t have to change the entire world every time. As the great preaching teacher Fred Craddock writes: “Most of us will not this week christen a ship, write a book, end a war, appoint a cabinet, dine with a queen, convert a nation, or be burned at the stake. More likely the week will present no more than a chance to give a cup of water, write a note, visit a nursing home, vote for a county commissioner, teach a Sunday School class, share a meal, tell a child a story, go to choir practice and feed the neighbor’s cat. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.’” Amen.