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The Reverend Greg Rickel, Vicar
Saint Peter's Episcopal Church
September 20, 1998

Proper 20, Year C
Amos 8: 4-7[8-12]
Psalm 138
1 Timothy 2:1-8
Luke 16: 1-13

The Gospel Lesson: Luke 16: 1-13
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? (live me an accounting 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.

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 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."

The Sermon
For one night in the last two weeks I have presented Stewardship Training to about 70 people at Saint Mark's Church in Little Rock. This is, of course, the season for such things and I enjoy it. There comes a point in these workshops where I ask people to think about and share their first memories of money. Some do so. Then I ask everyone to share their stories with others in small groups. The stories are often funny, touching, sometimes sad, but always interesting, even to those who are telling them. For most of us it is not something we think about very often, if ever. After about 10 minutes of conversation, usually spent by people having a lot of fun at their tables telling the stories, I announce that the audience has just spent 10 minutes talking about money. And that this is about 10 minutes longer than most people ever do with anyone except their closest family members.

Then we share some of the stories. There is one story that comes up more often than any other. It comes in lots of forms and details, but it is basically the same story. It is the familiar story of a grandfather or grandmother, or father or mother, or aunt or uncle, who gives a silver dollar to someone, sometimes every year for birthday or Christmas, but at least once. And invariably, sometime in the story, the person will say, "I still have that silver dollar." ... or "those silver dollars." ... or whatever the gift might have been. They still have it.

Sometimes the same people will later share stories of hard times in their lives when they were barely surviving. And I just want to ask, and sometimes have, "Did you ever think about spending that silver dollar?" The answer is almost always a resounding "NO WAY."

You see, that silver dollar was rendered worthless to the world market and economy because it was attached to a relationship. In fact, it is no longer seen as a dollar, as a means of exchange for anything. It is what it is, a gift, a special gift that comes packed with special memories. While it has been rendered worthless to the economy, it has become priceless in the heart of its holder.

Now that is interesting, if the silver dollar had no relational attachment to it, it would be a possession. You would own it. It could be spent easily. And with the relational attachment it is still a possession. You still own it. But it is not spent near as easily and it is possessed in a new way, a way which makes one care for it. Because it seems it is not just yours but it is also a part of someone else. The giver is part of it. For you to part with the silver dollar - that molded piece of metal - would be to part with your memory of the one who gifted you with it. That is stewardship. It is no longer just a possession but something you care for.

This also is really what Luke's Jesus is trying to tell us today in a passage often misunderstood and one certainly where too much time is spent trying to ascertain its meaning.

Really, it is quite simple at its core. It is summed up in the last line, "You cannot serve God and wealth." Like so many others, this passage is often used to beat the rich or wealthy over the head as if to say, "It is speaking of you. You cannot be wealthy and be in God's favor."

I, of course, think this is wrong. I must. I may not seem rich to you. And many of you might say I am even worse off than I think I am. But we are all richer than 95% of the rest of the world just by virtue of being here in this country. So, in the kingdom of God, we are the wealthy. We are just whom Jesus is addressing, although he is addressing everyone. The number of 0's behind your net worth makes little difference in our world.

It has been said that if we could shrink the world's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing proportions of humanity remaining the same, it would look like this:

 There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South), and 8 Africans.
 70 would be non-white; 30, white
 70 would be non-Christian; 30, Christian.
 50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of 6 people. All 6 would be citizens of the United States.
 70 would be unable to read.
 50 would suffer from malnutrition.
 80 would live in sub-standard housing.
 Only one would have a college education.

Astounding! This week, many of you probably heard reported the statistics of college students with credit cards. Over two thirds of all college students have at least one credit card. That is 19 billion dollars of spending power. They have average debts of $1800 and over two thirds of these card-holders only pay the interest each month. In the under-25 age group, there are 250,000 bankruptcies filed each year.

What is the driving force here? Is it to achieve the American dream quickly? ... to get sunk in debt before you get out of school?

There is power m money. Take it away from any of us and we lose something. For some of us it is freedom that is lost. For some, power is lost. For some, relationships are lost. For some, security is lost. The list goes on and on. But whatever loss of our money takes away, it takes something away, and that is what gives money its power.

Some of you have heard me tell this story. Some have heard Mark Davis tell this story. Perhaps some of you have heard it from both of us. It is one of those great stories which needs to be retold time and time again.

It is a story about a man who collects pearls. One day, while walking through the downtown, he sees in a store window the most beautiful, the largest, most magnificent pearl he has ever seen. Instantly he knows he must have it. So he enters the store and an old guy enters from the door to the rear of the showroom.

The man addresses the storekeeper, "I want that pearl. How much is it?"

The storekeeper says, "How much you got?"

"Well, I have $300 in my pocket."

"Good, I'll take that. What else you got?"

"Well, I have a Chevy Suburban outside, low mileage, about 2 years old, paid off."

"Good, I'll take that too. What else you got?"

"Well, I have two CD's worth about $18,000."

"Good," says the storekeeper, "I'll take those too. What else you got?"

This goes on and on. The man gives away his house, his property, even his family. Until finally the storekeeper says, "Okay, here. The pearl is yours."

The man turns to leave the store. But as he is walking out the storekeeper stops him and says, "Hey, you know what, that family of yours, I don't need a family. So I'm going to give them back to you. But remember, they are mine now, not yours. You must take good care of them. And that house in Connecticut, well, I don't need a house so you can have that back too. Although it does belong to me, I just want you to care for it. And as for the CD's and the stocks and the Suburban and even this $300, you can have it all back too. But remember, it is all mine. Take it. Use it wisely. Care for it for me."

So the man left with everything he had when he walked into the store, plus the great pearl. But there was a big difference. He walked into the store owning everything he had. He walked out owning nothing. Instead, everything he had before was now a gift.

That is Christian Stewardship, caring for everything we have knowing it does not belong to us. All is a gift, given for us to care for, to leave better than we found it. When we see life that way, regardless of what our bank account's bottom line may read, we have stopped serving wealth and we have begun serving God. When we look at our possessions that way it is much easier to give them away, to not be so tied to them, to appreciate them more.

There are many people I run across who literally are converted like that man in the shop, taking the pearl. When I ask them about how it feels, they use words like free, and joy, and simplicity, and peace. Those sure sound good.

There is one thing that no scholar would argue with me about. That is this:

Jesus never asks for 10% or any other percentage. Instead, Jesus always asks for 100% -- for everything. He asks us to let go of those things, in the sense that they no longer have power over us, so the power over us can come from the kingdom of God.

So we can know that, unlike the world's bottom line as measured by our debt or our bank account, in the kingdom of God, no matter what material wealth we have or do not have, we are cared for, loved, gifted, rich beyond all measure. Like the silver dollar, we have rendered all of our things worthless in the world. But the memories of our lives, the relationships which surround what we do and who we are, are priceless in the eyes of God.

When that is the most important thing to us, then we have crossed over from the wealth we are immersed in to the promise of God's love and gifts which make us unconditionally rich today and for all of eternity.

AMEN.