September 23, 2007
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The Norwegian
Lutheran Memorial Church This church year, Sunday by Sunday, I have the opportunity to introduce consecutive texts from the gospel according to Luke. For me it is like picking up God’s big picture album, leafing through it and looking at the pictures together with the congregation. After serving for so many years as a pastor in Norway, it is exciting to be in the US and at Mindekirken. Here I get the opportunity to work on several stories from the gospels that are not in Norwegian lectionaries. I enjoy sharing these “pictures” with you every Sunday! Sometimes they are “old” pictures that we have seen many times before. But there are “new” details to be found that we haven’t discovered before now. Some of the pictures are very beautiful. And all the pictures are true, real. They show us life as it is, show us the humans, show us God. Then there is something strange this Sunday. Today I have the feeling that we are looking at a “picture negative”. The youngest ones hardly know what that is any longer, now in the era of digital pictures. But not many years ago, we went to the photo shop and bought film, 24 picture and 36 picture films, that we loaded in our cameras. They are on the market still, and some photographers continue to take pictures in the old way. According to that method, the negatives are the first to be developed. There the black is white, and the light is dark. Equally, the colors are the opposite, or more accurately, “complementary”. It is not easy to discern a picture only by looking at the negative. As we today have come to the bible story about the dishonest manager, this story reminds me about such a picture negative. We think, as we approach the text for today, how can Jesus use a swindler as a model? An unfaithful manager, who first does a bad job, and next fakes the bills, in order to raise good will for himself among his master’s debtors! To accentuate this as something positive, isn’t that making black into white, wrong into right? Yes, but Jesus does not ask his followers to “go and do likewise”! Please notice that Jesus does not call this manager righteous at all, but on the contrary dishonest. What he is doing is forgery and swindling. He definitely belongs to the children of this age. His deeds are far away from God’s laws and the ideals of society. Even so there is something he is commended for. And in fact it is the landlord himself that commends him! He has that much sense of humor that he gives his manager credit for the smart chess move he makes. Even if it is he himself that it affects! “Look at this cheater. Ha ha, he really cheated me well!” the boss thinks to himself. And it makes an impression on him, because he knows very well how to maneuver to obtain something for his own benefit. So it is not only the manager, but also the landlord that belongs to the category of humans that Jesus names children of this age. The two parts that are winning on this quick and impudent move, is in addition to the cheater himself, the debt downloaded ones that owe the rich man big sums. Now they get off with much less. So even if he is swindling, manipulating with books, this is at the same time a deed of charity towards someone that is weighed down by a huge debt. The manager is making friends in a smart way. Obviously, this manager is no slave to money. He is not trapped by something that he anyway has to part from someday. He puts himself above the money, and forces it to serve him. In this he is a model. And people that he has helped will remember him, and give him a hand in return sometime. As we study this picture negative, it becomes obvious that in reality the manager is not in the center of this story. The money has that position. The unrighteous Mammon plays the main role. Then we have to ask: What does this power mean to us? What role does money play for a person that wants to be obedient to God? How should we deal with money? The answer is that it should not be adored, but set into business. It is to serve for something good. We see the same in Jesus’ parable about the talents (Mt 25:14-30). Three managers are mentioned there. The first two put what they got into business. They earned more. While the third one buried his talent. Much better than hiding it, was to put it into business, even if there is a chance of being unsuccessful. There is a lot of unrighteousness connected to money. It belongs to this sinful world. The prophet Amos in the old Israel raged against those who put poor people down, exploiting their wealth and power to obtain more for their own sake. So it is easily done to think that probably the best is not to deal with things that are related to so much unrighteousness. But consider what is the best: To get rid of your money, or to earn more, and by that be able to give more? The answer is obvious. The district I come from in Norway, Sunnmøre, is famous for its small and big industries. My home town was founded by a home-coming Norwegian American, who started there back in 1911. A power plant was created. And around this a completely new local society with small industrial plants grew up. Brattvåg has been named “Little America.” People came from the whole country because there were jobs. All kinds of dialects buzzed in the air as I grew up. Today there is more work at the industrial plants than there are people to carry it out. Labor has to be provided from abroad. Polish and German workers are swarming in my home town. Honor to those who accomplish something good with their resources: creating something positive, helping others, keeping the wheels going in society and in church. All of us have something to contribute. Some have much. Others have very much! Anyway we are stewards. We all have resources by means of time, talent and treasure. Everything is needed. To the one who thinks that what he has is very little, today it is said: Ok, so be faithful in very little. What is little, will grow as it is it put into business. Another point in the text for today is that this manager had a real short time to act. He had a knife at this throat, and had to give out the statements quickly. Perhaps he had just a few hours, at most a few days. Jesus tells this parable in the perspective of the end of time. He told his listeners that time was limited. We who are the children of light are not to imitate the children of this age in everything, but they have something to teach us. Which is to act in time. Let us do good things as long as time and opportunity is there, until Jesus’ second coming. That is a topic we will focus more on at the family service here next Sunday. A summary of the message for today: Let us not make money a god, but a servant. The unrighteous Mammon can be made holy through the service we use it for. To the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who was, is and shall always be one true God from eternity and to eternity. Amen |
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church · 924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 · (612)874-0716 |