Episcopal Church of Our Savior

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The Rev. Ajung Sojwal An enduring investment, Year C, Sunday September 23, 2007 Luke: 16:1-13 My father inherited a movie theatre from his father, which he operated for many years. Like in many parts of India, our small town did business only in cash. Every evening or morning my father would sit with his manager to settle accounts for the day’s sales. Once in a while the manager came home to settle the accounts if my father did not make it to the office. It was all rather mundane business as far as I was concerned. If I went for a movie with my friends I would stop by at my father’s office and it was not unusual to see piles of money sitting on the table with a few people meticulously working to enter the accounts into their long, black-covered account books. Out of the many piles, a certain percentage always came back with my father for the home. Sometimes the home pile was big and sometimes it was small, but neither I nor any of my siblings ever knew how much money he actually brought home. One particular evening, when I was probably around thirteen I got a call from my father who said he was not going to be there to close the accounts at the theatre nor was he going to be home and that he had asked his manager to send home the money with the book for me to count, enter, and sign the transaction. I don’t know how many thirteen-year-olds handle accounts for a whole business dealing only in cash! But for me, as a fresh teenager who never had more than two rupees in the pocket on any given day, it was the scariest thing I had ever dealt with. The manager’s errant boy, who must have been at least 30 years old came home with this huge bag and quickly poured out its contents along with the long black book I had seen in the office. In a fleeting moment, I remembered every single person working in the movie theatre; the old office that my grandfather had built with all its metal cabinets; my father and the manager counting money at the office; the enormous bunch of keys to all the important cabinets and rooms; and then much to my embarrassment, I saw my hands shaking and felt my head pounding as I counted each bundle according to their denominations. In the process of counting the money I realized just how good it felt to have all that money within my grasp. My thoughts were working overtime with dreams of what I could do if all that money was mine. Slowly I realized with some shock and a bit of horror just how easy it would be to conveniently miscount the money too. At that particular time, when I consciously and tangibly held so much of cash in my hands my naïve mind somehow grasped the unfathomable power of money over human lives. To behold that undeniable malleability of money when you have it in your hands in cash or in our personal or corporate accounts is the power we long for in our lives. The more money a person has the more confident he becomes of shaping his future in exactly the way he wants it to be. The intimate relationship we have with money is even more pronounced when we see, hear and read the explicit details of people’s lives, which spill out in sharp contrast to the over-all taboo on talking about personal money. It is interesting and immensely humbling to find out that a majority of Jesus’ teaching had to do with money and the relationship we have with money. A large portion of his discipleship had to do with teaching his followers the illusory power of money over people’s lives. Jesus’ parable from today’s Gospel passage comes from his profound understanding of just how much human life and culture are dictated by the use of money. Like I said last week, parables are meant to invite the hearers to see something in the light of the story and furthermore to see life differently than what the norm is. In a world where one single personality is molded and shaped by corporations and institutions to become the prototype of a commendable or desirable person in society, it is hard if not impossible to comprehend the use of an unfaithful, selfish and dishonest manager as the example of shrewdness and farsightedness for the children of light. But the point of this parable is not to project the characters as exemplary, rather it is meant to highlight the resourcefulness of the manager as a comparison point for other concerns, like our investment toward our eternal home with God. Imagine the crowd perking up to hear yet another parable from Jesus, parables drawn from their very life situations. There is the rich man who had a manager, this is exactly what rich men in their society had, managers of their property and other assets. Unfortunately this rich man finds out that his manager is eating at the most expensive restaurants in town and putting it on the company account, renting BMWs to drive uptown for business rather than take the subway, maybe he had his six-year old daughter’s birthday party in the Rainbow Room and invited some colleagues to justify the expense, on top of it, he had not invested in any profit making ventures. So, of course, the crowd understands that the manager should be fired. Now if for some reason you or anybody in the crowd happens to be in the position of the fired manager, the most logical thing for you is to find the best viable way of keeping yourself afloat without having to land up in one of the city shelters or maybe even jail. So, in the short time you have to exercise some of your power in the company, you make sure you get hold of the people who are going to be benefited most by a small fudging in the account books to make sure they ingratiate themselves to you for future reference. The boss finds out his manager cheating till the end, but wonder of wonders, instead of punishing him he actually shows his admiration for such cunningness. The point here is that you and I would do anything under dire circumstances to secure our earthly future. How much more of a dire situation it is to know and understand that we are risking our future in the Kingdom of God by not investing our resources in godly ways? Why would we not do the same as we do with our earthly resources to secure our heavenly future with God? It really would be foolish if we waste our blessings and resources on temporal things, and spend our time hungering for the illusory power of money. Because, at some point or the other we will have to give accounts to the Lord of all, even our hard earned or shrewdly invested money, which we feel is rightfully ours alone. In verse 9 Jesus challenges the crowd even more by telling them to make friends with the money they have. Jesus seems to indicate that earthly money or wealth will always have a dishonest element to it, and by adding the small thing about the money “so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” Jesus is clearly talking about giving the money to those who cannot return the favor, the ones who are poor and have nothing by way of investment to show some monetary returns in the future. By giving to those that have no capabilities of returning the favor we certainly risk losing everything, but in the process we would have gained a far more precious and enduring treasure, the treasure of our eternal home with God. Jesus does not end the parable by pointing out to the crowd to be as shrewd about investing in our heavenly future as we are with our earthly future. When we read verses 10-13, it seems to be that Jesus is aware of the chances to misinterpret the parable at so many different levels. So as an explanation of the simile he used, he highlights the distinct characteristics of those that serve God as opposed to those that serve and devote themselves to money. Those who serve God will be faithful, trustworthy stewards of God’s resources whether it is little or much, they will pay attention to all the small details to ensure the true riches of God. One of the most striking verses in this passage is the one that says, “and if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?” this verse touches at the core of how we perceive our money. In it is the indication that even what we perceive as our own is really not ours but Gods’. We are accountable to God for the use of our money responsibly not necessarily to benefit us alone, but to be used in extending God’s Kingdom. Luke talks about two masters, God and wealth, however, this apparent opposition is not in any way putting wealth on par with God. In Jewish understanding and also in many Christian understanding, wealth is not inherently evil, but as Luke points out neither can one remain neutral in one’s relationship to it. Wealth therefore can either be used faithfully in the service of God showing solidarity with and on behalf of the poor and needy, or wealth can become the personification of power and status, in which case it begins to lay claim on our devotion and services. When we become aware of how we allow wealth or money to master our thoughts, actions and lifestyle, we begin to understand that God cannot be a part of the life that is ruled by that desire, pursuit and love of money. The concept of faithful stewardship that Jesus brings into this passage is deeply rooted in the Old Testament understanding of God as the true owner and giver of all land and property, which are given to human beings to manage and to care for. And it is to God that humans are and will be accountable at some point or the other. This understanding of us as stewards rather than owners of wealth also come with the understanding of using the God-given wealth for the good of all. I am glad that so many years ago, God brought me that opportunity to behold a moment in time when I could see the irresistible pull money has over even a naïve thirteen year old, the power that seemed to emanate from the money I held in my hands. But I am thankful most of all that God somehow protected me that day from myself. My challenge to all of us today is to think of how we invest our earthly resources? To find out if we are confident that one day when our time comes to stand before the Lord that we will hear him say to us, “Well done, good and trustworthy servant! You have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!” (Matt.25:21)

The Rev. Ajung Sojwal

An enduring investment, Year C, Sunday September 23, 2007
Luke: 16:1-13

My father inherited a movie theatre from his father, which he operated for many years. Like in many parts of India, our small town did business only in cash. Every evening or morning my father would sit with his manager to settle accounts for the day’s sales. Once in a while the manager came home to settle the accounts if my father did not make it to the office. It was all rather mundane business as far as I was concerned. If I went for a movie with my friends I would stop by at my father’s office and it was not unusual to see piles of money sitting on the table with a few people meticulously working to enter the accounts into their long, black-covered account books. Out of the many piles, a certain percentage always came back with my father for the home. Sometimes the home pile was big and sometimes it was small, but neither I nor any of my siblings ever knew how much money he actually brought home. One particular evening, when I was probably around thirteen I got a call from my father who said he was not going to be there to close the accounts at the theatre nor was he going to be home and that he had asked his manager to send home the money with the book for me to count, enter, and sign the transaction. I don’t know how many thirteen-year-olds handle accounts for a whole business dealing only in cash! But for me, as a fresh teenager who never had more than two rupees in the pocket on any given day, it was the scariest thing I had ever dealt with. The manager’s errant boy, who must have been at least 30 years old came home with this huge bag and quickly poured out its contents along with the long black book I had seen in the office. In a fleeting moment, I remembered every single person working in the movie theatre; the old office that my grandfather had built with all its metal cabinets; my father and the manager counting money at the office; the enormous bunch of keys to all the important cabinets and rooms; and then much to my embarrassment, I saw my hands shaking and felt my head pounding as I counted each bundle according to their denominations. In the process of counting the money I realized just how good it felt to have all that money within my grasp. My thoughts were working overtime with dreams of what I could do if all that money was mine. Slowly I realized with some shock and a bit of horror just how easy it would be to conveniently miscount the money too. At that particular time, when I consciously and tangibly held so much of cash in my hands my naïve mind somehow grasped the unfathomable power of money over human lives. To behold that undeniable malleability of money when you have it in your hands in cash or in our personal or corporate accounts is the power we long for in our lives. The more money a person has the more confident he becomes of shaping his future in exactly the way he wants it to be. The intimate relationship we have with money is even more pronounced when we see, hear and read the explicit details of people’s lives, which spill out in sharp contrast to the over-all taboo on talking about personal money. It is interesting and immensely humbling to find out that a majority of Jesus’ teaching had to do with money and the relationship we have with money. A large portion of his discipleship had to do with teaching his followers the illusory power of money over people’s lives.

Jesus’ parable from today’s Gospel passage comes from his profound understanding of just how much human life and culture are dictated by the use of money. Like I said last week, parables are meant to invite the hearers to see something in the light of the story and furthermore to see life differently than what the norm is. In a world where one single personality is molded and shaped by corporations and institutions to become the prototype of a commendable or desirable person in society, it is hard if not impossible to comprehend the use of an unfaithful, selfish and dishonest manager as the example of shrewdness and farsightedness for the children of light. But the point of this parable is not to project the characters as exemplary, rather it is meant to highlight the resourcefulness of the manager as a comparison point for other concerns, like our investment toward our eternal home with God.

Imagine the crowd perking up to hear yet another parable from Jesus, parables drawn from their very life situations. There is the rich man who had a manager, this is exactly what rich men in their society had, managers of their property and other assets. Unfortunately this rich man finds out that his manager is eating at the most expensive restaurants in town and putting it on the company account, renting BMWs to drive uptown for business rather than take the subway, maybe he had his six-year old daughter’s birthday party in the Rainbow Room and invited some colleagues to justify the expense, on top of it, he had not invested in any profit making ventures. So, of course, the crowd understands that the manager should be fired. Now if for some reason you or anybody in the crowd happens to be in the position of the fired manager, the most logical thing for you is to find the best viable way of keeping yourself afloat without having to land up in one of the city shelters or maybe even jail. So, in the short time you have to exercise some of your power in the company, you make sure you get hold of the people who are going to be benefited most by a small fudging in the account books to make sure they ingratiate themselves to you for future reference. The boss finds out his manager cheating till the end, but wonder of wonders, instead of punishing him he actually shows his admiration for such cunningness.

The point here is that you and I would do anything under dire circumstances to secure our earthly future. How much more of a dire situation it is to know and understand that we are risking our future in the Kingdom of God by not investing our resources in godly ways? Why would we not do the same as we do with our earthly resources to secure our heavenly future with God? It really would be foolish if we waste our blessings and resources on temporal things, and spend our time hungering for the illusory power of money. Because, at some point or the other we will have to give accounts to the Lord of all, even our hard earned or shrewdly invested money, which we feel is rightfully ours alone.

In verse 9 Jesus challenges the crowd even more by telling them to make friends with the money they have. Jesus seems to indicate that earthly money or wealth will always have a dishonest element to it, and by adding the small thing about the money “so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” Jesus is clearly talking about giving the money to those who cannot return the favor, the ones who are poor and have nothing by way of investment to show some monetary returns in the future. By giving to those that have no capabilities of returning the favor we certainly risk losing everything, but in the process we would have gained a far more precious and enduring treasure, the treasure of our eternal home with God.

Jesus does not end the parable by pointing out to the crowd to be as shrewd about investing in our heavenly future as we are with our earthly future. When we read verses 10-13, it seems to be that Jesus is aware of the chances to misinterpret the parable at so many different levels. So as an explanation of the simile he used, he highlights the distinct characteristics of those that serve God as opposed to those that serve and devote themselves to money. Those who serve God will be faithful, trustworthy stewards of God’s resources whether it is little or much, they will pay attention to all the small details to ensure the true riches of God. One of the most striking verses in this passage is the one that says, “and if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?” this verse touches at the core of how we perceive our money. In it is the indication that even what we perceive as our own is really not ours but Gods’. We are accountable to God for the use of our money responsibly not necessarily to benefit us alone, but to be used in extending God’s Kingdom. Luke talks about two masters, God and wealth, however, this apparent opposition is not in any way putting wealth on par with God. In Jewish understanding and also in many Christian understanding, wealth is not inherently evil, but as Luke points out neither can one remain neutral in one’s relationship to it. Wealth therefore can either be used faithfully in the service of God showing solidarity with and on behalf of the poor and needy, or wealth can become the personification of power and status, in which case it begins to lay claim on our devotion and services.

When we become aware of how we allow wealth or money to master our thoughts, actions and lifestyle, we begin to understand that God cannot be a part of the life that is ruled by that desire, pursuit and love of money. The concept of faithful stewardship that Jesus brings into this passage is deeply rooted in the Old Testament understanding of God as the true owner and giver of all land and property, which are given to human beings to manage and to care for. And it is to God that humans are and will be accountable at some point or the other. This understanding of us as stewards rather than owners of wealth also come with the understanding of using the God-given wealth for the good of all.

I am glad that so many years ago, God brought me that opportunity to behold a moment in time when I could see the irresistible pull money has over even a naïve thirteen year old, the power that seemed to emanate from the money I held in my hands. But I am thankful most of all that God somehow protected me that day from myself. My challenge to all of us today is to think of how we invest our earthly resources? To find out if we are confident that one day when our time comes to stand before the Lord that we will hear him say to us, “Well done, good and trustworthy servant! You have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!” (Matt.25:21)