This is a somewhat difficult passage. Sometimes it has even been considered by some Christians and even some scholars to be a bit of an embarrassment in the Christian community. At first reading, it would seem that Jesus is sort of commending this dishonest manager that, as you read this, on the surface it appears that Jesus is saying, “Be like this.” This guy’s smart; he’s shrewd; he’s clever in a not so good way. And it’s a bit difficult to reconcile that with the rest of what we know about Jesus’ life and Jesus’ teaching. So it is a bit difficult. When you read various translations, as I did as I prepared for this sermon, it was interesting for me to note how in both translations and paraphrases of these Scriptures, the translators and paraphraser’s go to great length to try and make some sense out of this and make it not such an onerous message.

Well, here is what I think we have to remember about this. It is that, at least in Jesus’ day, parables were told to make one point. They weren’t intended to be a three-point sermon; you know three points and a poem. That’s not what the parables were. Parables were meant to illustrate to teach one thing. And you have to get to the core and say, “What is that one thing?” And then all of the other stuff is really sort of extraneous. It isn’t to be taken literally in any way at all. Now the point of this parable as you read the whole parable and then you read the versus that follow, you will find is this—that we should not worship money. Just a few versus later is that famous passage that says, “You can not worship God and money.” And that’s the point. Use whatever wealth you have, whatever money you have, whatever material things you have, use that for the kingdom of God and for others. That’s the point. Everything else in this parable is just a way of constructing a story to illustrate that point.

Now having said that, embedded in this parable is a basic principle that Jesus taught and lived which I think is important for us to consider. And that point that really isn’t the point of the parable but is sort of embedded in His teaching is this, that what really makes up the essence of life in general and certainly the life of faith are the simple things. Not the things that make the big, bold headlines.

Now, I’ve been married for 39 years and we dated, of course, before that so even longer than that. Judy who has been listening to me preach and teach and so things like this all those years has suggested to me that both I and other preachers would be well off if we would learn to make one point and then sit down. That’s what she’s been trying to teach me. I’m a pretty slow learner. I’ve was sort of raised up in my ministry on the three points and a poem. You know, you’ve got to get all of this stuff in and use a point to illustrate.

Well, today I have one point for you and it is just what I said that the warp and woof of life, the fabric of life and of faith is in the simple things not the big things that splash across the headlines in the newspaper or on the television. And that the way that we live out the life that God has called us to live and the life that Jesus taught us and illustrated is to be aware of the simple ways in which we minister to each other. Jesus even talked this way. If you go to the Gospel of Mathew in the 25th chapter and you read that passage about what will happen on the Day of Judgment, who are the people that Christ will say, “Welcome in to my Kingdom?” They are people who saw somebody thirsty and bought them a soft drink. They are the people who saw that somebody was hungry and so they went and got them a Big Mac and gave it to them. They are the people who said, “Now there are people out there who have no clothing. They are naked.” So they gave clothing to Goodwill or to a shelter downtown or they sent it to Africa or they found other ways to provide that for those people. They are the people who saw someone who was sick and said, “Well, she needs to go to the doctor and she has no way to get there. I can do that. I’ll take her to the doctor today.”

Now I know I am paraphrasing now. Of course I am. That’s not the exact words in the Bible. But if you go back and read that 25th chapter of Matthew I think you will find that I am being faithful to the meaning there. Those who are thirsty, those who are hungry, those who are homeless, those who are imprisoned, etc. It’s those things, not the things that will get your name in the newspaper, not the things that will be splattered across the TV screen. But the simple acts of kindness and mercy and goodness that we do every day—that’s what the Kingdom is about!

I went to some commentaries, of course, as I was thinking about this sermon and I want to read for you, it’s a bit lengthy, so bear with me please. But I want to read what Fred Craddock, who is a modern day theologian and certainly one of the best known and certainly one of the best theologians and most respected theologians of our day. And here is what he had to say when commenting on this passage of Scripture from Luke: “The life of a disciple is one of faithful attention to the frequent and familiar tasks of each day, however small and insignificant they may seem. The one faithful in today's nickels and dimes is the one to be trusted with the big account, but it is easy to be indifferent toward small obligations while quite sincerely believing oneself fully trustworthy in major matters. The realism of these sayings,” (he’s talking about this passage of Scripture), “is simply that life consists of a series of seemingly small opportunities. Most of us will not this week christen a ship, write a book, end a war, appoint a cabinet, dine with the queen,” (although as our kids were growing up my wife often said to them about their manners at the table, ‘Don’t forget, you could some day be eating with the queen.’ But most of us are not going to do that.) “…convert a nation, or be burned at the stake.” (To which I would like to add, “Thank God!) “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.” And then he quotes the passage again, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.”

This came to me, was illustrated for me a couple of weeks ago by a thing that happened to me on two consecutive days. Behind the building where my office is at Methodist Hospital is another building. And in that building there is a small gift shop and I frequently go over there about 9:30 a.m. in the morning to get a diet Dr. Pepper because that’s my drink of choice especially the new Cherry, Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper. Wonderful stuff! So that’s what I do about the middle of the morning. And I was over there on a Thursday to do that when Kathleen came up behind me. Now Kathleen is somebody I’ve known for 18 or 20 years. Kathleen is not only an employee; she also has been a patient in the hospital. About two and a half years ago she very nearly died. She eventually got a transplant. Even today though she is, thank God, back to work enjoying her job, enjoying her life, doing well. You can tell when you meet her that she is a person whose has been pretty sick. But she’s doing well now and we are grateful for that.

Kathleen came up behind me and she said, “What have you got?” I said, “A diet Dr. Pepper.” And she said, “I’ll get that for you. I’m going to buy that for you.” And I said, you know, like so many of us, I was just a little bit arrogant. I said, “No, no, no, that’s why I came over here. I’m going to get this. You don’t need to buy this.” Now, Kathleen, you have to understand, is a person who is not one to mince words. And she is a person who does not mind at all putting a chaplain in his place when he needs that. And she was quite willing to do that on that Thursday. And she said to me, “Look!” (Obviously she was irritated) “Look,” she said, “I feel generous today. I want to do this for you. Don’t rob me of a chance to do something nice for you.” And I felt quite chagrined. And I backed off and I said, “Thank you. That’s really nice.” Now I wasn’t going to die of thirst but I was thirsty. And I wanted a drink. And she just happened to be there. And she bought it for me. Is that a big thing? Absolutely not! Is it an act of the kingdom? I think so; it was a generous, friendly, nice thing to do and I appreciated it. It came out of the blue; I wasn’t expecting it.

How often do you do something like that for people? Probably more often then you think. But perhaps we could be more aware of that. Now the next day, as it turns out, I went to the cafeteria to get my lunch and I had my tray, I had my food, I went to the checkout line. As I had come in to the cafeteria Vernon had come in at the same time. And Vernon is the guy who works in the operating room. He’s an OR tech, what they use to call an orderly. And I have known him again for many years now. Vernon is a preacher. He doesn’t pastor a church. He is a part of a church but he is not the pastor. But he has a group of people who sing and do stuff sort of like the Praise Team does and they go out on weekends sometimes and they do a series of services, revival services and that sort of thing for people. And he and I have had a lot of conversations many of them just fun and joking because he has a very good sense of humor and I try to have a very good sense of humor as well. And so I’ve known him for this long time and as I got to the cashier he came up behind me. It seems like all my people, friends, come up behind me for some reason. But he came up behind me again and he had his tray there and he spoke to the cashier and he said, “I’m getting the chaplain’s lunch today.” And I almost did the same thing again. I almost started to protest. At least I learned a little bit from the day before and so I did not. And I said “Thank you”. And he said, “Hey, its okay. I just want to do that for you today.” So that’s what he did.

Two days in a row little acts of kindness. Simple things. Nothing big. Nobody else would even know about it if I didn’t have the chance to get up here and stand in front of you and tell the story. Otherwise the cashier knew, I knew, Vernon knew, Kathleen knew. I think that’s what life is about. I think that’s what the Kingdom is about. I think it is the things that we do day after day, or that people do for us that are just little blessings. But in the end, they are what matter most.

I want to close by reading you another passage of somebody else. I always feel like if somebody else says it better than I can figure out how to say it, I ought to just use their words and give them credit and not try to do it myself. So these are some word from a guy named Tom Ehrich. Tom is an Episcopal priest. He’s from Indiana; from Indianapolis as a matter of fact. You can read an article by him every Saturday in the Indianapolis Star on the religion page if you wish. I subscribe to his daily meditations which he publishes on line and I get one every day. Here is something that he wrote recently about a different passage of Scripture but it fits here just as well it seems to me.

“The question that touches us all is, ‘What have I done that makes my unique difference in the world?’ We don’t wake up to our resumes, you see. We wake up to our partners in life—our children, our employers, our duties as citizens. We wake up to the many small ways that we make the world better or worse, touch other people positively or negatively, bring cheer and healing or dissent and coarsening, build others up or tear them down. Nor is it a resume that walks home with us at the end of the day. We walk home with small moments handled graciously or selfishly, interactions in which we were kind or prickly. If we are fortunate we come home to people whom we love because welfare means more to us than any career victory or shiny toy.” He goes on to say then that when we really look at Jesus and see Jesus’ life and see what Jesus taught and how he lived “we know that it wasn’t an extensive lunch that mattered but how we handled stress in dealing with a colleague, how we dug deep to meet another’s needs, how we stayed with an assignment to get it right, or how we got outside ourselves to really hear a loved one. There’s a resume for such moments. There is only the sense, born in faith and fed by faith, that handling small moments graciously will add up to something. God is found in taking a walk with my spouse, in the joy of family, in the tiniest gesture of kindness by a stranger, and in the weariness at the end of the day that says ‘I gave my best today and tomorrow I’ll try again.’”

That, I think, is real living and real faith and my God grant to us the awareness to give those simple gifts and receive them from others graciously.

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman

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