God's Last Words

“Human Resources Counseling”
Luke 16: 1-13 (NRSV)

Behavioral consistency is one measure we use to know our friends, family, acquaintances, teachers, neighbors, and just about anyone else we meet.

As we get to know others we begin to build our patterns of communication and interaction to and with them. Above all we assess our ability to trust and confide in them and come up with our expectations of their future actions regarding us.

We learn what they value, who they love, what they treasure, and what motivates them in their everyday lives.

Employers do the same thing with those they employ. The problem of course, is encountering those people who say or do one thing but have hidden motives, agendas, or beliefs. That’s why most employers have a “Human Resources Department” to deal with employees.

I've always thought that if Jesus is the CEO of Christianity then certainly the Apostle Paul must be in charge of Human Resources and Counseling. Jesus set the standard and Paul interprets them for us.

Today let's look at Jesus' words as advice to employees. 

There is a famous joke that suggests that Frenchmen are smarter than Englishmen. It goes like this: A French Taxi cab driver once played a trick on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The man had driven Conan Doyle from the station to a hotel, and when he had received the fare, he said, “Merci, Monsieur Conan Doyle.”

“Why, how do you know my name?” asked Sir Arthur.

“Well sir,” replied the cabbie, “I read in the papers you were coming from the south of France to Paris. Your general appearance told me you were English. Your hair has been clearly cut by a barber from the south of France. I put these indicators together and guessed at once that it was you.”

“That is very remarkable,” replied Sir Arthur while giving the man a large tip, “you have no other evidence to go on?”

“Well,” hesitated the man, “since you’ve given me a good tip - I will point out to you that your name appears on your luggage!”

Then 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? Give 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 weath.”

A young preacher had just begun serving his first congregation. It was the only church in a small logging town on the edge of the Maine woods. Everyone who lived in the town and attended church worked at the local lumber mill, which was the town’s only business and in fierce competition with a neighboring mill just downstream.

The preacher wasn’t in town long before he had an experience that shook him to the core.

He was taking a walk in the woods when he discovered by chance workers for the town mill pulling logs branded for the neighboring mill out of the stream, cutting off their branded ends, and re-branding them for their own mill.

The preacher became very upset and went home and worked on a powerful sermon.

That Sunday he got up and preached a sermon entitled, “Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Property.” The sermon seemed to go over very well. Everyone told him, as they left church how much they loved his preaching.

“You really moved me, Preacher,” and “Best Sermon I ever heard,” were some of the remarks.

But that next Monday it was the same business as usual at the mill. They were still stealing logs.

So the next Sunday the preacher delivered a real pulpit pounder called, “Thou Shall Not Steal.”

“Fantastic,” the people told him. “Wonderful,” they cried. But on Monday morning the other mill’s logs were still being swiped by the town’s mill.

The preacher told himself, “Enough.”  A preacher can only take so much, and then he must act. This time he wasn’t going to hold anything back.

On Sunday he got up and preached a sermon he called, “Thou Shall Not Cut Off the Branded ends of Someone Else’s Logs.”

Someone fire bombed his car after church and the congregation asked him to leave at 8 AM on Monday morning.  

Unfortunately even churches and communities can get into habits and practices that no one wants to admit, much less be confronted by. When this unwritten law is broken, it causes the messenger great grief.

You see, we all want to benefit from the grace of Jesus and the honestly and generosity of Christians, but sometimes we don’t want that same standard applied to us.

Jesus’ parable of the dishonest manager is all too real to us in our time. We have corrupt politicians, pastors, storeowners, stockbrokers, lawyers, policemen, and just about every type of worker you can imagine who wants to be viewed as good and honest and ethical, but who are rotten at their core.

Jesus’ question of trust is one we need to study long and hard. Are we consistent and committed Christians, loyal and true? If not how must we change?

A young woman was soaking up the rays on a Florida beach when a little boy in his swimming trunks, carrying a towel, came up to her and asked, “Do you believe in God?” She was somewhat surprised by the question but replied, “Why yes, I do.”

Then he asked her, “Do you go to church every Sunday?” Again, her answer was, “Yes, I do.” Then he asked, “Do you read from the Bible and pray every day?”

Again she said, “Yes,” but now her curiosity was aroused. At last the boy sighed and said with obvious relief, “Will you hold my dollar while I go in swimming?”

A school teacher was trying to impress her students with the importance of honesty.

She asked her class, “Suppose you found a briefcase with a half million dollars in it. What would you do?”

Little Johnny raised his hand immediately and replied, “If it belonged to a poor family, I’d return it.”

Jesus taught that ethics and codes of conduct are not negotiable, changeable, or different based on who you are. What you honor and esteem is what you will earn.

Start with faith and trust in Jesus and follow through to eternity. We can’t be rooted to the world’s values and see clearly to Heaven. Amen.