17^th Sunday after Pentecost September 19, 2010 “Your Retirement Plan” Reverend Michael D. Powell Luke 16:1-13

There’s a great dialogue in the 1967 movie, The Graduate. Benjamin Braddock is a young and talented college graduate who has become increasingly disillusioned with the adult world and the future his parents have planned for him. He has this exchange with his father: (1)

Benjamin: I'm just...

Mr. Braddock: ...worried?

Benjamin: Well...

Mr. Braddock: About what?

Benjamin: I guess about my future.

Mr. Braddock: What about it?

Benjamin: I don't know. I want it to be...

Mr. Braddock: ...to be what?

Benjamin: ...Different.

And, in another exchange he gets some priceless advice from one of his father’s business associates named Mr. McGuire:

Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?

Benjamin: Yes, I am.

Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?

Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

Part of what makes these such memorable lines is that they strike a familiar nerve. Haven’t we all worried about our future? I remember back in 1968 when I was a first year seminary student and Anni’s father talking began talking to me about planning for retirement. I couldn’t imagine it. Now I realize the truth of what he was saying. Time flies, doesn’t it?

Americans are notoriously poor at saving financial resources for the future, and it’s with that in mind that we turn to the gospel story for today. The basic thrust of the gospel story is this: Are you making plans for your long-term future? Are you shrewd? Are you concerned about laying up for yourselves treasures on earth, and are you equally concerned about laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven - for your eternal retirement? (2)

Before I say anything else, however, I have to tell you that there is almost universal agreement that this parable is one of the most difficult (and maybe the most difficult) of Jesus' parables to interpret and that there are many differing interpretations. Part of the difficulty is that the subject is money, which is a notoriously slippery subject. One out of seven Bible passages from the Gospel of Luke is about money. There are more passages in the Gospel of Luke about money than there are about marriage, sex or family values. Why? I suspect it’s because we have such a hard time handling money. Money usually handles us. Jesus’ parable today is trying to teach us about the proper use of money for Christians. But, you have to admit, he comes at it from a very strange angle, commending the dishonest steward for his shrewdness. The man is, after all, an embezzler! Like I said, it’s a tough nut to crack. Maybe it would help to put it in more contemporary terms: (3)

Once upon a time, there was a very wealthy man and his name was Bill Gates. He had made hundreds of billions of dollars from computers and software. He had many high level managers whom he entrusted to care for the various divisions of his companies.

Now, one of his high level mangers wasn’t a very good manager. He was losing all kinds of money for Bill Gates. So, one day, Bill Gates said, “You need to come into my office.” And then Bill Gates pulls a Donald Trump on him. He says, “You’re doing a lousy job. You’re fired. I’m giving you a thirty-day notice and you’re out of here.”

So the manager thinks to himself, “What am I going to do? Hmmmm. I’ve got an idea.”

So he telephones a bunch of people who owe money to Bill Gates. He says to the first, “You owe Bill Gates one hundred million dollars. But if you’ll write out a check for fifty million your debt will be paid in full. Oh yeah, and remember me in the future. Maybe I can work for you someday.”

Then he calls the next guy: “You owe my boss ten million bucks, but if you’ll write out a check for five million bucks I’ll cook the books and call it even. Remember, you and I are friends. Maybe you’ll scratch my back someday.”

He does that right down the line, planning a safety net for himself so that unemployment won’t be so hard. Jesus tells this interesting parable of deception and embezzlement, and concludes by saying: “I commend the dishonest money manager for his shrewdness; for the children of this generation are more shrewd in dealing with money than are the children of light. The sons and daughters in the marketplace are more shrewd in dealing with earthly money than are God’s sons and daughters in dealing with their eternal salvation.”

So what does this parable mean? To me, it’s a great example of what a great preacher Jesus was. He’s definitely got our attention. He’s a provocateur! In a nutshell, he’s telling us to be as focused, creative and concerned in dealing with our eternal spiritual assets as we are in dealing with their earthly financial assets. Not that we’re dishonest but, let’s be honest, don’t we all spend an incredible among of time and energy making a living, juggling bills, calculating taxes to our best advantage in order to provide for our earthly comfort and security. There’s nothing particularly wrong or dishonest about that, but Jesus’ point is, imagine if we spent equal tim, energy and creativity preparing for our spiritual retirement.

This is not a stewardship sermon per se. We normally think of those as coming during our fall stewardship campaign, which we’ll be kicking off in a few weeks. But in the eyes of Jesus every sermon is a stewardship sermon, because he’s not just talking about funding a budget, he’s talking about every aspect of our lives, in this world and the next. Being faithful stewards of the blessings we’ve received is an important source of the everyday joy, the emotional peace and the spiritual security that we all long for. The theme for our fall stewardship campaign is going to be “Joy through Generosity,” and I’ll give you a little preview of the direction we’ll be heading.

There’s an old quotation I’m sure you’ve heard: “A person’s true wealth is not in what they keep but in what they give away.” A lot of our stress and angst comes from a certain sense of insecurity and scarcity, some of it real, but much of it imagined. No matter what our means, we are all fundamentally rich! We have all been gifted with a certain amount of wealth and security, and there’s a real joy, a sense of peace and satisfaction that comes from sharing the blessings. The right use of whatever wealth we’ve been blessed with, according to Jesus, is to put it to work, invest it in a way that helps others who need help, in ways that help make the world a better place, safer and more comfortable for everyone, not just ourselves. The very definition of blessing is that it is meant to circulate, like in the song, Magic Penny, by Melvina Reynolds:

Love is something if you give it away,
Give it away, give it away.
Love is something if you give it away,
You end up having more.

It's just like a magic penny,
Hold it tight and you won't have any.
Lend it, spend it, and you'll have so many
They'll roll all over the floor.

Jesus contrasts two ways of laying up treasure, saying that we lay up treasure in heaven by sharing a portion of our blessings with others, whereas we lay up treasure for ourself on earth by hording our blessings, and that when we withhold blessings for our exclusive pleasure, they’re no longer blessings, they have a way of rotting, rusting and turning to dust. There’s no joy in hording, only in sharing. Keep the blessings in circulation or they’ll just turn to rot, and we’ll be miserable trying to protect them.

So, I’ll close with a kind of modern day parable that the British New Testament scholar, William Barclay tells. It’s one of those “when I get to heaven and meet St. Peter at the pearly gates” stories, and it’s obviously a little simplistic, but it makes the point. A man dies and goes to heaven. St. Peter tells him to hop in the cloudmobile and he’s showing him around. They’re driving by some large heavenly mansions and the guy can’t help but wonder where he’s going to live, so he’s carefully looking at the names listed on the mailboxes but he doesn’t see his name. Peter continues driving right through that fancy neighborhood into a neighborhood with little three bedroom bungalows with white picket fences and campers in the back yards. The guy again is looking at all the mailboxes of these smaller modest homes but doesn’t see his name. Peter then drives further to a slightly run down apartment complex with a long wall of mailboxes out in the parking lot, but still there’s no familiar name on any of those mailboxes. Hmmm. Peter continues driving until finally they come to an old tarpaper shack, and there’s the guy’s name on an old dilapidated mailbox. The guy is shocked. He says, “St. Peter, I thought this was supposed to be heaven. I liked it back there in the neighborhood with all the mansions on the lake or even the three roomed bungalows with white picket fences. What’s going on here?” Peter says, “Well, we construct your heavenly retirement home using the material that you send up here. This is all that you sent up when you were living down there on earth.”

Are you a little worried about your future? Do you have a retirement plan? It’s never too late to start making investments in your heavenly account. Thanks be to God. Amen.

(1) Internet Movie Database

(2) Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington

(3) ibid. “Money and Wise Investments for the Future”