Living for the kingdom in a messy world

Not in Kansas anymore

In the story of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is a happy little girl with her dog Toto, until a Tornado whisks them away to somewhere over the rainbow. When Dorothy comes to, she looks around at the unfamiliar land and declares - we’re not in Kansas anymore. She then finds herself trying to navigate herself in this unfamiliar place.

It was a story written a long time ago - but yet, this phrase - we’re not in Kansas anymore, seems to resonate more and more.

Kansas is the known. It’s the comfortable. Over the rainbow, however, while perhaps exciting and full of potential, is unknown and scary.

As Christians, over the last few decades, we’ve gone from what could be described as a predominantly Christianized culture, to a predominantly secularized culture and it has felt like we’ve gone over the rainbow - which given today’s use of the rainbow symbol, it might be quite an apt description.

But we’ve landed where we are, and we look around and realise - we’re not in Kansas anymore… we’re not in that more predictable, comfortable place.

But it’s in this world over the rainbow that we want to continue to see God’s kingdom grow. And that’s what I want to think about today. I’m not talking about the ethics of this new world - that’s a topic for a different day… rather, I’m taking for granted that things in the world are messed up, so how should we operate in this world?

Link with parable

I’m going to be doing that with the parable that was read earlier. It’s a parable that predominantly deals with our use of money and wealth, but in the midst of a messed up situation.

As we explore it, we’ll likely find why many people struggle with this parable, including many commentators, but yet, when we look through the lens of the fact that things are messed up, perhaps it starts to make more sense.

The Parable

Well, let’s just dive in and see what the actual parable says.

The setting of the parable is a rich man whose put a manager in place to look after his assets.

It was not completely uncommon in those days to have absent landlords. In some ways, not too dissimilar to today. I’m talking of the people who own vast amounts of land and property, some of which is in places they don’t live.

Those properties and possessions have the potential to earn a considerable income, but when it is vast, you need to have people you can trust to look after it for you. You entrust those people with the ability to make basic decisions so that the assets keep making money.

In the parable Jesus tells, such an arrangement has been made, however, the manager who had been put in place has had accusations made against him.

The rich man call him in to make an account of himself, and it is at this point that the manager realises that his job is about to be gone. More than this, he realises that once he loses this job, his opportunities in life will be severely limited.

So, time for some quick thinking. He can get in the good books with some of the business partners of his boss.

He’ll do it by making bold deals with people who have some large debts.

First on the list, he finds someone who owes 3000 litres of olive oil.

And he slashes this one by half. They now only have to repay 1500 litres of oil.

Next person on this list - a man who owes thirty tons of wheat. He slashes twenty percent off, dropping it to twenty four tons of wheat.

Now, pretend you don’t know the ending of this parable. I think if I were reading this for the first time, by the time I got to the end of verse 7, that is, after his just offered the very generous discount to the second debtor, I’d be guessing that the owner of this enterprise would not be too happy.

He’s already upset that he’s been wasting his money, and now he’s cheating him of even more potential income.

If you came to this natural conclusion, verse 8 would come as a shock.

We’re told that the master actually commends this dishonest manager.

From verse 9 onwards, which I’ll explore in just a moment, we’ll find that Jesus then uses this parable of an example of how we should act.

A tricky interpretation

And this is why many people struggle with this parable. A clear biblical teaching throughout scripture, both in the Old Testament and the New, is that it is important that we act with integrity and honesty.

So why did Jesus use this parable of a dodgy businessman as an example for us?

You see, here’s the thing… I’ll explore this more soon, but part of the message that we’ll find is that we should use our money and wealth with an eye on God’s kingdom.

If that’s the case, you wonder why Jesus didn’t just devise some parable where a man legitimately raised some money which he then used to help people?

Possible solutions

Now, because of the difficulty around dishonesty being commended, people have suggested various solutions.

The first, which I will say now is in my opinion the least satisfactory by far, because it requires you to essentially ignore everything after verse 8… this view suggests that Jesus told this parable to contrast the parable of the Prodigal Son which comes immediately before this parable. The Prodigal Son shows what happens when you repent, and in this view, this parable shows what will happen when you continue your wicked and wayward ways.

There’s actually not a lot going for this view, particularly given the explanation given contradicts it.

The next view however has a lot more going for it. This view suggests attempts to neaten things up. It requires an assumption that when a debt is paid to the owner, the manager is entitled to a certain commission. With this assumption, we can read the parable such that the manager had been dishonest in the first place, but once he had been found out, he makes amends by foregoing his commission. In this way, the owner is happy because the owner is ensuring that he gets what’s owed to him at the expense of the manager.

With this reading we can perhaps rest easy that Jesus is not commending him for his dishonesty.

This is very convenient, and it makes the parable far less problematic, however, there isn’t a whole lot of evidence to support it. The fact that the second half of verse 8 draws a parallel with the way this man operated and the shrewd ways that people operate in the world, perhaps indicates that this nice neat conclusion isn’t meant to be drawn.

It’s not neat

You see, I’m actually persuaded that this parables isn’t meant to be neat.

I think that it’s meant to be a little jarring.

You see, here’s the reality, while we want things to be neat, life is rarely neat.

And if we’re honest, it’s not just because other people mess things up - we’re quite often the reason things have gone messy.

I want to suggest that in a very clever way, Jesus is pushing into such an idea.

In this way, he’s saying, look, you might have made a real mess of things, but yet there is still an opportunity for you to do something really special for God’s kingdom.

You might literally be a dishonest manager, but you have an ability to be used for good.

Where not in Kansas anymore - that ideal world has long gone.

Actually, let’s be honest, if I’m using that metaphor, I’m actually not convinced that Kansas as an idealised world ever really existed.

It’s easy to look at the past with rose coloured glasses, but these scheming, cheating and dishonest days are not new.

The Lessons from the Parable

So lets look at the lessons as Jesus gives them to us in verses 8 to 13.

Being Shrewd

Verse 8 actually makes more of an observation rather than a lesson, but it’s an observation worth paying attention to.

Jesus says: “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light”.

Now perhaps this is because in a dog-eat-dog world, you kind of have to be shrewd or you get eaten alive - whereas people of the light, that is to say, Christians, generally speaking allow for more grace.

But being shrewd is not the opposite of showing grace. You can show grace and be shrewd at the same time.

Now it is perhaps worth thinking about what it means to be shrewd. I’d consider a shrewd person to be an astute person - someone showing sharp powers of judgement - knows how to use their resources in a way that will get results.

I think this observation in verse 8 is almost Jesus lamenting that for some reason, Christian can become lazy, whereas they should be using just as much energy as the people of the world do about worldly things, but only for kingdom things.

Using wealth to gain friends

Verse 9 then makes it into a lesson for us. Jesus says: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings”.

And I’m going to suggest that this seems to be the main lesson that Jesus wants us to take away from this parable.

Wealth is not inherently good or bad. Wealth can lead to bad places - and scripture warns us of this in numerous places - but here we see that it can be used for a kingdom good.

There is both a relational dimension and an eternal dimension to this statement. And it is when we understand the relational and eternal dimensions of it that we will actually start to put wealth in its rightful place.

Relational

You see, it tells us that we worldly wealth can be used to gain friends.

The Greek word for friend here is very similar to the Greek word for brotherly love.

Restoring relationships is important in the kingdom of God. Remember the commandments can be boiled down to two - love God, love others.

It’s important that we are making efforts to restore those relationships with the means that we have.

Eternal dimension

But Jesus adds an eternal dimension to this as well when he adds: “…so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings”.

You see, it is actually quite natural that as we become kingdom focused, we realise that there are eternal consequences to what we do - because God’s kingdom is eternal.

And this is essentially the big difference with what we do and what the rest of the world does.

The rest of the world labors after temporal things. They can make a fortune, but then their time comes, and it counts for nothing.

We, however, use that fortune to feed into the Kingdom of God, and that same fortune will also be gone, but the results will be felt for eternity.

Trust

Okay, if we just take verse 9 and stop before we cover the next few verses, we could be left with a very wrong picture.

To this point, it could perhaps be construed that as long as you have a kingdom focus, everything is fair game. You can cheat, bribe, and manipulate however you want, just get people into the kingdom.

If that was your conclusion, you’re going to find your wrong.

Verse 10 says: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much”.

It would seem to me that what Jesus is doing here is making it clear - the commendation of the dishonest manager in the parable is not, and I repeat, is not an excuse for us to be dishonest too.

As I mentioned before, it is in the context of a messy world that we use worldly means for a kingdom result, but a kingdom focus actually results in trust.

Being dishonest actually erodes trust. It was the manager’s dishonesty that got him in trouble in the first place. It was his quick thinking that actually changed the situation.

Work on being trustworthy with what you get.

Whether you have a massive wealth, or if your bank balance is just skirting somewhere above nothing… you can be trustworthy with it and use it wisely.

In verse 11, Jesus extends this idea by linking your trustworthiness with worldly wealth with your trustworthiness of true riches.

Trust is important. You can’t just play lose with worldly possessions thinking they have nothing to do with the eternal kingdom. Sure, they’re not going to last, but being trustworthy with it is important.

Money not master

In verse 13, Jesus adds another comment to avoid any misinterpretation.

Money cannot be your master. Money and wealth is something we can use, in fact, something which let’s face it, is essential to use, but it must always be put in its place.

We use the dollar, we don’t serve it.

Now there can a danger some people face. If we make more money, then we can be more generous for kingdom causes.

Now, there is some logic to this. Some believers are blessed with a lot of money which they can subsequently use to bless various kingdom causes. For those in this situation, be very careful, because there is a danger that the love of money takes over - and it can take over very subtly. In fact, the love of money can take over regardless of the amount of money you have - but for those with a lot, you can fool yourself into thinking you’re going to do a good thing.

Application

So, what should we do as a result of this parable?

It think it is actually wise to be deliberate about how you’re using your money for the kingdom. And this applies whether you have a lot, or not much.

Think about where your money is going.

Tithe

Now, it’s worthwhile addressing the issue of the tithe here.

The word tithe literally means ten percent, and it’s the practice of giving ten percent of your income to the church.

In the Old Testament, this was actually a command for Israelites to give to the temple.

Interestingly, the tithe is not mandated in the New Testament. But does this mean we don’t need to worry about it anymore.

Well, no. Based on this parable, I’d suggest it is much better to think of all of your money and wealth needing to be used for kingdom causes.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you should empty out your bank account - that would be to neglect your family and your self.

For this reason, it’s generally thought that ten percent is a good practical guide in what to give.

Now we don’t want to get too legalistic about it. At times it can get complicated, particularly if you’re a self-funded retiree and there’s not exactly a steady income to figure it out from.

At the end of the day, it is up to you to figure out what is reasonable.

Being generous

But this parable is not specifically about giving to the church. It’s more broadly about using your wealth and money for the kingdom.

I want to suggest this is a call to generosity.

Be prepared to give.

And here’s the thing. If you’re giving means you have to sacrifice some things - you know what, maybe that means your starting to move to a more kingdom focused approach.

It’s sad, but we seem to be living in a society that too often thinks that having a phone plan of $100 a month plus is necessary.

I’m not against you having a few luxuries, but just remember that that’s what they are. They’re luxuries, not necessities.

When you’re sitting in the new heavens and the new earth, are you going to be regretting that you missed out on having the latest iPhone, or that you missed an opportunity to encourage people into the kingdom?

From an eternal perspective, the answer seems obvious, but all too frequently, we can get caught up in the now - and if we don’t have, we feel hard done by.

Budget

If you’re the type of person that makes a budget, look at your budget, then re-read this parable, and then think, does my budget have a kingdom focus to it?

Does my budget allow for generosity?

Or has my budget mistaken some luxuries for necessities?

Even if you don’t have a budget, have a look back on what you’ve recently been spending money on. Look at your most recent bank statement?

What does it reveal? Someone with a worldly focus, or someone with a kingdom focus?

Conclusion

It might seem nice and easy to say all of this from the pulpit. But believe me, these are big issues that I need to wrestle with as well. I don’t say these to you as someone who has it all together, but as someone on a similar journey trying to be more kingdom focused with what I’ve got.

The reality is, life is messy. After all, this is the argument I’ve made for why Jesus made this parable as tricky to understand as he did.

We make a mess of things, but God gives us grace to make amends.

And as that time comes, to be shrewd with what we have. But not shrewd in a way that builds our material possessions, but shrewd in a way that builds our heavenly possessions.

Whether God has given you a lot or just a little, he wants you to use it for the kingdom.

Let me pray...