Dishonest Servant's Playbook

Grace and peace to you from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

How many of you have played “The Game of Life”? If it’s been a while, you may remember that you start out with a car, a pink or blue peg, and ten thousand dollars in the bank - just like real life, right? As your little car travels along the game board, you go to college, start a career, get married, have kids, buy a house… The goal is to drive your little car with your little family and live your little life until you retire, the winner being the one who retires with the most money – like real life!

Once you understand all the rules, playing “The Game of Life” is pretty straightforward. Living the game of “Real Life,” however, is not quite so easy. Not everyone starts off in life with such a head start of a car and money in the bank, perhaps in the form of generational wealth. Real life is messy and confusing and complicated and strange… and very much like the parable that Jesus tells to his disciples that we heard just a few moments ago!

Now, when it comes to what readings we hear in church every Sunday, there is a pre-set order of game play. We always read from the Old Testament, the New Testament, a Psalm, and one of the Gospels, based on traditions that go back centuries, and span denominations. They are not chosen at random or based on what the Pastor feels like saying on a Sunday. Certain texts come up during certain parts of the church year, following a three-year cycle called the lectionary.  Like a game, there is counting and rules to follow. 

Today this text, though, feels more like landing on a “skip a turn” space, or as if we rolled a one when we needed anything but. Though, there is something sort of refreshing about the honesty and creativity of this steward that I can’t help liking despite myself. I find myself rooting for this guy. Like any good anti – hero like Deadpool or that guy on House of Cards, the steward boldly breaks the fourth wall and lets us in on how he intends to scheme himself out of this jam, his brilliant plan being to us his access to swindle his boss out of EVEN MORE MONEY…. But this time not the benefit of himself only.

After everything that the steward pulls, the rich master was actually impressed, perhaps because this is the same way that the rich man likely made his wealth. Just like now, there are only a few ways to get above the poverty line, and most of them involve an unfair advantage, or downright dishonestly. As it was then, it still is now – in THIS world, money talks, it is money who is king, demands our devotion, and makes the rules that govern our daily lives. 

Rules like: Whoever holds the money holds the power. That your worth is based on what and how much you can buy, how big your house is or what school you can afford to send your children too. To spend rather than saving or giving.  Money rules: it dictates our time, consumes our thoughts, and demands our loyalty.

And so, when we slip into this kind of bondage, and follow this script money lays out for us, what is our reward? How do we know if we’ve “won” at the game? Like in the game of life, the one with the most money at the end wins.

But perhaps even more amazing of all – JESUS applauds the steward too! Really, Jesus? Should we really this guy as our model? Yes! As Jesus also points out, when life is over and it’s time to enter into our eternal, rather than retirement, homes, and where is the money? Well, it’s gone, because “you can’t take it with you”! So how are we going to use it while we are still “In the Game”?

Both God and money demand your life. But which master would you rather serve? The truth is, we can’t play the game by both sets of rules. We cannot serve both. We cannot belong to both… and keep our sanity and integrity.

We are not doomed to follow these rules of the Money, that, in the end, cheat us out of life and in fact give us nothing. There is another king to follow, another set of rules for us to live by. This Jesus came to tell us that God’s Kingdom rules are the alternative.

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We are citizens of the Kingdom of God who are living in the Kingdom of Money at the moment. Which makes life confusing and complicated. All the playing pieces look the same. But we are called to play by different rules and to have a different strategy, because our goal is not the same. Our goal is not to win. Our goal is to follow Jesus. Which will probably lead us to run afoul of the rules of money’s game.

My personal theory is that Jesus liked the roguish steward because he was the type of guy that Jesus tended to hang out with. Jesus was often accused of eating with sinners, scandalous women, and shady characters – and this steward fits right in. He knew how to cleverly and creatively play by the rules of his world. According to The Message translation Luke 16 reads “streetwise people… are on constant alert, looking for angles… using adversity to stimulate… creative survival…. You cannot serve God and the Bank.”

And so, that’s why I think that Jesus wants us to take a page out of the steward’s playbook of creative survival: when things get tough, DON’T give up. Find the alternative endings. Find those angles and exploit them for the good of the kingdom. Be alert to new opportunities. Create your own way when the world gives you no way.

And WHEN – not IF – we fail, we can get right back up, dust ourselves off, remind ourselves that we are baptized and beloved children of God, and every day is a new day. This is how we live, because we know that life is not really a game we manipulate, and we cannot simply strategize our way into the kingdom of God. There are no “winners” and “losers,” because we are both… and neither.

You can and will lose to money and the bank, but you can never lose the love of God. Jesus won a place for us in the kingdom already, by not playing by the world’s rules. In fact, you could say he cheated. He “won” the game by losing – losing any opportunity to gain worldly possessions, power, or status… even losing his very life, and ultimately, cheating death. All to prove that we cannot win our way to God.  The game has already been won, because there is no game. Not anymore.

Though we no longer have to play by money’s rules, we what we do with our money still very much matters. And so too, along the way, we ask ourselves, how can we as people of God flip the scrip, “cheat” at the game, and make our money SERVE US as WE continue to be called to SERVE GOD?

How can we counter-scam establishments that rip-off the environment and vulnerable people? By shopping small, local, and …. Or not at all. By chucking expensive coffee systems and business that hurt the environment, and spend that money on fair trade coffee or local establishments that foster community. By investing in relationships rather than fancy gimmicks and flashy facades.

How do we cheat institutions that get away with perpetuating injustice in the form of discrimination? By taking a page out of the steward’s book, and using his own resources, access, and privilege to help other people who were being unfairly treated by the rules of the game.

Be faithful even in the little things. Be good stewards of and take care of what has been given to you by God… that is, everything, including our lives. Be a slave to God and serve one another, rather than serving the demands of the bank.

We are still on the game board, far from the finish line. The game of life has already been won for us, true, but in the meantime, we still make choices and roll the dice – with both good and bad rolls. Along the way, Jesus challenges us to turn to the Dishonest Steward’s playbook, finding angles, keeping alert, keeping our wits about us, creatively surviving, until we reach the finish. Game on. Amen.