Who’s Who?

Yesterday, I was reminded again that the Bible was meant to be read together.  I joke a lot about how most of the craziest (and most damaging) interpretations have come from guys who spend too much time locked in a dark room with just the Bible and their imagination.  But it’s more serious than avoiding nonsense – Christian leaders need to be reading the bible in community to keep from missing the deeper truths.  Lots of pastors do this by consulting congregation members throughout the week or teaching regularly to stay connected.  In Ekklesia, I knew from the start that I wanted to do it as a part of the gathering.  I write questions instead of sermons because it forces me to listen.  Yesterday, I needed to listen. 

We’re trying our hand at following the Lectionary, which meant yesterday we read the “parable of the dishonest steward” (Luke 16:1-13).  A rich man finds out his business manager is stealing from him and plans to fire him.  Before he’s fired, the business manager decides to make friends by stealing even more and giving it to the rich man’s debtors.  Jesus closes this story by seeming to compliment the steward for using the resources he had to win friends.  But then gives a series of seemingly contradictory advice like, “whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much” and  “if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?” (vv. 10, 12)  I’ve never known what to do with this parable.

I’ve said before that if anyone ever tells you they know exactly what Jesus was trying to say, you should distrust everything else they try to sell you.  It’ has confused scholars since the day Jesus said it.  So I looked for clues in the rest of the assigned readings.

The Old Testament readings (Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113) both talk about the poor being mistreated by the wealthy.  So I sat in my office (alone with my Bible and my imagination) and typed up a series of questions that were all about money.  The title slide from my powerpoint was a close-up of a $1 bill:

But the discussion wasn’t going anywhere until someone else pointed out that when Jesus spoke in parables, he usually wasn’t talking about what he was talking about.  Seeds aren’t seeds, coins aren’t coins and Samaritans…well, maybe they’re still Samaritans, but still.  Money probably isn’t money – it’s power.

The question became “who’s who?”  We talked about, what If the Pharisees (who Jesus is talking to) are the rich man, then maybe Jesus is the dishonest steward, taking their illegitimate power and re-distributing it to others to win them to the gospel.  But we also talked about what if the Pharisees are the business manager.  That makes God the rich man – the one with all the power – and the Pharisees had been given a great deal of religious power because they were the keepers of the law.  But they were using it to win friends an influence for themselves instead of bringing glory to the One who deserved it.  Jesus calls them on it, using their favorite subject: money.  (see verse 14)

I’m not going to try to claim I now know “exactly what Jesus was trying to say,” but this makes a lot of sense.  And it affects the way I do ministry.  I’ve been given religious authority and it’s really tempting to use it to make friends and gain influence.  This story reminds me to make sure my primary goal is to follow the God whose “glory is exalted above the heaves” (ps 113: 4).  To surround myself with people who want to be on the side of the one who “lifts the poor from the dust and raises the needy from the ash heap” (113:7).  And I never would have heard this if I had written a lecture instead of a question.  Neither would the rest of the group.

So who’s who?  Am I the teacher?  Am I the student?  I honestly don’t think it matters as long as we’re listening, together.

(for more on my discussion-based preaching style, check out Doug Pagitt’s “Preaching Re-Imagined“)

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