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Pastor Tom Steers on August 17, 2025

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THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

(One-year lectionary)

August 17, 2025

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Our Opening Hymn is: “Lord of Glory, You Have Bought Us”

Lutheran Service Book, 851 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5WDtLfsT-I

Our Bible Readings:

Old Testament Reading – 2nd Samuel 22:26-34

Psalm 51:1-12

Epistle Reading – 1st Corinthians 10:6-13

Gospel Reading: Luke 16:1-15

Our Hymn of the Day, “What is the World to Me”

Lutheran Service Book, 730

The Sermon –

Brothers & sisters, peace, grace, and mercy be to you through God our Father, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are times when all of us think about what we owe.

The average Canadian owes just over $30,000, according to the government.

When we add mortgage debt to that, the figure rises to over $150,000.

There is worldly debt we owe, and worldly things we own and enjoy.

But there’s also a spiritual debt we have, as well.

The Bible is clear, it’s a debt that we, on our own, could never repay, and left unpaid, it would crush us.

It's spiritual debt and forgiveness that’s at the heart of today’s parable that Jesus tells.

The parable of the Dishonest Manager has a reputation for being the most difficult in the Gospels to understand.

But unless we recognize what’s really happening in it, we walk away thinking it’s a lesson on dealing with our finances to win friends, or, worse yet, an endorsement of shady financial dealings.

In reality, it’s not about any of those things.

So, let’s take a close look at the Parable.

We’re told of a manager who works for a rich man.

The manager is about to be fired.

At this time in Israel, rich landowners would lease their property out to tenant farmers for a portion of the harvest.

A manager would usually oversee

what was owed by tenants, and collect it for the landlord.

We read that the manager has done improper financial things that others, probably the tenants, have complained about.

Yet there’s something unusual here the people listening to Jesus would have picked up on right away.

At the time, the penalty for this kind of corruption would have been jail or being thrown into slavery, along with your family until the debt was paid, if it ever was.

But that’s not what happens.

The wealthy landowner gives notice to the dishonest manager and allows him time to do some final accounting.

It was an act of incredible mercy, and would have been seen that way to those listening to Jesus.

We can see it that way as well.

Because the figure of the wealthy, powerful landowner in the parable represents God.

The dishonest manager doesn’t repent about short-changing the landlord, instead, he takes the time granted him to cheat his employer, yet again.

He devises a scheme by which he’ll forgive part of the debt of the tenant farmers so that when he’s out of work he’ll have ingratiated himself to them, he’ll have bought friends with his bosses’ money,

that they, in turn, might help him until he secures other work.

Now, even in doing this, he’s not completely honest or consistent.

To one who owed 100 measures of oil – which is equivalent to about 3,600 liters, he said, “sit down and write fifty.”

And by the way, do it quickly.

Then he goes on to the next debtor and reduces the bill, although not giving him quite as good a discount.

What happens when the boss finds out about the manager’s corrupt generosity?

Does he fly into a rage?

Does he mourn his losses?

No.

He does just the opposite.

The landowner commends the dishonest steward for his shrewdness.

Amazingly, the rich man is still patient and merciful, while knowing he’s been robbed yet again by this character.

So where does this grace and mercy come from?

Jesus never said that the boss canceled any of the ‘deals’ the dishonest manager struck with the debtors.

That’s precisely what the manager was banking on.

He knew his boss.

He knew he would fully honour the forgiveness that had been given in His name.

He knew the landowner’s mercy.

The debt forgiveness stood.

That’s just who the boss was, by nature – a man of His word.

The manager also knew he’d likely now be provided for by the farmers.

He wouldn’t receive the punishment he justly deserved.

By means of unrighteous wealth; that is, by means of things that can’t bring about righteousness and salvation, this man brought the grace and mercy of the master to the people.

And when his own ‘unrighteous wealth’ failed, the grace and mercy that was unconditionally shown to the farmers would also bear fruit for him, as undeserving as he was to receive it.

Brothers and sisters, this is a lesson Christ is still teaching us today.

And it’s about trust in your Lord.

He is a loving and merciful God.

There is no debt He can’t or won’t forgive.

How can that be?

It’s simple.

Look to the cross of Jesus, and the love and mercy for you that’s there.

In our parable, the rich man representing God doesn’t call the authorities, but commends the manager for being “shrewd.”

This can be confusing.

The master commends the manager for being cunning.

But it’s Jesus Himself who gives us the explanation.

Christ says, “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”

Jesus goes on to say:

“And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

What is Jesus saying?

It helps when we consider the context of this parable.

The parable immediately before this one in the Gospel of Luke

is the story of the Prodigal Son, where the younger son demands

his inheritance before his Father’s death, then goes off and wastes it on wild living.

Right after the parable of the Dishonest Manager is the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

Remember, the rich man lived in luxury all his life while Lazarus lived in poverty.

In death the rich man is sent to hell, and Lazarus is taken to Heaven.

So, here we have three parables dealing with money and its use.

That said, money itself isn’t the central point of any of these parables.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the young son learns a valuable lesson about the forgiveness and mercy of his father, who is also a symbol for God.

In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the wealthy man isn’t condemned because he was rich.

He’s condemned because he wouldn’t listen to the Word of God and love other people, and be compassionate to them.

So, let’s go back to the Dishonest Manager.

It’s true that the sons of this age, the worldly people of that time, and our own, are often more cunning in their dealings with one another than are the sons of light -- God’s people.

The dishonest manager isn’t bound by the same moral compass,

the same standard of right and wrong as a son of light.

He had no problem devising a plan to take care of himself when his master fired him.

Admittedly, it was a pretty ingenious plan.

You owe my Master 100 gallons of oil, but I’m going to give you a break.

Pay it now, and I’ll reduce the debt to a fraction of what you owe.

And there you have it! The manager just made himself a friend.

As sons and daughters of light, we understand two important things about our Master – God.

First, unlike us, He is Holy and perfect, yet also exacting.

Because He can’t lie, He can’t overlook sin.

In other words, whatever debt we owe Him must be paid in full.

But no matter how hard we work, no matter what we do to try to erase that debt, we can’t.

It’s too large.

And we’ll never be perfect enough to make amends.

Jesus was clear in His Sermon on the Mount when He said to those listening, “be perfect as your father in Heaven is perfect.”

Our master is exacting.

But, He’s also merciful and forgiving.

The landowner’s response to the dishonest manager should have included imprisonment.

It didn’t.

While God demands perfection of us, He worked out a plan of salvation that atones for our sin through the suffering and death of His innocent Son on the cross.

This is a love and mercy that can only be shown by God.

On the cross, Jesus, the steward of the unrighteous – us --managed our debts, our sins, honestly, and bore its consequences for us, even while He begged His Father, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

At the end of today’s parable, Jesus says:

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.”

Here Jesus confronts us with our limitations.

He isn’t telling us we “don’t” do a good job of serving two masters, or, that we don’t try hard enough when serving two masters.

He’s saying we can’t do it.

We’re made to serve one master only.

And so the time will come when we’ll ask ourselves the same question the Dishonest Manager asked, “What shall I do?”

We’ve sought to serve many masters, and failed.

We haven’t been faithful in all things as a manager in our master’s house -- in God’s world.

We have not loved God with our whole heart, we haven’t loved our neighbour as ourselves.

We’ve all come up short in the accounting of how we’ve used what God has given us, including our lives and the abilities we’re blessed with.

We’ve not always been generous to others in need, whether that need is financial, emotional, or spiritual.

The unrighteous wealth Christ talks of is not the wealth people get hold of by means of being unrighteous, but merely the stuff of this world.

It’s our material possessions.

It can be money, clothing, houses, or anything we might have or want.

And it’s called ‘unrighteous wealth’ here because we can’t take it with us when we leave this life, it's worldly, not spiritual wealth.

So, how do we use these things to make friends for ourselves that have the ability to welcome us into the ‘eternal dwellings’?

That’s where the difficulty lies.

Only God can do that.

We have a friend and Master, the Lord, who is giving us eternal life and salvation.

The two realities of this life, Jesus is saying, are God and money.

God is permanent, eternal.

Money, is transitory, it won’t ultimately last.

Christ is warning that money can draw our attention away from God and claim our allegiance.

We know that’s true when we look at the world around us.

Of course, we can’t live without money, but Christ is cautioning us not to live for it.

Jesus simply tells us to use the wealth of this world in a manner consistent with our faith.

The problem comes when we allow our possessions to possess us.

But like the world, we also, at times, take our eyes off God, and are distracted by the things and cares of this world.

So, what shall we do?

Like the manager of the parable, we’re too weak to right our wrongs, and perhaps, at times, even acknowledge them.

But like the manager, we can lean upon the mercy and forgiveness of God.

And because of the life, death and resurrection of His only Son, God will not punish believers as we deserve.

Instead, He’ll cover you in the perfect righteousness of His Son.

And in time, carry you to the eternal dwellings, where those who’ve found their hope in Christ, will find their home, and peace.

God will say to you: ‘take your bill, your record of sin and debt, and write zero, write forgiven, for the sake of faith in our crucified and risen Saviour, Jesus Christ.

It is Jesus alone who has paid for believers’ spiritual journey to Heaven.

Our Redeemer calls upon believers to be generous with the talents and abilities He has given us.

Wealth that was not ours, but gifts from Him.

One day we will give an accounting to God for them.

Jesus asks us to share the Gospel with a generosity of heart that stems from the riches of faith He worked in our hearts.

He asks us to help those we know of who are in need, physically and spiritually.

To demonstrate this with our time, care and love.

To witness the mercy of the Lord in our lives, to share our faith, our assurance of salvation through Christ to others.

They may repay us one day when they, in turn, are in Heaven and welcome us into God’s eternal Kingdom.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer –

Our Father who art in heaven,