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Sunday, September 19, 2004

Sermon: “The Cheating Culture Gone Mainstream”

Scripture: Luke 16:1-13

Reverend Larry Gerber

We live in a cheating culture, one that encourages us to focus on earthly wealth, short-term profits and worldly commissions. So what are we to make of the parable of the dishonest manager which seems to endorse some rather devious dealings?

Thou shalt commit adultery.

Repeat: Thou shalt commit adultery. That’s what the Bible says. You can look it up.

Of course, you’d have to look it up in the King James Version of 1631, in which the word “not” was accidentally omitted. This typo so infuriated King Charles that he commanded that all copies be destroyed, and he fined every printer who had anything to do with the scandalous edition.

Because of the loss of a word, this version became known as “The Wicked Bible.”

Unfortunately, it appears that more and more people today are leaving the “nots” out of their Ten Commandments. Either that, or they are simply ignoring them. Commandment number nine seems to be suffering the worst in our contemporary culture: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16, KJV). This commandment demands that the truth be told, especially in a court of law, and it forbids anyone to tell a lie in order to gain an advantage over a neighbor. In the world of the Bible, justice can be done only if reality is not distorted by the telling of lies.

This seems like an increasingly quaint notion, especially in a society that often behaves like a Liars’ Club. In his book The Cheating Culture, author David Callahan argues that cheating is no longer limited to the secretive, shady society of criminals, hucksters and other low-life characters. Now, he says, everyone is doing it — and because everyone sees everyone else doing it, they keep on doing it.

We are in an election year. We cringe at the charges that are made from those running for any office, but especially those running for the Oval Office. Lies are abundant, and acceptable ways of life. Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t I?

Is this an overstatement? Perhaps. But consider the case assembled by Callahan. He says that the trouble begins in our brutally competitive economic climate which rewards bottom-line results and often allows winners to get away with ethical and criminal transgressions. Honesty might be a nice ideal, but it isn’t always true that honest folks come out on top. Callahan argues that cheaters cheat because cheating can help a person to get ahead, especially as the chances of being caught continue to shrink, along with the severity of the punishments that are meted out to offenders who get caught. For many people, the benefits of a successful cheat far outweigh any potential punishment.

An example: The lies and life of politics aside: On some of our freeways ways, there are a number of express lanes reserved for carpoolers, and these lanes cut a great deal of time off a person’s daily commute. Solo drivers are prohibited from these lanes, and they face a stiff fine if they are caught. But many people cheat the system every day, figuring that an occasional fine is simply the cost of doing business, or “I won’t get caught”. Many of these solo drivers have no problem being in the Liar’s Club, as long as they reach their destination ahead of the competition, or just because they feel that they are above the law.

The bottom line for Callahan is that upright folks are being drawn into cheating — drawn by the fear that they won’t be able to make it in modern society otherwise. “Thou shalt not drive solo in the carpool lane” is being twisted by our brutally competitive climate into a wicked new commandment: “Thou shalt drive solo ... or else.”

In light of all this cheating, what’s the message of the parable of the dishonest manager? At first glance, it seems to be an invitation to join the Liar’s Club and “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth” (Luke 16:9). But a deeper examination reveals that this story is more about heavenly riches than it is about earthly wealth. Its focus is on preparing for the next world, not getting ahead in this one.

From the start of the story, we know that the dishonest manager is a card-carrying member of the cheating culture — he is charged with squandering the property of his rich boss, and is immediately given his two-weeks’ notice. “You’re fired!” he bellows, sounding like a first-century Donald Trump.

“What will I do,” the shady steward says to himself, “now that my master is taking the position away from me?” (v.3). He knows that he is not strong enough for manual labor, and he is ashamed to sit in the street with a beggar’s cup.

So he comes up with a plan. In order to guarantee that he will have a safe place to land in the homes of his former clients, he summons the master’s debtors and gives them some wonderfully deep discounts. To the one who owes 100 jugs of olive oil, the manager says that the debt is now just 50. To the one who is in debt for 100 containers of wheat, the manager announces, “You’re in luck — your bill is now 80!”

This sounds pretty slippery, doesn’t it? On the surface, it appears to be unethical, and maybe even criminal. Unfortunately for us, biblical scholars are unclear about the precise nature of these transactions, and so they suggest a couple of possibilities.

According to the first option, the manager is a crook, plain and simple, a man who dishonestly falsifies the records in order to gain the affection of the debtors. In this case, he is cheating his master by reducing the size of the debts, and he is running the risk of being thrown in the slammer for stealing.

The problem with this interpretation is that it makes the master’s reaction sound rather odd. The parable tells us that the rich man commends — yes, commends — the dishonest manager because he has acted shrewdly, but this is an unlikely response from a rich man who has just lost 50 jugs of olive oil and 20 containers of wheat. While we might not expect the rich man to press charges, we certainly don’t expect him to offer a commendation.

There’s a second option, one that sees the manager as a shrewd businessman, one who is willing to sacrifice short-term earnings for long-term security. In this interpretation, the manager simply cuts his own commission out of the amount that the debtors owe. The 100 jugs of olive oil can be broken down into 50 for the master, and 50 for the manager, and in the same way, the 100 containers of wheat can be itemized as 80 for the master and 20 for the manager. When the manager calls the debtors to settle their accounts, he simply eliminates his own commission, knowing that he will benefit in the long term from having a place to stay once he is out of work.

In this case, he’s not a liar. He is simply taking the long view.

This second interpretation helps us to make sense of the master’s reaction. Here the rich man commends the manager for acting shrewdly, because he knows that there are times in which it is beneficial to resist the lure of a quick buck and make a long-term investment. On top of this, the rich man knows that he hasn’t lost anything himself — he’ll still get the olive oil and the wheat that the debtors owe him. What does he care if his former employee takes his commissions with him or not?

The point of the parable is this, according to Jesus: “No slave can serve two masters.” So Jesus here is talking about commitment. You cannot maintain a dual focus on short-term profits and long-term security. You have to pick one or the other, and give it your undivided attention. As is true in the story of the dishonest manager, there are times in which we have to sacrifice the commissions of this world so that we’ll have the eternal comforts of God’s world. Laying out our choice in a crystal-clear contrast, Jesus concludes today’s passage by saying, “You cannot serve God and wealth” (v. 13).

Problem is, our cheating culture encourages us to focus on earthly wealth, short-term profits and worldly commissions. It tempts us to cut corners in pursuit of financial success, and pushes us to twist the truth in order to beat the competition. Today’s Scripture challenges us to resist this temptation, to focus on a higher calling, and to be willing to sacrifice some of our earthly commissions in order to gain heavenly wealth. The passage is a call for us to practice Christian stewardship, and make sacrificial gifts in support of God’s work in the world. When we do this, we are following the example of the steward in the parable, a person who shrewdly trades short-term profits for long-term security.

Let us pray

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766