Money and the Freedom of Jesus – Br. Keith Nelson

SSJE Sermons

Luke 16:9-15

This lectionary excerpt begins with the tail-end of a parable unique to Luke that is fairly universally acknowledged to be one of his most baffling parables, called the parable of the dishonest manager. It’s one of those passages that makes a preacher pray: “Oh, Jesus…what do you mean here?” What follows is a series of short teachings strung together that further elucidate Jesus’ teachings on our relationship with money – already, of course, an intrinsically challenging subject for many.

The point seems to be that money – of all the things human culture deems necessary – most easily becomes dishonest or unrighteous if its use is not channeled and directed by our ultimate allegiance to God, to whom all things belong. This spiritual allegiance relativizes the value of money, knocking it from its pedestal as a would-be master over us.

Jesus calls us into a perspective which offers freedom. When we have access to plenty, this is the freedom to be generous for the sake of good. When we have access to less, this is freedom from incapacitating worry.

At the same time, Jesus calls us into active engagement on both a personal and systemic level so that there are none who do not have enough. For those who have much, Luke’s gospel in particular encourages a periodic and searching question: Do I have too much?

As brothers bound by a vow of religious poverty, all the money to which we have access comes from others. None of us earn a wage within this country’s economic system; we are dependent on many who do. We are sustained because the work we do – and most days we work pretty hard – is deemed valuable by other followers of Jesus who earn a living by trading their time and talent for money. When Jesus asks: “If you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?,” there is a double meaning I cannot avoid. Because the resources that sustain us are all gifts, they do not belong to me. And because all things belong to God, they do not belong to me. This is doubly sobering when I consider our vow, and my own degree of faithfulness or unfaithfulness in small things.

As the newly elected Superior of this community, I have more regular, immediate need to think about circles of giving and receiving in the course of each day, and more regular contact with generous individuals who sustain our life and ministry. One married couple who regularly support us embody for me the spirit of freedom to which Jesus calls us. Before I became a brother, I was a guest at their wedding about twelve years ago. After the toasts at the reception, each guest received a small card with the name of three charitable organizations. As a gift to each of us, we were invited to circle one of these charities, to which they would make a significant gift on our behalf. The whole room was palpably touched by this offering. As we were participants in a joy that was about them on their wedding day, they invited us, by their generosity, to become participants in a joy that was about others. This magnified the outward ripple of joy in relationship a hundredfold.

I call that experience to heart each time I am tempted to claim a resource as my own. Today you might also ask yourself: How free am I from the would-be mastery of wealth? And how might I use what I have to foster relationships that will endure?