This month, we’ve managed an extended consideration of how we as Christians are challenged to live faithfully in a culture that exalts material wealth and excess. I called this message series “Contentment: Living with Enough in a Get-More World” – with the awareness that it is very, very difficult (even for those of us who follow Jesus!) not to buy into “the consumerist gospel” that more is never enough. Early on in our journey, some of you may recall that we considered a familiar parable – a favorite of many folks here. We observed that its name, The Prodigal Son, does not in fact mean “one who wanders away and comes back,” but actually means the spendthrift son who was careless with money. Again, when Jesus wanted to tell a story that fundamentally has to do with taking the abundant goodness that God the Father wants to give us and trading it away for lesser things, he didn’t tell us about someone who was lecherous or corrupt or even greedy. He told us about a man who simply wanted it all now, who chose to grab what he saw as his, and to lavish it on – who else? - himself. And what, in our day and time, could be wrong with that?

Today, as we conclude our reflection on this topic, we focus our lens for a moment on nobody’s favorite parable: that of The Unjust Steward. Luke says that when Jesus told this tale to his disciples, he was also within earshot of his opponents from the wealthy Pharisee class. It went a little something like this: once upon a time, a rich man got word that his trusted senior manager was carelessly wasting his resources. So he called the fellow on the carpet, dressed him down and demanded he deliver uncooked books for a detailed audit. With that, he told the man he was being fired for mismanagement and sent him out.

Now up to this point, we imagine that Jesus has noticed heads shaking. “What’s the world coming to these days,” people were thinking. The story seemed to reflect the world as they knew it, and they had no reason to believe that Jesus – in the characteristic way of his parables – was about to spring a trap on them.

“Now the manager,” our Lord went on, “a slippery little weasel, sat for a while with his head in his hands, considering that he was way too soft to do contracting, and even in disgrace too proud to panhandle. So he showed some real chutzpah: he called in the A-list clients who owed debts to his master…and he low-balled their account balances, so that just maybe, when he was out on the street with no job, they’d remember how he took care of them.”

Those listening to Jesus’ story now gasped. Where was he going with this? For an offense like that, the steward should be severely beaten. In the crowd, a few eyes, probably those of the well-heeled Pharisees, glittered with resentment. They waited, they all waited, for Jesus to end his parable with righteous punishment, along the lines of that old brimstone sermon that we still hear even in our day: “crooked people will get what’s coming to them when God’s justice rains down upon the earth! Just you wait!” But Jesus continued in this way: “Now when the master of the house found out what the steward was doing, he called him back in…and he laughed, clapped the man on the back, and said, ‘Friend, I’ve got to hand it to you. That’s the shrewdest move I’ve ever seen a fellow make. Nicely done!’” And every jaw in the house dropped wide open.

Only then, when he had the attention of all, when you could hear a pin drop, Jesus said in that calm, unsettling voice of his: “Isn’t it something how clever a worldly rascal can be in using money to secure his place in the future? I wonder why those who love and put their trust in my Father aren’t just as clever with how they use their money, when they consider the future? After all, they must know they won’t get to keep it. But that’s the thing about money – it shows a person’s true character like no other thing in this world. I have found that people who are faithful in the little things of life are also faithful in the big things, the important things; and people who are not faithful in dealing with small details, like managing the little bit of wealth they have, are just not very faithful with the big picture, either. And you know, if you haven’t been faithful in managing what wasn’t yours to begin with, why would you expect my Father to give you an inheritance of your own when the Kingdom comes?” In that room, his words hung in the air like a suspended knife, the rough-handed fishermen and stoneworkers holding their breath, looking out of the corner of their eyes at the men in their fine linen robes, their faces slack with shock that was fast becoming outrage.

Then Jesus dropped it: “In my experience, it’s as simple as this: you either give God ‘first place’ in your life, or you give that spot to money and all it can buy. You just can’t have it both ways.” Thus he finished. And the Pharisees attacked him with ridicule and venom.

So Jesus brought the story back to money, something he did really often. Of his 38 recorded parables, about one half deal with some aspect of money management. By one count, one out of every six verses in the Gospels deals with taxes, wealth, property and the like. This implies that Jesus spoke about the use of money more often than he spoke about forgiveness or even love. He spoke about wealth and possessions five times as often as he spoke about prayer. Why would he do that? Why would an essentially penniless carpenter from Nazareth, who never went to business school, be so interested in how we use money? And how much should we trust him about it? I mean, he’s no Suze Randall.

He’s on target here, I think, because he is reminding us that we are appointed by God to be stewards. Not slippery, careless stewards like the man in his story – but faithful stewards, whom the Master could be proud of on his return, finding his household well-managed and its resources well-used. I realize that we in the church have probably ruined the word “stewardship,” since we’ve somehow managed to associate it with a “fall campaign” that nobody really looks forward to – not even preachers. But God forgive us, that’s just terrible. Because generosity with money, offerings to God, tithing, are not at all the full expression of what it is to be a steward. Land sakes, I bet most of those Pharisees who got so burnt about Jesus’ story were tithers, themselves. They’d figured out how to make this whole God-thing work for them, and no doubt there are still some today who could risk doing the same.

We don’t want to make God work for us, to find contentment! We want to make money work for us, for the sake of God’s Kingdom, God’s Will done on earth. That’s where our contentment lies. So let’s reclaim the job title steward as “one entrusted with the affairs of the entire household: provisions, maintenance, livestock, personnel.” Stewards had great responsibility and they lived well, just because they got to enjoy the Master’s abundance. Walking the Master’s gardens, sampling his vineyards, enjoying meals at the Master’s table with all the other faithful servants – that’s the life of the faithful steward. Stewards don’t own any of it! In fact, they know that when the Master returns, they have to account for every transaction, every dollar invested. But faithful stewards don’t fear that accounting, because unlike the rascal in Jesus’ parable, they know whose largesse they are living on. Living abundantly on somebody else’s generosity is a great life! That’s our life in Christ. That is stewardship.

So, at the end, here’s a simple truth you won’t hear on cable news. The real money crisis confronting our society today isn't to be found in the housing market, or to be attributed to the boundless avarice of Wall Street, or tied up in the up-spiraling costs of college or health care. The real crisis is found in the human heart, in the one place stewardship is possible – where the wisdom to see what we have, what we give, and what we hold on to, all belong to God.

Of course, we can go along with the mass forgetfulness that afflicts our society. But at least we have a choice: we can become a people who remember Who has provided for us this unprecedented abundance in human history. If the practice or the goal of tithing helps you to welcome God’s love and respond to it, as I believe it does, then in Heaven’s name, yes – tithe! But hold to the greater goal, the real prize: hear Jesus saying to us: if you have a home, is it precious to you, as one who has shelter in a world full of wanderers with only the sky for their roof, of children who know only the tent of the refugee camp? If you ate this morning, did you do so with a grateful awareness that every bite came from the earth that has been entrusted to you by the One who made it? And when today you spend a dollar, will you pause to wonder how my Father shares his abundance, a small token of the far greater wealth intended for those who invest in his Kingdom first, most and best?

You know, we think we come to Church to worship the Almighty. But we’d probably do better to recognize that our lives are the worship service. This is only the rehearsal. Here we remember that Jesus Christ went into the red for our sake and paid our debt in full, so that we can go out there and put into practice what truly living looks like. That’s God’s Plan for our contentment, friends – that’s what God is doing. Now, what are we going to do about it?

Let us pray.

Lord, Jesus, we need your help on this one. We live in anxious times. We have a lot of stuff, too much, really, and it has yet to give us a sense of profound security and peace. We’ve noticed that there are those with more, and those with less than we have, who’ve somehow managed to claim generosity as a gift from You. Help us to consider the needs of those with far less than we, or even to learn to love them as we love ourselves. Help us to invest in your Kingdom, the greatest retirement account of all, that we might become better friends in the present age, and more joyful companions for You in the age that is to come. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Postscript: a word about tradecraft. I have rather shamelessly ripped-off most of the themes of this sermon series from the Rev. John Wesley, specifically his Sermon No. 50, “On the Use of Money.” If you enjoyed it, or if by now you want to read something much better, try this link: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/50/