"Are We Streetwise"

Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – September 22, 2013

Centenary United Methodist Church

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15; Luke 16:1-11

 

    Our lesson today contains a parable that is found only in the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus uses a unique illustration that features a story-line that has no parallel in the New Testament.  Biblical scholars have differed on the meaning that Jesus was giving to the story.   For example, why would Jesus tell a story where all the characters lacked ethics in their business practices?  

If we remain faithful to the message of this parable, the business manager who swindled his employer made a deal with those who still had an outstanding debt to his boss.  He told them that they only had to pay a portion of what they actually owed.   By deeply discounting what each owed, he made friends with all of them.  When the employer discovered what his manager had done, he praised him for being so shrewd!

Eugene Peterson’s translation from The Message is insightful:  

Now, here is a surprise!  The master praised the crooked manager! Why did he do that? Because the manager knew how to look after himself.  Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than those who obey the Laws of our ancestors.  They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits.  I want you to be as smart as they are – but for the right reasons – using every adversity to stimulate your creative instincts, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so that you will live, really live, and not just complacently get by on good-behavior.

    This morning we are going to talk about taking care of ourselves by becoming more streetwise in our living.  Jesus taught many lessons concerning the spirit by which we live.  On this occasion, Jesus placed his emphasis on the skills for living in the competitive, material world.  

    He said, “If you have not been faithful in handling wisely your worldly affairs, how can you be trusted to follow through on developing what has eternal value?”  Peterson translated this same verse, “If you are not faithful in the performance of your small jobs, no one will ever put you in charge of the store.”

    Several years ago a company experienced a major disaster in the States.  A large fire destroyed part of its corporate offices and badly damaged the larger facility where the company’s manufacturing took place.  Overnight several hundred employees found themselves without a paycheck.  Even though the building and contents were fully insured, it would take many months for the company to rebuild to the point where it could open its doors for business.

    Everyone in the community empathized with those employees.  Many families were living from paycheck to paycheck.  Not being able to pay their bills would translate into many of them possibly losing their homes and cars.  The fire impacted the entire community.  

    The owner of the company had grown quite prosperous from his business. He gathered his employees together and announced that he would continue to pay their salaries until the company could reestablish itself.  He told them that they were his extended family, and since all of them depended on the company for their livelihood, they would stick together like families do when a tragedy strikes.

    When the news reporters interviewed a number of the employees, the word angel was frequently used to describe the company’s owner.  Others said that he was a saint for being so generous.  In essence, the employees had months of vacation time at their current wage level.

    When the owner of the company was interviewed, he was humbled by the labels some employees had given to him.  He then disclosed a broader explanation for his generosity:

My decision was a mixture of good business and compassion. We have many highly trained specialists working for us.  If they located jobs elsewhere or for whatever reason left our company, we would be challenged to find new people with their level of experience that would fit into our corporate culture.  Right now, we are like the movement of a Swiss watch that has been broken.  We can put ourselves back together again in good working order if we retain all the parts.  

    Was his angel status somewhat compromised because part of his motivation was being streetwise with respect to preserving his business? This is an interesting question and it is one that Jesus addressed with the illustration we have before us this morning.  Peterson’s translation says it all.  “Now, here is a surprise.  The master praised the crooked manager.  Why did he do that?  Because the manager knew how to look after himself.  Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than those who obey the Laws of our ancestors.”

    Sometimes we question how streetwise people are today when it comes to their choices, their attitudes, their urges, their goals, and their relationships.  We have to keep in mind Jesus’ point – If we cannot take care of the little things that we have -- our financial assets, our bodies and our relationships – how will we manage the quality of our spirit the origin of which remains a mystery?    

    Throughout my career when I discussed marriage with those in their twenties and early thirties, I stressed how important it is for them to tithe their total income to themselves.  You heard correctly – to themselves.  “Investing in your future,” I said, “is like building a wall one brick at a time until you have created a financial structure that will adequately support you during the years after your salary checks stop.”

    Like the employees that worked for the fire damaged company, many people today live paycheck to paycheck.  Why is that the case?  When people are young, many of them feel that investing is something they cannot afford to do.  The truth is they cannot afford not to!  They put off saving until a day when their income is higher.   For many people that day never comes.  One of the big challenges in life is putting off the gratification of our desires until a time when we have more discretionary money.

    On Thursday of last week, the video game, Grand Theft Auto V went on sale for the first time. On the opening day, world-wide sales exceeded 800 million dollars.  Today, that figure is well over one billion!  Two days ago, lines of young people stretched for blocks waiting for Apple stores to open so they could buy the latest version of the iPhone. 

    There is nothing wrong or inappropriate about any of these activities, but when a portion of their personal money is not going into an investment vehicle regularly, they are missing the mark.  They are not being streetwise. They are deeply committed to living in the present.   

    What about our bodies that house our personalities and spirits?  With what we know today about flooding our minds daily with thoughts of gratitude, happiness and sounds of laughter, mental health could be a great gift we give to ourselves.  Worrying, fretting and growing anxious about some uncertainty never changed a single thing!  We are streetwise when we remain vigilant guardians about the quality of our thoughts and feelings.

    With what we know today about the value of daily exercise and eating sensibly, we know that with perfected surgical procedures and highly effective medications, we could conceivably live into our nineties and beyond.  It has been discovered that longevity is not a predisposition of our genetics.  Often longevity is a matter of putting into practice what we know. 

    I was sitting next to a young woman who grew up on the island.  She said to me, “When I watch the commercials from Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Outback Steak House and the endless-shrimp at Red Lobster, I would weigh 500 pounds if I lived in the States.”  She is not alone. I cannot say “no” to Portuguese doughnuts when they are right out of the frying pan and sprinkled with five days worth of sugar.  Are we being streetwise in our decision-making when it comes to the health of our bodies?

    What about the quality of our relationships?  Just as our contribution to the growth of our retirement income and the care of our bodies, so the quality of our relationships is our responsibility.  We are the ones who have the power over all our responses.  Streetwise people thoroughly understand this.

      On Friday, Tim Cook, the Chief Executive Officer of the Apple Corporation, was on the sidewalk shaking hands with strangers, thanking them for patiently waiting in the long line to buy his company’s new iPhone.   He was engaging in streetwise public relations.  He was taking care of business.  He was making himself part of the sales force.  He was giving young people a moment I doubt they will ever forget.

     Streetwise people do not expect or need anything from anyone.  Consequently, they are never disappointed.  They are never demanding.  They do not become angry when others do not measure up to their standards.  Why?  They have no expectations.  They only know one thing – “I am in charge of only one person in this world and that person is me!”  Streetwise people have these skills and thus escape the traps most us fall into during the course of an average day.

    Once a clerk in a department store told me, “The first thing I do when I come to work is to find a customer or colleague that has the potential to ruin my day.”  I responded, “You look for these people?” She said, “Yes, because my patience and my people-skills need constant practice-time.  I try never to personalize the words and attitudes of other people.” She was very streetwise.  I never forgot her words. 

    Judging other people is a common trap all of us fall into at one time or another!  Our judgments do not define anyone but ourselves.  Our judgments are the greatest source of our unhappiness.  Think about it.  Responses filled with venom that may be perfectly justified poison only the one who cannot let go of what they have allowed to hurt them.  Those who are Streetwise realize that what comes out of people is always up to them.  Our private thoughts about others are not capable of changing who they are.  Such change is always an individual choice.    

    Jesus was streetwise when he taught a way to avoid this common trap.  He said, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to remove the speck from someone else’s eye.”  (Matthew 7:5)   Will we be able to love anyone unconditionally if we can not love ourselves enough to practice the Golden Rule?  (Matthew 7:12)

    Jesus said, “If you have not been faithful in handling wisely your worldly affairs, how can you be trusted to follow through on developing what has eternal value?”  Thursday night, I was standing on our patio looking at the full moon.  Against the expansiveness of the universe,   think about how little we have been given to manage.  It is like Peterson said in his translation, “If you are not faithful in your small jobs, no one will ever put you in charge of the store.”     

    The issues that evoke our hostile responses can eclipse our accomplishments, our values, the love we have experienced with others, the adventures we have enjoyed, our sense of humor and our awareness of God’s presence and love.  Nothing is worth holding on to if it means clearing our stage of all the things that have made our lives worth living. We know all of these things, but are we streetwise enough to them to use?  Today is always the first day of the rest of your lives.  It is never too late to get started on becoming more streetwise.