Cutting a Deal
Luke 16:1-13
Click here for the video: Cutting a Deal
This past week big business made the news. General Motors workers went out on strike. Drone strikes took out part of an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Purdue Pharma, maker of the powerful opioid OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy. The FDA warned of carcinogens in generic Zantac. Several governmental agencies announced efforts to ban flavored E-cigarettes. And all this flurry of activity reminded me of the many years I taught business ethics at CNM.
I learned a lot from teaching those courses. Every year I invited a representative from the Better Business Bureau to speak to my class. The BBB was founded formally in 1912 to combat false advertising, especially about worthless drugs and wonder cures, etc. The president of Coca Cola at the time Samuel Dobbs realized that if no one believed their advertising, then his soda sales would plummet. So he called on business leaders all over the country to adopt what he called the “Ten Commandments of Advertising.” He hoped that corporations would police themselves and adhere to “truth in advertising”. All these efforts were, of course, a form of enlightened self-interest.
While teaching at CNM I formulated what I consider the first commandment of business ethics. Here it is: “Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t cheat…unless of course big money is involved.” I got the idea from a local small business owner who told me this story. Whenever he employed new cash register clerks, he told them the following: “I am not worried about the coin tray. But I am worried about the dollar tray.” Meaning, if you take a few coins no big deal. But if you take the green stuff, the bills, now that’s a problem. Thus, my first rule. Business ethics is easy if small change is involved. Business ethics is very difficult if big money is involved. Like millions of dollars from opioids or mint flavored E-cigarettes. When real money is at stake, the ethics tend to become a little fuzzy. Have you noticed?
Now before we become too judgmental here, let me remind you that we Americans have always had a soft spot in our hearts for clever rascals. Maybe it’s because so many of the first American settlers here to the “wild west” had a price on their heads “back east”. We have a long history of applauding artful dodgers who are just one step ahead of the law. Our literature and our movies are filled with fast talking charlatans. Once Mark Twain applauded an opportunistic hustler who “traded rats for diamonds in times of famine.” Older movies like “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” and newer movies like “Catch Me if You Can” and the popular trilogy “Oceans 11, 12, and 13” shows that we are attracted to lovable rogues. Perhaps the greatest of this genre is “The Music Man” about the fast talking con artist Professor Harold Hill who comes to River City, Iowa, for a fast buck. Now a guy who wants to help the young people play in a band can’t be all bad-can he?
It seems that even Jesus finds something charming about a clever rogue who used his wits to secure his future. Jesus tells a parable about a foreman on a farm who had squandered his master’s wealth by mismanagement. When the owner got wind of his negligence, he demanded an accounting. So this foreman realizes that his game is up and he is up the creek without a paddle. He knows he is too weak for manual labor and too proud to beg. So in a moment of inspiration he dreams up the first scheme for unemployment insurance.
This is what he does. He summons the share croppers who owed his master produce. The first owed one hundred jugs of olive oil. The foreman cuts a deal by reducing his debt by 50%. Then the foreman contacts the man who owed his master a hundred bushels of wheat. This time he reduces his debt by 20%. By cutting these sweet heart deals, the foreman kills several birds with one stone. He hopes that these hefty discounts will be remembered when he is out of a job. You know, future considerations and all that. By giving these debtors a break, he hoped they would give him a break down the line. That’s called thinking on your feet.
Now when the owner found out about these sweet heart deals, he does not accuse him of theft per se. Instead, the owner actually commended the quick wit of his foreman facing a pink slip. He simply noted that the foreman “acted shrewdly”. Later when the Roman Emperor Julian read this parable, he said it proved that Jesus was a “mere man and hardly a worthy man.” Why would Jesus also commend this foreman by noting, “For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light”?
What is Jesus trying to say to us? First, I think Jesus is saying that wisdom can be gained from all sorts of people, from the great saints to the conniving scoundrels. We can learn from the good, the bad, and the indifferent, if we have a teachable spirit. When I graduated from seminary and took my first pastoral position, I had a great teacher-a senior pastor who taught me how NOT to act in almost every situation. Whenever I have been in doubt about what to do in the ministry, I think about what he would do and I try to do the opposite!
Second, I think Jesus is saying something about the nature of Christian wisdom. What does it mean to have the mind of Christ? That means we know we face a daily summons to put Christ first in our lives. That puts us in a crisis situation, a need to make a decision. What will I do? What will I say? What will I sacrifice and what will I take on? The foreman facing a pink slip has this going for him-he realizes his future is at stake so he acts shrewdly. When the call of Christ beckons us, our future is at stake. Sometimes the children of this age are wiser about the crisis facing them than we are, the children of light. The children of this age have money to motivate them. The children of light have the call of Christ to motivate us.
Another thing about Christian wisdom is this: it sees beneath the surface of things. Jesus was able to penetrate into the hearts of other people, seeing their real motives, their fears, their longings. Paul would later call this kind of Christian wisdom “discernment”, or “discerning the times”. Beneath the surface, what is the truth? What do people really mean and what do they actually intend? That is what Christian wisdom seeks to understand. Penetrating into the heart of things, like Solomon discerning the difference between the true mother of the disputed child and the fake one.
James 1:5 suggests that authentic Christian wisdom is ours for the asking: “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given you.” Have you ever really prayed for God’s wisdom? To have real discernment and insight, that is a gift we all need, a gift of God’s Spirit. Just ask any parent who has raised children! Just ask anyone facing a hard decision. A heart of wisdom is what we need, knowing truth from deception, detecting at times our own self-deceptions.
Maybe we can hear echoes of Jesus warning his followers: “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves” (Matt. 10:16). In a world of wolves, you will be like sheep, vulnerable to predators. But do be wise as serpents, even as you are gentle as doves. Lots of animal talk here, but what does it all mean for us? This is a call for a kind of Christian savvy. Christian savvy means we are not easily fooled, yet we remain committed to graciousness and kindness in the face of human failings.
Remember the “Music Man”? The town librarian Marian Paroo is the only trained musician in town, a piano teacher for the children. As soon as Professor Harold Hill comes storming into River City she smells a rat. She is the cool headed realist about this would-be band director. But her little brother Winthrop is taken with this big personality who wants to start a marching band, so she is willing to cut Professor Hill a little slack. When she discovers in the Indiana State Educational Journal that Harold Hill is in fact a well-known con man, she has a come to Jesus meeting with him. But then as musicals go, they realize that they have authentic feelings for one another and thus the lovely song “Till There Was You.”
But wouldn’t you know it, right then the sheriff gets wind that Harold Hill really is a con man, however lovable, and leads him away in handcuffs. But Marian, the one in the know, defends Professor Harold Hill to the angry River City residents. And then right on cue, the young people march in with their new band uniforms and instruments playing “Seventy-Six Trombones”. And so Harold is released into Marian’s arms and all is well in River City. Marian, the cool headed realist, forgives and embraces even the old con man and changes him into an honest man. Now that’s the way it ends in the movies. But isn’t that the way we hope it ends when we are “wise as serpents, yet gentle as doves”? Transformed and changed by those who know deeply yet love generously.
Friends in Christ, this is our calling: to be clear eyed about ourselves and the world and yet be generous and gracious-even as Christ our Lord is full of grace and truth. Be wise as serpents, yet gentle as doves. Grant us wisdom, O Lord. And grant us generosity of spirit. May it be so. Amen.