The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C

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UNJUSTLY JUSTIFIED

Luke 16:1-13
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Analysis by Chris Neumann

1Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
10“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

“More people will get to see and hear how good this company of saints and angels is, what with the forgiving approach to productivity and the terrific benefit program, which guarantees each and every person retires in unparalleled style.”

DIAGNOSIS: In need of a performance improvement plan

Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Meeting the quota
The CEO set the bar himself. Despite plenty of evidence from time studies and number crunching that projected guaranteed failure across the board, he went ahead and settled on the rigid standards. One hundred jugs of oil from that team. One hundred containers of wheat from those folks. This of course in addition to loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, not stealing even a half hours’ worth of pay with poor effort on the clock, and speaking kindly of absolutely everyone. And oh yeah, it all needs to be done while not trampling the Sabbath. Can you believe that doesn’t even cover the entire employee handbook?

Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem): Coming up short
Neither the quantity nor quality of the training available has been effective in getting the staff to produce at the demanded rates. Sure, some days are better than others but even the output on the good days is woefully insufficient for the company to be functioning up to the degree the CEO had originally envisioned. Meanwhile, chatter around the employee lunch table ranges from discouraged to foolishly determined to hopeless.

Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem): Corrective counseling
Regardless, the CEO remains consistent. He has resolved to stand firm on the lofty benchmarks in place. Given the circumstances, he has no choice but to implement an organization wide corrective counseling program. Albeit for varying lengths of time and only for a while, everyone gets an equal opportunity to hit the unchanging mark before someone else comes along to take your place. Unfortunately, this strategy has yet to yield results. The company has yet to find anyone up to the task and is constantly churning through bodies.

PROGNOSIS: God who is faithful and (un)just will forgive us our shortcomings

Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution): Fudging our numbers
In steps the manager, who by all accounts probably grew up a good friend of the Prodigal Son’s father (cf. Luke 15) and might just be a graduate from the same business school as the vineyard owner in Matthew’s gospel (cf. Matthew 20 & 21). Seemingly at odds with his boss, you’d expect him to tighten the screws a bit and get back on the corporate good side. What you get instead can only be seen as utter mismanagement, toting the line between recklessly insubordinate and blatantly scandalous. The manager has the nerve to deliberately make it easier for the employees to accommodate the head honcho.

Look folks, you’re never going to get the job done. Stop worrying about hitting the mark. Just give me what you can. You can produce half? Done. Eighty percent from you? Deal. That is more than enough from both of you. Thank you very much. I’ll take it from here. My job is to go smooth things over with the big guy. Trust me. Wink.

Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): Adjusted expectations
By assuming accountability and laying it all on the line (literally, cross-ways) for the sake of those unable to meet their obligations, this unjust manager is setting the stage for all hell to break loose. No way the CEO goes for this nonsense, right? Wrong! In fact, this one is all in on the idea, congratulating the manager for his savvy with the backdoor agreement and more or less anointing him as employee of the month right on the spot.

That huge sigh of relief you just heard came from the collective group of employees, the debtors who would never have been able to scrape up what is owed. The message moving forward is now clear: you get to trust me, even as you keep producing to the extent you’re able (or unable) and I’ll fill in the gaps with upper management on your behalf. What a tremendous reprieve and morale booster for the lower levels!

Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution): Companywide profit-sharing plan
You would think applications to work under this management team would be at an all-time high, but perhaps most people are only hearing about the unbearably strict standards – even sometimes from the moralistic preachy managers of the flock who should know better. It’s time for us to get to work, all the while thanking God that he will take whatever we muster up and happily put his Spirit to work with it. More people will get to see and hear how good this company of saints and angels is, what with the forgiving approach to productivity and the terrific benefit program, which guarantees each and every person retires in unparalleled style.