The Unrighteous Steward

Preached by Michael Cheuk
September 23, 2007, Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
Luke 16:1-13

This parable has been named various ways: the dishonest manager, the unjust steward, the unrighteous steward. But no matter what you name it, this is one bizarre parable told by Jesus. It is about a rich man who discovered that his manager or steward was squandering his possessions. So the rich man called his steward into his office, and told him that judgment had arrived. The steward was fired, but before he turned in his keys, he had a little time to show his master the ledger books and give an accounting of how he spent the master’s money. While he was waiting to do this final accounting, the steward thought to himself, “What am I going to do? I’m going to be out of a job, with no place to live, and I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m too proud to beg.” So this steward cooked up a plan by cooking the books for the people who owed his master money. Why did he do that? Presumably to curry favor with the people who were indebted to the rich man, so that, once he was out in the street, those people might think well of his master and him, and will give him a place to stay. So he eagerly went to the first of his master’s debtors and asked: “How much do you owe my master?” “Eight hundred gallons of olive oil” was the reply. “Quick, get your bill and cut it in half,” replied the steward, as he jotted down those same false figures in his master’s account book. For another debtor, the unrighteous steward reduced his bill from a thousand bushels of wheat to eight hundred.

I don’t know about you, but when I get to this point in the parable, I’m thinking, “Boy, what is this guy doing? He’s already been fired for wasting his master’s money, and now, he is manipulating the accounting books so that he’s squandering more of his master’s money! He’s digging himself deeper into a hole! Wait until his master finds out about this! This unrighteous steward is not only getting himself fired; he’s getting himself jailed!”

A Lost and Found Party

Preached by Michael Cheuk
September 16, 2007, Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Luke 15:1-10

Lost and Found.  We’ve all experienced losing and finding things in our lives.  Yes?  Allow me to do a little audience participation exercise this morning.  I’m going to give some scenarios that my family has faced or that I’ve heard about, and you raise your hand if you’ve ever experienced something similar.  OK?

• You’re about to leave the house for an appointment, but you can’t find your purse or your car keys.
• Your child has a soccer game in 10 minutes, but he has lost his socks and shin guards.
• You can’t find the remote control to your TV.
• You can’t find your reading glasses.

For those of you who have experienced something similar, how did you feel when you lost those things?     How did you feel when you found those things?

Since we’ve all lost and found things, I think that’s why our Gospel Lesson on the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin are some of the most well-known and famous parables of Jesus.  We all know what it is like to lose something.  And we all know what it feels like to finally find it again.  And anyone who has been to church has surely heard at least one sermon about the shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep in order to rescue the one lost sheep, and about the woman who lost one of her ten silver coins and dropped everything in order to clean her house so that she could recover her lost coin.  Preachers through the ages have encouraged and challenged congregations to be like the faithful shepherd and the persistent woman to seek out and find the lost.  We are reminded that there are many people who are lost and do not know the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the church is a search and rescue team that finds these people, leads them to Christ, and brings them back into the safety of God’s fold.  And through these efforts, we get beautiful hymns like “Amazing Grace,” in which John Newton, the author of that hymn writes, “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”  What a joyous picture this is!  Well, this morning, I want us to revisit these two familiar parables, in order to be reminded of some enduring truths, but also, I hope, to gain some fresh insights.

Jesus begins the parable of the lost sheep by asking: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”  Well, there aren’t too many shepherds in our culture today, so perhaps I can update Jesus’ question to fit our contemporary situation.  “Suppose one of you has a hundred students in your class, but one of them is failing.  Do you not leave the ninety-nine to learn for themselves while you go after the failing student by spending all your time tutoring him in class and at home?”  What do you think?  Any hands?  “Suppose you have a hundred clients, and all but one are ready to buy a product from you right now.  Do you not leave the ninety-nine buyers and go after the one reluctant client, wining and dining her until you’ve won her over?  What do you think?  Any hands?  Forget the adults for a moment.  Maybe the kids will help me.  Kids, what if you have one hundred Pokémon or baseball cards and you take them outside to play by yourself, and the wind blows one of them away.  Do you not leave the ninety-nine cards on the picnic table in the wind and go after the one that is flying away?   When I asked Wesley this question, he said, he would hold on to his pack of cards, and then chase after the one blowing away.

Don’t you see?  Even though we’ve heard this parable so many times, and we often think, “Oh yes, of course, I’ll leave the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one,” but when we actually put ourselves in a similar contemporary situation, we find it much more difficult to follow in the example of that shepherd. 

The Cost of Discipleship

Preached by Michael Cheuk
September 9, 2007, Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Luke 14:25-33

Most of us have heard of Dale Carnegie’s famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, written in 1936. In that book, Carnegie offered pointers on how to handle people, how to make people like you, how to make people agree with you. As I studied this morning’s Gospel lesson, I couldn’t help but think that Jesus could have taken a few pointers from Carnegie’s book. Jesus was in the midst of his earthly ministry and he was developing quite a following. People came from all over to hear this young rabbi. Luke wrote that large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and you don’t argue with the numbers. But all of a sudden, in the midst of the adoring crowd, Jesus came up with some sayings guaranteed not to win friends and influence people. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters– yes, even his own life– he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

For those of us who like to emphasize the welcoming, warm, fuzzy side of Jesus, these words present a major challenge. In fact, for many of us, these words are offensive, and they are a source of embarrassment. It reminds me of some of the things that televangelists have said in reaction to events like 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. As I was preparing for this message, I called out to Beth to see if she could tell me some of the whacko things that crazy preachers have said over the years. And my daughter Thea, who was in the room, replied with an impish smile: “You’re the crazy preacher in our family, why don’t you tell us?”

Well . . . moving right along then. . . as I was saying, Jesus’ words here were challenging, if not downright offensive.

Preaching from the book of Hebrews

Last Tuesday, Dr. Ben Witherington wrote an excellent post on The Relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament According to John Chrysostom on his blog. I just had a chance to read it today, and a paragraph of his post jumped out at me:

Chrysostom is putting his finger on some important Christian guidelines for properly reading the OT, namely that it must be seen in the light of its sequel, but it must not be confused with that sequel. The OT is not the NT in advance and the conditions, terms of discussion, theological rubrics and ethical categories are all preparatory, sketchy so to speak, not final, full, or completely revealing. The ’shadows’ or ’sketches’ are true as far as they go, but they must not be confused with the full bodied portraits of Christ, the Christian life, the nature of reality, the ultimate and full character of what God demands of those saved by grace and so on.

As I preached from the assigned Revised Common Lectionary texts taken from the book of Hebrews these past four weeks, I have tried to communicate the very point made by Witherington (and Chrysostom) . (Whether I’m successful or not, you’ll have to decide!) The “heroes” of the faith so famously highlighted in Hebrews 11, the allusions to Moses and Mount Sinai in Hebrews 12, and indeed, our earthly existence, all find their fulfillment and completion in the person of Jesus Christ.

I’m grateful for folks like Dr. Witherington who bring to our attention the wisdom of the Church Fathers in order to help us “think on these things” so that we pastors may have a greater theological depth in our ministry of the Word.

Being the Church

Preached by Michael Cheuk
September 2, 2007, Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16

For the past three weeks, I’ve been preaching from the book of Hebrews, a book that was written to a group of first-generation Jesus followers who were being imprisoned and mistreated for their faith.   We examined the meaning of faith as trusting God with our lives even though we can’t clearly see what the future holds.  We learned that a life of faith is a marathon in which Jesus goes before us to be our finish line.  Last Sunday, we were reminded that though the world that we live in has a shaky existence, ours is an unshakeable kingdom for those who trust in Christ.

This morning, we come toward the end of the book of Hebrews, in which the writer offers final words of advice and exhortation.  As I read those words, it reminded me of a mother sending off a child to college for the first time, and as she drives off from the dorm, she shouts back and rattles off reminders: “Remember to eat healthily!  Go buy your books now!  Get eight hours of sleep! Don’t forget to write!  And oh yes, wear clean underwear every day!”  As a child, I got sick and tired of my mom telling me those kinds of reminders again and again.  Well, it seems to me that in this passage, the writer of Hebrews is rattling off exhortations that many of us are sick and tired of hearing about.  Love each other and welcome in strangers and prisoners?  How many times do I have to hear another sermon on hospitality?  Sexual immorality and adultery?  Why do preachers always have to meddle in people’s sex lives?  Keep your lives free from the love of money?  Is this going to be another sermon about money, again?  Now, if you’re not tired of hearing about those things, congratulations!  But if you are tired of hearing about those things, well, I’m sorry, because you’re going to hear about them again this morning!

It seems to me that the writer of Hebrews rattled off these exhortations in order to remind those early Christians of what it meant to be the church of Jesus Christ in the midst of outside pressures that would pull them away from the faith.  Keeping the faith is not just about an individual believing in the right things.  Keeping the faith is also about trusting God enough to behave in such a way that it gives witness to the person of Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.  And in order for that to happen fully, it takes a community, a group of people living life together.  Now you know what they say, “Life would be easy if it weren’t for other people.”  That’s also true for churches!  And in this passage from Hebrews, there’s nothing here that we haven’t heard before.  But what we have are needed reminders of what it means to be a community of Christ followers living life together, reminders of what it means to be the church.

So then, according to this passage in Hebrews, what does it mean for us to be the church?