Read Luke 16:1-13. What is Jesus saying? He tells a story about a manager who didn’t do a good job. His boss had trusted him to manage the business, and the business wasn’t doing well. He was wasteful. And later, Jesus even uses the word “dishonest”. Maybe the manager was taking extra from the debtors – some for the master, and some for himself.
Or maybe he was just strictly following all the rules, but not thinking about the customers. A business thrives on happy customers.
Things got better when he started thinking smart. He was going to be sacked. He decided to think about the customers. He slashed their debts. He discounted their bills! What a relief for them! They were so happy. And because they were happy, even the owner of the business was now happy. The business was working again. You could say the manager “worked the system”: his actions didn’t follow the rules, but they got things happening. With “dishonest” wealth, the manager moved towards making things right.
This was a lesson for the Pharisees, the religious leaders who believed in following rules, and had plenty of rules for the people they led. They laid heavy burdens on them. Their religion was oppressive.
Can we apply this story today? Can we see ourselves in the position of the manager? For a start, it’s clear that as a country, Australia has more than an equal share of the earth’s wealth. This country has so many resources and so much land with only 24 million people. But there are people here who are very poor. And others – our First Nations people – who have suffered generations of bad treatment. We have a system of laws and a system of government. Does the system work for everyone?
No, it doesn’t. How do we handle this? Do we shake our fists at people in power and lay the blame on them? It can be important to call out injustice, but it’s a mistake to pretend that we’re OK in our spot. To a refugee anywhere in the world, we are in a place of privilege. To an abused slave worker, as consumers we are in a position of power. In many ways, the system works for us. If we can’t build a new system, maybe we can work it differently.
Queen Elizabeth was born into a lot of privilege. The Royal Family is very expensive to run. But the Queen herself was very much respected. She worked the system. Some years back, some Aboriginal elders wanted to visit the Queen in the UK. The Queen had always visited Aboriginal people when she came to Australia. They went straight to the Queen’s office, and they got the invitation! The Australian Government politicians were unhappy. They didn’t want the Queen to have that audience. But the Queen was interested in people, not in systems. She worked the system. She made it work.
Look around us. We have an economy, but it’s not fair to everyone. People with land or special skills get a better deal than others. Sometimes people with privilege think the system is OK. They earn good money, pay taxes, and pay market price for things they need. They think it’s a neat system, and that everyone should do the same.
But the system isn’t neat. Some people will always struggle to get a job. The system no longer provides enough full time jobs. The market is not fair when people earn too little. So we have our food charity, where the economy is different. If the system doesn’t work, we work the system.
My brother* is well off. He is building a house. But some of his decisions aren’t cost-effective. He’s double-glazing the windows. That’s expensive – it won’t save him money in his life. But he wants a house that doesn’t waste energy. He’s thinking of the world, the environment, the people in the Pacific and the generations unborn.
Jesus knew that the system doesn’t always work for everyone. There’s a lot of “dishonest” wealth. Sometimes we need to work the system, even if it works against us. Systems get complex, but the message is simple: love your neighbour, and know that your neighbour is any person in need of love – a person we may never even see.
(*Guest writer - David)
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