St. Andrew’s Pictou, NS; September 19^th 2004

 

Change World History

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Luke 16:1-13

 

Context is everything.

 

A palm tree beside a spring of water on a lush tropical island may not even be noticed. Put that palm tree beside a spring in the middle of a desert and we call it “an oasis;” a life saving dream come true for a thirsty and dying traveler.

 

A saying attributed to Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) says that “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”

 

A man can say to a woman, “Will you marry me?” On the night on December 31 1999, a man coaxed his fiancé to a secluded area on the Atlantic Coast of NS, where he had arranged to have those words carved on a stone along with her name. It was a tense moment because there happened to be some people around who might have interrupted his well-planned effort, but he got her close to the stone as fireworks went off in the local community ushering in the new millennium. At exactly midnight, the first moment of the year 2,000 his fiancé saw her marriage proposal inscribed on a rock with fireworks lighting up the nighttime sky; quite an amazing context for a marriage proposal from a loving man. I understand she accepted.

 

Each one of us here is a human being: male or female, young or older, but who we are and the context of our lives would be radically different if we were black skinned Christians being housed in a refugee camp in Southern Sudan with Moslem Arabs in the north being in control of the country.

 

Context is everything. Our Canadian reality is that all of our “first ministers” brokered a health care deal this week in Ottawa. Their co called onerous task was simply… just to divide the wealth in a way in which they could all agree.

 

From the context of the Sudan, and Canada, we move to another context: the ancient Kingdom of Judah, where the prophet Jeremiah speaks from a society on the brink of disaster, and he is appalled and distressed.

 

“My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick…

For the hurt of my people, I am hurt, I mourn,

and dismay has taken hold of me.”

 

If Jeremiah was talking to us today, he would be talking about the entire world, not just the Kingdom of Judah. Today, he would be saying, “The world is sick. Is God not in Heaven? The world is sick and dying; is there not a doctor in the house; is there no UN solution?”

 

The text says, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”

 

In the reading from 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul gives us a response to Jeremiah’s lament. Paul has his priorities in order:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

 

Paul gives us a focus:

“For there is one God;

there is one mediator between God and humankind,

Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all.”

 

Again, we have the context: one God, one mediator; a mediator “who gave himself as a ransom for all...” for the Jews, the Arabs, for the pagans, for the unbelievers and for the Moslems, as well as… for the Christians.

 

I say what I say, not because everyone believes or will ever believe in Jesus Christ, but that since Jesus “gave himself for all” we followers of Jesus must treat all people the same because Jesus, “gave himself as a ransom for all” of them, too. Our faith in Jesus Christ is not a license on how to manipulate and correct other people, but rather guidelines in how to best love them.

 

Jesus’ story of the shrewd manager may seem difficult to understand a first glance: a rich man has a manger who was squandering his estate and when charges were brought against him, he did something very shrewd.

 

The mess that the manger had was a context he had created and he recognized it. He even 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. I have decided what to do so that when I am dismissed as manger, people may welcome me into their homes.”

 

The manager’s context was fear; his life was soon to change for the worse: from being in control to not being in control, and he was trying “to save his bacon.”

 

The manager shifted his “MO.” While formerly using the people, he now tried to build trust, affection and relationship with the people.

 

With what power he had left, he went around to all those who owed his master various amounts of depts. And gave them bargain discounts in their debt reduction:

-100 jugs of olive oil was reduced to 50,

-100 containers of wheat was reduced to 80, and so on, “one by one” as the text says.

 

What may surprise us is that in Jesus’ story, the rich man commends his dishonest steward for his shrewdness.

 

I think that many of us myself included may initially see something wrong with Jesus’ logic. First this manager steals from him, and then gets commended for cheating him out of more money by using his position to put himself in a good light with the rich man’s debtors, thereby seeming to incur even more loss for the rich man.

 

But the text says that he commended the manger for his shrewdness. To be “shrewd” means to be “keen, and astute;” and Jesus commends his keenness and his astute response to the context at hand.

 

“The emphasis here is on action. The manager wasted no time in wringing his hands, but set about doing something! He did not wallow in guilt. He acted. How are we acting in the face of increasing threats to our*” our own selves, our country or our world? “A phrase we often hear today is to ‘think globally and act locally.’ This is a variant of the truth that everything begins with one’s self, one’s own affair’s one’s lifestyle,” one’s particular context in life. (* O’Driscoll p. 116)

 

Jesus asks us to “think globally and act locally.”

 

“Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much:” (think globally and act locally.)

 

The bottom line is that we each individually change world history by our choices and our actions because our context is that we are citizens of this world and our actions have impact and consequences in this world.

 

Jeremiah was a fellow citizen of this world, so was the psalmist David, the apostle Paul, and the very human son of God, Jesus. They were individuals like you and I are individuals and they all changed world history by their actions, the recording, and the telling of their stories.

 

We are still telling the stories of Jesus and trumpeting his wisdom.

 

We do exactly the same thing when we tell our stories. Personal therapy, encounter groups, 12 Step Groups, friendships, and churches are all built on the personal stories of the people.

 

In today’s language, Jesus said that the people outside of the church (he called them children of this age) are doing better than people inside of the church (he called them the children of light.)

 

Just listen to what Jesus said here, “…For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into eternal homes.”

 

The path to heaven is to treat people in such a way that when you need them, they will take you in to their homes. Imagine what a world we would have if everyone treated everyone else as if one day we would need them to take us into their homes! “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”

 

Globally, our world is in massive need of improvement.

 

Locally, you and I can each change world history by our actions and our choices.

 

Without even leaving our town, we can give offerings to PWS&D and help people in great need all over the world. Assist our local food bank.

 

We can love and touch those we meet each day and bring them the hope of Christ.

 

As Paul said, we can pray for all people.

 

Two thousand years ago, the man Jesus changed the world by the love in his actions.

Following him we can do exactly the same thing.        AMEN   Rev. Alan Stewart