First Friends Meeting
Luke 16:1-9
‘What’s Going on Here?’

This is one of the first songs I ever wrote, back in 1977. It’s about Jesus and his parables. His little stories gave surprising twists to conventional wisdom and moral teaching. Jesus used stories of the commonplace world of homemaking, family, business, and gardening to give us hints to how God works in our lives here and now. Sometimes his stories work almost like jokes. But at a certain point, his little jokes pushed some people too far. They decided he was demon-possessed and dangerous. The song is called ‘Meshugah Messiah’. ‘Meshugah’ means ‘crazy’ in Hebrew. So it’s the Crazy Christ, or the Crazy Anointed One.

Meshugah Messiah
Doug Gwyn, 1977

did you hear the one about the prodigal son?
He lost all his money having fun
came dragging home, so sad,
he was scared to face his Dad
he knew in his heart he’d been bad
but Dad never even raised his staff,
he even went so far as to laugh
and then he took it all out on the fatted calf
big brother was mad, he was in a fever,
why did you go and ‘Leave it to Beaver’?
Dad said its ‘cause I love an under-achiever
hinne, hinne, hinne, hinne ha meshugah
hinne, hinne, hinne, hinne ha Messiah
the source I got it from, that crazy anointed one –
meshugah Messiah

he came and turned the tables,
turned around the precious fables
got to stop him, that man’s unstable!
Well, what’s as harmless as a joke?
unless the punch-line makes you choke
or maybe you just can’t take a poke
well, some have laughed, some have smiled,
some have entered as a child
some have put the truth on trial
finally the proud got too provoked,
they laughed to see his body broke
the day the joker became the joke
ecce, ecce, ecce, ecce homo
ecce, ecce, ecce, ecce loco
but irony of ironies, cream of the jest,
he who is first and last laughs best
meshugah Messiah
so let the joke live within you, or someday it’s gonna be on you
meshugah Messiah

there’s the one he used to say about the crooked CPA
he was audited by surprise one day
he was scared he’d lose his gig, he was too ashamed to beg
he said, oh my God, I’m too weak to dig
so he collected bills for his boss, settled up quickly, at a loss
did anyone ever stop to count the cost?
No, there’s no moral in this story to sing,
but the kingdom of heaven is a funny thing
the time has come to risk everything
ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho ha meshugah
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha Messiah
the source I got it from, that crazy anointed one –
meshugah Messiah
so let the joke live within you, or someday he’s gonna be on you
meshugah Messiah
meshugah Messiah

The parable Steven has read for us may be the strangest of all Jesus’ parables. It doesn’t have a neat moral to it. We assume that if the parables are illustrations of the kingdom of God in our lives, they should have a moral meaning. And usually, we can easily find it. But this one is more subtle, more twisted. Let’s review the story.

This rich man has a manager, or steward, to manage his accounts. Someone has accused him of squandering funds, so the rich man calls him and fires him. But before he leaves his job, he has to settle all outstanding accounts. The manager says to himself, What will I do? I’m not strong enough for physical labor, and I’d be ashamed to go begging. I know! I’ll settle up with these debtors on easy terms. Maybe they’ll take me in when I’m out on the street. Maybe they’ll even give me a job. So he goes around and lets them settle at 20% off – even 50% off. And surprisingly, when he’s finished, his boss actually praises his shrewdness.

Now, modern biblical scholars have tried hard to make moral sense, or any kind of sense, of this. Why does the rich man praise this dishonest manager? Maybe the manager’s problem all along has been trouble in getting debtors to pay up. So, by reducing the debt, he has finally settled accounts, and the boss is happy just to get something from these people. Could be. Others make the point that in an ancient economy, a manager sometimes added a percentage to his boss’s charge. He earned his living through these commissions. So maybe the manager simply forfeited his cut when he made these deals. Maybe – although 50% would be quite a commission. These explanations may hold some truth – but they’ve never put everyone’s mind to rest about this funny little story.

One scholar (Via) has suggested that this dishonest manager has simply gone on a “moral holiday.” Is Jesus inviting us to go on a moral holiday? I don’t think so, but it takes Jesus another five and a half verses to explain his way out of this little story! Usually, it only takes a verse or two. And the moral he derives is less a matter of principle than sheer pragmatism. He’s saying, use money to help other people, and they’ll help you when you’re out of money. What goes ‘round comes ‘round.

If we look at it only as an individual morality, it’s not much more than that. But if we look at it as the way we form community, the way we form networks of cooperation and mutual support, then something more is going on here. Jesus says, if we’re not faithful with dishonest wealth (“unrighteous Mammon” in the KJV), who will trust us with true riches? But what does faithfulness mean when it comes to money? Well, it should mean honesty and integrity, of course. But faithfulness with money might also mean showing a little faith in someone by helping them with money. Showing faith can create faith. Let’s say a stranger asks you for a handout on the street. You may suspect that they may misuse the money. Go and buy alcohol or whatever. But show a little faith! Look that child of God in the eye with friendliness and respect. Even some pocket change will help. You won’t miss it. But you will have shown a little faith. You will have sown a seed that may not sprout today, but may later. Regardless of results, you will have been faithful in a little.

Our Reeves Scholarship Fund shows a little faith by making educational loans and grants to young people. We do expect the loans to be repaid. But we don’t resort to law to get the money back. We trust in a person’s sense of integrity and faithfulness. In doing that, we show some faith.

Sometimes, favors come back to us. It’s part of First Friends lore that we provided space at our old meetinghouse for the Beth Boruk Temple congregation to get started. And later, when our meetinghouse was condemned, they hosted us in their building, until we could build this new meetinghouse. We showed some faith with material things of this world, and that faith was returned generously. We commemorated that faithfulness in naming our fellowship hall Boruk Hall. Faithfulness in the things of this world was also faithfulness in the true, spiritual riches we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters. It was interfaith faithfulness.

Internationally, the rich nations of the world have raked in huge profits from the natural resources and cheap labor of the poor nations of the world. And they have racked up huge debts trying to feed their people and grow their economies. It’s time for the rich nations to reduce and even cancel some of those huge international debts. That’s showing some faith. Jesus teaches us to pray “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” He was not speaking only metaphorically.

Jesus adds at the end, no one can serve two masters – you’ll always end up loving one and hating the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. He’s not saying that we can avoid financial responsibilities. We all have to deal in money. It may be plastic for the most part now, but it’s still money. But the question is really which one is your master? Who do you really serve? God or money? Can you master money in your life and use it to serve God? To do that, you must face tough issues. How much is enough? What are my priorities in life? How can I simplify my lifestyle so that I can devote more time and money to serving God, to showing faith in my fellow human beings? How can I become part a sustainable economy and sustainable use of the earth’s resources? We need to do that. We need to show faith in future generations by leaving something for them. Otherwise, it’s all about us, and we’re all about Mammon. I look forward to our Sustainability Committee’s recommendations on how we as a Meeting can be part of these answers.

I carry my unrighteous Mammon in an old wallet that is falling apart. It comes from Guatemala. It was given to me 20 years ago by a Guatemalan woman, when I was a Friends pastor in Berkeley, California. One day, I was up on my roof, cleaning gutters. This woman at my front gate started speaking to me in broken English. I got down from the roof and we started talking. She and her son had just fled Guatemala. She had become a little too critical of the government there, and the death squads had started threatening her. They didn’t wait for them to come one night and do God-knows-what with them. They got out, and ended up in the Bay Area. They had known some Quakers in Guatemala so they tracked me down. They needed a place to stay.

Well, I didn’t know what to do. But a member of my Meeting owned some rental properties in San Francisco and could probably give them space to live until they were better established. And the Meeting could help them with pocket money for a while. I didn’t do much, really. I just made a couple connections that could help. And those connections gave them a start. A Church is a network of people of faith, who want to show some faith when they can. Olga and her son were eventually able to return to Guatemala, after the political situation there improved. They gave me the wallet as a souvenir of their country. It’s falling apart, but I keep nursing it along. It reminds me of them. And it reminds me that a little faith can make a difference.