Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
September 23, 2007 – 17th Sunday after Pentecost
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1     
1st Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13 

Either … Or …

Let’s say you’ve been invited to a wedding that you really don’t want to go to, butneither do you want to hurt anybody’s feelings.  Is it okay to lie about why you are stayinghome?

Should you feel guilty about tapping your neighbor’s wireless router, even if he has not bothered to protect it with a password?

Let’s say you are asked to donate a kidney to a friend.  Is it okay to say that you willonly if your friend who needs the kidney promises to stop smoking?

What would you say to the dad whose conscience is bothered because he knows his kids watch pirated videos?

Let’s say you are at the theater, and your seats are far behind some empty – and much more expensive seats.  Is it okay to move up and take the good seats even if you didn’t pay for them?

All of these questions actually came to the author of the New York Times column, "The Ethicist."  People write in with their real-life questions and Randy Cohen tells the world right from wrong.

It is a basic question.  Parents pride themselves in teaching their kids right from wrong, but if they’ve been successful, who are the kids who are writing in with these questions?  And, why would a minister (who told me about this column) skip past the rest of the paper to read this little column?

Maybe it is because knowing right from wrong isn’t such an easy thing to know, especially in a very complex world.  Sometimes our minds are so addled by all the dilemmas we face, we hardly know up from down, let alone right from wrong.

If a cashier undercharges you and you don’t notice until after you’ve left the store, do you need to go back and "pay up?"  Does it matter if the person who made the mistake work for a "big box" store, as opposed to a "mom and pop" store?  What if all the money that you saved you put in the offering plate … would that make it okay?

What about if, at some point in our lives, we were mugged, cheated, or robbed?  Is it then okay to take the extra change?  Maybe it is just the universe trying to give you back a little of what was wrongfully taken away.

These are the kinds of questions that Jesus poses to his hearers in the Gospel lessontoday.  Jesus’ story and the strange moral that he draws has confused Biblical scholars for centuries.  We sort of wish Jesus had given a more clear-cut lesson. 

But, the reality is that we don’t often find "black and white" answers in the Bible, no matter how hard we look.  We often find a lot of gray. 

But at the bottom of it all is a fundamental question:  "Whom do you serve?"  Who is it that is leading us through this dance of life … who is it that helps us with the complexities of right and wrong?

Jesus is pretty clear:  No one can serve two masters.  Either we will hate the one and love the other … or vice versa.

Do we stop and ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?"  Or, do we think about which is in my best interest? 

Jesus makes one other observation in this parable.  The popular press advises us not to sweat the small stuff, but Jesus suggests that there is no small stuff when it comes to faithfulness. 

In a few weeks we will begin our annual Stewardship Campaign.  Our deacons will be asking that annual question, "How much can we count on you to support the church financially during the upcoming year – as best you can figure out, given today’s circumstances?"

Some of us will take this question very seriously.  Some will look at the tithing chart and figure out where we are and how far we can move in the direction of giving a true tithe of our income.  Some of us will ask ourselves what we think we can afford to give.  What is the right answer to the question?

I would suggest that Jesus gives us the measuring stick:  Who is it that is determining ourvalues – big and small?  Are we trying to serve Christ … or ourselves?  It will be either one … orthe other!

NOTE:  Today’s sermon is credited completely to The Minister’s Annual Manual, 2007 – 2008, edited by Rebecca Grothe.  Copyright:  Logos Productions, Inver Grove Heights, MN, 2007.

SERMON IN A SACK:  A dollar bill.  Talk about the "eye" at the top of the pyramid.  Use it asa reminder that God always has his "eye" on us … we are never alone.  And there is nothing we everdo with money that God doesn’t see and care about.