I O U one sermon

Sermon for the ninth Sunday after Trinity

There are those who claim that Our Lord is a revolutionary.  There are those who claim that Our Lord seeks only to reform society, not tear it to shreds. There are those who claim that Our Lord has no interest in politics and what governs how societies operate but rather direct souls to the Kingdom of God.

What do you think? Where does Our Lord fit in, politically? Is He authoritarian, liberal, conservative, revolutionary or completely apolitical?

[PAUSE]

Imagine then, a manager of a national bank who has been told he is on two weeks’ notice. Looking at his customers’ mortgages, he halves them all, reducing the debt of several thousand people. Will the district manager commend him for his actions, like the master of Our Lord’s steward?

Why not?

In fact, is the master in Our Lord’s parable even like real masters of stewards.

Our Lord is presenting a scenario that makes no fiscal sense, nor does it make sense to anyone who is owed lots of money by several people. It’s a parable that makes very little sense to us because this is not how banks, building societies and mortgage lenders work. Indeed, how would we react if we were in the master’s shoes and saw those in debt to us relieved by someone who works for us?

What the Lord is describing would be described as fraud these days and this shows us that money has become completely entwined with law. By reducing the debt of others, the steward is causing financial chaos. Indeed, think of the mess that our errant bank manager would cause by slashing people’s mortgages willy-nilly. The law would come down on him like a tonne of bricks!

And what does the steward get? What does the bank manager get?

[PAUSE]

Grateful people. People who are willing to return the favour. People who now see something of greater importance than the value of money because someone saw their friendship as more important than their debts.

And that’s important for today. Our banks rely on selling debts to one another. It was this behaviour that caused the great economic crash of 2008. As far as banks are concerned, our debts are their bread and butter.

But our society doesn’t just operate on our monetary debts, it also operates on our moral debts too. We say that a man going to prison is paying his debt to society. When someone does something kind to us, we are morally obliged to them – we owe a debt of gratitude.

The weird thing is, we speak of debt as if it were something, some commodity to buy and sell, something to pay back. But what is a debt really? We know what fifty pence looks like but what does a debt of fifty pence look like? Our minds can’t turn it into a thing. The best we can do is to think about it as a place where fifty pence should be and isn’t.  A debt can only become real as a relationship between people. If Dan lends fifty pence to Tom, then there is an expectation that, at some point that fifty pence is given back. If Dan says, “forget about the fifty pence” then suddenly the debt vanishes.

Debt exists only as an expectation between two people. As soon as the expectation is altered the debt is altered.

That’s all that the steward is doing – he’s changing the situation by changing the relationships and creating new relationships based on something more valuable than debt – the kindness of others.

[PAUSE]

We often think of Sin as a debt but, again, Sin is defined by a relationship. We hear it said that Jesus pays the price for our sins, but who is He paying the price to? Do our sins steal anything from God? No, because the Earth is the Lord’s and all that therein is. Do our sins steal anything from the Devil? No, because the Devil is not another God, but a creature like the rest of us.

Sins are like debts because they change the relationship with God, but they can’t be passed around like monetary debts. Our sin remains our sin, because it is our relationship with God that is damaged and requires repair. Our Lord offers Himself on the Cross as that atoning sacrifice for sin – a demonstration that God still loves us and that His relationship with us is unchanged. On the cross, that relationship is restored and Sin is shown up as being a complete nonentity that only exists when we allow ourselves to become enslaved to it. The moment we let it go, the moment we claim Christ’s death as our own, that is the moment when sin has no effect on us. Sin disappears with God’s forgiveness, just as a hole in the wall disappears when the stone is put in its place.

Does this not put us in God’s debt?

[PAUSE]

A debt of gratitude certainly, and a debt that cannot be repaid.

But then, God doesn’t want it to be repaid.

He just wants that relationship with us, just like the steward pays the debt of others to build a relationship with them.

We owe it to Him to love Him, and this debt will make us Eternally joyful.