If life is one big classroom, the subject for today is “resourcefulness.” It’s a story of mismanagement, misbehavior, and misdirection. A story of making a way out of no way. A story of grace.*
Scrambling, scrounging, and soon-to-be-broke, the crooked manager comes up with the perfect plan. In a bold act of slight-of-hand, he gets caught. The ultimate outcome of the parable seems to be sheer self-preservation: The crafty and cunning determination of a wily actor is a play about unexpected blessings. Apparently, the Divine is betting on people like this.
A sweet derelict, he rides into the scene as Robin Hood. Those hard-working debtors, receiving undeserved debt relief, were given a clear and clever sign that someone is betting on them. They must have leaned in, cupping their ears, not quite believing what they were hearing. Why this generosity? A great sharing… a redistribution of sorts, takes place. All in the name of one man’s survival.
Resourcefulness is a prominent muscle within the body of God. And if we exercise it right, the muscle will grow, and with it, the Kin-dom of God. Like the prodigal son in the story that precedes this one, a lost soul comes home, and great rejoicing ensued.
Apparently, the Great Spirit loves lost causes. Seeing beyond our bruised appearances, God honors the way we hustle. Even in the perceived unmanageability of life, an inner resilience buoys us up, and there we receive the words of blessing.
Respect and admiration rose for the desperate one who clawed his way through. There is something honorable about it, encapsulating our human experience: No clean lines, no easy answers, no fairytales. Only grit and desperate prayers from a person living in this wild world. “Adjust, adapt, survive” might be the mantra we chant as we spin the rosary, journey to Mecca, or wrap prayer shawls around our heads.
The lovable scoundrel stands exhausted, wipes his brow, shaking his head in amazement. Embraced by those blessed beneficiaries, who may well take him in as their own, he receives unlikely words from the one he fooled:“Well done!” The neighborly deal of a lifetime comes through. The gift of a more livable life, wrapped around our own scoundrelness. In the end, survival yields to belonging and a beloved community is born.
*Luke 16:1-13 (The Message)
–Jim Marsh, Jr., Bread of Life Church
