1 Timothy 2: 1-7                                                                                                         Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Luke 16: 1-13                                                                                                                              September 21, 2025

“… for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”

Prayer: Eternal One, may your words inspire my words. May your teaching help us to be and to become your children, children of light. Amen.

You know, sometimes the lectionary Bible readings cannot be more perfectly timed with the current events of the day, don’t you think? I mean last week it seems everyone was talking about ABC canceling Jimmy Kimmel’s late night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” And a couple of months ago, CBS announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would be cancelled in May. Some say these cancellations are totally business decisions. Others say they are flat out government censorship with pressure coming from the Federal Communications Commission and maybe higher up.

But, in any event, these guys lost or are losing their jobs. I caught Jimmy Fallon’s monologue Thursday night, and he joked that his dad sent him 100 texts saying, “I’m sorry you lost your job!” And Jimmy was like, “It’s not me, Dad. It’s Jimmy Kimmel.” And here at Christ Church, we had to let go our facilities manager over a week ago, so that position is open again.

So, connect the dots. In Luke’s gospel we read Jesus’ parable about a manager who is getting fired! I mean, how does that happen? Of course, you know, that today’s worship service was planned a month ago. Oooh! No, you haven’t entered “The Twilight Zone.” Just call it perfect timing.

This parable of Jesus though, the way Luke has Jesus telling it, the meaning is often misleading. For instance, even though it feels like it at first, Jesus does not commend the manager’s dishonesty, he instead recognizes and calls out the manager’s shrewdness. Call it his ability to use all his resources when he realizes he’s getting canned for embezzling the rich owner’s money.

But this manager figured out a way to come out of getting fired in pretty good shape. Discounts. He’s like, “You owe the rich owner hundred jugs of olive oil? Quick, make it 50. You’re good to go. Just remember me tomorrow when I have no job.” The manager is counting on the goodwill he hopes he gets from the people he gave discounts to. Which he thinks will serve him well later when he’s out on the street with no job. 

So, if we were to insert Stephen Colbert into our parable today, it would be like Stephen calling up his advertisers and saying, “You owe CBS $100 million bucks? Quick. Sit down. Make it $50. Just remember me when May comes along and my contract runs out with CBS,” ok?

And though the owner of the company knows he is getting ripped off, he commends the manager, not for ripping him off, but for his resourcefulness. “Even though you’re ripping me off, I gotta hand it to ya… you found a way to get what you needed… a good place to land, another chance, some new friends who benefited from your discounts.”

On the surface the discounts sound like a good thing. But the manager is still acting corruptly.

And then comes one of the several punch lines of this Bible story. Like the ‘moral of the story’ type lines. And one of the morals of this story I think is that the children of this age are more shrewd, more resourceful, more clever in dealing with the way the world is than are children of light. Ouch.

And I’m assuming that we desire to be or would classify ourselves as children of light. Followers of God in Christ. So, do you think that Jesus might be saying that as children of light, we need to be as shrewd, resourceful, and clever as possible in dealing with the way the world is? Using everything at our disposal to speak, share, and give God’s love?

Not for our benefit, but for God’s? Not for our sake, but for the sake of Christ, who came into the world to save humanity, and that through Christ’s death and resurrection, forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person. What a treasure children of light have to give! Are we shrewd in finding ways to give it?

Because the world needs our voice. The world needs God’s light and love. The world needs us, children of light, I think, to affirm the power of love, not the love of power. The world needs us, the progressive leaning church, to stand up and call for the full inclusion of all people into the body of Christ. To keep speaking God’s truths to the powerful, and to hold them accountable of making the values God loves come to real life.

The other day I listened to Vice-President JD Vance’s speech at the Claremont Institute on July 5th. And I read the transcript to really understand what he was saying. At one point he spoke about why tariffs and the “one big beautiful” had to be passed.

He said “We want to make it easier to save and invest in the United States of America. We want to make it easier to build a business in the United States of America. But most of all, we want to make it easier to work a dignified job in the United States of America and build the kind of life and have the kind of wage that can support a family in comfort. That is our goal” (Transcript: JD Vance’s Speech At The Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award Event – The Singju Post, retrieved September 19, 2025).

On the surface, these sound like admirable goals. Ideas we value and can support. But I ask are these goals for all Americans? Are they for Black Americans? Latino, Asian, Native Americans? Are they for LGBTQ+ Americans? Are they for Muslim, Bundist, the Hindu, Sikh Americans? Are they for all kinds of American families? With all kinds of combinations—in endless varieties? In theory people say yes. In reality, it’s not there.

Because if all people can’t have the same rights and opportunities, living with the same justice and fairness for everyone, then perhaps this is a place where the church needs to use all its resources available and preach and teach and practice what Jesus taught us to preach, teach and practice.

If we are children of light, wouldn’t we practice what Jesus taught? Valuing God in our lives more than ourselves? Loving what God loves, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, the unjustly treated? Jesus calls us to value justice and fairness, fidelity and faithfulness. To be humble, not haughty. To be children of light who derive our behavior from the God of light.

I think Jesus means that the children of light are not to be like the manager, looking out only for himself, but instead are the ones who have grown skilled at honesty, not dishonesty. Cooperation and collaboration. Not manipulation and coercion. Empathy and compassion, not arrogance and bullying.

Children of this age easily derive their behavior from the problems of this age. The parable shows us this. Embezzling. Dishonest discounts. Injustice.

Our nation’s malaise also shows this, I think. Too many people old leaders have gone back to and are accepting banal, animal instincts, it feels to me. Having hatred for people on the “other side.” And calling that normal. Reversing the ways of God that Jesus taught us to have. And saying that this is OK. That this is the way we can find meaning and purpose in life. We have to be better than this. We are better than this!

The American progressive leaning church I think can learn from the shrewd manager, not to practice what he did, but to learn from what he did. Church leaders are called upon to organize ourselves and utilize what we have. We have our voice. Our message. Our truth about God as taught by Jesus and the prophets. Our truth about the God of light who loves. All our truth about what God values.

We are children of light. Our message is from the God of light. If we are faithful with this seemingly very little bit, we will also be faithful in greater matters. Like helping our world, our society move toward a peaceful, just world, derived from the values of the God of light. Like praying for our leaders to be children of the God of light. And make war and violence no longer a thing. And make the loss of a child’s life no longer viewed as ‘collateral damage” or “worth it.” When the earth is renewed by the whole human family becoming a steward of it. When all that divides us is eclipsed by all that can unite us. We can build on what unites us. We are children of light, dear Church. We have our voice. Let’s use it. Now is the time approaching. Let us stand and sing. Amen.