INTRODUCTION:

OK, this morning we're going to play our own version of Let's Make a Deal. I'll give a dollar to whoever has a golf ball in their pocket. And I'll give a dollar to anyone who can show me a set of reindeer antlers. I've got another dollar for the person who brought a Gorilla with them today.

Would you like to trade that dollar for a chance to win what's in this box? Now, if you can recite the books of the Bible backwards in 60 seconds or less, you could win what's in this box. Just kidding. If you can tell me the names of the first four books of the New Testament you can win what's in this box.

Now, you can keep the key to the car or you can trade it for what's behind one these two doors. What'll it be? Door # 1 or Door # 2.

OK, let's see what you didn't win, first. A framed picture of your pastor.

Now, let's see what you won. An all expense paid weekend get away for two in our Luxurious Accommodations in our very own Gregory Gym. You'll experience a night of sports adventure with your spouse in our gym, there's Basketball, Volleyball, Shuffleboard and Table Shuffleboard. Plus you can spend time either running or walking around the outside of the court to your hearts content.

And look at this spacious kitchen. Meals for the weekend will be provided, provided there's any leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer. You can scrounge the cabinets until your hearts content, looking through outdated canned goods and open bags of chips and whatever else the youth wouldn't eat.

And to top it off, you will have his and hers private bathrooms. The church van will pick you up at your home and deliver you and your spouse to the gym, where a candle will be burning and a fan turning because we're trying to save on electricity.

Have we had enough fun yet? Do you remember that show? It was a staple of American Television for years. People would dress up in outlandish costumes in hopes of being one of the 36 people chosen to be a Trader on Let's Make A Deal. I almost dressed up today. You see this is International Talk Like A Pirate Day and I thought what more appropriate time than today. But I thought that might have been a little over the top.

As you've seen, the title and the theme for today is Let's Make A Deal. It comes directly from the Gospel of Luke 16:1-13.

[1] Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.

[2] So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.'

[3] Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

[4] I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.'

[5] So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

[6] He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.'

[7] Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'

[8] And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

[9] And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

[10] "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.

[11] If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

[12] And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?

[13] No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

OK, what in the world is Jesus doing praising a crook? If you remember the Game Show, at the end there were three curtains from which to choose. One was a complete Zonk. One had a nice gift and was pretty good. But there was one which had the Grand Prize of the day worth 10 times what anyone else had won. So, I want us to look behind all three curtains today as we try and figure out why Jesus praised this crooked, conniving, self-centered manager.

I. CURTAIN #1: THE ZONK:

A. I did a ton of reading and research this week trying to find out what other peoples' take is on the interpretations of this parable. I found one commentary where it was suggested that we be sure and remember that this is just a story. What they implied was, since it was "just a story" that it didn't have a whole lot of weight or a whole lot of meat. What I really think is that the author had no clue what to make of this parable.

And if what I've read from various sermons, that's pretty much the case everywhere. There's a lot of confusion as to why Jesus, of all people, would use such a negative image for good. It doesn't seem to fit, unless you remember who God always seems to use, the least likely, least deserving people.

People like Jacob, the trickster. This manager probably modeled himself after that Biblical Ferris Beuhler. Then, of course, there's David, who blew it with Bathsheba. And then of course there's Peter, who had a lion's heart and mouth but a hummingbird's courage and feet of clay.

I also found it rather amusing that a whole lot of folks want to let the manager off the hook by saying that he probably wasn't as bad as we all think. But the truth is that Jesus paints this guy as a regular con man. He was incompetent, self-serving and deceitful. Obviously, he could have been a great manager. And his boss liked him because they were kindred spirits, flim flam men from way back when.

B. But to think that this is about the manager is to get the Zonk. Jesus is not holding up the manager as a business model for Christians, though there have been some who used this guy as their model. The execs at Enron, for one.

If this is the curtain of truth you picked then you've been totally Zonked.

II. CURTAIN #2: THE GOOD PRIZE:

A. Curtain #2 is The Good Prize. So what is the Good Prize?

Most preachers and commentaries settle here on the Good Prize. Because there's nothing wrong with that interpretation. It's a good answer. Most preachers and most commentaries think this passage deals with Stewardship and Money. And it's true, it does.

When Jesus says in verse 10: "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much." He IS speaking of stewardship issues. And we usually interpret his passage with a story like this one.

Two boys found a purse in a parking lot. It probably belonged to the elderly lady who had just driven out of the lot. The purse contained the lady's name, her address, and a five twenty dollar bills. One of the boys wanted to keep the money and ditch the purse. But the other boy said, "No. That's wrong. We nee to return it. Which they did. But before returning it he got four $5 dollar bills for one of the $20's.

B. Or we tell stories like the one about Henry Ford who was know for both his frugality and his philanthropy. He was visiting his family's ancestral village in Ireland when two trustees of the local hospital found out he was there, and they managed to get in to see him.

They talked him into giving the hospital $5,000 dollars (this was the 30's, so $5,000 dollars was a great deal of money). The next morning, at breakfast, he opened his newspaper to read the banner headline: "American Millionaire Gives Fifty Thousand to Local Hospital."

Ford wasted no time in summoning the two hospital trustees. He waved the newspaper in their faces. "What does this mean?" he demanded. The trustees apologized profusely. "Dreadful error," they said. They promised to get the editor to print a retraction the very next day, stating that the great Henry Ford hadn't given $50,000, but only $5,000. Well, hearing that, Ford offered them the other $45,000, under one condition: that the trustees erect a marble arch at the entrance of the new hospital, with a plaque that read, "I walked among you and you took me in." (1)

That's what most of us think this is all about. And it's not a bad answer. Jesus definitely wants us to be better stewards. He wants us to understand the dealings of the world. Because, if we handle the things of this world well, then we'll be entrusted with things of infinitely more value in the world to come.

That's Curtain #2. That's the Good Answer, the Good Prize.

III. CURTAIN #3: THE GRAND PRIZE:

A. But I think there's a deeper message, too. I think we can find it behind Curtain #3. This is what I think the Grand Prize is.

The accusation against the manager is that he squandered his master's estate. The key word, I think is "Squandered." It means to waste, to fool away and to fritter away. In other words, the crooked manager took what had been entrusted to him and wasted it. He let it slip foolishly through his fingers.

And this is the Grand Prize. Because I think the deeper message of this parable confronts us and asks us point blank: "How many of us have done the same thing?"

If we put this all in proper perspective, God is the owner. God is the CEO of the Universe and everything that we have really belongs to Him. God is in charge. We have the privilege of being the managers or stewards of all that God has put in our care.

But how much of this treasure have we squandered?

God gives us time and we squander it doing things that don't matter.

God gives us talents and we squander them on self-interests or because we don't think they are important or God could never use them.

God gives us Grace, Love and Forgiveness and we squander them by not fully accepting them or not letting them empower our lives because we think we're not worthy. We squander them by not giving them away in the same measure in which we've received.

God gives us our families and we squander the time we have with them by not paying attention or being too busy.

I just read about a man whose wife and three children were hit by a drunk driver on the way home from a track meet. He was supposed to be at that track meet; he was supposed to drive home with them but he didn't make it to the meet because he was too busy. This guy wept and wept, wracked with both grief and guilt. The cry of this guy's heart wasn't about a moment he missed, it was about an accumulation of squandered moments: days, weeks, months of being too busy. He lost what he treasured but sad truth is he never treasured what he had. (2)

B. And that's the challenge. To Treasure what we have. To Treasure that which God has given us. So many times we compare our gifts, our talents, our place in life with those around us. Envy takes over. And because we don't Treasure that which God has asked us to be Stewards and Managers of, we have a tendency to squander it, to fool it away.

The challenge is to quit hitting the snooze button and answer the wake up call. Jesus basically says:, "You have intelligence, use it. Use it to fulfill the mission you assumed when I called you to be my disciples. Be as shrewd about the affairs of the Kingdom of God as this manager."

We're the trusted ones. We're the ones called to serve.

There's a story from World War II. It seems there was wine steward who was responsible for caring for the finest collection of wine in all of Europe, the wine cellar at the Chateau of Monaco. At that time in history, the chateau was well known for its vintage, rare wines. But the Nazis had overrun the city and now lived and dined in the chateau, expecting and wanting to drink the world's finest vintage wines.

The wine steward resented those "slime Nazis" and cleverly and carefully hid all the rarest wines deep in the cellar, serving his enemy only the cheapest and youngest wines, pretending that those wines were the best.

Stewards are people who care for precious property that is not their own, often times preserving it from disaster. (3)

Being a steward and Not squandering the resources God has placed in our keeping is the Grand Prize behind Curtain #3.

Being a Steward is allowing ourselves to become tools in the hands of God, reaching out to Save those around us so that no ones life is lost or frittered away.

CONCLUSION:

Jesus tells us, "You have the intelligence, use it. Use it to fulfill the mission you assumed when I called you to be my disciples."

You and I have been given the precious property of the Good News of Jesus Christ and the message of salvation. The precious property of the message of forgiveness. The precious property of God's love, mercy and grace. The precious property of our families. The precious property of the church.

What we do with it depends on which Curtain we choose. So, choose wisely.

Let's Make A Deal, our God is a God of forgiveness and second chances who loves us more than anything. So, if you've been like the manager in today's parable and cooked the books by squandering the precious property God has put in your care, there's hope. God wants to give you another chance through His Son Jesus. Man what a deal.

1.From sermon notes by Deacon Sil Galvan, http://www.deaconsil.com

2. Jerry Goebel: 2003 © http://onefamilyoutreach.com.

3. Oikonomiks, Edward F. Markquart, Quest for Better Preaching

4.

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