Is Jesus really telling us to be like Robin Hood?

May the Words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.


Sometimes what we read in the Bible just doesn’t make any sense at all. Today in our Gospel reading we have a parable about a rich man. This isn’t unusual. There are a bunch of parables about rich men. There are even some other parables about rich men asking for an accounting of what they have entrusted to others. This is not the odd part.


The manager in this story has every right to be afraid of what will happen when he becomes unemployed. A rich man’s manager was better than a tax collector, but not by much. The only real difference between a manager and a tax collector was that the manager didn’t work for the Romans.


I can even understand the manager’s reason for slashing the bills of the debtors. While he still has the power to do it, he makes friends with the people by reducing what they owe. Kind of like a bank manager who knows they are going to be fired going through the accounts and removing all the service charges for the people who live near them. It’s not illegal. They have the power to do that if they feel it is justified, but under the circumstances it is more than a little questionable.


What I cannot understand is the rich man’s reaction. “And the rich man commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.” Why is the rich man commending his manager instead of being angry with him for squandering the master’s wealth? In our other parables like this the master gets at least upset with their less productive servants, but in this one the master thinks he did the right thing.


What am I missing?

Context. This story does not fit easily into our current context. Many stories in the Bible do not fit easily into our lives. This can make them really difficult to make sense of. It can also lead us down paths of meaning that the writers never intended.

If we were to take today’s Gospel and try to force it into our lives without looking beneath the surface meaning of the words I read a few minutes ago, the good news given to us would look something like this.

“Go out into the world and give away things that do not belong to you.”

This could clearly be found in the gospel according to Robin Hood, but it doesn’t sound like Jesus.

Sometimes context is everything. That is why we have started reading introductions before our Old and New Testament readings. These introductions put help us to understand the world, or rather worlds, of our Bible.

Sometimes the Gospel needs to be put in context too. Today, I think it would really help. Even with all my Biblical education I had to look this one up before it made any sense.

It was against the law for a Jew to charge another Jew interest. There was, however, a way around this law. The manager could lend say 50 jugs of olive oil to someone. He would give them a bill saying that they owed 100 jugs of olive oil. There is never any discussion of interest, that is just what it will cost the person to get the things that they need right now instead of waiting until they can pay for them.

An “honest” manager would pass all of this profit on to his master. A “dishonest” manager would keep some or all of it for himself.

Now this story means something else entirely. The master isn’t commending the manager for stealing from him. He is applauding a shrewd business decision. The manager has given back to the debtors the goods that he wouldn’t be able to collect anyway after losing his job. The rich man is still going to collect what is due to him.

Jesus is not telling us to steal from the rich and give to the poor. He is telling us to give back those things that don’t belong to us anyway.

Jesus is talking to us about repentance.

This leaves us with a very different question each of us need to think about. What is my dishonest wealth? What do I have in my life at the expense of someone else? What have I become at the expense of someone else?

And then – how can I give it back in a way that makes things better?

We are human. We make mistakes. We hurt others. By the grace of God, we can return to God and make things better.

Thanks be to God.

Just Who Are God's People Anyway?

I speak to you in the name of the God who made us, the God who nourishes us, the God who never abandons us. Amen.


Just who are God’s people anyway?


The easy answer is us.

It’s true too.

We are God’s people. We gather here in his name to honour him and to be fed through his holy mysteries. We give of our resources of time and money to see that God’s work is done here in this community and throughout the world. At the end of the service I will send you out to continue to live life as God calls you to live it. Just before we share communion I even say: “The gifts of God for the People of God.”

We are God’s people.


But are we alone? Are we God’s only people?

No. It’s easy to see that there are more of God’s people around. Some of you have even married them. There are the United folk, the Presbyterians, the Roman Catholics, just to name the most common denominations around here. They, and all who follow Christ, are God’s people too.

We Christians are God’s people.


But are we alone? Are only Christians God’s people?

What makes someone one of God’s people?

Do they have to be free of sin? Do they have to avoid working for Revenue Canada? Not according to today’s Gospel. Jesus kept company with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus sought out those very people whom the “godly” avoided.

Do they have to be the right gender? Or the right social class? Jesus is quite clear about this too. If anything, it is easier to hear God’s call if you are in some way disadvantaged. The more elite you are in your society, the more distractions you have to pull you away from God.

Nothing we are or do makes us one of God’s people. It is by the grace of God that God names us as his. Not only that, but we cannot break God’s love for us. In our reading from first Timothy, we hear Paul’s voice telling us about God’s love. “Even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” … “I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.” Paul was not short of knowledge about Jesus. He knew a great deal about him and believed very little of it. Paul’s ignorance was of the vast scope of God’s love. He believed that he was one of God’s people. He found out just how much God loved him.

This love is what makes a person one of God’s people. Jesus makes it quite clear that everyone, whether they believe or not, is beloved of God. There is not a single person in creation who is not one of God’s people.


We are all here because we have been called as Paul was called. We have been shown God’s love in many different ways. We are called to share that experience. This is called “evangelism.”
When I was growing up, I spent considerable time with some of my cousins from Southern California. Their parents attended Pentecostal churches. They were Evangelists and they called me their favourite heathen. Their parents watched carefully to make sure that they didn’t start to believe the same things as I did and that they tried to “enlighten” me. This is not evangelism.


Evangelism is sharing the good news of God’s love in the way we act, both inside and outside of these walls. Evangelism is helping others to realize that God loves them too, that they are never alone. Evangelism is about opening ourselves up and letting others see what God has done for us.


At the end of October, we will be celebrating Back to Church Sunday. Evangelism is what this celebration is all about.

It is not about letting people know how much they need our church in their community. It is not about trying to build up dwindling numbers. It is definitely not about improving the offering.

Back to Church Sunday is about they shepherd going out in search of that one lost sheep. It is about going out to find that one precious person of God who is ready to see God’s love.


If even one person discovers the love of God, we will have succeeded whether that person comes to church with us or not.

If we can keep God’s love in our hearts and truly believe that God loves everyone, we will be a place where they want to come when they are ready.

Thanks be to God.