『“Be Ernie”』のカバーアート

“Be Ernie”

“Be Ernie”

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 September 21, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen. This week, while noodling the texts for today in my head and preparing to write my sermon, I saw something on Facebook Marketplace that I had been looking for, and at a great price too. When I got to the woman’s house, I started to pay what I thought I owed her, but she said, “Oh, no – I lowered the price by half.” I paid her the new amount, and as I drove home, even happier with my purchase, I thought about this gospel today. And what a crazy one it seems to be. Now, before we dive in more – this is one of those times when the advice to eliminate those pesky passage titles is so spot on. This particular story has a variety of titles in those types of bibles – like, “The parable of the dishonest manager,” or “The parable of the shrewd manager.” Well, which is it then? And… is it about the manager at all? So, let’s first hear it again. The story starts with “”There was a rich man who had a manager.” If that sounds familiar, then you know other parables of Jesus in this gospel. One starts with “There was a man who had two sons, and another, which we will hear next week, starts with, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen.” Anyway, Jesus then says that the man told the manager that there were accusations that he had squandered the man’s property. Now, let’s give these guys names to make it easier. Let’s call the rich man Bert and the manager Ernie. So, Ernie has this internal monologue where he imagines what will become of him when Bert sends him packing. So, he tries to make things right by significantly reducing what others owe – in a way like the person in my Facebook purchase. When Bert hears about this, he commends Ernie’s actions. Then the text has that bit about Children of Light, which was likely an early add on to the original text, so let’s skip that and head right to Jesus’ summary of the parable. He says “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, etc.…and then sums it up with: You cannot serve God and wealth.” So, it leaves us with a puzzle – especially if you are inclined to believe that the characters of parables are always ascribed to God, humanity, etc. Sometimes they are not, so be careful about doing that, especially using our 21st century lens on ancient texts. In this case though, let’s return to the opening. “There was a rich man who had a manager.” Remember the prodigal son – he squandered the inheritance he had demanded of his father and faced a life of poverty and hardship? The father welcomed him back when he returned home and asked for his father’s forgiveness? And the one next week – the rich man did not help those in need in his life, and loses the opportunity to do good in the world with his money after he dies. So, here we have this man, Ernie, facing a similar fate as the prodigal son, does something too, only what does it mean and why do we even care? Well, first – we need to understand a few things… The passage says that Bert had heard that Ernie had squandered his property. Yet, the Greek word translated for the accusation means slander, lies. Ernie hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong. So why doesn’t Ernie protest this unjust accusation? We can’t really be sure, but perhaps it might have seemed to Ernie that nothing he could say would change what Bernie thought of him, or maybe – deep inside – he knew he could have done better by those who owed his boss. So, he acts to fix the situation. And this is where it is helpful to know the context. It was perfectly okay for people then, as now, to charge interest on debts – except if you were Jewish, and the debtor was also a Jew. Then you could not charge any interest. As this gospel was likely written by a gentile for a gentile audience, it is unlikely that the characters are Jewish, or that Jesus is referring to Jewish law. So, back to Ernie. As a manager, Ernie was justified in adding on a commission on the debt that gave him a profit on the loan. This was allowed. However, while it may be allowed by the rules of the Roman empire, by forgiving the interest, he helped himself in the eyes of Bert, the rich man, by making it easier for the debtors to reconcile their debts with Bert, not to mention helping his neighbor, the debtors. Sure, Ernie didn’t get much money off the deal, but he did save himself. That is shrewd indeed! Some say that Ernie wasn’t hired back, but in the context of other parables, I think his relationship with Bert was restored, like the son and the father in the other parable, and he went on serving Bert. This story provides a good context for Jesus’ final statement – you cannot serve God and wealth. What is just by the laws of the state is not ...
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