Created by God, Creative for God

Originally preached at St. James United Church, Etobicoke, ON, on September 21, 2025
Sermon Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xswnc5kwbjQ&t=5s

Luke 16:1-13

When I visit a new church, people read my introduction, and some are surprised by it. Not so much about my background or my research, but about the fact that I do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in my free time. My gym partners tell me that if they had seen me on the streets, they would never have imagined me training in Jiu-Jitsu. I am living proof that we are not all what we seem.

For those of you who don’t know what Jiu-Jitsu is, it’s a martial art that uses techniques such as choking or pulling arm bars. And please, that’s not what I enjoy the most in this martial art Jiu-Jitsu is known to be the most effective martial art for women as a self-defense method. That’s because it teaches techniques that use leverage and body mechanics so that even a lighter, smaller person can overcome heavier and larger opponents. It’s not about strength and size, but about how you use what you have, redistributing your strength and weight, shifting angles, and noticing the blind spots. It’s actually about being creative, being shrewd, and reorienting what you have—which I will talk a lot about today.

Today’s bible story is one of the most difficult texts to understand. It is one of those parables that Jesus tells that makes us go “huh?” Some parables are delightful and straightforward, but others leave us scratching our heads. Wrestling with some parables is often like doing jiujitsu for me: it requires creativity, shifting angles, and seeing them from diverse perspectives. The wonderful thing about these challenging parables, like today’s, is that they provoke our thoughts and encourage us to wrestle with new perspectives. We sometimes need to read the story from a peripheral character’s perspective to understand its hidden meanings. So now, let us enter into today’s story together.

There was a rich man, a very rich man, who lent grain and oil to poorer peasants. Because his assets were extensive and he lent to many people with different needs, he employed a manager. But then one day, someone tells him that his manager is squandering his property. He calls in his manager and tells him to give an account of his management.

Now the manager panics because he is on the verge of being fired. He thinks to himself, “What to do, what to do?” Then an idea comes to his mind: if he reduces the debts for the debtors, they will be grateful to him and welcome him into their homes when he has nowhere to go after he is fired! So he quickly meets all the debtors, and, using his authority over the accounting book, reduces their debts. He completes the accounting and brings it to his master, and the master, our rich man says, “Excellent! What a shrewd and tactful manager!”

And now this is where we go, “huh?” Why is this dishonest manager, who acted shrewdly just to cover up his poor management, being commended? Poor rich man, he must have lost a lot of money because of this dishonest manager! What a strange story, right?

But now, let’s see this story from a slightly different angle: from the perspective of the poor peasants who borrowed jugs of olive oil and grains. In ancient time, interest rates on loans were not even close to what we experience today; they were sky-high. But because there weren’t any government-sponsored financial aid or loaning system, many people had no option but to borrow from rich landowners with extremely high interest rates to feed their families. Some who could not pay back became slaves or faced physical punishment.

So now, there was a poor peasant man who borrowed from the rich man. He originally borrowed 40 jugs of olive oil several years ago to feed his family. Years passed by, but he just could not pay back until it became 100 jugs. He was hopeless. Then one day, the manager of the rich man comes to him and quickly, he asks, how much do you owe my master? The man said 100 jugs of olive oil. Then within seconds, the manager reduces the interests, and says, Make it into 50 jugs. This was the amount that the man could actually pay back, and close to what he borrowed in the first place. The poor peasant couldn’t be more grateful. His family was saved from debt they simply could not afford.

When we shift the angle of the story, we see this poor, hopeless peasant who suddenly experienced liberation. The dishonest manager acted out of desperation and self-interest. But even in his messy, compromised actions, we see that: when debts are eased, when resources are shared, when burdens are lifted, people experience liberation.

Now, this parable does not commend the dishonesty of the manager at all. It makes clear that the dishonest behavior is not acceptable, and Jesus urges us to be trustworthy in handling resources entrusted to us. Even so, in commenting on the parable, Jesus laments that the people of God are not as shrewd and tactful as the manager who is driven by self-interest. Jesus says, “Yes, the manager is dishonest and what he did is not acceptable, but he was shrewd and quick and used the resources and power he had to shift the balance of power, which helped the poor. Pay attention to that.

Jesus reminds us in this passage that wealth and power are not neutral. It can easily lead us to dishonesty, to sin, and it can also destroy someone’s life. That’s why Jesus says that we cannnot serve wealth and God at the same time. But Jesus also shows us that when used wisely and tactfully, wealth and power can be used as a tool to build relationships, to support those in need, and to free those in despair.

So, what does this parable tell us, today, in our own contexts?

We live at the spike of capitalism, where wealth and power are unevenly distributed. And many of us, although difficult to admit, are benefiting from the system that was designed to advantage some while keeping many others in cycles of debt or poverty. Just like Jesus’ days.

Now the parable pushes us to ask: then, how might we use the wealth, the influence, the privilege we hold, creatively and shrewdly, in surprising ways, to serve God’s purposes? How might we shift the things we have so that it doesn’t just benefit ourselves, but be used to free others, those who are struggling?

Often, we think that we need to drastically change our lives to serve God. But actually, it’s using what we have right now and just slightly reorienting it, shifting its angles. Now, this is a jiujitsu moment for me: following God’s calling is working with what we have right now, our strength, our power, our money, and just simply shifting angles, and reorienting them to make changes in this world. We do not need to be perfect. It starts with small things, small shifts, small reorienting.

We are created by God as unique people, carved out differently for different life purposes, with different talents, and different skills. We are each like unique puzzle pieces that God needs, in order to complete the full picture of the kin-dom of God. When one piece goes missing, the whole picture cannot be complete. Each of us has a unique calling. God created us so uniquely and creatively that each of us has something that we can do, and should do, although very small, to contribute in building God’s beautiful world together.

And partnering with our Creator God doesn’t always mean creating something new, but being creative with what we already have to serve those in need. When we use what we have, money, time, social networks, to create change in our surroundings little by little, we participate in building God’s kin-dom.

So here is the question for all of us for the week ahead: How can our money, our time, our privilege, our influence, small or large, be redirected to serve God’s dream of justice? How can we redistribute what we have to contribute to building God’s kin-dom? Again, it’s not about making drastic changes; it’s often about simply reorienting what we already have, to serve God’s justice.

The invitation today is not to despise what we have, but to reimagine it creatively. What might it look like for you this coming week? What are the small steps that you will take to slightly shift the angle of your life to serve others with what you have right now?

May we, as individuals and as a congregation, be creative and shrewd for God’s just world. Created by God, let us be creative for God, to work with God in making this world a better place, little by little. May it be so. Amen.