You remember Jacob. You know, the Patriarch? The one who wrestled God one night and God struck his hip and named him Israel, the one who strives with God? You know, That Jacob.
Think about it, he was a real clever trickster, a wise rogue, how come someone like him ended up with the name of Israel, the name of God’s people? Think about it: Jacob deceived his father into receiving Esau’s blessing, he then conned Esau out of his inheritance, and then he made off with his father-in-law’s flock after out tricking him. Jacob, God’s trickster.
God’s people were named after him. Not Abraham. Not Isaac. Not Joseph. But Jacob, an off the cuff, clever, wild and unpredictable charmer and trickster. There was something fully engaged and alive about him, wide awake, seeing everything, working all the angles and possibilities, absolutely focused on what he wanted. Jacob, God’s trickster.
Tricksters make great heroes in all sorts of stories. Like queen Esther using her wiles to save her people from the King of Babylon’s corrupt administrator, Haman.
They’re not only in the Bible.
Brer Rabbit. Captured by Brer Fox and Brer Bear. Things were looking pretty bad, he was doomed for sure. And then he says those magic words, “Please, whatever you do please don’t throw me in that Briar patch….”
Or how about Tom Sawyer tricking all his friends into paying him to white wash that fence?
My Grandfather on my father’s side was a trickster. One time my father put a stink bomb into one of my Grandfather’s cigarettes. Later that day he heard my grandmother calling out and he ran into the living room. My Grandfather was out cold on the floor, not moving. My Grandmother said she didn’t know what happened, Granddad had lit a cigarette and then collapsed! My father was speechless. My Grandfather then smiled, opened one eye and started laughing. Two tricksters but one got the better of the other.
There is even an ancient way of understanding the gospel where in God is portrayed as the trickster, getting the better of the devil. The devil thinks he can trick God into giving him his son in trade for the world. Jesus dies, descends to hell and instead of staying put for the devil to torment, Jesus is risen, busting open the gates of hell from the inside and leading the great prison break setting all the captives free.
St Chrysostem describes God baiting the devil and beating the devil at his own game. He preached that “He descended to Hell and took Hell captive! Hell took a body and discovered God. It took earth and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.”
Two tricksters, but one got the better of the other.
The confusing parable that we hear today from Luke’s Gospel has the character of the trickster. The confusion is well illustrated by the two different titles that this parable is known by, the parable of the dishonest steward or the parable of the shrewd steward.
We often ask, “What is being commended in this parable? Dishonest business practices?” And why does the owner commend the shrewd behavior of the manager who stole or gave away so much of his wealth?
So if you are confused by this then good. It means you are paying attention. True parables are supposed to catch us off guard in some way making us vulnerable to God’s Spirit.
This wily shrewd trickster of a manager put everything he had and was into seeing to his future well being and survival. He had to be clever or he would soon starve out on the street for being caught in his dishonest gain.
We are to be just as shrewd, wily and clever as that character putting everything into seeing to out eternal well being. Being a child of light in this world means we have to be like all those great tricksters, fully engaged and alive, wide awake, seeing everything, paying attention, working all the angles and possibilities, absolutely focused on our eternal well being and the ultimate unfolding of God’s kingdom.
We have to pull off the ultimate shrewd and wily trick to escape the god of mammon that will hold us prisoner. Wealth, money, mammon-whatever we call it- is portrayed as a master, an owner that will lay claim on us and steal us away from God’s kingdom if we are not careful. The only way to out trick the trickster of mammon that is determined to delude, fool and lie us into slavery, the only way to get the better of that trickster is to give our wealth away, to use it for someone else, especially the poor.
So here is an approach to stewardship we don’t hear about too much, getting the better of the devil by being generous, one trickster getting the better of the other.
To be generous we will need to be shrewd. Sometimes that means doing something on the grand scale that makes headlines. But most of the time it is little things, a word, not buying something and then giving that money away, little shifts in priority and time, a note, a call, volunteering, making those daily and weekly commitments that are for others rather than for our own convenience and comfort.
In doing so we share in God’s joyous theft of the world from the father of lies and God smiles, opens one eye and laughs!