If life feels messy and full of dismay,
Love what lasts; not what passes away.
Look to the heavens, let go of the stress,
Take a deep breath and learn to say “yes.”[1]

In 2008, Jim Carrey starred in a movie called Yes Man. Maybe you've seen it. Carrey plays a character named Carl, a man whose life has become incredibly ordinary. Everything felt monotonous, humdrum. Carl was burned out, dismayed, and stuck in a cycle of saying “no” to just about everything. He had no real sense of purpose or joy. Then one day, he attends a motivational seminar where the speaker commands him to make one simple change: never say “no” again. From now on, Carl must say yes to everything. Sounds ridiculous, and it is, but that is what makes it so funny. Carl works as a loan manager at Brea Federal Savings and Loan, a small, conservative branch that doesn’t like taking risks. He spends his days rubber-stamping one word onto applications: “Denied.” Corporate policy. No risk. Just slow, guaranteed returns.

But now Carl is a changed man. He can only say yes. A Persian woman comes in, wanting to borrow money to start a business selling scarves, scarves she makes herself. Yes. A man asks for a loan to open a Korean barbecue food truck. Yes. Someone else wants to start a bakery that specializes in cakes shaped like famous people’s heads. (Yes, she even has one that looks like Dolly Parton.) Yes. People show up with unusual, unconventional ideas and Carl just keeps saying yes. Everyone is shocked. Corporate is confused. Where is all this money going? But here’s the twist: It works. These new businesses take off. People flourish. They reinvest in the bank. The bank starts seeing more growth than it did with its old, “safe” policies. Carl’s simple “yes” leads to a revival, not just of the community, but of his own spirit.

I bring that story to you today because it reminded me of a parable from Jesus. In Luke 16, we hear about a dishonest manager, he is about to get fired so, what does he do? He goes out and starts cutting deals. To the man who owes 100 jugs of oil, he says, “Let’s make it 50.” To the one who owes 100 containers of wheat, he says, “Make it 80.” Was it smart? Was it manipulative? Maybe a little of both, but Jesus says something surprising: the master commended the manager for his shrewdness. Why? Because even though the manager was in trouble, he was finally willing to take a risk. He acted decisively. He used what influence he had to build goodwill, and maybe, in the process, he found a different kind of wealth. That is what I want us to sit with today.

Is Jesus telling us to be shrewd? Is He telling us to be calculating? No, not in the way the world is because at the end of the parable, Jesus makes something very clear: You cannot serve both God and money. That is the real crux of the message. In the Hebrew understanding, the word for "mammon" (which we often translate as “money”) is more than just cash or possessions. It refers to a kind of wealth that exists to secure your future, your own power, your own perpetuity, apart from God. Jesus is warning us: You cannot serve yourself and serve God at the same time. We all need to pay bills.

We all need to live, but the deeper question is: Where is your trust? Who, or what, are you really serving? I remember being in high school when new laws passed allowing credit card companies to charge 22% interest. Sears Roebuck was the first company allowed to hike their rates. Later, we see First Premier Mastercard jumped to 36%. Suddenly, people who were struggling just to get by found themselves trapped by interest serving mammon instead of being free. Maybe that is part of what Jesus is warning us about in this parable. Not just about banks and money, but about our mindset. Are we building a life on cautious self-preservation, or on courageous generosity, because God’s economy doesn’t run on scarcity. It runs on grace. It runs on giving. It runs on saying “yes” to people, not just “yes” to profits.

In the First Book of Chronicles of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, there is a verse we recite during the opening of a Rite I mass. We take a deep breath, as we say, “All things come of Thee, O Lord. And of Thine own have we given Thee.” It reminds us who our true lender is, and this place called heaven we need to invest our focus.

When Carl, in the movie, finally started saying “yes,” he began investing in people, not just policies. When the dishonest manager in the parable started saying “yes,” he shifted his focus from pleasing the master to blessing the debtor. When we say “yes” to Christ, our lives are transformed. It might get a little messy. We might feel a little dismayed, but we will also begin to love what truly lasts. Today, let’s take a deep breath. Let go of the stress. Lift your eyes to heaven and learn how to say yes, not to the world’s version of security, but to God’s invitation to faith, generosity, and trust.

[1[ The Rev. Jon Roberts
[2] Luke 16:1-13
[3] 1 Chronicles 29:14