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Our FICO Score A sermon about everyday faithfulness Do you know your FICO score? Or better yet, do you even know you have a FICO score? If not, it’s time we talked. FICO is a registered trademark of the Fair Isaac Corporation, the folks who pioneered credit ratings back in the 1950s. Credit rating has today ballooned into a huge industry, and the minute you or I become financially active we pop up on the screens of the big three rating companies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. Raters find out all about us: where we live—where we’ve ever lived—who we work for, what kind of accounts we’ve opened, the balances we keep, and who all has been interested enough to ask about us. They put together a FICO score for us based on our past history, as well as our current assets and liabilities. That score is solicited by banks to determine how much to loan us to buy a car or a house—and there are plenty of sub-prime lenders today who dearly wish they’d made better use of FICO scores! The scores are also used by insurance companies to set our premiums, by prospective employers to evaluate our applications, and by utility companies and landlords to set our deposit amounts. In short, a FICO score becomes a kind of shorthand for how worthy we are deemed to be of credit, how credible we have demonstrated ourselves to be— basically how believable we have become—when we say we will live up to our word. So central is our FICO score to navigating a credit-driven economy that TransUnion, Equifax and Experian are required by law to tell us our score when we ask, and consumer groups urge us not only to ask, but also to sign up for email notification each time changes are made to our report. This kind of focus on how credible we’ve shown ourselves to be, how believable we are when we say we will live up to our word—this is the kind of keen focus Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel, as he commends the property manager for being shrewd. On a strictly material level, this guy has just had a conversion experience. For a very long time his boss has kept a low profile—the last time the two spoke was somewhere over there, and sometime back then. By now, for all intents and purposes, the manager has forgotten about the boss. He’s living as if he will never have to make an account for how he’s exercised his responsibilities. He just accepts whatever payments come in, and fritters them away by indulging his passing fancies, and spending on whims of the moment. Jesus describes his behavior as squandering—the same word he uses to describe the Prodigal Son’s wayward behavior a few chapters earlier. As for the Prodigal Son, ironically things take a turn for the better for him when he finally bottoms out; the rude shock of going broke brings him to his senses, and he turns back to begin again—this time on a better footing. In the case of this manager, he’s not been lucky enough to go broke; though he’s living on borrowed time, he’s still managing to stay afloat when the boss shows up, and asks for an accounting. Having to suddenly face his superior forces the manager’s conversion. His attention shifts from frittering and squandering to meeting those long-forgotten expectations. His conversion shows a shrewd shift, a clever shift, a savvy reorientation of his energy and attention, and it signals that he’s finally come to his senses. The manager now realizes that he has been foolish, very foolish, and that the boss is no fool. I hear the ring of irony in Jesus’ voice as he laments the way the children of this age—the worldly ones like you and me, who live and breathe for today only—how we’re ever so much more shrewd at managing our worldly affairs, than at storing up treasures in heaven. And that makes me wonder about what kind of accounting each of us could make today, and what our spiritual FICO score would be—our faithfulness in current opportunities score—if today were the day that Jesus asked. How have we been using the time on this earth God has given us? We like to talk about 24/7, referring to the way we cram as much as possible into every day and week. It’s consistently documented that we Americans work longer hours than employees in any other industrialized nation. As a result we shrewdly enjoy the highest per capita standard of living in the world. Would Jesus say we enjoy a comparable standard of spiritual living? Could he be speaking to us when he urges we grow just as clever at putting our time to spiritual use, as we are putting it to material use? Think back over you past week, your past month, your past year…does the way you are spending your time make you worthy of credit, of credibility, when you confess to God that you believe him to be the creator of all you have? When you confess to God that you believe in the life of the world to come? And how have we been using the talents God has given us? We are big into self-development today, and making the most of our potential. We have how-to consultants, books, TV shows, web sites, and magazines for every imaginable endeavor. Whatever we want to get better at, whatever we set out to accomplish, we can discover a way to do it. Would Jesus say we show the same kind of zeal for moral improvement and spiritual growth? Could he be speaking to us when he urges becoming at least as clever at growing our souls, as we are at developing our personalities, our careers, and our bodies? Think back over your past week, your month, your year…does the way you are using your talents make you worthy of credit, of credibility, when you confess that you are a Christian? And how are we using the treasure God has entrusted to us? We middle class Americans mainline the closing Dow Jones and NASDAQ numbers. We somehow find a way to feel poor with every market correction, even as our net worth, over time, continues to rise. Would Jesus say that our interest in what our investments accomplish is matched by our interest in what our donations to the Church and charities accomplish? Could he be speaking to us when he urges funding efforts which bring glory to God, and well-being to God’s creatures, the way we fund efforts which bring profit to ourselves? Think back over your past week, your month, your year…does the way you are using your treasure make you worthy of credit, of credibility, when you join in saying, “All things come of thee, oh Lord, and of tine own have we given thee?” Our spiritual FICO score—our faithfulness in current opportunities—Jesus wants us to become as shrewd about growing this as we are about advancing our material FICO score. And that’s the Gospel truth. Amen. © Copyright The Rev. Ann Lukens 2004 |
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