Sacred Using the Secular
The scripture reading this morning from Luke 16 is a rather nuanced one. Some have called it questionable, questioning if Jesus really said it. I’d call it pragmatic and realistic for the world we live in. So, let’s review the story, known as the parable of the shrewd manager and the applications of the story that Jesus lays out. The first thing to recognize is who Jesus is talking to. He’s talking to his disciples. Jesus and his disciples are living in a communitarian - communitarian not communist - way. They live as a single, insular community and share all things in common. They live like traveling monks and together share everything. They are living in the secular world, but are not of that secular world. They are building the foundation of God's kingdom! So what’s the story Jesus tells his disciples? Well, there’s a landlord and a property manager of that land. The landlord is dissatisfied with his property manager's work and decides to fire the manager. The property mana...