The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (help, Lord!)

I am just starting to try and make sense of the parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16), which is this Sunday's set gospel reading. It is a story about a man who fiddles the account books in order to win friends who will support him when he is dismissed from his post.

My problem is how I preach on this parable. It is not difficult to focus on one particular aspect and draw out a worthy moral. For example, "worldly wealth is not an end in itself, but a resource for gaining more important ends." I've been doing this sort of thing for years. I take a difficult passage from the Bible and find one specific angle to look at it which reveals a nugget of wisdom to share with the congregation.

My question is this (and yes I have probably been influenced by Richard Dawkins and his description of the Bible as a very unpleasant book): Is such a preaching method an honest way of dealing with Scripture? Is it right to ignore the surface immorality of a passage and take the congregation on a hunt for some hidden spark of good news? On the other hand, preaching the plain meaning of the parable ("let's all be devious and dishonest so that we can win the favour of influential people") doesn't seem like a good idea either.

I've painted myself into a corner here. There's only one way out - "Help, Lord! You have four days maximum to show me how I can preach a meaningful, relevant, inspiring sermon which doesn't distort or ignore the overall spirit of the written text."

(see later blog)