Luke 16:1-9

Deall shrewdly, Jesus says.  Be like the dishonest manager, Jesus says.  Make friends by dishonest wealth, he instructs us.  Shrewdness, dishonestly, ill-gotten gains.  These are the tools Jesus is instructting me to use this morning.  I know this passage, I know the difficulties it raises.  I know how to nimbly tumble through its' array of obstacles, with all the Greek, contextual and theology skills which have been given to me.  But today I am trying to look at it as if I juast read it for the first time.  Jesus says that we are to be shrewd, like the dishonest manager, that I am to make friends via dishonest wealth.  The end game being that we will be welcomed into their houses.  So we are to act in such a way that someone will acept take us in, utlimately.  When talking about ultimate things, I am thinking that we are working to be accepted, taken in by God.  We are to deal shrewdly with God. We are to do whatever it takes to gain God's favor.  My Wesleyan roots tell me I do not need to work for God's favor.    But this passage seems to tell me that when push comes to shove, when I am out on my ear, I should work to be the kind of person God would accept, God would take in.  The manager cuts the bills in half.  The manager gives these people what they want for 1\2 price.  They get two for the price of one. Christ has paid the price, Christ has done the work, so if we are like the manager we will work to be sure that we give two for the price of one, we give twice as much as what has been paid.  This is about giving all of our selves to Christ, to be sure that Jesus is getting a deal, is getting more than what he bargained for.  Give back to God more than God could possibly expect.  Live shrewdly, give God twice as much as what God paid.  Make your life a two for one deal, a 1\2 off special.  Live so that the price paid, is a deal.  Bring heaven to Earth with who you are. Live above and beyond expectation.  Being a dishonest manager means that you give God, the one who will eventually take you in, accept you, will be getting more than God bargained for.  Your life can be worth more.  Live shrewdly, give God even more than God could possibly want.  That means living Heaven here, living abundant love, that mean giving the kind of acceptance, I have recieved, to the world around me.