The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light

 He also said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

- Luke 16:1-9

In yesterday's reading, we were given the third parable in Jesus' response to the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees, that tax collectors and sinners came to hear Him preach.  It is the parable of the Prodigal Son:  "A certain man had two sons.  And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.'  So he divided to them his livelihood.  And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.  But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.  Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.  And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.  But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Make me like one of your hired servants."'  And he arose and came to his father.  But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.  And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'  But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.  And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'  And they began to be merry.  Now his older son was in the field.  And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.  So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.  And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.'  But he was angry and would not go in.  Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.  So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.  But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'  And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.  It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.'"

  He also said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."  My study bible explains that a steward is responsible for managing his master's property and for looking after the welfare of his servants.  It says that the point of this parable is that the unrighteous are better at using money to make friends in the world than believers are at using money to make friends for the Kingdom of God.  This is accomplished by spending it on the needy.  At death (when you fail) those whom one helped will welcome their benefactors into the everlasting home.

This parable is confusing in terms of its application to our salvation if we think of it in the stark black and white terms of correct behavior.  After all, the steward himself was defrauding his master.  But let us recall under what context this parable is told.  Jesus has just replied to the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees that unrighteous people like tax collectors and other sinners are coming to Him to hear Him.  (See the readings from Wednesday and Thursday, in which Jesus told three parables in response.)   Let us note that in these parables there is an illustration of mercy, of the lengths to which a shepherd, an owner of ten coins, and finally a father will go to recall and reclaim that which has been lost.  In common with today's parable, those three parables illustrate what it means not to follow the exact letter of nominal justice, but rather to make the extra effort and sacrifice required to reclaim what has been lost.  In today's reading, Jesus turns to His disciples and directs this parable toward them.  Perhaps they, too, are wondering about the tax collectors and sinners who gather to this ministry to hear Him.  After all, tax collectors were notoriously unrighteous people, known for cheating their own Jewish compatriots, working for the Romans, and not above using methods of violence and extortion to take more for themselves.  But what Jesus seems to be saying in this parable is that it is not the rules of "dollars and cents," if you will, that remain important in the Kingdom.  Rather, what matters is how we use what we have as stewards in order to claim what has been lost.  In this sense, perhaps, the unrighteous tax collectors and sinners may find that by exercising mercy with what they have and reforming their own lives, they may lay claim to a righteous or "right-relatedness" to others through that same "unrighteous mammon" of wealth.  We note that at the beginning of the parable, this steward has squandered his master's goods; so it may be with those of us who fail to use appropriately the resources we've been given by God in life, for we are all stewards of God's creation.  This steward then, in turn, finds ways to be merciful to those who owe the master.  In the parable, then, we find that the nominal rules of what's "fair" or "equal" to be cast out, but by the standards of righteousness, the mercy shown by the steward toward the debtors is a shrewd, and a good thing.  In the Greek this word for shrewd indicates that which comes through practical understanding and experience, and is not merely an application of something abstract.  It is a lesson in how, even as His disciples, we must be prepared to deal with fellow human beings through relatedness and pragmatism under given real circumstances, which leads to mercy.  We see a parallel to this possible interpretation in the story of Zacchaeus, also found in Luke's Gospel (19:1-10).  Zacchaeus is not just a tax collector, but is in fact a chief tax collector, who is very rich by his ill-gotten gains.  But as Jesus passes through Jericho, a town notorious for sin, He calls out Zacchaeus and says that He must stay at Zacchaeus' house that day.  This is met with the same derision to which Jesus has been responding in the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees in our recent readings.  But Zacchaeus proclaims, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold."  And then Jesus proclaims, in a message directly found in the parable of the Prodigal Son (given in yesterday's reading, see above), "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."  Zacchaeus' willingness to "make friends" not only with those who are poor by sharing half his goods, and to restore fourfold anything he's gained by cheating, restore him to the Lord.  In other words, by using unrighteous mammon, he may be received into an everlasting home.  This is a way of giving hope to all, that there is a way to redemption and to the path toward Christ.  Let us consider how we, too, may use our own "unrighteous mammon," and in particular this personal and applied pragmatism toward the human condition that Jesus advocates.  It may not make sense according to an abstract sense of balancing the books, but His is a ministry of direct communion with each, an effective realism which begins where we truly are and doesn't hide from itself the realities and struggles of this world.  In theological terms, this is called (from the Greek word for steward) economia.  I personally would argue that this is the kind of faith to which Christ calls us.  We may not all be notorious tax collectors, but our Lord makes it clear that the option of giving -- from whatever resource we have, however it has come to us -- is always on the table to help to bring each back to the road of discipleship under Him.  After all, He is the Master who gives more than all the rest of us.