Luke 16:1-14

Luke 16:1-14
Jesus told this story to his disciples: 
“There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
“The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
“So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.’
“‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’
“The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. 
Here’s the lesson: 
Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.
“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

I have wrestled with this parable as much as any.
On the one hand the Lord commends the shrewdness of the dishonest manager; and then insists that we refrain from such dishonesty. He expects us to be honest 'in the little things'. If we are trustworthy in the nickel and dime stuff, we can be entrusted with the high ticket matters like caring for others.
Why would Jesus commend in his own parable something he refutes in his 'take home' application?
There is a contrast that is key to interpreting the passage. The children of this world versus the children of light.
I think what he's driving at is how we as children of light are to relate to the children on this world - in the areas where the children of this world are more advanced than we are.
It's as though he's saying - admire the ingenuity of a crook, but don't imitate him. Befriend a crook, heck even visit him in his home, just don't become one.
In part it is a mercy thing. Jesus doesn't want his children looking down at anyone - most especially people entrenched in the ways of this world.
But it is also an understanding how life works thing. Jesus' ways are clearly contrary to the way the world works - but he insists we not be blind nor naive to how the world works. We wants us in the world but not of it, he wants us to befriend its children and in some way 'to give them their due' without imitating their wrong-doing. It's a repeat of the Caesar and God thing - give to Caesar his due and to God his - allowing that for the children of light, only one is to be Lord and it ain't Caesar. Just don't sweat with Caesar about the small stuff. Don't try to rub his face off your pocket change. It could kill you. Needlessly. So give Caesar his due. Sure there will be times to take issue with the way he does things. But the imprint of his face on a coin isn't one of them...
Which gets me to the life lesson repeated through scripture. Sometimes God uses the people of this world to rescue the children of light. Joseph, Mary and Jesus escape to become refugees in Egypt to escape the wrath of the Jewish tyrant, King Herod. David hides among the Philistines in order to escape the wrath of Saul. Moses hides for 40 years among the Midianites to escape both the Jews and the Egyptians. Joseph is saved from his brothers...at times God uses the children of this world to save his people from themselves.
Through Jeremiah God tells the Jews in Babylon to 'work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile'. We are not to be a 'stick with our own only' community. We are to be out there...not just for our sakes but for the peace and prosperity of those we live with, regardless of who they are...
And maybe this is the connecting point between the parable and its application. Part of the trustworthiness Christ expects of us is to respect those who are not children of light. Eat with them, learn from them, love them, 'give them their due' - there will be times in life when they will rescue us because of their shrewdness or because they're more advanced in the ways of this world than we are. Sometimes they are the very break we need when our fellow children of light are killing us.
But we aren't to refrain from being 'children of light' among them. Not only do they help us, we help them. God has entrusted them to us. They are our parish. We are to gain their trust in the things that matter to them in the hope of gaining their trust in the areas that ultimately matter to all of us i.e. faith, love, mercy, justice, kindness and truth...