The Unfaithful Steward
Today's gospel lesson is a parable about stewardship, but it is a truly bizarre parable. There was even a discussion among some of my Facebook friends about how to preach today’s gospel. Elizabeth Kaeton described it as, “The Worst Parable Ever,” and expressed the difficulty as follows: I confess I am sorely tempted to break the discipline I was carefully taught and preach on Jeremiah or Amos, or the Epistle or even, as I've experienced some of what at least one of my professors would describe as "lily-livered preachers" do: The Collect (gasp!). Anything but this wretchedly confounding gospel. Well, I guess everybody's gotta do something while waiting for the Parousia. [1] In the Palestine of Jesus' time, absentee landlords were quite common. In this parable, Jesus tells his listeners about a property owner who gets word that the servant he has placed in charge of his affairs has been squandering his property. The landlord confronts the steward,