Some people say the Good Samaritan is their favorite parable. Some people say the Prodigal Son is their favorite parable. I haven't met many people who say this morning’s parable about the Dishonest Steward is their favorite parable. It may be, but who would dare admit that! And yet it is a wonderful parable. What is the point of the parable? There seems to be some really bizarre stuff going on in this parable, some really rather odd and uncharacteristic religious teaching. Does Jesus think financial shenanigans and fiscal fraud are good things, commendable things? No, he doesn't, clearly he doesn't. We realize that at once. The point is clear in the parable and after he had told the parable, just to be safe I guess, Jesus re-states the point he has made in the parable. Which he so rarely does, he lets them speak for themselves, which they do so magnificently. But this one, he seems to feel, needs a brief word of clarification. He wants to make certain his hearers know that what is said is simply, and profoundly, his observation that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of light. The parable is not about audits or fiduciary trust it is about being astute, being single-minded, being devoted to a purpose, to assessing one's gifts and liabilities without sentiment and then acting on that decisively and in accord with one's own best interests, even if, maybe especially if, those self-interests concern our immortal souls, and the salvation of ourselves, and all those around us. But, says Jesus, bad people seem unaccountably better at doing things with that single-minded, focused, decisive commitment than good people show when attempting good and moral things. Of course he assumes we realize that good people should be aiming for very different things than dishonest stewards and the like, but good people should be just as astute, just as intelligent just as farsighted, just mindful and committed and convinced and as thorough as ... this bad man, this unjust steward, this rascal, this clever embezzler is. Of course he's dreadful, but he point is, he is not stupid like many Christians are stupid, he is not naive like we sometimes think we are supposed to be. That's all the parable is saying. Nothing murkier than that. John Calvin said of this parable "How stupid it is to want to interpret it in every detail! Christ simply meant that the children of this world are more diligent in their concern for their own fleeting interests than the children of light are for their eternal well-being." I do not, as you may have noticed, quote John Calvin from this pulpit, much, but that's what he said. Calvin was a little, uh, low church, but he was brilliant, and, on this point, and in regard to this parable, right. If he was predestined to heaven, he doubtless heard that and is smiling at the scene of Bill Rhodes complimenting him, one of the 4 or 5 giants of the Christian Church. But of course Calvin was right.That surely is all that this parable is saying: "Be as bright about preparing for salvation as an embezzler is about preparing for un-employment." That's what the parable is saying about life, and faith. But it is also saying a lot, on a less obvious level, about parables in general, about the teaching of the Church in general, about applying Scripture to our lives, about learning from the examples of the Saints. It's saying a lot about how to listen to sermons and Christian education lectures and how to read theological books and religious pamphlets and spiritual guides. Hearing this at-first-startling parable reminds is that we are always supposed to focus on the obvious point the Bible or the Church is making, and not all, or any, of the alluring or alarming details. Calvin said "How stupid it is to want to interpret it in every detail ... Christ simply meant ..." What a wonderful expression that is, what a perfect Intro to anything about the Church or the Bible: "Christ simply meant ..." How helpful that would be as a proviso for any of our grand interpretations. We can get so bogged down in obscure points, in alternative, odd, off-the-wall interpretations, so overcome by details, that we pass right by the clear and obvious, while we chat away about incidentals. Or fret over odd bits. "Christ simply meant" that the people polarizing our Church and our society today are cleverer that those who would bring us together in love and mercy. “Christ simply meant” that those who would tear us asunder seem to be more astute than those who would bind us together. A wise and timely parable warning us against this danger, this week of all weeks, as our Bishops all meet to head off the real possibility of our Church splitting apart, and destroying itself. We pray to God that all, on all sides, will look at "What Christ simply meant." In the Church we consistently run the risk of looking so intently at the details that we miss everything else. So often the details are not the point and our best selves know the details are not the point. This parable does something wonderful for me - I need to be reminded that I can learn from that which I do not favor or even respect. We can learn from what seems at first to be an unpromising situation or an unhelpful comment, a bizarre criticism. We can be such simpering purists, such unbending little Puritans: "No! I don't go along with that, no, that doesn't make any sense, here is a situation that is unseemly, it is not speaking to me, this does not resonate for me, this raises more questions than it answers," and on and on. The parable recalls us to a consideration that despite off-putting details, troublesome aspects - there is truth, there is learning, there is wisdom in many out-of-fashion places in the Church's huge history and the Bible's vast store. As long as you don't get bogged down in the details or the externals or the peripherals. This morning's odd little parable, raises a very important issue for us: Can we lift the nugget, the pearl, out of a passage, a teaching, an example and not get all distracted with fussing around about the edges and fretting over the incidentals that are clearly, obviously, not the real point. Some of what I am saying here is, admittedly, so obvious, but there may be other instances that are not obvious as this parable, nevertheless also showing that Christian truths can be embedded in bits that are so off-putting that we risk ignoring the whole thing and dismiss some really valuable, vital stuff. I hear colleagues in the Church and Seekers on the faint edges of the Church broadly dismissing much of the Bible and most of the Church - it's out-of-date, out-of-touch, hypocritical. Passionate and good people, seeing only the odd details and not the real, deeper heart of the matter, may too easily condemn the Church and too quickly dismiss its real and genuine and lasting value. We do have our share of blemishes, and shortcomings, but the bigger picture, the whole picture, the real nature of our Church is to be inclusive, embracing, condemning judgmentalism. There are some details in our Sacred Scriptures, a verse here, an odd list there that those who come loaded for bear will find damaging. No denying it. But they are details, they are not the point. The point of the Bible and the Church is to bring hope and mercy and love and understanding and tenderness and redemption. If you miss that point because of some troubling details, then John Calvin thinks it's just plain stupid. And I bet we would, in this case at least, agree with him. Oh, I hear angry or fed-up critics scold me that our Church and all its sacred teaching, indeed, all of Western organized religion, is unhelpful at best, and hurtful too often. Then, come in, join us, lend us your help and your passion in putting it right, back-on-track, true to its roots. Like God, the truth is without body, parts, or passions or nationality, gender, or orientation. And that is what the Church is all about, despite any real or imagined faults. The Church is about the truth, the eternal, abiding, endless truth, not the details of history, not the details of our own and others' mistakes. And certainly not about the distracting details of our sins. So much of what is going on in the Church right now is demeaning our own members, and also incurring the ridicule of thoughtful people outside the Church. Be warned, warns Jesus, the ones who would keep us focused on the details and derailed by the details are cleverer by far than the children of light. Until the children of light wake up. And realize and remember what it was and is that "Christ simply meant."