This, after all, is a story about stewardship, and how we ought to behave. And for the new guy in town to preach on it is like winning a coin toss in a javelin throwing contest and electing to receive. Now a steward is one who is entrusted with things that do not belong to them. Certainly the steward in this mornings passage cuts corners and makes deals, but he also improved the situation in such a way as to earn the grudging commendation of his master with the implication that holy people, spiritually-minded people, are no good in managing the affairs of the world. It is worldly people who are best entrusted with these matters.
Matter matters materially and it matters spiritually.
The second point of this peculiar story is equally contrary to expectation. The test for spiritual maturity is not so much in how you take care of yourself, as it is in the proven responsibility over resources belonging to someone else. Authentic spirituality does not in the first instant lead, it serves. Now this strikes me as even harder to swallow than the first lesson. Because few of us nowadays like the fact that most of us find ourselves working for other people.