• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

215 N. 7th, Terre Haute, Indiana

  • About
    • Welcome!
    • Worship Calendar
    • Live Worship
    • Sermons
    • Clergy & Staff
    • Communication
  • Community
    • Blog
    • News + Events
    • Episcopal Links
    • Links for Study and Devotion
  • Get Involved
    • Give
    • Calendar
    • Ministries
    • Service Committees
  • Members
    • Annual Meeting
    • News
    • Schedule
    • Newsletter
    • The Hope Journal
    • Resources

A Word: Bad Economics

Sermons · September 22, 2019

Jesus keeps teaching us about the limits of transactional thinking — and the life-giving beauty of sacrifice in his way of love.


How we squander our most valuable resource
Proper 20C
Luke 16:1-13

By Rev. Drew Downs

Bad Economics
Photo by Terrillo Walls from Pexels

If you’re having trouble making sense of Jesus’s point in this parable, then you’re not alone. This simple-sounding parable is one of the most argued-about parts of scripture.

Partly because it doesn’t really sound very Jesusy. It almost sounds like an encouragement to be dishonest, or to take advantage of someone else’s deception. That doesn’t match with Jesus’s earlier critiques of dishonesty!

This doesn’t sound right. So maybe we need to dig into what Jesus is wrestling with.

What we know for sure is that Jesus is telling a story about money and about power. That is clear. How these two things (money and power) get used…that gets a little more difficult to parse…

 

 

The full text and audio may be found here.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: love, Luke 16:1-13, money, Prodigal Son, Proper 20C

Previous Post: « Fresh Voices Art Show
Next Post: A Word: Unbound Grace »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • A Word: Befriending the Spirit
  • Summer Sabbatical
  • A Word: The Promise
  • Sabbath and Peace
  • A Word: Loving People

Keep Up

Footer

CONTACT

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
215 N. 7th St
Terre Haute, IN 47807

812-232-5165

officeadmin@ststephensth.org

ABOUT

St. Stephen’s is a sacramental community following Jesus’s Way of Love.

We worship on Sundays at 8 & 10.

AFFILIATIONS

St. Stephen’s is a member of The Episcopal Church and congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.

St. Stephen’s is a member of the Homeless Council of the Wabash Valley

PARKING

St. Stephen’s is across from Indiana State University. Nearby parking lots are run by ISU and are free after 5pm weekdays and are free all weekend long. 

Five marked spots in the lot directly behind the church are available during the week.

Copyright © 2025 · Showcase Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in