I doubt that anyone would choose Jesus to be minister of finance:  Last week he commends the actions of the shepherd who abandons 99 of sheep to look for one that’s lost.  This week, in Luke 16:1-13, he commends a dishonest land manager who squanders his master’s wealth. 

At the heart of these parables is a call to prioritise the relational above the transactional.  Like the first reading, Amos 8:4-7, they are a plea for solidarity and unity which stems from an understanding of the deep interconnectedness of all life. 

Both Luke and Amos were written in the context of great economic inequality in which poor tenant farmers often ended up enslaved as bonded labourers who could, in the words of Amos, be bought for the price of “a pair of sandals”. 

Despite his dubious motives, the manager in the parable releases people from their debt and so sets them free.  At the start of the parable, he is solidarity with the rich landowner, he too desires to increase his own position at the expense of others.  It is only when he experiences insecurity that he can begin to empathise with the experience of the vulnerable and stand in solidarity with them.

Both Amos and Jesus invite us to embrace a life that is relational: to acknowledge that all that we are and all that we have come from God and that we flourish when our lives are used for the well-being and building up of all of God’s creation.  In the words of Desmond Tutu, it is “in seeing the many ways in which we are similar and how our lives are inextricably linked, we can find empathy and compassion… ultimately, it is the humble awareness of our own humanity that allows us to give and to forgive.”

Some major roof maintenance started this week. The old roof is being re-covered but with new upstands and skylights ( to replace the existing, many of which are broken). The new ones are triple glazed, improving heat performance.