“I’m pregnant!” Father Michael Renninger, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia, overheard his 67-year-old mother say on the telephone. He, of course, was confused. Later his mother said to him, “Michael, didn’t I teach you not to take things out of context?” It turns out that his mother was guessing the news her friend had called to share with her and it just so happened that was the only part of the conversation that Renninger heard. Renninger reminds us, “It is dangerous to take things out of context…Sometimes you can only understand what you’ve just heard if you know what came before it…I certainly think that is true of this week’s passage from Luke 16:1-13.” Last week’s passage, the Prodigal Son, helps us understand this week’s passage. Both parables invite you “to think about the treasure God has put into your hands and then to ask, ‘What am I doing with it, squandering or serving?'”
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