There is nothing unusual in talking about faithful Christians, active Christians, committed Christians, obedient and humble Christians, about Christians who are loving and loyal. But clever Christians? Some of us may never have heard it put that way.

This is what surprises us about the parable here in Luke 16. Toward the end of it Jesus says that the "sons of light" (v. 8), that is, the people of God, ought to be clever in their religion, like the "sons of this world" are in their business dealings; the Christian enterprise calls for shrewdness! Let's try to understand a little more clearly what Jesus means by all of this as we consider the theme, "Clever Christians."

At first reading the whole story here may impress us as a little shocking, because it almost sounds like Jesus is using a c…