While reading the Bible, Mark Twain once quipped, "It is not the parts of the Scripture that I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts that I do understand." There are plenty of passages of Scripture that speak to us and trouble us. But, alas! for me, this is not one of them. Bernard Anderson referred to the Bible as a special delivery letter with our address on it. That may be true, but this particular bit of Scripture had best be marked, "return to Sender; no one at this address!" This is simply one of those texts that we don't know what to do with. And neither did the early church. They kept adding endings to Jesus' parable trying to make sense of a story that obviously commended the wisdom and resourcefulness of the dishonest steward.

The first attempt is sheer jibberish. "And I…