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Cooking the Books :: Luke 16:1-13

[Introduction] Have you ever heard the phrase “cooking the books”? Cooking the Books is the same thing as creative accounting. It refers to deceptive accounting practices. A person in charge of finances cooks the books by creatively manipulating their accounting to make expenses seem lesser than they really are, and to make profit appear greater than it really is. When a man is convicted of embezzlement, it’s most likely because he was cooking the books.  4. That is what seems to be happening in our Gospel reading. Luke writes, Jesus also said to his disciples, There was a certain rich man, who had a house manager, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting what already belonged to him (v 1).  This parable is truly one of the most difficult lessons in the New Testament. Part of the problem stems from the title we give it. Sometimes we call it the Parable of the “Dishonest Manager.” Another part of the problem is that when we read it too quickly it sounds li...