Things definitely seem shakier this week. Share prices are tumbling, Aer Lingus is mothballing Airbuses, more jobs are being cut, and all to a crescendo of threatening noise as nations prepare to unleash the dogs of war.
It just so happens that the bottom had fallen out of the world of the man featured in the parable in the Gospel of Luke 16:1-8 (you may hear it read in church tomorrow), since he was facing summary dismissal for business malpractice.
The company owner received confidential information that his chief executive officer had been systematically stripping the assets. Anticipating the sack, the CEO pulled in all the company's debtors and negotiated huge discounts in the amounts outstanding.
Someone who owed 800 gallons of olive oil left with a 50 per cent reduction while a farmer due to stump up 1,000 bushels of wheat negotiated down to 800 bushels. By pulling this brilliant stroke, the CEO put the debtors in his moral debt and he could call in the favours at some future date.
The boss was also in a spot of bother with the law since he was breaking Old Testament prohibitions about lending money. So, unable to press the matter further, "he commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly" (v.8).
What have we here, then? Can it really be that the CEO, outrageous and self-serving, comes out of this murky affair with both his boss and Jesus commending him? Careful! The parable has one point and that is the wisdom of using present opportunities for future gain.
It's something to remember about all the parables of Jesus - don't read too much into details that have nothing to do with the main point.
"The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light," observes Jesus. The secular world is characteristically clever and down-to-earth in its working, with ethics and morality consigned to the back burner, while committed Christians suffer by comparison because of their tendency to be trusting and even na∩ve in their dealings.
There is, though, always an antithesis between God and the world and Jesus rounds off the passage with memorable words: "No servant can serve two masters....you cannot serve God and Money." Divided loyalties are impossible and Christians cannot be double-minded, loving Jesus Christ and simultaneously engrossed in shoring up their assets in this world.
Jesus's call to single-mindedness may strike us with particular force this weekend. Maybe our goals and motivations have become hazy, consciences have become hardened and layers of self-deception have built up. Recent events have brought some much-needed clarity. What do we really need to be single-minded about? What will remain if pretty much everything else is swept away?
Thankfully, there is a simple answer from this gospel passage. We are to be single-minded in the pursuit of personal holiness towards God because ultimately we can have but one master. You choose, invites Jesus. God or Money?
In recent days some of the things we have been pursuing with an ardent, even passionate, mindset may seem tawdry, insubstantial and unworthy. The bottom may not have fallen out of the world entirely, but it has been given a massive shaking.
Hear again, then, Jesus's invitation to clarity and freedom. Deep in our hearts, we can be committed in only one direction - either towards God or away from him - and a person obsessed with money and materialism cannot possibly be a man or woman of God.
Not surprisingly, churches were packed a week last Friday and Sunday. Very few Irish people are so dumb as to believe salvation is to be found in the shopping mall. But some of us have been giving a reasonably good impression of recent times that we were believing the big lie.
God versus Money? You can't be serious; not after Tuesday the 11th.
G.F.