Working on a sermon

[not in final form yet]
I have read and read and read various commentaries and sermons about the "dishonest steward" in Luke 16:1-13.  But to be honest, I am enjoying wrestling with this text.  And the Amos reading and Epistle are typical.  Each says the appropriate "God" type stuff for a normal sermon, but neither pack the punch that Luke's parable does.

If I were sitting in the pews, I would want someone to help me understand just what the hell the take home message is?  However, anyone who knows me well realizes (at best) I am metaphorically and  allegoriacally challenged.

One of the scarey things about reading what others have written about this passage, is the "spinning" taking place.  Each seem to have their own agenda, so they are able to make this story, even as oppositional as it is to conventional christian ethics, say what they wish for it to say. 

Now think about our life now, with 24/7 news shows and talk radio?  Now we can listen to the 'news' we wish to hear, we can see the marginalized as "those people", we can rationalize any behavior good or bad, by how we choose to see it.   

And each sermon writer had a method of "spin" to allow this story to justifying their way of seeing the world..

I realize you can see anything, anyway you choose to see. 

So how do we find God's voice in our world?  How do we hear God's voice or see God's plan when we have to look through our hubris?