To PG: Jesus said it all before you did. He told the first evangelists to be resourceful in spreading the new gospel. see http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2016:%201-1...;

Note that he is commending the resourcefulness of the manager, not his dishonesty. Also he is asking them to invest in eternity and not things that perish. Unfortunately, you consider Jesus to be irrelevant as you wrote in an essay: "bronze age shepherds wandering about in Palestine". On the contrary. Read Jesus. Your world will be shaken.