November 16, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Twenty-Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
Matthew 25:14-30
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Psalm 123
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson
We all love the parable of the talents. It is used in all sorts of ways. The fact it is loved and well known does not mean it is easily understood or that there is an easy application of the story.
Most we have been taught that the talent is just that - some gift we have - particularly a spiritual gift. What is done is we make it into a metaphor or an allegory which is similar to not hiding our light under a bushel basket. The interpretative model is that talents are gifts from God, to be used for God or buried and hidden and ignored. This idea is important and does reflect the not hiding our light. But it does not catch the full impact of the parable.
Another way we have used the parable is in stewardship. This is an understanding of talents as cash. This is closer to the Biblical meaning of the word for talent is a monetary measure - a currency. In this reading we think about our resources - human and capital - and are called to use them wisely. This is coupled with the idea of sustainable activity so the church and the world will be there for our grandchildren. Again not the full impact.
These are helpful ways of reading the parable but there is an aspect of the parable that leaves a sense of unease. It offends our basic sense of justice. It seems unfair that what we have will be taken away. And those who have much will get even more. In the face of our present economic reality we wonder why those who have much seem to be getting bailed out why those who are losing their homes get nothing. And this parable seems to justify such a reality.
When go back and reread the parable from the viewpoint of those in Jesus time we find that our problems with understanding it are minor to theirs.
Here is the context and the meaning of parables. Parables are not allegories or moral stories telling us how to live. They are conversations without an moral ending. They are challenge to the way we think about things. In a real way they question the status quo, push out all conventional ways of thinking so an open space is created within us so we hear the aim of God in a new way. The world is turned up side down and we are ready for fresh ways of thinking.
We also need to understand the context. There would have been at least two groups who heard the parable and they would have brought their world view with them. They would have heard out of their religious context. They would have heard out of their understanding of how things are.
One influence is the role of the Torah and its understanding of patrimony and not to charge interest, One is to pass on what one has received - a father to the son and on and on without addition or subtraction. Because, like interest, to add to what one has is to take from the other. And if there is a surplus of land or goods this means people had lost theirs and became the dispossessed - the poor. The way of righteous living had been lost.
This also described the economic system that now dominated their world. The very way of doing business meant there had to be the poor. A master owned more land than they could work so had retainers to look after it. The retainers made their living by adding to the wealth of the owner and then taking a cut from the increase. This meant this was a taking from others and it created a dispossessed people. The servants who added were following the system to create wealth for the owner and themselves at the expense of others.
The servant who buried the money did so because he feared the wrath of the owner. In a way the listeners would have said oh he is naming the situation correctly - it is an unjust system. His response to the owner was to call into question the very system that created the dispossessed. He is a whistle blower. And his actions lead to harsh outcomes. The system does not like to be called into question. He would now become one of the dispossessed.
Another response would be the outcome of not listening to the Torah. The story offends conventional wisdom by punishing the law abiding servant and rewarding those who broke the law to get rich. The religious reality was not working to place limits on human interaction. This would cause a crisis of faith. Where is God? would be cry of the dispossessed. The religious system had not protected them.
Those listening would be confused. We see this because Matthew adds his gloss. What then is the point of the parable? The hint is always in the beginning - the Kingdom of heaven is like. The very story is told to wake up the listener, to shock them into paying attention. It is create an open space so the listener would rethink every thing they had taken for granted. The story is descriptive without taking sides. It now asks where is God and how do we feel God at work in our world?
In a sense it suggested that spiritual awaking is to stand there naked - without out the resources of this is how we have always done it. It is to prepare one for a fresh way of experiencing reality and it is a trust in us to come awake.
The kingdom of God, the idea of paradise, is there for all. It is already present for those whose eyes and ears are open - when the noise of the world is pushed to the background. Wake up and notice. God’s abundant goodness is so present that it is breaking into the places conventional wisdom says it cannot be found.
The kingdom is God taking a big risk with us. God trusts us to break lose and rethink how we are to live together. This goodness of God and love is here in the midst of what is happening. In the midst of the chaos we are experiencing we are called to look for the signs of fresh thinking. We think we have problems. Global climate change, soil erosion, urban spiral, pollution, stock market and bank failures, job loss, debt and wars - uncertainty and fear? The parable says think again. Now comes that outlandish vision, which is the adventure of God, the kingdom is here in the midst of the chaos. God’s realm of shalom is breaking into the midst of these situations. This is a big trust that we can collectively find new ways of being a society. It is here that one insight helps - don’t bury the kingdom.
At the event with Diane Butler Bass she said that every 500 years the church has a rummage sale. Everything - everything we have as a church is put on the table. There is nothing to be held back. In the process we reinvent ourselves. I think we are in such a time. And we decide what might help us navigate an unknown future and what we can leave behind. We are living in such a time now. Everything seems to be up for grabs, open to question, because everything is. Parables are helpful stories in such uncertain times. They open us up to the unexpected, the shocking and the new, and they teach us to welcome them because in them we find God waiting for us. The Kingdom gives us the eyes to see so we can navigate into the unknown future, because we know what to leave behind. And we know God is in the midst of the whirlwind.
George Hermanson
www.georgehermanson.com
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