On Matthew 25.14-30
This week, theologian Diana Butler
Bass offered a prayer via her Twitter account. Discussing a desire to read
scripture in new and life-changing ways, she prayed "Disrupt me, Holy
Spirit. Show me this story as I've never seen before."[1]
I'm
going to encourage us to pray just that today, as we consider the Gospel passage.
Disrupt us, Holy Spirit. Show us
this story as we've never seen before.
Now, for us to see things in a new
way, we should acknowledge the existing way we're seeing. And I'll invite us to
follow Jesus into his parable. There's a traditional understanding of this
master and servants and their talents: and we've tended to focus on the first
part of this passage. The master is God, giving skill sets to his people, so
that they can go out and increase his flock. And woe to the third, lazy slave,
who wastes what he's given.
Well, that's one interpretation.
But disrupt us, Holy Spirit. Show us this story as we've never seen it
before.
So here's our first challenge:
TALENTS.
We hear this with ears accustomed to
the English language. And so we understand 'talents" to be our gifts and
skills and abilities. However: if we heard these words with ears accustomed to
Koine Greek, we would hear TALANTA (rhymes with 'Atlanta") - and know that
this was specifically referring to money. Lots of money. Buckets of money, in
fact. One talanton was the equivalent to about 20 year's wages for an average
worker. So, for ease of maths, let's say the average wage now is about $50,000 before
deductions, that would make 1 talanton around $1million.
Now, I don't know about you, but I
don't have a million bucks in my back pocket. Or front pocket. Or any pocket!
And - again, I don't know about you,
but I've never had a boss hand over to me $1million... or $2 million, or $5
million.
This responsibility is not
unsubstantial, nor in any way about skill sets. Money has always been a part of
ministry.
So
disrupt us, Holy Spirit, as we talk very openly about money.
Moving to our second challenge:
the trading the servants do. Taking that big bucket of money, they double it,
in the marketplace. Now, let's consider this for a moment. The economic system
in those days was not unlike our economic system today. Investments are
helpful, selling of goods can bring profit, we all like to make interest.
A few thoughts. Firstly, economy is a
finite system. There's a limited amount of money available at any given time.
So, as one person gains, someone else loses. Consumerism is something we can
understand and relate to. So a huge
growth means that someone, or something else, is going to have to do without.
Building on that, I invite you to
consider return on investment. Do you know of any investment or funds
development that provides a 100% return on investment? Nothing legal, that's
for certain. Loan sharks, illegal activities, shady deals - that's where fast
return on funds comes from.
And, in our gospel passage today,
that's the type of activity the first two slaves are likely to have been
involved in, when they trade. And the boss is okay with it, and even endorses it
– consider his response to the third slave, who has buried the cash, when the master
says “you could have at the very least invested it with the honest and legal bankers,
so I’d have a bit of interest.”
So, the third slave, having creatively
refused to participate in that unhealthy economy, may not be the bad guy that
he is portrayed as in our surface interpretation. His burial of the money
entrusted to him is a cry for fairness and justice for all.
Disrupt
us, Holy Spirit, as we talk openly about fair and just economy.
The third challenge I’d like us
to consider in our understanding of this passage concerns the master
This is someone who has oodles of
money. OODLES! (technical term?) One wonders how he came into that money. Did
he inherit it? Did he make it? Did he benefit from abnormal practices against
people or the land? Whatever his background, he's RICH. Enough to hand out
$8million to his employees, whose only experience in trading is watching what he
has done, to see what they will do with it.
And what does he want to do with that
money? He wants it to grow. For him own use, his own benefit. He thanks his
slaves for making more money for himself. Well done, servant, but you get
nothing of these assets.
And to the one who resisted - well,
he's not exactly pleased. And that slave makes commentary about WHY he's done
what he did - why he resisted. The boss is a harsh man, a dishonest man, one
who plunders and steals without conscience. These are pretty stark and
unpleasant accusations - and the master, rather than refuting them, agrees
entirely to them all. He then takes his nice lovely behaviour even further, and
throws out this slave into darkness, with lamenting and gnashing of teeth.
Now, this is clearly NOT a nice guy. This
money-hungry person who cares only about himself, and isn't bothered by the
resultant hardship to the community and its individuals.
This is not the economy of grace and
community. This is not effective stewardship of resources. This is not the
financial leadership of the King of Glory. So, clearly, this is NOT the Jesus
that we know and love.
This is, instead, how society tends to
think: me first, I want it bigger and better, give me more, and now - and by
any means necessary. It's greed, pure and simple, where the rich want to get
richer, so more greed is encouraged and injustice grows. It's not the fiscal
management that we, as Christians, should support or endorse.
Disrupt
us, Holy Spirit, as we talk openly about good and honest financial leadership.
These three challenges to the story
can seem overwhelming, I realise. There is much to think about! Yet I'm going
to give us one more. I'm going to invite us to think about our OWN story. How
do we consider money? How do we speak about finances? How do we engage with our
faith when we talk about money?
Because talking about money needs to
happen. It happens as individual, and as families or households, and also as
our worshiping community. And, especially at this time of year, we're going to
be speaking about money even more - in all those areas. We consider spending on
Christmas and hospitality, we consider year-end financial commitments, we think
about income tax receipts, I could go one. And, as we move forward, we are
going to be discussing money, in healthy and respectful ways. We'll share facts
and asking prayerful consideration about our parish finances and our budget: how
what we have enables us to exercise our ministry; how this reflects our values
of reaching out to the community and being a strong Christian presence in this
place at this time.
Now, I know that we're not always
comfortable talking about money. And here's the truth - Jesus spoke about money
- and often. In fact, the only thing Jesus spoke of more than money was the
combined kingdoms of heaven and hell. Today's Gospel is just one such example.
So I want for us to start these
conversations, as with all things, with God. As God's people in God's place, I
invite us to pray that God will disrupt us, out of our complacency, to talk
openly about money, to talk openly about fair and just economy, and to talk
openly and good and honest financial leadership. I hope that you will consider
how your story reflects your relationship with money, for yourself, your
family, and for our church.
Hopefully, these conversations with
God will not involve lamentation, and gnashing of teeth like the place of
darkness in the Gospel. Rather, I hope that as we consider the possibilities
that God is gifting us with, we will recognise the potential for new and
exciting ministries within our community. For, as St Paul reminds us explicitly
today, "God has
destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live
with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed
you are doing."[2]
