There are occasions upon which I find myself praying about how to preach on the texts appointed. Then there are occasions in which I find myself praying that the texts appointed don't harm those who hear them proclaimed.
Today, I found myself praying the latter. As we hear a parable in which our allegorical
interpretation seems to run counter to what we know and understand of a God of
mercy and abundance. In fact, if we take
this parable allegorically, it runs counter to what Jesus himself has shared
with us in the Gospel of Matthew about the nature of God and our calling to
serve.
So,
today I offer, from the Gospel of Matthew
some
reminders...
From
chapter 5 of the Gospel of Matthew, “Blessed are the poor, those who mourn,
those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the
merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and the reviled”
Then
there is this, from chapter 9, “Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy
not sacrifice” for I have come to call not the righteous but sinners”
And,
in chapter 10, “whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me...whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of
these little ones in the name of a disciple--truly I tell you, none of these
will lose their reward”
Finally,
words of comfort in chapter 11, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are
carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”
Ummm,
set against this backdrop, the Gospel we hear today seems incongruous. So, what
happens? Why was this particular parable important to the community out of
which it emerged? Where did they, and where might we find grace in the midst of
a passage that concludes with the outer darkness where there is weeping and
gnashing of teeth?
To
begin to unpack this parable we need to take a look at the context in which it
was written. Biblical scholar and theologian, John Dominic Crossan in The Power
of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction About Jesus, writes that the
escalation of violence in Matthew stems from the conflict in Judaism between
Christian-Jewish scribes and Pharaisaic Jewish Scribes. Crossan holds that it is Matthew who is
speaking in what Crossan calls “attack parables” and that the authentic voice
of Christ (an authenticity he validates by cross referencing the material in
the Gospel which appears in Mark) is made manifest early in the Gospel, before
Matthew’s voice begins to overwhelm the voice of the messiah. (193-194)
Okay,
so that’s one way to approach it—to see the parable as the product of conflict
and not of Christ. But, I remain unsatisfied. Because, when we proclaim this
Gospel, we proclaim it as good news…so within the Gospel we heard today, where
is the good news?
In
seminary, I took a class in which we were encouraged to read the Bible from the
margins. To read the Bible from the perspective of the people in our world who
are marginalized and disadvantaged within our own cultural context. And, when I
explore this passage in this fashion, I find myself wondering if in fact this
passage is not about how God works, but about how this world works. This world,
where the laws and their enforcement all too often favor those who have much
while casting out those who have little. With tax codes which advantage the
extremely wealthy, with systems and institutions that perpetuate poverty from
generation to generation…this world has its harsh masters—and those harsh
masters are not God.
And,
so when the slave-owner is described as a harsh master who reaps where he does
not sow and takes the harvest from others, I do not and cannot hear that as a
description of God. Because, the God that I have encountered throughout scripture
is a God of creation, a God who scatters seeds freely, who declares us good, and
who leads us again and again from bondage into freedom. The parable is not a
description of God or God’s kingdom—it is an indictment of our own kingdom, our
own harshness and greed, our own willingness to cast out and destroy. God
liberates those we would bind—and, I believe that scripture is clear on this
point.
So,
where does that leave us with this passage—where is God in it? Where are we in
it? Where is Christ in us, and our time?
Henri
Nouwen, author of “The Wounded Healer”, offers us a modern day parable—and I
offer it today, so let anyone with ears listen…
“one
day a young fugitive, trying to hide himself from the enemy, entered a small
village. The people were kind to him and
offered him a place to stay. But when
the soldiers who sought the fugitive asked where he was hiding, everyone became
very fearful. The soldiers threatened to
burn the village and kill every man in it unless the young man were handed over
to them at dawn. The people went to the
minister and asked him what to do. The
minister, torn between handing over the boy to the enemy or having his people
killed, withdrew to his room and read his Bible, hoping to find an answer
before dawn. After many hours, in the
early morning his eyes fell on these words:
“It is better that one man dies than that the whole people be lost.”
Then
the minister closed the Bible, called the soldiers and told them where the boy
was hidden. And after the soldiers led
the fugitive away to be killed, there was a feast in the village because the
minister had saved the lives of the people.
But the minister did not celebrate.
Overcome with a deep sadness, he remained in his room. That night an angel came to him, and asked,
“What have you done?” He said: “I handed
over the fugitive to the enemy.” Then
the angel said: “But don’t you know that have handed over the Messiah?” “How could I know?” the minister replied
anxiously. Then the angel said: “If
instead of reading your Bible, you had visited this young man just once and
looked into his eyes, you would have known.”
(WH 25-26)
There
is an old spiritual that asks “were you there when they crucified my Lord?” and
in these passages the answer becomes “yes, we were there”.
Juxtaposed
with this contemporary take, I find Christ in the Gospel we heard today in the
person of the servant. The servant, honest in his fear, who is punished by a
system and a ruler who would destroy rather than create. He is Christ. And,
when Jesus’ offers this parable he does so within a wider context of his own
words, “whatever you do to the least of these, my children, you do to me”.
So,
what if the other servants had shared the bounty? What if this servant had been raised in the
midst of generous abundance? What if
this servant had been taught that the master is one of abundance and love and
care? Would the talent have been hidden
away? Or proclaimed as the abundance it
was?
What
if? What if?
How
does this narrative change, how does our narrative change, if we see this
parable as a call to serve rather than a call to cast out?
This
parable calls us to use our talents/gifts/resources to expand God’s grace, to
defeat the fear that breaks us and the anxiety that keeps us from acting with
love. This parable invites us to
consider our own encounter with God--and with that consideration, we are asked
to take a different approach.
Love,
not hate. Service, not scorn. Compassion, not punishment.
This
is the good news. And, we are here to hear it.
“Praise
to you, Lord Christ”
Amen.
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