Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them….
[Thomas Cranmer, Collect, now appointed for Sunday closest to November 16, BCP]
Seriously But Never Literally….
One of my favorite sayings about scripture came from Bishop Jack Spong. When
pressed on his scholarly approach to interpreting scripture, he often would remark, “It’s precisely because I take scripture seriously that I never take it literally.” Spong recognized that all scripture is capable of being read and understood at several different levels particularly when historical context is considered.
Today’s Gospel is a good example of that.
[Image: 1712 woodcut]
In this lesson from Matthew we hear the parable of the talents. A rich man is going on a journey and gives money to three of his slaves. Two of them invest the money and have earnings to show for it when the master returns. The third holds the money in safe-keeping but does not invest it, returning the same amount to the master he received. The master praises the two investors for their business competency but condemns the third for his timidity. In response, the third slave points out that the master is known to drive a hard bargain and engage in exploitative practices. Out of his fear of retribution, the third slave erred on the side of caution.
Ironically, his fears are quickly realized. The master not only condemns him, he takes away what meager assets the slave has left and gives them to the slave who already made the most on his investment. Then the master announces this is a general principle: to everyone who has, more will be given and to those who don’t have, even what they do have will be taken.
Digging Beneath the Surface
This is a hard gospel lesson on which to write a sermon. Most of us have heard sermons on this text where our preachers punted on the hard realities of this reading. They often play with the word “talent,” suggesting that it refers to ordinary human talents from musical aptitude to physical prowess. They would have us believe that the point of the lesson is that we all are called to recognize and use the talents G-d has given us to their fullest extent for the glory of G-d and the betterment of our world. It’s hardly surprising that this lesson is often used in our stewardship campaigns. Talent is one of the three Ts such campaigns emphasize: Time, Tithe and Talent.
I do not wish to detract from such an understanding. I believe it is valuable to encourage people to recognize their G-d-given talents and to live into them to their fullest. There is a reason that the Army’s recruiting has proven so successful under the rubric of “Be all you can be.”
But there is more to this lesson than what we encounter on the surface. Let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s try to hear this through the ears of Jesus’ listeners.
A talent in the 1st CE Judean context was a significant sum of money. For the average peasant in this Roman occupied colony, a talent represented about 15 years of wages. In a world where the average expected lifetime was at most 40, this was half of the life earnings for most Judeans.
It’s important to note
also that the master of these slaves is probably an absentee landlord. Many of
those enslaved in 1st CE Judea went into servitude because of debt,
partly to pay the heavy taxes the Roman imperium extracted from them. When
peasants proved unable to pay their taxes, their land was taken from them and
they became slaves to the new landowner, their new master. Ironically, many of
them would spend the rest of their lives working as slaves on their own former
properties.
There is also a tendency among 21st CE Americans living in a free market fundamentalist economy to hear a validation of practices of our finance industries that make their money through lending and investments rather than actual labor. The lesson from Matthew’s gospel today can easily be construed to say that wise investment is ordained by G-d and that those who are unwilling to do so, those who would withdraw from exploitative economic practices, somehow merit punishment. As the parable says, “Even what they do have will be taken away.”
But Jesus’ listeners are not 21st CE Americans. The wealthy master is not G-d for them or for a Jesus who points to a G-d who makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. This master is much more immediate –an absentee landlord like those who control most of Judea and exploit its resources for their own enrichment at the cost of the inhabitants who produce it. The third slave reveals that in his description of his master: “You reap where you do not sow and you gather where you do not scatter.”
Moreover, where our 21st CE ears might hear a validation for the investments by the first two slaves, who are more than willing to participate in this exploitative economy to further enrich themselves as well as their already wealthy master, that’s not what Jesus’ listeners would have heard. What they heard was a slave willing to tell the truth about his master and the system he represents, about the extractive economic practices of the imperial culture and about the resulting misery it caused.
I have no doubt that many heads were nodding around Jesus as he laid out this very subtle indictment of the Roman imperial system. No doubt his listeners got what Jesus was saying. The values of Caesar’s empire – domination, exploitation, immiseration – stand in complete contrast with the Kingdom of G-d that Jesus proclaims.
The Whistleblower: Self-Sacrifice for the Common Good
At a very basic level, this third slave functions as a whistle blower. He is willing to tell the truth about the master and the economic system he embodies even though he is clear that this truth-telling will prove costly to him personally.
And his fears are quickly realized. He is denounced by the master and his meager fortune is taken away from him. Worse yet, he becomes the basis for the making of an example of anyone who would dare to challenge this exploitative relationship: “To everyone who has, more will be given and then some; to those who don’t have, even what they do have will be taken away.”
And as if his monetary punishment is not enough, the master is happy to add to it a public shaming: “Throw this worthless slave into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we can probably recognize some of these same patterns in our own time and place.
We have entire swaths of our country where the industries that once provided a decent living for its inhabitants have fled to foreign shores to avoid taxes and exploit labor unprotected by things like OSHA and minimum wage. The despair of those regions left behind is apparent in an explosion of addictions and resulting overdoses. Our heartland is in trouble.
We also have an entire generation of young people, many of them college graduates saddled with debts, unable to make a decent living in a country where the minimum wage has been essentially frozen since the 1970s. This in a country where those at the top of the economic ladder have continued to increase their wealth even as those at the bottom grow exponentially. “To everyone who has, more will be given and then some; to those who don’t have, even what they do have will be taken away.”
Perhaps we are not so different from Jesus’ listeners as we think.
Matthias Grünewald, “The Crucifixion,” Isenheim Altarpiece, 1515
If I had to identify Jesus in any given role in this parable, it would probably be the third slave. Jesus clearly recognizes the cruelty of the empire and his heart brims with sadness and outrage as he sees the suffering it imposes upon the little ones he loved. He also knows the cost implicit in speaking truth to power and privilege. Within a couple of weeks of telling this parable, Jesus will be executed by the Roman Empire with the help of the Temple aristocracy. Over his head will appear the words “Here is Jesus of Nazareth who says he is king of the Jews.” And the message implicit in that inscription is very clear: This is what will happen to anyone who challenges the Empire.
Every healthy society needs its whistleblowers, those willing to place their own lives on the line for the good of the community. We live in a time when truth is at a real premium and alternative realities are manufactured and consumed on our broadcast and social media daily. If we have ever needed truthtellers, it is today.
When Our Gospels Challenge Us
Sometimes our Gospels bring us good news we badly need to hear. Sometimes Jesus poses disturbing challenges to us. Today’s reading is clearly one of the latter.
Greta Thunberg honored by Lakotas at Standing Rock with the name “Woman Who Came From the Heavens”
And so I ask you this day, look within your lives and look around you in the world. Where do we see the truthtellers in our world today, those willing to sacrifice their own interests to serve the public good? How do we respond to their truth telling? More importantly, where in our own lives have we been called to tell hard truths to ourselves, to others and about our collective lives together? How have we responded to that calling?
Whatever our answers may be, let us always remember this: G-d is with us in all things. That includes our moments of blessing as well as those dark hours of the night when we wrestle with our souls.
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN.
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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.
Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi
For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston, 2020
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