Another Parable with Unexpected Twists

 Today’s parable from Matthew 25, next in the series of parables,

            has been viewed as a parable about stewardship.

 

We know the story, but do we really know it.

 

This is one of these parables that we have heard a hundred times,

            one that we usually skim the surface of 

                        and come to a quick moral for the story: “Don’t bury your talents.”

And as usual this keeps us from noticing spiritual truth hidden in plain sight.

 

Part of the reason why we do this is because our image of Jesus,

                        the one telling the parable,

            is that he is a nice guy, loving and good,

            and therefore must be telling us spiritually nice stories, holy stories,

                                    for illustrating some good action that we should do.

 

But as we look at these parables,

            we see that they always contain some twist that is unexpected,

                        something not quite right, and often downright outrageous,

            which is meant to get our attention and jar our moral sensibilities.

Today’s parable gives us an instance 

            in which the usual cultural and religious orientation 

                        gets flipped over, 

and Jesus, the spiritual Teacher who consorted with tax collectors and sinners, 

            uses a morally corrupt story to deliver a vital spiritual message.

 

I think even more at the roots of the parable is the matter of faith.

The parable is about faith.

 

There was a big risk taken with the 5 talents and the 2 talents.

 

One talent equals 6,000 denarii, a day’s wage , 

            which is 20 years’ worth of income for the average worker.

Each talent as a coin would be large and heavy.

 

In this story 

            first, the master, while praising and rewarding risky business,

                        certainly comes across as greedy and avaricious,

and second, he even wants the slave to whom he gave the one talent 

            to practice usury, which is forbidden by Torah.

You weren’t supposed to charge interest with your own people,

            although it was permitted with foreigners,

                        those outside the exclusive covenant community 

                                                                                                            of the Hebrew people.

So this story would have shocked those listening to Jesus,

            and so caught their attention.

 

Well, the shock value of the story today might not be the moral corruption,

            as much as the high risk. 

            

There was a big risk taken with the 5 talents and the 2 talents

            that would be worth millions and millions of dollars today.

Each of those two slaves could be seen as both reckless 

            and, fortunately for them, very lucky with their master’s property              

                                    not to have lost it all on the stock market.

 

The third slave or servant was the most realistic and prudent, you could say.

He knew the risks of investment, 

money schemes, 

how the stock market could go.

            He also didn’t want to exploit others through usury. 

So he didn’t make an exploitative investment with the money lenders,

            and instead kept the expensive coin safe from theft

                        by burying it in a hidden place.

 

But instead, in the story the outrageous and greedy master

rewards the two slaves who have the Midas touch, 

and the morally conscious slave is the one who gets tossed outside, 

excluded from the Kingdom of God.

 

But the parable is not about moral scruples or successful financial investments, 

but about faith.

 

Faith is taking the risk in the face of conventional wisdom,

            conventional wisdom,

because faith is trusting not the perspective of the world,

but a new perspective on life that comes through the Spirit, a new wisdom.

 

The ones who risked the most get rewarded.

But, notice this, get rewarded with what?  

            Remember, they were slaves; that money belonged to their master.

So they were rewarded with more responsibility, 

                        more challenge for greater risk, 

that is, greater faith.

That’s the way it is living in the Kingdom of God.

            We get greater challenge to our faith.

 

So many of the Kingdom of Heaven parables that Jesus told

            were about growth and expansion

                        from something relatively small 

                                    like a mustard seed or a handful of leaven

                        to something bigger than expected

                                    like the seed sown on good soil that produced a hundredfold.

 

So how to go about exercising faith – how do you do that?

            Practice.            Practice.            Practice.

And a good way to practice is to dare to speak about the focus of our faith.

 

What is the focus of our faith?                        The One we have faith in – Jesus

The great Archbishop of Canterbury of the last century, William Temple,

            said that we exist as a Church for the sake of those outside the Church,

            to share the Gospel of reconciling, healing and transforming love.

Our purpose, according to this parable,

             is to become useful, productive disciples

                        whose lives produce the fruit of such qualities of life 

            that we most desire: love, joy, peace; 

            qualities that attract others to faith.

 

How do we speak about our faith in Jesus?

Look at the cross – this cross here.

What do we notice about it?

 

At Nativity the cross is very modest, small, yet centered.

 

What’s missing from this cross?

            The body – 

            the body of a man who was being executed, 

                                                                        being purposely put to death.

We don’t want to look at that – that’s too unsettling, disturbing.

 

But so important.

Because Jesus is the One, 

                        who in the tradition of the great Spiritual Masters

            was taking on suffering for the sake of others.

Only in this case Jesus went beyond his usual healing of individuals,

                        releasing them from suffering, liberating them.

Now he did what no spiritual master had done before 

                                                                                                            or needed to do since.

He took it all, all the suffering, of everyone, for all time.

            He took it all until there was nothing left of it, nothing left of death

and he broke through to Life from the Source,

                                    what we call Resurrection Life

                        so that no one else need go through death.

What incredible love this expresses!

 

Can you trust that?  Can you hope in that?  Can you desire that?

 

Back to the parable:

So the master takes back the single talent

            and hands it over 

            to the one who made the biggest gains with his investment.

Smart move.  Use that servant to make even bigger profits.

 

“For to all those who have, more will be given, … 

but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

            Isn’t that true!             It’s the way of the world.

And then the slave that was worthless to him and his investment enterprises

            he has him tossed out  --  into outer darkness.

 

It is not by accident 

that the next verses that follow in this 25^th chapter of Matthew

            is the Kingdom of Heaven parable in which Jesus says,

“Inasmuch as you did this unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

                                                And you will hear that parable in full next Sunday.

 

Slave #3 in today’s parable doesn’t just get fired;

            he gets disposed of.

Now he is homeless, hungry, jobless and without resources,

                        outside the protection of the economy of his culture.

 

Just the sort of person that Jesus identifies with.

            Just the sort of person Jesus ministers to.

                        Just the sort of person that fits the description of the Beatitudes.

 

Slave as he was, he would not copy his master’s economic strategies.

This slave, fearful as he was about his owner, 

            stood up to him and would not play his game – 

                        and suffered for it.

 

On the night before he was betrayed our Lord Jesus took bread,

            and when he had given thanks, 

            he broke it and gave it to his disciples,

            and said,

                        “Take, eat; this is my body.”

Likewise after supper he took the cup 

            and gave it to his disciples, and said,

                        “This is my blood of the new covenant.  

                        I will not drink again of this cup until I drink it at the banquet

                                    in my Father’s kingdom.”

 

And then they went out into the darkness -- to Gethsemane

            where they couldn’t even keep watch, couldn’t stay awake,

                        while Jesus had his last few minutes left 

                                    in which he could pray and prepare himself 

for being cast out into outer darkness – 

for betrayal

            for arrest and contrived trial and physical torture and execution.

 

Because he had so infuriated the civil leadership and religious leadership,

            that they feared a loss of control that would bring to an end

                        the stability, such as it was, 

            of their economic, political and religious establishments.

 

But the love that is behind the blood, behind this fullest of self offering,

            is inescapably embracing.

 

This parable about the talents 

            is a story designed to provoke awareness of spiritual dereliction.  

 

The way this world works, 

            the world in which we live and have jobs 

            and make investments for retirement,

places value on the bottom line of the budget report.

 

When does Jesus get to be recognized as the bottom line?

                                    the bottom line in our lives?

Liminal

 What’s up with the Epistle reading for today?

            Does it raise some questions for you?

Is this the way you hear death and resurrection life in Jesus 

            described commonly in the Episcopal Church?

Or does it leave you wondering about 

            what some other denominations call The Rapture?

 

The Apostle Paul writes in the earliest letter of his that we have:

            “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord,

             that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, 

            will by no means precede those who have died. 

            For the Lord himself …

            will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 

            Then we who are alive, who are left, 

            will be caught up in the clouds together with them 

            to meet the Lord in the air; 

            and so we will be with the Lord forever. 

            Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

 

I want to take a little time unpacking this reading,

            and maybe then we can see something from this passage 

            that will link in with what is close to home for us right now.

 

This passage really needs some context.

            Note that it is written to a church community 

                        at a time within living memory

of the earthly ministry of Jesus and his death, resurrection and ascension.

 

This epistle is short, not as impactful in its message as, say 1 Corinthians

                        or Galatians or Romans.

It doesn’t have some of warmth and depth of Paul’s character

            shining through, such as in Philippians. 

But 1 Thessalonians gives us a window into

            how these first Christians understood 

            the practical connection of the Resurrection 

                        with their own lives as they continued to live in the world,

            while also in anticipation of what they believed would be 

the imminent return of their Lord.

 

They lived their lives with a sense of urgency,

            and this urgency was not just in anticipation 

                        that Jesus would return any minute now,

            but also because of the times they lived in.

And now that immediate return of the ascended Christ was not happening.

 

These Christians were living in a wide variety of places already – 

            that’s how fast the Gospel was spreading.

But from the first the followers of Jesus were a suspect group,

            by the Jews, by the Romans, by their neighbors 

                        who adhered to the prevailing religious practices of their region.

Christians were an easy target to scapegoat and persecute.

            They were a minority that didn’t conform to the culture around them.

 

Paul gives us the earliest attempts 

            of a developing theological statement about resurrection 

                        which we can see expand and deepen and mature 

            through his following epistles, if we were to read them chronologically.

Compare this passage with chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, for example.

 

But the immediate issues here in today’s Epistle reading are two fold.

 

First, what about those who have died before this final coming of Christ 

            that would ultimately bring the Kingdom of Heaven 

                        and end the kingdoms of this world.

 

It’s a matter of time:  

            linear time versus the infinite presence of the God of creation 

                        who holds all time in the eternal NOW.

Yes, you heard me right.

            God holds all creation eternally beyond the space-time continuum

                        in an eternally present moment we call NOW.

 

So don’t worry about those who have already died.

            They aren’t hanging out in Sheol or Hades, the underworld,

                        some dark, dismal, silent place of eternal waiting.

God holds them and us in the infinite and eternal now.

 

The ultimate goal of all spiritual practice 

            is to become aware of our union with God 

                        and when that happens those enlightened persons all say

                                    there is only NOW.

And this most certainly exists now,

            before the Kingdom of God has been fully realized on earth.

 

There is only NOW.

            Well, how to describe this NOW?              Paul starts with this similey: 

It is like being caught up in Christ in his Resurrection Presence, 

            not physically on earth 

                        where, obviously, the Kingdom of God has not yet come, 

so in the air, the space above earth, 

                                                in that liminal space 

                        where one crosses the threshold into divine space.

 

That takes us to the second point – living into the Resurrection.

            Live as though you are ready to step into the next moment of the NOW

                        across the threshold into the full realization

                                    of God’s Presence 

                        here and now where we live out our every day lives.

 

So the Gospel reading for today – it gives us a quirky parable

            about an improbable bridegroom late for his own wedding

                        with a message about staying awake and watchful,

                                                and about being prepared.

And today we here as a faith community are in a liminal time.

 

COVID puts us in a waiting time of caution,

            be vigilant, wear your mask, wash your hands,

            don’t let down your guard.

One day we will cross the threshold and be in a post-COVID world

            but it’s not yet here.            Stay alert!

 

We are also in the liminal time between rectors,

            in the process of calling new clergy leadership,

                        not yet over that threshold 

            but in the midst now of a call process,

                        a call process that is also calling each one of you 

                                    into greater participation in that process.            Get fueled up!

 

Where this is going is not just to a new rector,

            but also a deeper understanding 

                        of your own identity as a faith community,

                        who we are as Nativity.

And this is just as important as finding out who will be your next priest.

 

And then there is another liminal, threshold time in which we currently exist.

And that’s the political situation at the moment.

We have hung in a sort of state of suspended animation

            while the votes were being counted.                    But the counting is not over yet.

And at this time we can see quite clearly the divide in this country politically.

It almost looks like we are two countries.

This time it is not a north-south divide; it’s a right-left divide.

We are poised between tearing ourselves apart as a nation,

            or finding a new way through this divide.

 

This is my statement now.

We, as a nation, have got to grow up and stop yelling at each other,

            and sit down together and listen to each other

                        and revitalize old concepts like consensus and compromise,

            and put all discussion into the first value and goal 

                        of what is best for ALL of us as basic human beings

                                    without political labels.

You may say I am dreaming, that I’m an idealist,

            but have you got another idea?  Do share it!

 

Here’s what the Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson, 

                                    former head of the Reformed Church in America, 

                        has to say about for how faith and politics should relate.

 

“Usually…,” he writes, “we get it backward. 

Our temptation is to begin with politics 

and then try to figure out how religion can fit in. 

We start with the accepted parameters of political debate and, 

whether we find ourselves on the left or the right, 

we use religion to justify and bolster our existing commitments. . . .”

 

Instead, he points to the reverse.

             “When deciding how we want to act in the public sphere, 

            we are first called to begin with

             our personal experience of God’s overflowing love for all the world.”

 

Now there’s a thought.

            Start there,

                     then meet each other with a heart-felt desire to hear one another’s stories.

 

Meanwhile in place of that old Gospel hymn,

                        “There’s going to be a meeting in the air,

                        in the sweet, sweet bye and bye.”

 

Let me draw your attention to this:

 

“Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,

we laud and magnify your name as we sing,

            Holy, holy, holy … ”

 

The Eucharist is that meeting place in the air, in the Kingdom of God space,

            in that liminal space where past, present and future all touch each other.

 

That is why in the Eucharist, in our Anglican way to looking at it, 

                                                like that of the  Eastern Orthodox theologians,

our liturgy is not a re-enactment of the Last Supper,

            nor is it recalling/remembering a past event.

 

It is a participation in the One sacrifice,

            a re-membering as a bringing the various members together 

                        reassembling the members from all points in time and space.

The Orthodox surround the altar with icons of the Saints,

            the iconostasis, 

            to express this bringing together past, present and future

                        in this particular moment of sharing in the One Eucharist.

 

This is the still point which is foundational

            and the axis on which everything else revolves.

This is a Resurrection moment here, every Sunday.

 

But it’s not like that out there in the world.

When we’re out there,

                        which is most of the time,

            we need to be vigilant, awake, watching, prepared,

                                    prepared for the long haul

                                                with enough oil for the lamps.

Get it here.

 

 

I Sing A Song of the Saints of God

 Who needs some humor this morning?

I remember a cartoon strip in the newspaper, Frank and Earnest.

One cartoon showed God on a cloud with a couple of smaller angels

            and they are looking down on the earth.

God says, 

“Arrange for the meek to inherit it – I don’t want a lot of complaints.”

 

Another memorable Frank and Earnest cartoon 

            could have come the next day in the paper.

In that cartoon, God is there on the cloud with the same angels 

            and a bunch more figures have showed up as well.

The spokes-angel says to God,

            “It’s the meek.  

            They want to know if maybe they could inherit Saturn instead.”

 

The Beatitudes and All Saints Day go together, 

            and this is a time when we remember 

            those who have gone before us in the faith.

The operative word here is “in the faith.”

 

Tomorrow we have All Souls Day when we remember all those who have died, 

and we are adding them to our intercessions for today,

                        this year including all those who have died of COVID,

            but that is not main focus for the All Saints celebration.

 

All Saints is for especially recognizing those who have given us             

            faithful examples of living out lives in discipleship to Jesus.

This is not just looking at the obvious Saints,

            the ones that are given special feast days on the calendar,

            ones whose example of faithfulness shine brilliantly for us all.

These Saints, like Francis of Assisi, 

                        and you can name your personal favorite, 

            are larger than life, spiritual giants.

 

The All Saints Day celebration is for those less prominent

            but who nonetheless influenced us significantly, and directly,

                        perhaps those with whom we have had a relationship,

            the saints who have been the living example of faith in action

                                                            that have challenged us personally.

 

Think of someone you have known.

I think of Dave Knight (may he rest in peace), 

            the priest at the church where I grew up.

When I was in a particularly difficult and questioning time 

                                                                                                of my adolescence

            he was the first adult who listened to me and responded to me 

                                    as though I were an adult.

That kind of respect and regard for me as a person, and not just a child,

                        made a big impression on me.

He was honest when he didn’t know an answer to my questions.

He shared what was important to him 

                        in his own wrestling with the same questions.

His honesty and way of speaking to me 

            showed me that here was someone who was truly authentic.

 

Ever since I have gone around looking for others 

                        who are also truly authentic human beings.

People like that are attractive, magnetic, in that their lives exude truth.

 

That I think is one of the criteria for getting labeled a saint – 

            that we see Jesus clearly in them,

            and that we hear Jesus through them.

 

But how about some other objective criteria

            to help us recognize the saints.

That’s where the Gospel selection for All Saints comes in: the Beatitudes.

We don’t have time to do an in depth study of the Beatitudes here,

            although that would be good to do,

                        because there is SO much packed into these words.

But I will say a couple of things.

 

Notice in these Beatitudes that Jesus did not say 

blessed are those who have kept the Ten Commandments.

He did not say blessed are those who came to church every Sunday.

Or those who did many good deeds, 

or were generous in their charitable giving, 

or who preached great sermons, 

or who wrote books full of inspiring words.

 

He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,”

those who are not full of themselves, 

who are not ego-invested in everything they say and do.

 

Blessed are those who mourn, 

who grieve, like those who have lost a loved one,

those who see what there is to mourn about.

 

Blessed are the meek, 

that is, those who are gentle, kind, 

humane, considerate and unassuming, 

those who are so totally absorbed in the Divine Presence

that there is no room for violence in them.

 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst 

for justice and holiness and the righteousness of God, 

which is that state of wholeness and integrity;

blessed are those who realize that they have been starving for these things

             and haven’t been getting enough of them every day.

 

These Beatitudes all describe those who have deficiencies, 

who are not complete within themselves, 

who need something more than

                        the standards of the way the world looks at 

success and strength and being victorious.

This describes the essential attitude of those who are being blessed.

 

The key to being included in the Reign of God, the Kingdom of Heaven 

is to know your own need and be open to having that need met, 

not through your own efforts solely,

but through the mercy of God.

 

All who are poor in spirit, 

who mourn, 

who are meek, 

who hunger and thirst for righteousness

are given the Kingdom of God, 

are comforted, 

inherit the earth, 

have their hunger and thirst satisfied.

 

Knowing your own poverty, 

you then have the humility to accept 

what is freely offered to you by God.

 

Recognizing and suffering your own grief, 

not being in denial about the grief, 

opens you to being able to recognize and respond to 

God’s most incredible expression of love, 

for which there is no greater comfort.

 

The attitude of meekness is the attitude of a servant, 

one who takes the lower position in society, 

who lets others go first.

A servant is not usually noticed if the servant is doing a good job.

 

Jesus modeled for his disciples the role of being a servant, 

and again and again he said that if we were to be his disciple, 

we should also be servants of one another.

 

The process of blessedness offered by Jesus comes in this listening to his voice, 

because when we listen to this voice 

we move from where we are in our own ego-centered self identification 

to the realization of where he is,

to the realization of a new self-identity,

            identity in Christ.

That is our baptismal identity.

 

We have ears to listen when we recognize this as truth.

We recognize truth as a matter of awareness; 

it is not a matter of information, but of awareness.

 

So being blessed by God is a matter of grace, 

not as a result of any great heroic effort on our part.  

It is God who does the blessing within us. 

 

That means that any of us can be described as Saints.

Do we have the attitudes described in these verses? 

Do we realize our baptismal identity, that we are one with Christ?

 

Baptism is the sacrament that declares that we are one with Christ, 

that we are in Christ.  

 

Baptism is the statement of our calling to be Saints.  

 

All Saints Day 

we remember this great truth by reaffirming our own baptisms,

and as we do this,

            think about how we answer the questions posed to us

                        regarding our actions 

                        that give evidence to our baptismal discipleship

            that we say, “I will with God’s help.”

 

Then we have a chance at becoming pure in heart and merciful,

            of being transformed so that we might be peacemakers

            and so significantly Jesus-like that it attracts attention.

Then we can sing a song of the saints of God

            and realistically mean to be one too.