On Choosing a Different Path
Jesus said: “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’
But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ”
- Matthew 25:14-30
What a horrible story!
There are days when we intone “The gospel of the Lord; thanks be to God,” and it feels like a stretch. How can this tale of greed, corruption, cruelty, theft, and rage be “good news” for us? To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away, says the master just before tossing his hapless servant into the outer darkness “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Is Jesus saying this is how things work in God’s economy, God’s plan for human life? (“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” we might say.)
The answer, I think, is just No. And Yes, I think there is good news here for us; we just have to dig a bit. We might have to change our perspective a little. It all hinges on who you think is the Christ figure in the story—who you think is embodying the spirit of Jesus the most. Is it the master (our usual default assumption), or could it be someone else? Let me re-tell the parable and see if it makes a difference.
It begins with a man about to go on a journey. As we will soon learn, this man is fabulously wealthy. So rich that he can distribute astronomical sums of money to his servants to administer during his absence. $6 million to one, $2.5 million to another, and $1.5 million to the last.
“Right then, boys!” he shouts over the din as he boards his private jet. “You’re in charge now. Don’t screw up. See you when I see you!”
You can picture the three of them standing there on the quiet tarmac, the plane distant in the sky. Each of them is contemplating the boss’s parting words. “You’re in charge now.” A gleam is coming into the eyes of two of them as they think, “I’m in charge now! Think what I could do with this kind of money. It’s my chance to get ahead. Finally I can get a little of that glitz and glamour I’ve been staring at all these years for myself!”
And each hustles back to his office to type up a memo. This is what it reads:
To all slaves, employees, and tenants of Acme Corporation:
A new manager has been appointed to administer the holdings, assets and activities of the firm. Starting today all taxes, fees and rents are doubled. At the same time, all wages, pensions, and fees paid by the firm are hereby halved. These are hard economic times and it is important for all of us to tighten our belts and accept the new austerity measures for the sake of saving the national economy.
The memo goes out and the people groan. They protest. But what can they do? This is the way of the world. The rich get richer while the poor are slowly ground to dust under the weight of exorbitant interest rates for loans and credit, and ever-dwindling purchasing power. The gap between the rich and the poor grows ever wider. What can you do? It’s the way of the world.
As the months go by the first two servants are ecstatic. The money starts to roll in for them and before you know it they’ve doubled their money. We picture them toasting each other with golden goblets filled with champagne.
But let’s return to that third servant standing on the runway as the master’s jet dwindles into the distance. He’s thoughtful. For him, too, the boss’s words keep ringing in his ears. “You’re in charge now.” This moment appears as a watershed for him, and it seems he could go only one of two possible directions.
There is the way of self-advancement at the expense of others. For years he has pursued this way as one of the boss’s lackeys. He’s followed orders and delivered notices of rent hikes, court summonses, and evictions. He’s watched as people have wept and wailed when their already-precarious livelihoods have been ruined. But he’s hardened his heart, saying to himself, “It’s them or me, so it might as well be them. This is the way the world works. What are you going to do?” Now he could continue in this way or he could choose a different path, and that’s what he does.
What the third servant does is he wakes up (as Paul puts it in his letter to the Thessalonians) and he chooses to see the way things really are in the world. He chooses to become aware of the ways the master he works for oppresses the poor, and how he grasps at every tiny profit with no care for the costs to others. And he chooses to care. The servant chooses not to make the burden on the poor any greater, any more. He chooses to be attentive, not to himself, but to the orphan, the widow and the stranger. He chooses to let compassion rule his actions, not self-aggrandizement, come what may.
So with fear and trembling—he knows what kind of man his boss is—he buries the money he’s been entrusted with, to be returned in full when the boss returns. In other words, he’s not going to play the boss’s game.
By and by the boss comes back from wherever he’s been—Florida, maybe—and it’s reckoning time for the servants. The first two come to him in turn, and with an impeccable instinct for their own advancement, present the boss with his money plus 100% profit! Of course the boss is delighted. He knows exactly how this kind of dough is collected and he laughs, “Ha! You two are my kind of henchmen! You’ve got what it takes to get ahead and you’ll go far in this world, boys.” He pokes them in the ribs and gives them a broad wink, “After all, who can blame a guy for taking advantage of someone else and putting his own interests first?”
Then, interrupting the little love-in, the third servant steps forward and makes a small speech. “This is ugly,” he says. “This money was gained through cruelty and exploitation. In fact, this whole company is founded on greed and it does its business on the backs of the poor. So please take your money back. It’s all there. But count me out. I’m not playing this game any more.”
There is a pause as the master and his first two servants stand there open-mouthed. And then the boss explodes. “You lazy son-of-a-dog! You know the way the world works; you know the way this game is played. And, Mr. High-and-Mighty, you ‘choose not to’? ‘Count me out,’ you say? Well look around you!” And the boss’s gesture takes in the whole environment of his office: the wood panelling, the leather chairs, the liquor cabinet in the corner, the broad view from the penthouse window—all of it speaking of money, power, and influence. “This could’ve all been yours. You shoulda stuck with me, kid. You coulda gone far. But now you’re fired! ‘To all those who have, more will be given.’ Take his money and give it to my friend here who’s earned me 5 million bucks. And then get him out of my sight! Let the bleeding heart go and work with his new friends in my factories.”
And so Jesus’ parable concludes with the one servant who showed care for the poor being thrown with them into the outer darkness of this world, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It’s Jesus himself! The one who rejected the ways of greed and power and ambition and domination. The one who chose love and care and compassion. The one who took a stand against cruelty and injustice. Behold the man! For his choice he was thrown into the darkness of death and banished from the world of the living.
And yet he beckons us to follow. He asks any who would follow him to take up their cross to choose his way. He bids us put on our own “breastplate of faith and love, and helmet of hope.”
His promise is that, though the world may reject us, God will not. That his way is the true way of joy and abundance of life.
Let us therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
A sermon preached at Hope Lutheran Church on November 9, 2017
For another reflection in line with this interpretation of the parable, see Debie Thomas, "A Good Kind of Worthless", at www.journeyforjesus.net.
20171119 Lectionary 33A
November 19, 2017
Texts
First Reading Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
Zephaniah (like the prophet Amos in last week’s first reading) presents the day of the Lord as one of judgment and wrath. Descriptions of the last day in the New Testament include details taken from Old Testament accounts of the day of the Lord.
7Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is at hand;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice,
he has consecrated his guests.
12At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the people
who rest complacently on their dregs,
those who say in their hearts,
“The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do harm.”
13Their wealth shall be plundered,
and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
they shall not drink wine from them.
14The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter,
the warrior cries aloud there.
15That day will be a day of wrath,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements.
17I will bring such distress upon people
that they shall walk like the blind;
because they have sinned against the Lord,
their blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their flesh like dung.
18Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them
on the day of the Lord’s wrath;
in the fire of his passion
the whole earth shall be consumed;
for a full, a terrible end
he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Psalm Psalm 90:1-12
So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. (Ps. 90:12)
1Lord, you have | been our refuge
from one generation | to another.
2Before the mountains were brought forth, or the land and the | earth were born,
from age to age | you are God.
3You turn us back to the | dust and say,
“Turn back, O child- | ren of earth.”
4For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when | it is past
and like a watch | in the night; R
5you sweep them away | like a dream,
they fade away suddenly | like the grass:
6in the morning it is | green and flourishes;
in the evening it is dried | up and withered.
7For we are consumed | by your anger;
we are afraid because | of your wrath.
8Our iniquities you have | set before you,
and our secret sins in the light | of your countenance. R
9When you are angry, all our | days are gone;
we bring our years to an end | like a sigh.
10The span of our life is seventy years, perhaps in strength | even eighty;
yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow, for they pass away quickly and | we are gone.
11Who regards the power | of your wrath?
Who rightly fears your | indignation?
12So teach us to num- | ber our days
that we may apply our | hearts to wisdom. R
Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Though we do not know and cannot calculate the day of Christ’s return, we live faithfully in the here and now as we anticipate the day when we will be given eternal salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. 2For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! 4But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; 5for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. 6So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; 7for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
Gospel Matthew 25:14-30
Jesus tells a parable about his second coming, indicating that it is not sufficient merely to maintain things as they are. Those who await his return should make good use of the gifts that God has provided them.
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 14“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ”