Love is the treasure we are given to invest in the life of the world (from Sun, Nov 19, 2023)

Reading -- Matthew 25:14-30

The reading from The Gospel of Matthew comes in the chapter just before Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the trial that leads to his execution as a criminal.  In the reading, Jesus says the coming of the kingdom of God on Earth is like a rich man who entrusts his estate to his servants while he is away on a journey.

People of his day would have recognized two things in the story.  One, that a talent is a measure of weight, used to weigh gold.  Depending on the scale, one talent is anywhere from 60 to 130 pounds of gold – up to 20 years’ worth of wages.  Two, they would have known all about wealthy land owners who make their money not by the work of their own hands, but by making shrewd deals and exploiting other people. 

 

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five talents [or five bags of gold], to another two, and to another one, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

"The man who had received five talents [or five bags of gold] went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with two talents – two bags of gold, gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.'

"His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

 "The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

"His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

"Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

"His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

"‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness,where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’"

 

Reflection

That’s quite a parable.  So familiar to us.  And one we use in all kinds of settings and contexts, usually to commend persons who have lived a good and fruitful life.

Like many of Jesus’ parables, though, once I get past the easy moral lesson that I think it’s teaching me to live by (maybe, in this case, use it or lose it, as one colleague put it this week), and I take time to sit with some of the details of the story, a lot of questions come to mind.

Like, what’s a talent?  Apparently, a lot of money – anywhere from 60 to 130 pounds of gold, around 20 years of wages. Unlimited wealth. Winning a lottery.  The kind of money that gives you the freedom to do what you want to do, whenever and however you want to do it.

Is Jesus saying that’s what the kingdom of God is about?  That it’s about putting our money to work to make more money in all areas of our life, investing our assets to make more assets in everything we do, so we can be free of worry and free to do what we want?  Is Jesus saying that if in our personal affairs, in our business, at church, and anywhere, when we make things grow in measurable ways – the building, the budget, the numbers, the programs –that the kingdom of God is coming to be on Earth, and we’re a happy part of it?  Some believe that.

If that’s true, though, I wonder about the logical conclusion it leads to – both in the parable and in life, when the comparative successes and failings of the servants are measured, and the master says “take the one talent from the one who didn’t make it grow, and give it to the one who has ten [and made ten more].  To those who have, more will be given, so they will have an abundance.  And from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.  And while you’re at it, throw him out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Really?  This is the way of the world – that the rich get rich and the poor get poorer.  And that the fate of the poor is to be pushed out, out of sight. 

But is this the way of Jesus and his God, and what he acts out in the world?  Does this fit at all with what Jesus shows in his own life and death about God’s special love for the poor, raising up of those who are weak, healing those who are cursed, forgiving those who are outcast or who have sinned, and creating an inclusive table where all have a place of equal dignity and well-being set for them?

The master in the story is a pretty good example of how the world often works.  Does Jesus mean that is how God is as well?  When he tells this story, does he see the ruthless master as a stand-in for God?

***

In church we often expand the focus of the parable beyond just money, though.  We talk about the three T’s – time, talent and treasure, as the things God gives us to work with, and to use for God’s purposes in the world.  And it’s so easy to do this with the second of the three T’s – our talents, being the same word that’s used in the parable for what the master entrusts to the servants.  Even though it’s just a quirk of the English language.

But is this maybe what it’s about?  About using our talents, which are our real treasure, in the time we are given, to do the work of God?  Putting our skills, our abilities, our natural aptitudes to good use?  You know – singing for God, making music for the healing of the world, tap-dancing for Jesus, baking or keeping the books or plumbing or public-speaking or sitting with the sick or co-ordinating events – doing whatever you are good at for the good of God’s kingdom?

No doubt the world becomes a better place, and the church often grows bigger and stronger if we all did thist.  And no minister is going to argue against that.

But … has a strong and powerful church – has Christendom, ever ushered in the kingdom of heaven on Earth?  Or is it often a bearer of at least as much bad news for some as good news for others?  Are bigger and better churches ever the sum total of the kingdom of God come to be on Earth? 

I don’t know.

***

So … in the parable, what, really, are those big bags of gold that the master gives to his servants to work with?  What is the stock-in-trade – the currency, of the kingdom of God in the world?  What is the wealth that we are given by God in unlimited measure, that sets us free to just do God’s will in the world, and help the kingdom of heaven on Earth to become a reality?  

What if it’s love?  Just only, always, and radically God’s love for us and for all, and our responding and resulting love for God and for the other, for our neighbour?  What if this – the gift and the command of love, is the currency of God’s kingdom?

Love – the way Jesus lives it out.  In inclusiveness and radical hospitality.  In unsparing understanding and forgiveness.  In compassion for all, especially the broken, the weak and the forgotten.  In an openness to others that remembers and serves the God-given dignity of all persons?  In an obedience to God that honours the goodness of all creation.

What if the great treasure – the bag, or the five bags, or the ten bags of gold that we’re given to work with in the world is the good news of God’s endless love of us – all of us, just as we are?  It would mean that what we’re called to do is to keep using that love, keep spreading that love, keep sowing and growing that kind of love in the world every day.  As love of neighbour, love of other, love of stranger, love of one’s enemy in every way we can.

At our best, this is what we are known for, what the church is known for.  It’s at the heart of our greatest work and success in the world.  Our growth and continued life.

And – and this is important, this is where knowing what the treasure of the kingdom of God really is, really matters – because sometimes, when what we’re given to work with is God’s love for all, it means the opposite of our own growth and worldly success.

Love of the other, love of God, even love of our self as God loves us, can mean risking all, and giving away.  It can mean costly sacrifice, losing and letting go of what we have for the sake of others.  Impoverishment – sometimes even death and letting ourselves die, for the sake of others’ well-being.  It can mean being seen as foolish in the eyes of the world because of what love for others leads us to do, even as the master says to us, “Good and faithful servant.”

Because – and here we get to the hard end of the parable, it’s those who keep it for themselves out of anxiety and fear, out of thinking there may not be enough to go around – it’s those, it’s us, it’s me when I act that way, who lose it and find it slipping through our fingers.  As we see God giving to others -- to other people and other churches, the talent of loving those in whom we have chosen not to invest our love.

And it’s not the harsh judgment of the master or of God that makes it so.  It’s we ourselves, when we limit and keep God’s love and blessing just for ourselves, and not lose or give it away, who make ourselves to be separate from the great and wide feast that God intends us to be part of with others.

The parable is an encouragement and a warning.  An encouragement to spend God’s love freely and widely, letting five bags of it grow into ten, and ten into twenty.  And a warning, not to keep it too close, not to hang on to it too tightly, lest it slip through our fingers.

It’s an invitation to keep asking the question of God’s kingdom – how is it that we can love generously, and share God’s love for the other, for a neighbour, for a stranger, for an enemy today?