This reflection was for a service with a special member of our congregation, Miles Dillon, who is now in the final stages of brain cancer. The service wasn’t for Miles, but with Miles. It was a huge effort for him to attend. I invited him to select the gospel reading for that Sunday, and as part of our worship we sang some of his favourite hymns.
There are two gospel readings for this reflection, and an oblique reference to the lectionary reading from the Hebrew Scritpures. You can find the Genesis reading here.
And the two gospel readings are:
Luke 2: 41-52
Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’
He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.
Matthew 25:14-30
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.
It’s an interesting situation to ask someone to pick passages they would like for a special service. It was challenging for Miles…how do you choose? And it’s challenging for me…what to say about these texts? But I like a challenge! And I like looking for connections. In these two stories, I noticed that both Abram and Mary go through a similar process of having to adjust their perspectives.
For Abram, he is told by God to pick up and leave his country, his kindred and his extended family household and to travel into unknown territory. Everything familiar is left behind. In a short time, almost nothing about his life is recognisable and everything that seemed solid, stable and reliable is now a receding dot on the far horizon. For many of us, this level of abrupt change happens to us without our willing participation.
We experience it in the loss of a job; through accidents and disasters both natural and humanly wrought. We also experience it in an unexpected diagnosis; the sudden death of a loved one. We rarely go willingly into the wilderness of this kind of change, except when staying as you are is more dangerous, more impossible, than the leap into the unknown.
So, Abram is lured into this move with the promise of a blessing, and it is a massive blessing – all the families of the earth will be blessed through him. But given how old he is, and how old is wife is, the near reward for obedience to that call seems unlikely. Making a single offspring from an ancient childless couple is a stretch.
To believe, to hope that God could make not just a great nation, but a great blessing, from such unpromising circumstances requires a cathedral building kind of faith. Because the great cathedrals of Europe were hundreds of years in the making. Those who began them did not live – knew that they would not live – to worship in them. When you walk into one of those vast cathedrals, you feel something. Perhaps the average tourist does not want to name it so, but I feel it as faith. I feel it as a blend of hope and trust which is woven by love and is somehow in the very fabric of the building. It’s like you feel the presence and the prayers of those who have gone before because the stones are holding every prayer than has been breathed in that space.
I expect that same deep faith feeling was also in the fabric of the Temple in Jerusalem where, at 12 years old, Jesus found himself so very much at home. This story from Luke tells us of one more of Mary’s ongoing adjustments of her perspective on Jesus.
From the beginning of the story, Luke tells us of the extraordinary circumstances of Jesus’ conception and birth. And Luke says that Mary treasures all this supernatural stuff in her heart, pondering. What on earth is she to make of all that while in the midst of it and without any of the benefits of hindsight? Who can say how she made sense of it all, and at the end of the day, son of God or not, nappies need changing, food must be prepared, laundry does not wash itself. Life makes its demands, and we do what we can.
Mary watches Jesus learn and grow like any other child. She knows him. And then Luke tells of this trip as Jesus is on the cusp of his bar mitzvah – the yearly trip to the temple is part of the rhythm of life for this family, but this time he does something that shifts both his parents into the realm of unwelcome, unexpected adjustment of perspective.
At 12 years old, this story happens before he is fully able to participate in the life of the community to the same extent as adults. Before he is deemed to be ready to engage in leading prayer, discussing and questioning like an adult. And perhaps he was not just like an adult. Because the people who heard him were amazed. What did they hear in his questions, or in his answers that they found amazing, I wonder? Mary also wondered. Did she wonder at his questions? Or at his particular question about where he would be found? Either way, she had to reassess who she thought he was. Again.
I find this reassessing really helpful as a motif for the spiritual life. There is a learning which is growth, then there is a plateau where things make sense for a while. Then there is an earthquake. Or it could be a flood. One way or another, there is an upsetting of what we thought we knew.
I’m not saying God sends the earthquake or whatever, just that in the arrival of the ‘shaking out of order’ event, there can also be an opening. We can be opened to receive an invitation which we may not have even noticed before. The invitation to leave what we know and discover something new. The invitation to re-evaluate, to treasure and ponder like Mary, to see differently the one we thought we knew through and through.
Mary knew Jesus. Or she thought she did. And then he went and did something that was shocking and amazing. Her three days of probably frantic, fear fuelled searching perhaps prepared her – opened her heart – to find him in the temple and to see how others were amazed by him.
God speaks into the openness of our hearts, and unwelcome truth that it is, love and suffering are what break us open, lead us into unfamiliar territory and push/draw/lure us onward, deeper into hope, closer to trust, and more willing to be surprised by joy… Because the spirit wind of God blows, and if we’re really following Jesus, then we are choosing to weigh anchor and sail on….
When Miles showed me this parable as one of his stories for today, Annie said something like ‘ah, the accountant’s parable!’
It has been interpreted as a guide for good investing, or a reason to donate more to the church. And I must admit that this parable is discomforting for me with its apparent depiction of God as a slave owner…not an appropriate image for a God who is love. It’s also discomforting because it seems to be a story about reward for effort and punishment for failure.
And while I want to focus my attention on the generosity of the slave owner who trusts all of the slaves with outrageous fortunes…and leaves them alone for a long time ….and then when he returns, he invites them to enter into his joy….unfortunately, the parable itself pushes me to attend to the third slave.
Because the first two slaves do the same thing, word for word, and are rewarded in like manner. There’s a lot more focus on the last slave and the exchange between the master and this one talent hider. So here’s what I noticed this time: the first two slaves are trusted with the talents and act freely within that trust. They work with their respective amounts to do what it seems good to them to do with their master’s property. They probably took some risks to make that extra money – we don’t know.
The third slave, though, acts out of fear. He says, “I knew you were harsh. I was afraid.”
How come the other two slaves weren’t afraid? How did the third slave know that the master was harsh? Who had told this slave that his master was in the habit of reaping where he didn’t sow? Was it true? The master doesn’t deny it, but does that mean it’s true? Perhaps one of the things this parable shows us is how easy it is to think you know what someone is like…. based on nothing that is actually true.
To those who trusted the master to be good, he said: enter into my joy. To the one who feared the master, he said: nothing good can come from this story you are living.
Matthew the gospel writer uses the motif of ultimate judgement more than the other three. In his gospel stories, the urgency of just, faithful and good action now, in the present moment, is underscored by the consequences of failure, apathy and inaction.
It is hard not to see that as a threat – be good or else!
So I think it’s helpful to remember that most of the time, the way I look at something frames what I see. And, the way I listen shapes what I hear. And this time around with the parable, I see that the fearful slave takes the master’s goodness and hides it. Buries it. Smothers it. I hear the fearful slave refusing to engage with the master’s goodness because of the story he is telling about the master.
And here’s what I know about Jesus: Jesus is the one who looks with love, who listens and asks dignifying questions. He brings healing and humour, he eases pain and lightens burdens. He offers kindness, grace, understanding and appreciation. This is his goodness which he gives generously to us with no requirement of merit on our part. What do you do with that goodness? Do you find that it multiplies in your heart and your hands? Or do yourself hiding it, out of fear?
If you do hide it, then I believe that the fear is real. I won’t try to talk you out of it. But I also have questions: What stories have you heard about Jesus? What story are you telling? Could it be that God wants more for you? Not more from you, but more for you.
Could it be that this is a moment where Jesus does something surprising and unexpected, and you have before you an invitation to re-assess what you think you know? Right now, here’s a new chance to enter into the joy of God’s goodness. Isn’t that right?
