Kirkepiscatoid

Matthew 25: 14-30

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.”

I'll confess, I'm kind of getting weary of the "exclusionary" parables in Matthew. Last week it was the poor foolish bridesmaids (Ok, my mind's eye always makes them blondes, I confess to this bit of political incorrectness.) In fact, some scholars say that the authenticity of them really being from Jesus is a little shaky, that these parables may have emerged from the early Church. But the part I homed in on listening to the sermon on Sunday was verses 24 and 25--how the one servant's fear of his harsh master caused him to bury the money entrusted to him.

It is amazing how a harsh master causes us to behave so differently. All of us have experienced a harsh master, whether it is a person or profession or even our own selves. Those experiences can, at any time, cause any of us to "bury our talent." We might feel more inhibited to show our love and care to someone. We might not put that extra bit of ourselves in our work, "go the extra mile" at a time we did not have to. We might even let other's notions of what God and God's plan for us is start to be tainted with a little bit of "Wait till your dad gets home!" forboding.

I think of one of my favorite non-PC Jesus jokes--"Jesus is coming--and boy, is he pissed!"

Sure, I'm joking, but it is easy to slip into the notion of God being "just another harsh master." "God's judgment" is a scary thing. For some reason we can easily picture "God's judgment" in the "wrath o' God" mindset, but it is much harder to think of God in the mindset of "Hmmm. Maybe He will judge me and find me ok." People like to cop out in the "wrath o' God" department, blame the system. "Oh, that wasn't my idea...it's original sin." But just what is original sin, anyway? I was having a bit of that conversation with a blogfriend/Facebook friend, and what I have thought for years is that original sin is not disobedience, it is the realization that you can blame others.

Think about it. There's Adam and Eve, looking back longingly at the Garden of Eden, heading out into what looks like nowhere to them. Adam is going,"This is all your fault, bitch!" Eve's counter is "It's not my fault, it was that damn snake! Hey, where were YOU when I was out there with that snake, anyway?"

So many of the OT stories prime us to be wary of "God the harsh master." Like Adam and Eve, we use others--even God--to blame the fear. So meanwhile we bury our talent, and it sits in the dirt and starts to oxidize and get carbon spotting and pitting and all the things that happen to coins of precious metal when you stuff them into the ground. If they are finally unearthed, instead of the nice patina of honest wear, they are scarred and pitted and discolored. They may never be able to be restored to the beauty of an old coin that was allowed to circulate a little. Sure, as a coin collector, I like the brilliance of an uncirculated coin for collector value, but I have to confess I like even better holding an old coin with a little honest wear, and imagining all the places it's been, all the things it had seen, in its circulating life.

These primal fears, I believe, is what makes it hard for us to hear Jesus' overall message, despite the fact I have some issues with some of the parables in the tail end of Matthew. He changed the rules. He spoke of a loving God who desires a covenant with us, and lived a life that espoused God's openness to the tax collector and the sinners of the worst ilk. But there is that part of us--the part that fears the harsh master, that sometimes just puts that tiny kernel of skepticism in there, says, "This is too good to be true."

The amazing thing, though, is if we screw up our courage enough, we can feel that we are not dealing with a harsh master at all if only we sit still and let God touch us. A corrective one to be sure, but not a harsh one. Blue Oyster Cult had it right all along. We don't need to fear the reaper.

"All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
..we can be like they are."