This is not a stewardship sermon

Sermon preached on November 16, 2014

Matthew 25:14-30; I Thessalonians 5:1-11

With great appreciation to Ched Myers for his work on this text.

 

I’ve heard so many sermons on this Matthew text.  I’ve preached a few of them too.  And the sermon usually comes this time of year when we’re starting to think about our congregational budget for next year.

The sermon usually goes something like this–God gives us resources, so we should grow them, and give a portion of it back to God.  Or, for a more spiritual version of the sermon:  God has given each of us talents to grow the reign of God.  Burying it would be a real sin.

Both of these sermons are designed to at best to call us to give more money and time to the work of the church, or at worst, make us us feel really guilty.

There’s no doubt that from time to time we need a swift kick in the rear to remind of us what’s important, and where we should put our time, our talents, and our treasures.  But I’m not sure this text, as we’ve traditionally heard it, is the text to do that.  Because, if we interpret this story with God as the master, that has disastrous theological results–an absentee God that is interested only in profit maximization, a God that is ruthless and hard-hearted.  This sounds more like capitalism than it does like God.

Today I’d like to complicate this text–further than it already is.  I want us to look at this story a new way, with fresh eyes.  I want us to hear this story in the context of the time that Jesus and this community were living.

We have several markers around this story that tell us how it should be read.  The story before the story of the talents is the story of the bridesmaids waiting for the wedding–some were alert and ready, some were not.  Without getting into too many details in that story, the takeaway there is, “Be alert!  Keep Awake!”

The very next thing Jesus says after “keep awake!” is “Because it’s like this…” and begins the story that we hear today.  Jesus doesn’t say, “the kingdom of God is like…” which would be an indication that the master might be God in the story.  Instead, Jesus says, “keep awake, because it’s like this….”

And then Jesus tells the story of the rich landowner who left and entrusted the work to his slaves.  Now the Inclusive Bible text we read today is being rather politically correct by calling them workers, but this was a slaveowner.  He owned the folks with whom he is entrusted his wealth.

In this story about the master and the slaves, the listeners would have been predisposed against the rich man, not because he was wealthy but because of the means by which he gained his wealth.  In 1st century Palestine, the ideal was stability, not self-advancement.  Anyone trying to accumulate this kind of wealth did damage to overall society, and was considered dishonorable.  Folks understood this kind of accumulation of wealth to be responsible for the cycle of poverty and indebtedness that plagued their society.  This feeling about the rich would be in keeping with the biblical warning about storing up surpluses, profiting off the poor, and other such unscrupulous business dealings.

To the first slave the master gave five talents, the equivalent of 75 years of wages for the average person.  This was a lot of money for a slave to be entrusted with!  The second slave was entrusted with 30 years worth of wages–no small amount either.  And the third slave was given 15 years worth of wages.

The first two slaves doubled their master’s investment, and quickly.  In 21st century America, we say to that, “Well done!”  But this would have elicited disgust from the first century audience.  In antiquity, the highest legal interest rate was 12%–so how did these slaves make the money grow so quickly without using questionable methods?  This quick turnaround of profits is our first indication that what is happening in this household is less than exemplary.

Our lenses–influenced by the Protestant ethic of hard work and our capitalist system of investments and storing up for ourselves–have us reading these texts as if the first two slaves were doing the right thing, and the third slave was unproductive, overly-cautious, and a failure in the eyes of God.  But, if through our understanding of the context of the time, might we begin to see the 3rd slave be the hero of this story?

If you are still feeling skeptical about this reading, let’s look at the response that the master gives the first two slaves upon his return.  “Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful with a few things–I will make you responsible for more things.  Enter into the joy of your master.”  The first two–because they doubled their master’s profits– were given more responsibility, but continue to be enslaved.  And they were brought into the joy of their master, not the joy of the reign of God, but into the joy of a wealthy master that was increasing his wealth while keeping his slaves enslaved.

When we get to the third slave, we really begin to see a clash of values taking place.  The 3rd slave buried the talent, (which is an undertaking because a talent is huge–bigger than a body) making a statement about the impact of money.  Unlike in agrarian culture, where seeds, when planted, grow; money that is doubled in short order can only grown through swindling.

The third slave began his speech to his master honestly–he unmasked that his master’s wealth is derived from the labor of others.  “You reap where you do not sow, and you gather where you do not scatter.”  His master’s wealth was dependent on the labor of those poor folks that work the land.  This slave was not willing to participate in his master’s exploitation, so he took the money out of circulation.

Notice the master’s response here:  he did not refute this slave’s analysis.  He instead called the slave evil and lazy, and wondered why the slave didn’t at least try to make a little money with the bankers.  And so the master banished the slave into outer darkness, out of his realm.  Outer darkness was a frightening place to the master, but as we have learned, the margins is also a place of great liberation, a place with room to breathe and a place full of a joy that this master will never know.

What follows this story are two other important stories that tell us what Jesus is talking about here.

The first is the story of the separating of the sheep from the goats.  It’s about God doing the separating, not the master.

And then comes one of the most important stories in the gospel, where Jesus reminds us that we meet Christ in feeding the hungry, giving drink to those that thirst, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and visiting the imprisoned.  In other words, we meet Christ on the margins, in those places that our economic systems consider to be outer darkness.  This 3rd slave is kicked out of the rich man’s system, but enters a place where he knows better who God is, this God we serve that lives with the poor and oppressed.  And in being removed from the master’s realm, he was finally free.

This story was told to the early church, a church that was experiencing the joy and the unknowns of outer darkness, a church that understood the disparities of wealth and poverty, and that felt the weight of being called lazy and evil for refusing to participate in the oppressive economic system.

This is a stewardship text, but not in the ways that it’s been used before.  Jesus is not calling us to make more money so that we can give it to the church–instead we are to examine and call out the system in which we participate, to watch and be alert, to be willing to call into question economic disparities, to put aside our desire to make lots of money, and instead work to make sure that all are fed and clothed, and that all have enough.

I wish this could be a sermon about giving to the church. Because I obviously believe there is value in that.  This church does amazing things.  This building has more and more become a place where incredible and transformative things happen.  And that is why we give.

But, this text doesn’t call us to grow our wealth so that we can give more, but to instead question and examine the system in which we are enmeshed.

Jesus does not seem to make our lives easier here.  But he promises that when we are banished into outer darkness for standing up against oppressive systems, that we will find that’s where God dwells.  There is joy and hope on the other side.  AMEN.