Tuesday, October 18, 2011

the hold of empire

As we sat on the lawn with the shining beacon of capitalism shining a glowing red Wells Fargo, and the general assembly meeting of Occupy Long Beach to the other side, we opened the bible with our house church, and a homeless Christian man who had joined us.

I shared a parable that has been for years a staple of the subverted churches diet.  A parable that we have turned into a nice story that says, work hard and make the most of what you have and God will love you but if you don't God will cast you our into outer darkness you lazy slave.

But this couldn't be further from the lesson of the parable.  The parable teaches us what happens when we refuse to play by the rules of the empire.  When we refuse to continue to be slaves to profiteering bosses and banks, and multinational corporations.  What happens when we say, no, I wont play that game anymore.  I mean God can't be the master that admits himself that he is mean, steals, collects interest and does not show grace but judges on what you have done for me lately could he?

And the man, crushed by the system, having lost his home, seeing the truth in all of this...

goes back to, "well God gives us each a talent, and each of us need to use that talent for one another"

Which is true, but it isn't a parable

the hold of empire

rev

3 comments:

seaotter said...

Where is said parable found?

john jensen said...

in the bible

rev

:)

Matt 25 parable of the talents

Linda Ryan-Harper said...

Eh, is this going to lead to the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back? I like what you have to say, but want to add that the greatest, singular use of our talent is to sit at Christ's feet. Sounds easy enough—wonder why so few opt for it?

seaotter:

Luke (the Physician, not Skywalker), Chapter 10