The parable of the talents

When I spoke at Tribe L.A. I mentioned that I believed this parable was very misunderstood by most of modern traditional christian teaching. Ched Myers introduced me to a different way to read this passage, and I will develop the reasons why I believe it is correct as we go. It is found in the 25th chapter of Matthew, and also in Luke but we will look at the Matthew passage today.

Matthew 25

The Parable of the Talents

  
¹⁴ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. ¹⁵ And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. ¹⁶ Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. ¹⁷ And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. ¹⁸ But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. ¹⁹ After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
²⁰ “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ ²¹ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ ²² He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ ²³ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
²⁴ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
²⁶ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. ²⁷ So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
²⁹ ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Now the standard reading of this passage goes like this:  God gives you gifts whether they be speaking, or music, or sowing, or making money.  You are to use these gifts to the best of your ability... for God, and if you don't, God will throw you out into outer darkness.  Of course these points must be nuanced, and danced around, especially the idea of you will be judged by what you do, as modern Christianity has tended to adopt an almost gnostic love of what you believe or know, rather than what you do here on earth.  In these dances we say... well what that means is each person is given a certain amount of faith, but if you don't use that faith blah blah blah.

Now, I am already getting negative. Please bear with me.  Though I agree with the idea that we should make the most of what we are given... I do not believe that is the point of the teaching.  And if it was, it would not be a parable.  You see a parable is not a children's story to teach us morals using quaint images.  A parable is a device used to violently yank us out of our cultural stupor, or powerfully confront our positions of power, by slipping through our defenses.  Like Nathan saying to David, "Thou art the man" parables are supposed to confront either power, or culture.  A traditional reading of this does neither. It reinforces the culture we live in.  In fact, it does so in a very diabolical way if we look beyond the surface.

In this parable we see that people are judged on their ability to make a profit... for an absentee landlord.  We see that those that make a profit get an ever larger share, to make a profit for the landlord but never actually share in the profit, thought they do get to "share in the joy of their master". They stay slaves, they are never freed, and are always judged by their ability to make more and more for their master.  This holds up the status quo, it continues a system and structure that is there.  How is this a parable of good news? of liberation? of the kingdom of God?

But if we look a bit further, we will see that this is indeed a parable.  Our problem is we get the roles turned around.  Specifically the role of the master.  We have been conditioned to believe that the master is always God, but there are many masters in this world, including Satan, the domination spirit that rules the entire world.  Lets look at the parable closer:

The slave who is cast out says some things that are confirmed by the master, the master is...

mean, or hard

he reaps where he does not sow (which we call theft)

he gathers where he did not sow seed (which we also call theft, or occupation)

in addition we see a couple of other things

these other slaves were praised for using money to make a hundred percent profit?  even in this day that would be considered unsavory, but how did they do it back in the day this was written?  the only way was by lending and foreclosing on properties and then selling them at profit,  A practice that basically made all of judea either abjectly poor, or extremely wealthy

the master says that the slave could have put the money in a bank for interest.  But the Jewish people were commanded not to take interest from each other.  So how does this Jewish God say to take interest?

And finally, how does this story fit the life of Jesus? 

So what does this story really say?  It says this in my opinion.  That the lords and masters of this world, the corporations, the governments, the banks ect. expect those under them to work hard, to maximize profits for them.  Though they steal, and defraud, and do whatever it takes to make themselves fat and happy, the best they can offer you is that you will be a slave that can "party with" the boss once and a while if you make some good profit for them.  But if you decide not to play that game, to take this money of empire and plant it in the ground and see what organically comes from it, if you only give back what is given to you.  You will be called wicked, and lazy, and cast out into darkness.  Which is what happens to Jesus.  He faces all of that darkness on Golgotha.  Which is what we are called to, when He says pick up your cross and follow me.  We are called to stand against fraudulent, thieving, mean masters, seeking only their own profit.  We are called to concern ourselves with a different agenda than propping up their empire, (as we read in the very next parable, we are to care for those others that are not "profitable to empire").  And we are called to stand against the fear that grips us, as we await our ostracizing.  We are called to pick up our cross, and follow Jesus

rev

Radical Discipleship (is there any other kind?)

My friend Simon Moyle (non-violence teacher and activist, Jesus follower), wrote an interesting article yesterday, or actually today since he is ahead of us by 14 or so hours. READ HERE In it he asks the question as to weather you can be a "casual" disciple. Or whether you can separate those that have a "special" calling, from those that are supposed to live a fairly normal life and maybe support some of these radicals.

Now Simon is way more "radical" than I. And there are other folk that are more radical than he. Its not a competition, but an orientation towards following the radical, revolutionary Jesus.

My whole life I have been a bit of a radical. I would jump off the top of the monkey bars in kindergarden, just because it was scary. I bull fought at 15 years of age. I skateboarded in swimming pools and vert ramps, and was a mma fighter. I like radical, I am inclined towards radical. And I naturally would place this inclination towards my faith.

Following that reasoning, I wanted to live in South Central, or North Long Beach, or some where really "hardcore", when we returned to America. I really want to be... radical. But the truth is, most of this is my ego. Ego and pride are not the way of Jesus. Through a series of dreams and the interpretations of these dreams by community members, and circumstance, we wind up in a neighborhood that is in between, not hardcore, but not sleepy suberbs. The Popeyes chicken on the corner does have bullet proof glass, but we don't have gang violence next door. And I am convinced we are where we are meant to be. And we are living as faithfully as we can to the radical call of Jesus in our present place. We are sharing our breakfast on Sundays with the homeless in the park, we are cultivating a small community garden, we are living in a shared housing situation, learning more about open purse living. We are doing stuff that is heading in the direction of radical, and to be honest, we want to be more so.

So, what is my point? My point I guess is this: Following Jesus is a journey, and it is our direction that is really the point. There are differing gifts, and differing applications. We will not all look like Jarrod McKenna, Shane Claiborne, or Simon Moyle. But we cannot stop our journey by saying, "well I am just not called to that" Ours should be, for everyone of us, a constant challenge towards a more complete following of Jesus, which calls us to radical love, radical confronting of the powers, radical opposition to oppression, and radical deconstruction of the kingdoms of this world. It is this orientation towards becoming more like Jesus, that is the goal.

So for some of us that are out on the fringe, the truth is most likely that we have embraced this crazy discipleship maybe sooner, maybe through our personality, or maybe because of great teaching and mentors, and we need to stand strong in our calling. But in that we need to gently call people to take steps in the direction of Jesus, and His radical cross carrying way, with lots of grace and encouragement. NO ONE, INCLUDING THOSE "RADICAL DISCIPLES" CAN STAY WHERE THEY ARE, WE ARE ALL CALLED TO KEEP DRAWING EVERY CLOSER TO JESUS AND THE WAY OF THE CROSS

I hope that makes some sense

rev

Jarrod Mckenna set me up (assisted suicide)

I was on the radio back in Australia. I was being interviewed for some filler I am sure. But they seemed to think a former cage fighter, who was coming to Perth to do non violence training, and was a pastor seemed like an interesting story. So my mate Jarrod McKenna (who set the whole thing up and was leading the training), was sitting in the other room watching me, and giving me thumbs up as I talked about fighting, and the apparent contradiction of being a pastor, and the bigger contradiction of doing non violence work.

I think I gave some good answers, made some people think. We didn't have time for any callers questions, but it was a fun little interview. And then I get this:

"So John, we don't have much time left but" (never trust a radio guy when he says this btw), "in the last hour we were discussing the topic of assisted suicide, and the right for people to meet death on their own terms, what do you think about that?"

Wow

That is not exactly an easy question, much less with "not much time left"

So what I said was basically this:

I don't know what I think, all I know is that this would be such a difficult and painful situation for everyone involved. What I don't believe however, is that an impersonal government, is in any position to enforce a law upon people. I believe that these kinds of decisions, must be made among the community, with people that love each other and care for the welfare of one another. A community like what the church is supposed to be, and they should be allowed to come to whatever decision seems fitting to them.

Then we were off the air... the radio man smiled said it was really great to meet you and sent me on my way. I felt like I had been punched in the guy, but was trying my best to stand up straight. I got a chance to wrestle with Jarrod later in the week and I made sure he paid for setting me up like that :)

rev