Sunday Sermon 11/13/11

Today's sermon, the sermon of the talents, is a tough one. In its place with the previous sermon, the wise and foolish virgins, it is especially difficult.
The virgins are waiting for the bridegroom who is late. Half have brought extra oil for their lamps, half have not. As the hour grows late and the half without the extra oil begin to lose their lamps, they go to the others and ask for help. They are refused and are forced to leave and buy more oil. In their absence, the bridegroom comes. In the next parable, today's, three servants are given money to hold in their master's absence. One is given 10,000 talents, one 2,000 and the last 1,000 each according to the master's assessment of his ability. The first two invest their portion and double it, the third, fearful of losing it, buries his. The master returns, lauds and rewards the first two and throws the third out.

These two gospels have been translated in many ways, sometimes as a tribute to selfishness on the part of the virgins, sometimes as a tribute to investing and interest as in the case of the talents, sometimes as a parable on the fulfillment of one's ability as if Christ was making a cross-cultural and language pun with "talent." (A "talent" was a measure of weight.) But it seems more difficult than any of these and more bleak. There seems in these two parables a remorseless emphasis on the responsibilities of the individual. Risk and responding to those risks with the acceptance of the consequences is paramount. No one can bail you out, hiding your responsibilities from danger is not safe. Moreover the master trusts the servant to do the right thing. Nor does he give these servants more than they can manage. He recognizes the differences among them. But he does have expectations. He expects his servants to make a difference.

There is another question: What does Christ mean when the third and unsuccessful servant describes the master as one who reaps where he does not sow and the master agrees with him? Who is such a man, a magician? A thief? A raider? Is it a reference to the gentiles who will be a default recipient of Christ's message? And is some irony implied when the third servant buries--plants--his assigned money?