"Nothing Ventured..."

A sermon by The Rev. Keenan Kelsey
Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA)
November 13, 2005

Text: 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; ¹⁵ to one he gave five talents,* to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶ The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. ¹⁷ In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. ¹⁸ But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹ After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ Then 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.” ²¹ His 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.” ²² And 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.” ²³ His 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.” ²⁴ Then 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; ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” ²⁶ But 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? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. ²⁹ For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abun- dance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ³⁰ As for this worth-less slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

“PARABLES are tiny lumps of coal squeezed into diamonds, condensed metaphors that catch the rays of something ultimate and glint it at our lives. Parables are not illustrations; they do not support, elaborate or simplify a more basic idea. They are not ideas at all, nor can they ever be reduced to theological statements. They are the jeweled portals of another world; we cannot see through them like windows, but through their surfaces are refracted lights that would otherwise blind us -- or pass unseen...”

So writes theologian Walter Wink. Like all good stories, he says, they lure us inside them, get us involved in the characters and the situation, and once inside, we cannot get out again. A theology informed by parables accepts the complexities and ambiguities of life. Most of us think that we know pretty much what this or that parable is about. The trouble is, these stories of Jesus don’t always cooperate in a single fixed meaning. Jesus himself repeatedly warns us to find ways to de-familiarize the parable, to see it from new angles, to open new possibilities for hearing, to keep from reducing it to a single bland "I know just what it means " statement. After all, parables are subversive speech, and Jesus' purpose was always to get us to see the world differently.

18 month ago I preached this story on Pentecost. I likened it to the call of the Spirit, a call to risk all, to use our gifts, to be bold with our talents. But I rethought it after I read an article by Dr. Wink in which he recounts a real-life Bible study which took place in a New York State prison in a class taught by Biblical scholar Robert T. Fortna. The pertinent exchange from a longer conversation went something like this:

Fortna: Our agenda is the parable of the Talents. I suggest we try to discover what Jesus’ original story was and what it means.
Inmate 1: Yeah, like I said, the story means we should use our talents what God gave us, some does better at that than others…
Inmate 2: Hey Joey, what use you got for talents? You in here for life, man. (laughter)
Fortna: We tend to assume that the rich man who went away stands for God. Can we be sure of that?
Inmate 1: It’s obvious. All these stories are about God.
Fortna: Look, let’s study the story just the way it‘s told. What do you think of the three slaves?
Inmate 2: Two of them is smart, one kinda dumb.
Inmate 3: Yeah, my Bible say he was worthless.
Inmate 1: Prof, this is getting us nowhere. We all understand this story; let’s talk about somethin’ useful.
Fortna: Wait a minute, Joey, Which of these three guys in the story do you like the best?
(pause) Why Prof, I like that third guy.
Fortna: Okay, go with that. How do you feel about your boss who gave you all this money to invest for him?
Inmate 1: (another pause) Why that son of a ___! He tryin’ to use me to make his money for him. And I get the rap in the end if I lose it!
Fortna: So, is he God?
Inmate: Of course not. Who said that anyway? (laughter)

Those inmates are exactly the kind of people that Jesus usually addressed in his teaching – disenfranchised, rejected, oppressed. So the inmates’ intuition is noteworthy. For them, the parable becomes an indictment of the Powers that Be for reaping where they do not sow and gathering where they do not scatter seed. For them, the master is not God, but a rapacious aristocrat who really is the kind of man the third slave says he is, and the slaves are the ones being used and abused.

In traditional Mediterranean society, the ideal was stability, not self- advancement. Anyone trying to accumulate inordinate wealth imperiled the equilibrium of society. It was dishonorable. In fact, usury was understood in antiquity to be responsible for the destructive cycle of indebtedness and poverty. But in Jesus’ day, the only way to double your money fast would be by extorting and defrauding other members of the community through lucrative trading, tax collecting, and lending money at interest.

According to this revised interpretation, we might call Slave 3 “The Conscientious Objector” rather than the unwilling, fearful slacker. And instead of assuming that the Master is God, the "man/Master" becomes the "Tempter." He represents the values of the world -- a self-consuming interest that he generates at the expense of others. Here, then, is Christ, the ethical indentured slave, courageously standing up to his unethical owner saying, in essence, "YOU do not own me, GOD owns me." You will not use me to do your dirty work. I will give to Caesar what is Caesar's and I give MYSELF to God. The third servant tells the master what all the poor wished they might: the master is a parasite, living off the labor of others without return to the peasants. By burying the money he takes it out of circulation where it can no longer be used to dispossess more peasants from their lands by usurious loans.

A world according to God is not about a rich man who hires slaves to make an obscene amount of usury. It is about one who refuses to go along with this economic injustice. Sometimes you have to take a stand and disturb the peace (the unjust order) in order to bring peace (God's right order). God's peace often cuts right through the status quo. Jesus is the whistle-blower. Christ is civil disobedience. Christ is divine obedience. Christ is Rosa Parks. This is the grace and courage that Christ brings to an evil world.

Consider this modern retelling of the parable: The CEO of one of North America’s largest conglomerations summoned to her penthouse office three of her highest-ranking VP’s. To the first VP she delegated a $25 million budget. To the second VP she delegated $12.5 million, while to the third she delegated $2.5 million. Then she left on a long cruise to a Caribbean hideaway.

Thrilled to be given so much authority, the first VP moved the North American operation to a small Central American country, where he was able to procure cheap day labor at a steal ¬ and no benefits to offer to boot! With the new off-shore subsidiary up and running, he was able to slash the North American payroll by half, give himself a well-earned bonus and increase the annual net profit of his division tenfold ¬ to $250 million in the first year.

The second VP also scored a huge hit. She found she was able to hold off a strike while cutting wages and benefits, as well as import parts for her division from a struggling African nation. Surely no one would notice the lower quality ¬ and the benefits she reaped by not "buying American." It gave just the boost she needed to jack net profits up five fold in less than 12 months ¬ with a neat $62 million 500 thousand, she felt quite prepared to reveal her success when the CEO returned.

The third VP carefully audited the company’s books from the past five years, talked with union representatives and individual employees in the company’s many nationwide branches and subsidiaries and carefully outlined a new benefit package that would give each and every employee a fair wage, increase health benefits so that no employee would ever face mounting health care costs, gave a bonus package to equal none, increased efficiency so that no employee was asked to work overtime, added family life benefits, a workout gym and day care facilities to each work place ¬ and showed a net profit exactly the same as the year before, a cool $2.5 million dollars At the end of the fiscal year, the CEO returned to present the annual report to the trustees and stockholders. VP Number One proudly marched into the meeting to make his presentation, and as he had expected, was promoted to CEO of overseas operations and was presented both a substantial bonus and a budget twice the size of his previous assignment. "Well done, good and faithful servant," the CEO beamed. ". Welcome to the world of high finance and corporate intrigue!

VP Number Two entered in her newest Italian designer suit and confidently addressed the board. "With these carefully laid plans," she humbly confessed, "we were able to minimize the loss of staff, increase production and increase profits times five. I admit this is a modest increase, but we are sure that next year will show even greater rewards."

Again, the CEO was overjoyed with the success of this second division. "Well done, good and faithful servant," she beamed. "Enjoy this little bonus here, we’ll give you an office with a view, and oversight of a second division. Let’s see if you can pull this off again!"

The third CEO also entered the conference room with confidence. Proudly he explained how he had cut fat out of the budget by lowering salaries of the ten highest executives in the corporation, had improved working conditions and benefits across the board, and created a working atmosphere so positive that efficiency had increased substantially, while still yielding the same generous profit of the prior year.

Upon hearing this the CEO exploded in rage, "You wicked and lazy peon! You knew that I am ruthless in business, and will cut every corner in order to increase profitability. Not only do I invest only in lucrative deals, but when I lend money I do so only with exorbitant rates of interest, ¬after all, what kind of a fool would do less?? I might as well have stuck last year’s profit in the stock market as to have left it in the care of such as you! You’re fired!"

And the CEO gave the third account to the First VP, in order to reap an even larger return on her investment. As for the wimpy VP, he went to live among the poor, the blind, the sick and the lame, where he truly belongs!

It is hard to embrace a radical vision of history that chooses the power of Jesus over and against the power of empire. Yet here, in this interpretation, we have the third slave speaking truth to power.

I don’t know what Jesus had in mind with this parable. We can read this as an indictment of a system that creates poverty and hunger, and we can look at our own involvement in unjust systems by which we receive financial and physical gain. Or we can see it as or an attack on those who sit timidly by, maintaining the status quo while doing nothing with their material and spiritual gifts.

But I do know that the living Word of God can speak to us wherever we are. Either way, I know we are being challenged and called into action, into right action. How about this parable being about the stewardship of ourselves and all our life? The talent was more money, much more, than the everyday person of Jesus' time would ever hope to see. Whether the indictment here was meant to be about us, or about unfair economic systems, or both --it is certainly about that famous statement of St. Teresa: 'God does not want extraordinary people who do extraordinary things, nearly so much as God wants ordinary people who do ordinary things extraordinarily well' - St. Teresa

Our lives are of more value than we can ever imagine. Go and claim your inheritance.