Lazy and wicked

 

The Parable of the Talents

In Matthew 21 Jesus makes a dramatic entrance to the holy place of the Temple. He overturns the tables of the money changers and the sellers of the sacrificial doves. Earlier as his ministry begins Jesus is led through three symbolic temptations by the adversary but refuses the bribe offered. Jesus the teacher and the embodiment of wisdom will walk the way of integrity.  He warns against gathering treasure, trying to serve God and wealth, and seeking first what he calls the Kingdom. Unlike the earthly authorities this Basilea is all about generosity and service, inclusion, and celebration. This gospel is named for Matthew, the tax collector, someone who has betrayed the community to collaborate with the Romans taxing the people and lining his own pockets.

This sleazy character alongside other no hopers, frauds and failures becomes a disciple and the church which gathers together stories and sayings about Jesus the wisdom teacher takes him as their patron.

That is why I want to offer another view of this parable, just as last week I linked the story of the foolish bridal attenders with the disciples who fail to watch and pray but are restored after the resurrection and are anointed with the oil of the Spirit.

The traditional reading is that the two go getting risk takers who enter the joy of the Lord are the kind of active engaged church people that God likes, good workers who win promotion entering the joy of their Lord. This is contrasted with the lazy, seemingly resentful disciple who hoards the money in a hole in the ground. Even the name ‘talent’ has a positive ring about it. We reward talented passionate people and hold them up as dazzling role models to the dull and dutiful, the drifters and disappointing.

But what if the wicked slothful and evil slave was the one in the right? What if the slave were correct in his assessment of the Master, the Kyrios that his wealth, prestige, and influence were at the expense of the poor?  The action of the slave in burying the silver, (a talent was about 15 years of wages) could be seen as a way of honouring the command to give to Ceasar that which belongs to him and to God, what belongs to God. Certainty the slave is punished, thrown out into the place of cursing and regret but of course this is exactly the punishment given to Jesus. Could Matthew the repentant tax collector, the object of hate and derision be commending the corruption of this unpleasant Lord?

My task is to get you to think again about this parable and not take the easy way out.  Matthew’s gospel often compares and contrasts different responses by individuals and groups to deep hidden wisdom. Parables are not meant to be moral stories with an easy answer but stories that twist and turn.

Jesus was regarded as evil, a traitor, too lazy to observe the ritual laws. He upset the religious people and praised integrity against entitled people seeking to bribe their way into God’s favour. Jesus was cast out and went to the place of shame and punishment to offer hope to people like us, foolish failures, doubters and drifters from which he fashions disciples.  He was buried like treasure in a field.  He commended turning within rather than an open demonstration of piety.

Friends in Christ

Does your life need some overturning like the temple tables? Its all too easy as we know to drift along and never question.  Perhaps the fact that those who call themselves Christians are becoming a small minority is quite a gift to us. It invites to ask what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus who was put to death as a blasphemer, a bad influence, and as a corrupting influence by getting people to think for themselves and teaching us to respect only integrity and compassion.

The Monastic Chapel at Fairacres Oxford a place where 'prayer has been made valid' (TS Eliot)

Eucharists and prayers on the South Coast for the Guardian Angels and to remember children of all ages who have died

Contemplating the Light

 Some reflections from my sermon for October 8th.

Here I discuss a visit to James Turrells work 'Within Without' at the NGA and my experience of entering across the water lined path into the stupa to stand within the light reflected from the 'eye' in the stupa, beyond description in mere words. As someone who has participated in Quaker meetings it is no surprise that Turrell is a life long Quaker. The Religious Society of Friends uses the metaphor of the Inward Light and 'Within Without' reminds me of a meeting house, a place of stillness and silence.

Today's readings included the ten invitations, the ten words or ten invitations of Exodus given as a gift. At the heart of words about the Holy One and the admonitions to live ethically is placed the command to observe the Sabbath.  The Sabbath a time for rest, renewal, contemplation, remembrance and realignment. When a Sabbath is kept, in whatever form we look to the Light, to the horizons of meaning and purpose. For Christians the Logos or Christ is the Light. Light is of course a metaphor as we know the path only through metaphors and reflections. Our Gospel was the vineyard and the tenants who forget their place. This speaks to me so vividly of the tragedy of  so much of life and our forgetting to live in harmony with each other and the planet.

The vineyard in the parable is planted, a wall and watchtower offer boundary spaces and the press a metaphor of transformation as the wine comes into being.

James Turrell's mission to assist people to find wonder, amazement and appreciation through his work is an inspiration, a sign of hope. May we in our sabbath keeping practice contemplation and participate in the Great Work of healing and hope bringing.

Thomas Traherne and the meditating inward eye

 Some reflections from my sermon on October 1st

'A meditating Inward Eye gazing at Quiet did within me lie. And everything delighted me that was their Heavenly King'

So wrote English poet and mystic Thomas Traherne, born in Hereford, the son of a shoemaker. For ten years he was parish priest at Credenhill (picture above)

 in the beautiful golden valleys near the border with Wales. He lived during the destructive and turbulent era of the Civil War when so much was torn down and destroyed by misplaced religious zeal.

So much of religion is noise, discord, outcry, refusal, complaint, argument and sheer meanness. So much of religion is experienced as the jabbing righteous finger and guilt. Let us no forget that the Church created cancel culture.

Paul sees Jesus as the one who became empty and Wesley that God emptied himself of all but love. Another story sees the Holy withdrawing in love to make space for creation to flourish freely.

Contemplation, the quiet gaze, becoming empty, open is never easy but beyond all becomes a joy and delight where the inner noise fades

SS Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and all Angels

https://neumz.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc9686caa6e61732352a5989&id=199bbc5abc&e=4a7d97d3dc

Today is the Feast of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael Archangels and here is some wonderful music to take us into the day

The statue is from the Jesuit Church at Sevenhill South Australia

Sermon 24th September 'In cant get no satisfaction' the labourers in the vineyard and the people of God in the wilderness

 

A Sermon for 24^th September Pentecost 17 The labourers in the vineyard

 

Readings: Exodus 16.2-15, Psalm 105, Phil 1:21-30, Matthew 20:1-16

 

‘I can’t get no satisfaction…. and I try, and I try, and I try and I try….’

This quotation is, of course from song written in 1965 by Jagger and Richards and performed by the Rolling Stones. With its iconic guitar riff and subversive and suggestive lyrics its reckoned to be one of the best rock songs of its era.

Question: Do you have memories of when you first heard this song?

In our Gospel reading the workers who had sweated all day in a snake filled stony and sunny vineyard receive the same pay packet as those hired at the end of the day. The Israelites fresh from a rest in palm springs Elim complain to their tour guide Moses, ‘You can’t get a decent quail on manna toast breakfast in a Godforsaken place like this’ They insist, ‘take us back to Norwood-on-Nile’. Even Paul banged up in gaol is caught on his own existential grand junction road. ‘I long to be with Christ yet I long to hang out with you in Phillipi’

‘I can’t get no satisfaction…. and I try, and I try, and I try and I try….’

Question:  Are the workers being unreasonable. Should Moses have packed a picnic?

I notice my own lack of satisfaction with the whingeing workers, angst filled Paul and the hungry pilgrims in a barren land. I can’t get no satisfaction.

Some suggestions to reflect on and discuss with a friend.

·        Taking our own lack of satisfaction or uncertainty to our prayer.  Kneeling in worship alone or with others. Making our complaint a lament, confessing our own disappointment with ourselves and with others. Complaining well can move us to a more truthful and insightful place.

·        Complaining well in our society where so many complain can be a work of grace. Can we in a prayerful Gospel way alone and with others speak truth to power to use that Quaker phrase? Can you offer constructive feedback to the preacher, to the church, to your local council and other elected members.

·        Does Scripture challenge you. Perhaps Jesus also had to wait to be hired in his working life and had to go hungry or not bring anything home to his mother and family. What kind of society do we live in that has casualised its labour, developed a gig economy and forced many young people into debt and uncertainty about the future. What kind of society fails people experiencing vulnerability or financial stress?

·        All is wonder all is grace. In our readings the people receive from unmerited generosity and goodness. Those hired late receive enough for themselves and their families, the cash goes around to support all. The people in the wilderness do not get a crust, they receive what they need in the here and now. In the Eucharist we are fed and nurtured for the journey receiving just what we need to respond to the God who meets us in the here and now

 

The past is past, the future does not exists, Christ meets us in the here and in the now. In the here and now which will arrive if we ask we will receive what we need to get by.

Question: All of us have the tendency to live in the past but usually memories can be distorted. We plan but often life turns our differently. What supports you to live and focus on the flow of moments.

Question:  The Israelites and the workers in the vineyard had no satisfaction because they were looking for the wrong answer to the right question. What about you.

To the complaint ‘I can’t get no satisfaction…. and I try, and I try, and I try and I try….’ Christ the Word responds; ‘Seek first the Kingdom and what you truly need will be yours’

P