The Kingdom of Heaven is like...
/The Kingdom of Heaven is like ………..
A Reflection on the Gospel Reading for November 15, 2020
These words, the Kingdom of Heaven is like, often introduce a parable, or story, that Jesus tells his listeners. Jesus of Nazareth was a teacher, a rabbi, in the Hebrew faith tradition. And his favored way to teach was through story.
The story we have in this Sunday’s gospel literature (Matthew 25:14-30) is the one of Money in Trust. It is found in Luke’s gospel in almost the exact same words. When this type of doubling occurs, it can be assumed that there was a common source which each gospel writer consulted. In this case, the source is thought to be what scholars refer to as the Q source.
The story line is this: Someone going on a trip entrusts money to his slaves. The three slaves handle their trust in different ways. The master returns to settle accounts. The slaves who turn a profit with their capital are promoted. The money of the slave who hid his capital in the ground is taken away and given to the slave who produced the greatest profit. (Robert W. Funk, The Five Gospels, p, 256)
What it is hard for us to realize, reading or hearing the story today, is the impact the story would have had on the original hearers. In the culture of that day, when the story was originally told, the most trust-worthy action one could take, if entrusted with the material treasure of another, would be to protect it from being stolen. So when listeners heard …the first one did this; the second one did this; and the third one did this…, they would have automatically thought that the third servant did the correct thing. They would also have thought that the first two servants did very foolish and risky things. But then Jesus turns his listeners around completely. He tells them, through the story, that the third servant is the one who is condemned by the master.
When Jesus tells stories about the Kingdom of God, he is not necessarily speaking of an after-death place that God has prepared. Rather, Jesus is speaking of what could be translated better as God’s Imperial Rule. Jesus would want this rule to be seen as an alternative to Rome’s imperial rule, and even in contrast to the religious rule of the temple cult of the Hebrew faith of his time. Jesus was teaching about a new way-of-being in the world of his place and his time.
So, when we reflect on the story as we read it in our place and our time, we ask ourselves, “How can we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest (words from our collect for today) the truths contained in Jesus’s teaching?”
My reflection leads me to conclude that allowing, employing, and even celebrating risk is part of how we are called to share our resources, of time and talent and treasure, in the mission of spreading the real possibility of God’s Imperial Rule. And the cornerstone of God’s Imperial Rule, I believe, is consideration – which leads to compassion – which leads ultimately to embrace of the other as being as important and as worthy as we believe ourselves to be.
Now comes the HOMEWORK for personally engaging in this teaching of Jesus:
Find some money - real, actual money (not plastic or a checkbook).
Hold this money in your hands and look at it.
Ask God to send God’s Holy Spirit on this money, consecrating it and you as its steward, for the work of spreading God’s Imperial Rule, in the here and now of where you are.
Go forth with your blessed treasure. In your own unique way use it to share God’s love and care for all God’s children.
There will not be a returning master to question you about the activity you take in your living of this story. But you can share your endeavor with a fellow traveler on this mission. And you can tell each other, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
May the use of your blessed treasure bring you joy and peace. Bev+
