Sunday 13 November 2011

Background

Jesus' parables are incendiary. On the face of it they appear tobe simple stories, like Aesop's Fables, with lessons on how to livegood and faithful lives. But we don't need to think about them fortoo long to begin to realise that many of Jesus' stories are deeplytroubling, even morally ambiguous. Rather than telling us nicetales to make us good people he speaks in such a way that we arecompelled to take his words in, to mull them over, and to allowthem to confuse and challenge us. They confront our preconceivedideas and strike a blow to our comfortable perception of reality.If we carefully contemplate his stories, and struggle with them -not to work out the answer but to experience them deeply - theywill transform us as they break open the way in which we see theworld and the way that we understand God.

This parable is preceded by Jesus telling us that "the kingdom ofheaven will be like this ..." (Matthew25:1). Then he tells us a story that seems to celebrate andreward the work of investment bankers. The rich get richer and thepoor get poorer. Clearly the world works in this way, but doesthe kingdom ofheaven? It's troubling that the reason the slave who isgiven one talent (a considerable amount of money) goes and buriesit because he is afraid of his master, who it seems has a fearsomereputation. Moreover - it seems that this reputation is justifiedas the master, full of anger, casts the "worthless slave" (v. 30)out into the darkness when he realises that there is no return onhis cash.

Perhaps there is a more subtle and richer way of engaging with theparable. Rather than trying to dissect it in a rational manner weenter into the story imaginatively, experiencing deeply what itfeels like to be each of the different characters. In doing so wecan find that there are aspects of the story that resonate bothpositively and negatively with our experience of God and what itmeans to be human. If, in stillness and prayer, we hold those partsof the story that find an echo in our own lives - howevercomfortable or uncomfortable that might be - we open ourselves upto the possibility of the Spirit teaching and changing us; a riskyendeavour indeed.

To Ponder

Is the kingdom ofheaven really like this? Why? Or why not?

Why do you think that Jesus so often taught inparables - wouldn't it be better for him just to tell us what hereally means?