Sarx

`You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 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.

OW IS This God? To-day’s RCL for Proper 28 brings us this image. And we do, usually, like to assume the “master” or “king” or “father” in Jesus’ parables is God. Do you imagine that Jesus would have described God as one who “reaps where he did not sow, and gathers where he did not scatter”? Or that God who gave his Son to a world of Sinners, would say, “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

Is it God? Or is there something else going on here?

I’ve always identified with the “wicked and lazy” slave: he knows his master is a jerk. Why bother? I wish, instead of “the parable of the talents” we’d call this “the Parable of the Greedy and Abusive Master”.

Once, when I had first moved to San Francisco, I worked for a company that produced “adult entertainment”. We had an office building that was out near what used to be Candlestick Stadium. We were in a scary sort of ‘hood, within a stones throw of a very high-crime district and, in the way of San Francisco, right next to a housing development filled with very expensive condos. Our building looked rather like a Doctors’ Office, and we were discretely known on the sign as “Bay Management”, but inside the office it was a veritable swirl of adult content.

The company was family-owned and operated. The owner, Tom, was the son of the founder. THe owner’s wife worked there, as did nearly her entire family. I think in the entire business only I and the receptionist, and perhaps the warehouse manager were the only folks not related by blood or marriage to the owner. (The HR Director was the owner’s daughter’s fiance. The loading dock was managed by a cousin, etc.) The company owned nearly every adult-entertainment facility in SF, gay and straight, as well as a few rather further afield. And they had no sense of humour about it, but that’s an aside.

The owner took everything about his business very personal: dissing the company, making jokes about it, etc, was like dissing him. He sat in his office and, essentially counted the money. Most of my job was calculating daily reports, xeroxing them and handing them out. Here’s how much money we made. Here’s how much was made at this store vrs that store. Here’s how much gay money vrs straight money. Etc. But our jobs were not clearly defined: one day I might be working one my usual projects. The next day I might discover that someone in the shipping office needed a report typed and I’d be delegated to them for a while. The owner thought nothing of keeping everyone’s duties changing, so long as his company continued to make money. And, of course, I had to do my regular daily reporting jobs too.

So if I leaned too much to the “special projects” I’d be asked where my reports were. But if I failed to get Uncle Ted’s reports typed too, I’d be asked why I hadn’t done what Uncle Ted needed. And, as it actually worked out, I was the only secretary in the place so, for $10/hr I felt I wasn’t exactly being treated fairly. One day I just walked in, and quit, with about as much notice as it took to walk in and give my letter of resignation. I’ve never bothered to list the company on my resume, either.

By the end of my time there, I spent each day doing exactly what was asked of me. I didn’t do more. I didn’t do less. If someone had given me one talent of Gold with no instructions, I would have stuffed it in a desk drawer and went about my business until someone told me what do with it.

And when they asked for it back, that is exactly what they would have received. “Tom, you didn’t tell me what to do with this so I’ve kept it safe. I’ve also done all the other things that one does to keep you happy for the last few weeks. Here’s your gold back. I have to go type a report now.”

Oh. You mean I was supposed to invest it? Wave it around and try to make you more money than you’ve already got? Heavens. Maybe you want to leave instructions for that?

I note we’re never told about the other slaves. The amount of money they are offered is the equivalent today of billions of dollars. How did the first two salves double their billions? We’re never told.

So, needless to say, when you tell me that God acts like Tom, I think, Damn, I’d better be finding a new god to follow.

The problem with the parable is not how God acts in the parable. The problem is that we want to make the parable an allegory for God. It’s not.

First off, as I said, the money is distributed in unimaginable amounts. This is a lavish distribution. There’s something else going on here, but what?

In his sermon today, Cam asked us to consider the possibility that the parable was about the difference between action and non-action because of fear. After being cowed into a place where he was afraid of his master, damned if he did, damned if he didn’t, can the “wicked and lazy” slave be blamed for acting in fear again? No. Not at all – only be a bully.

But the parable, perhaps, shows us that acting in fear rewards no one.

St Paul tells us that, “God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other…”

Reading God into this parable goes against that command – and I note that Jesus doesn’t put God here anymore than he does with the other parables. How is it that we want to make God out to be the Greedy and Abusive Master?