Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30
Grace and Peace to you from God our Loving Creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, Amen.
Sometimes you’re the master, and sometimes you’re the third slave. Sometimes you’re the teacher, and sometimes you’re the student. This is my last Sunday at Living Waters as your intern. Well, that sure went quick. Yes, I’ve only been here a few months. And for some of you, that time might have seemed quicker, because half of my time here was the summer, and you may have not been here much in the summer. And that’s okay, it seems very quick for me too. In all reality, I’ve only been here since May as your intern, and even then, it’s only been two weekends per month. This is my only my 7th sermon as your intern. If I were a called pastor by myself in a solo call, that would be a month and a half of Sunday sermons. Three months if I were Prs. Denise or Todd. And for almost that entire time of the last few months, Jesus has been teaching parables in our Gospel texts. Parable after parable after parable. Jesus ‘throwing around’ ideas about God and the kin-dom of God.
Reading today’s Gospel lesson again and again, trying to wrap my head around how the master can be so cruel to that third slave whom he called “wicked and lazy”. And then in the parable, the master adds, “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. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
It seems discordant in my head, how this parable throws the master in such a light, even after he doesn’t deny that he reaped where he didn’t sow and gathered where he didn’t spread seed… He punished the slave for noticing and knowing better.
I spent days contemplating this text, knowing that this was my last sermon as your intern, and how was I ever going to speak a word of Grace into this? How was the Holy Spirit going to breathe life into this text?
And then it hit me. I was sitting in the first meeting of Saint Cloud’s first Minnesota Transgender Alliance at Peace United Church, listening to the stories of people I just met. I was thinking to myself how much I wanted to hear more of their story, to sit and console them in their grief, and connect them with resources and pray for them and then... I stopped myself and realized… I wanted to be their pastor. In that moment right there, in a meeting of fellow trans-identified people in this community, I had taken myself out of the realm of fellow trans person in need of help, and wanted so desperately to say something. But I stopped myself, because it wasn’t my job. At that moment in time, that’s not what I was there for.
Because sometimes you’re the teacher, and sometimes you’re the student. And I think I’ve struggled with that distinction on this internship. I think I’ve struggled with that difference for a while. But I’m going to venture a guess that I’m not the only one that has trouble at grappling with the distinction.
If we go back to the Gospel lesson, and put ourselves in the role of the slavemaster - well okay, let’s reframe it as boss, and we as a boss have employees that we entrust our work and energy. We leave on a business trip, and ask three employees to do some tasks for us. We give one a bigger task, but expect more out of her. We give another one a smaller task, but expect great things from them as well. And with the third employee, well, we have something small we want done, but think he’s up to the task. When we return from our trip, the first employee, well she did a fantastic job of completing the task for us, and she gets a promotion. The second employee, they also did a fantastic job on their task for us, so we give them a promotion also. The third employee, went digging in our desk. And he saw that we had other things going on, maybe we were on a secret job interview while on this trip and he found out about it because instead of completing the task we asked of him, he dug in our desk and found our secret.
The truth is, we were indeed going on a job interview while on this business trip, but nobody was supposed to know. So this third employee found out about it, and told everyone. Do we like this guy? I don’t think we’d be too happy with him digging in our stuff and not completing his task. He apparently had more nefarious reasons for doing what he did, so we fire him. We’re leaving soon anyway, might as well finish the job while we’re there.
After coming up with that story, I don’t want to be a boss, ever. But I know I’m called to be one. I know God is calling me to be a pastor, and in some capacities, I’m going to have to hire and maybe even have the power to fire people. Maybe some of you have that power yourself. Maybe some of you related to that story pretty well. Maybe I didn’t have to spell it out for us all in an allegorical way. Maybe we all could use a little reframing of our brains as well.
Jesus was in the temple, as he has been for a while now, throwing around parables about God and the kin-dom of God. Was Jesus the teacher or student? In our parable for today, is God the slavemaster or slave? Boss or third employee? In what ways are you teacher? Or a student?
Maybe it’s hard to picture Jesus in a subservient role as a student, or God, or yourself. A year ago, Tiffany and I were both students, grad students finishing up the second-to-last semester of grad school. For the the grand majority of the last 7 years, I was taking classes for the eventual goal of becoming an ordained pastor such as these two lovely folks. As two grad students raising two kids and aiming to achieve that goal of being pastor and social worker, we had blood, sweat and tears to prove how devoted we were to the goal of becoming our dreams.
But dreams don’t always turn out exactly how you’d thought, or hoped. Star Trek called the future, “The undiscovered country”. Try as hard as you can, work on the tasks laid before you, and without voluntarily going down a wrong path, sometimes you still end up in the outer darkness.
And even in that outer darkness, Christ is still there. I can’t give you an answer on when you should be the student or teacher, the boss or employee, the storyteller or listener. I can tell you that there are times in our lives when both make sense. When the roles between student and teacher, boss and employee, storyteller and listener, and slave and free - are not so different. Because Christ is with us in the difference, in the bonds between and outside of the poles.
Christ is with us in our joys and sorrows. Christ is with the victims of abuse. Christ is with those who will gather in the coming days to remember the 25 people killed for their gender identity and expression. Christ is with us in our fears of the future, and our hopes for tomorrow. Christ is with us in our life and in our death, as the One who conquered death, so that we all may have life, through the Love and Grace of God.
Tiffany and I did both earn our degrees, and one day we’ll achieve our dreams. From the beginning of summer to the end of fall, the Yes Network to Meals on Wheels, and Vacation Bible School to Sunday School. From the study on Accidental Saints to Adult studies on Justice, the basics of and reading the Bible. And from Easter to almost-Advent, God has been present throughout this short internship at Living Waters. Grace has been shown, fun has been had and the teachers and students met in the middle. Community was formed, relationships built, and the members at Living Waters will continue doing what you do best.
I’ll leave you with words of Paul the Apostle, writing in his letter to the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
Go in Peace, Living Waters.
Amen.
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