Under the bed

Readings for Sunday November 13 (Proper 28-Pentecost 22): First reading and Psalm:Judges 4:1-7: Psalm 123: Second reading:1 Thessalonians 5:1-1: Gospel:Matthew 25:14-30


The Gospel reading today seems a little culturally curious
It has hard words which are perhaps a little too redolent of the harsh times in which we live :
"Those who have nothing will even have what they do have taken from them!"
How, might we ask, can we take from people who have nothing?
There are a couple of interesting points:
This is a parable about life in God's kingdom. 
The image/idea is that God has equipped us to live life
and we are to get on with it.
There is a sense in which we have been left to get on with it.
(This of course is only an image and we are not left alone)
But following the image
we see that some of us have 5 talents, some 2 talents
and some (probably most of us) have 1


The word talent here is a unit of money
rather than the way we often use it
to describe our personbal giftedness
As in Australia's Got Talent!
Why is this so? isn't it rather unjust?
No, I don't think so.
It's rather sort of how things are.
Some seem to have a lot of resources
some a modest amount
and some only a bit.
There is a point here: No one has no resources
We should remember this.
We sometimes think, that we are without any capabilities,
resources or gifts.
In terms of this parable
God has equipped every baptised person
(with the Holy Spirit)
to enable us to communicate/be Christ to the world.


THIS WEEK Consciously ask what am I to do?
What can I do? For Christ, to be Christ, to share Christ
(If we are tempted to think nothing then think again!)


Developing this a little further...
The condemnation that is reserved in this parable
for the person who has only one talent
and then takes it and hides it under the bed
is this
There is essentially only one failing
about what we do with our giftedness
and that is not that we are not as gifted as Mother Teresa,
It is not that we should have been a missionary, or a nurse,
a priest or a doctor.
It is not that we can look at someone else and see they are so much better than we are, musical, practical, influential
.....that is sort of how things are
Perhaps we will leave easier and better lives if we just accept that.
But the failing is, that in recognising that some are more gifted than we are,
we make the mistake of thinking either

• that we are not gifted at all or
• that we should leave it up to others

Each of us is called to use our talents
whether great or small


So, this week, the question is not:
Why am I not as holy as someone else? Or why am I not as gifted?
BUT what can I do with what I have been given?
Hiding our talents under the bed is not an option.