Every once in a while, we get some readings where I feel genuinely conflicted about what is happening in the story because it feels completely opposite to most of the other teachings we have heard in Scripture. Today’s reading, especially the ending, “Those who have will get more until they grow rich, while those who have not will lose even the little they have. Throw this worthless one outside into the darkness, where there is wailing and grinding of teeth” (Matthew 25: 29-30), is one of those readings for me. I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds less like what the kindom of God will be like and more like how our society currently operates. We don’t have to look very hard to find news story after news story of employees protesting unsafe working conditions and unfair/unlivable wages while the CEOs and owners grow rich off of the backs of others. Most of the news stories today are about the rich growing richer while everyone else struggles to survive. This isn’t just an economic problem, but has to do with the ways that poverty or wealth are at the intersection of so many different aspects of our well-being.
In one of our sessions this past week at First Call Theological Education, we spent some time looking at Portico’s wholeness wheel; something that is engrained in us by our benefits provider during Seminary. It includes aspects like social, financial, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical well-being. And, in our discussion about which areas feel stronger for us right now and which has room for improvement, there was an acknowledgment that when the financial health category goes up, the other aspects also are more easily able to increase. I’m not saying that this involves becoming as rich as possible, because time after time studies have shown that the people with the most money usually aren’t the happiest, but it does make our stress level go down if we aren’t worrying about where the rent money is going to come from. We’re more easily able to buy fruits and vegetables when we have a sense of financial stability, or we might be able to access different means of exercise that cost money to utilize, such as gyms or sports teams. The likelihood of our social well-being improving increases with financial stability too because we don’t have to avoid activities with our friends because we cannot afford them. There are so many different aspects of our lives that are tied up in our financial status and how that allows or doesn’t allow us to operate in the world.
So, today, in our Gospel reading, it really hurts to hear that the rich will get richer and the poor will lose everything that they have. This doesn’t feel like Gospel to me. What does this have to do with God’s will for the world and desiring us to live full, abundant lives? Because this doesn’t feel like that. At our retreat while we were studying this Gospel passage, one of my colleagues commented that there are times when we wonder if this is really God’s voice here. So, as I’ve thought about this in the context of our retreat this week, I’ve begun to hear how God’s voice might actually be at the center of this Gospel, not at the beginning or the end.
At least for me, I don’t hear God as the rich landowner who gives the three people money and expects them to increase his riches. Although, I suppose an argument could be made in that regard if we were to approach this from a stewardship lens and how do we multiple what God has already given us, but that will have to be a sermon for a different year. Because today, I’m hearing the prophetic voice of God in the third person who speaks. As we’ve studied the writings of the prophets, we have heard over and over again that God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed. And, through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, we come to understand the ways that the systems of oppression do not like to be disrupted. Just as Christ was sent to the cross because his teachings were too much of a threat for the people in power, so too is this third person cast out because he did not contribute to the landowners accumulation of wealth without doing any of the labor himself. I think about the irony of the landowner calling this third person a “worthless, lazy lout” (Matthew 25: 26) for calling out the fact that this owner is reaping where the owner didn’t sow. In calling out the exploitations of this rich man, the one who has stood up to him has been dismissed as lazy. It wasn’t even as if he went and squandered the money that had been given to him, he just didn’t grow it the way the owner had hoped, despite the fact that the owner also didn’t say that he was expecting this doubled growth of his wealth upon his return. It wasn’t even like it was a vineyard in which the labors worked and received a wage. Surely, this owner did not want to be called out for his use of the people for his own benefit. So this third person is cast aside, much as the prophets of long ago were when they tried to share about God’s vision for the world.
So much of this is still relevant today, as we wrestle with what it means to be a part of a community and to be God’s created people. Because we hear over and over again that God desires life for us, not things that are life-draining, and most people would admit that going to work day in and day out to only pay the bills, go to sleep, and do it all again the next day is incredibly life-draining. And, what does it mean for us when money becomes our idol, the thing that defines us and in which we put all of our trust. Again, this is complicated by the fact that as humans living in this society, our systems operate on money. Whether that is for food, shelter, water, or any other aspect of daily living that we might need. We cannot completely separate ourselves from money, nor is it easy to separate us from the thinking that if I just had a few thousand more dollars life would be so much easier because for a lot of people that amount of money would make an incredible difference. Despite what the Gospel tells us today, and what our world tells us, God’s kindom is centered on our life being created and sustained by God, and breaking down the systems that exploit or get in the way of that reality. Because, the reality is that so many forces are working against that, yet, how do we return to God, especially in those times where the financial burden of being a human might simply be too much to bear, or we need a reminder that our world doesn’t always function the way God hopes.
So, I hear God’s prophetic voice in the calling out of the exploitation. In the call back to abundant life in which we work to make sure the whole community not just survives, but also thrives. Because how much of a difference would it have made if the landowner entrusted these people to go out into the community to use the money to support the needs of the people around them, instead of just focusing on increasing his own wealth. God’s vision for the world doesn’t include the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer; that is our vision for the world, where no matter what we are improving, even if it means that others are being left behind. Today’s Gospel supports our society’s intense focus on wealth and financial status, but what is it costing us if we only hear the Gospel in this way, and where does God’s voice get lost in our own desires for our life. What would happen if we could slowly begin untangling our idolization of money to make more space for God’s presence in the midst of our lives? Because it might just make us richer in the long run, and I’m not talking about money here.