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I continue to work on my papers for next week’s presentations in Boston that provide quite a bit of pressure. For the readings today, I’d like to focus on the gospel reading for us, and afterwards, read the OT and the Epistle reading in light of the Gospel reading.

Matthew 25:14-30 continues the parables of Jesus reaching back to 24:3. It might be good to review these previous parables to get a sense of development of them. How does the “parable of the talents” continue the parable of the bridesmaids?

We often make the mistake of separating this parable from what precedes it. The Greek reads at the beginning of the parable “for it is as if a man, going on a journey” rather than the additions that many English translations put into the text. The parable continues the question of the same type of preparation that the bridegrooms provided. Which characters in the first parable relate to parallel characters in the second?

After you work through the parable, and then the passages which follow, see how well you think Stanley Hauerwas reads the passage:

“No parable has been misused than Jesus’ parable of the talents. Once any parable is abstracted from Jesus proclamation of the kingdom . . . misreading is inevitable. . . . Speculative uses of the parable have even been employed to justify economic practices that are antithetical to Jesus’s clear judgment that we cannot serve God and mammon. Jesus is no using this parable to recommend that we should work hard, make all we can, to give all we can. Rather, the parable is a clear judgment against those who think they deserve what they have earned, as wll as those who do not know how precious is the gift they have been given.” (Matthew, pp. 209-10).

He goes on to write, “the one with on talent assumed that he or she was part of a zero-sum game. Those who assume that life is a zero-sum game think that if one person receives an honor then someone else is made poorer. So the slave with one talent feared losing what he had been given, with the result htat he tried to turn the gift into a possession. In contrast, the first two slaves recognized that to try to secure the gifts they had been given means that the gifts would be lost. They joy of the wedding banquet and the joy into which the m aster invites his slaves that had not tried to protect what they had been given is the joy that comes from learning to receive a gift without regret. . . . Each of these parables teach us how to wait patently as those who have received the gift of being called to be a disciple of Jesus. Jesus’s disciples are not called to do great things, although great things may happen. Rather, Jesus’ disciples are called to do the work that Jesus has given us to do—work as simple and hard as learning to tell the truth and to love our enemies. Such work is the joy that our master invites us to share” (p. 210).

Posted by johnwright at 2:18 PM | Comments (8)

I apologize, but the two papers that I have committed to write for the Society of Biblical Literature meeting and other work are really pressing down on me. I’m going to shorten some my comments here today – although I could tell you that the Villa of the Papiri has 236 different works so far deciphered of the approximately 1100 different rolls found there!

The texts this week rotate around the concept of God’s judgment and justice. Justice and righteousness are the same word in Hebrew and Greek. The fact that we divide them into a public and private realm – “social justice” and “personal righteousness” represents malformations that come from the rise of modern political theory. We thus have come to think that all we need to do is have the state redistribute wealth through writing “just laws” so that “social justice” can come to pass; and that this is really different from “personal righteousness,” which, of course, is optional for justice. Who could speak against “social justice”?

Within the Scriptures and the Christian Tradition, one cannot have a just society without just persons and vice versa – and both depend first upon worshipping God appropriately. Scriptures constantly call for a redistribution of wealth to care for the poor through personal contact and responsibility for the poor, particularly the poor of the elect, Israel. Therefore, justice cannot occur without generosity exercised with prudence or good judgment. Remember always in the Scripture, poverty and the poor are not a problem to be solved; wealth is the problem, not poverty.

I think we can see all these in the Scriptures today. Begin with the OT, move to the Gospel reading and then end with the Epistle reading. How does God’s coming judgment, the wealthy, the poor, and prudence relate in these passages? Have a wonderful evening!

Amos 5:18-24

Matthew 25:1-13

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Does God's judgment allow a distinction between a "social justice" and a "personal righteousness"? What does this mean for our life together as the church?

Posted by johnwright at 2:28 PM | Comments (2)