Sermon at Parish Mass, The Second Sunday before Advent, 15th November 2020

 

A Woodcut from Historiae celebriores Veteris Testamenti Iconibus representatae, 1712, taken from http://www.textweek.com/art/parables.htm. Via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Zephaniah 1.7,12-18

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Matthew 25.14-30

 

“The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you might lose the original amount invested.” So say the risk warnings, often in quite small print, on ads for investments and stock market apps. Investing, trade, business, all carry risk. But, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Risk gives the frisson to today’s Gospel reading. It is the second of the three last parables of Jesus. Last week, we heard the story of the wise and foolish virgins. This week, the parable of the Talents. Next week, the sheep and the goats.

With these three stories Jesus closes his teaching ministry. All three are about the sudden appearance of an authority figure who brings judgement and reward, to whom the characters in the story have to give an account. Are you ready? Have you done what you were told? How will your actions be judged?

But who is this authority figure, and what is his appearing? We can read these texts and think that they relate to some remote epoch that has nothing immediately to do with us, a “second coming of Christ” at the end of time. But the Greek word that is often translated as “second coming” is parousia, which means “presence”. It is an intensified kind of presence, formal and powerful. The appearance of a king at a state occasion is “parousia”.

So, then, what will the parousia, the presence, of Christ look like? According to Matthew’s account, Jesus tells these parables, his last teachings, “two days before the Passover”, that is, on Tuesday in Holy Week. In two days, Jesus will be betrayed, put on trial, and handed over to be crucified. The figure who is about to appear before the world is the Messiah, the Lord. And his authority will be shown to the world on the cross. The crucified Messiah is the Royal Presence, the parousia, which both judges and saves the world.

At the time that Jesus tells these parables, this is hidden from the disciples. They do not see the looming crisis, the shadow of the cross. Indeed, not until Jesus appears to them after his resurrection will they understand. Then, they will see how they were being prepared, and how they are now to live, in the time that is being judged and saved by the Presence of the Risen Victim.

These last parables need to be read with that sense of urgency, the impending revelation of the Son of Man, the one to whom all will give an account, on the cross. A sign of contradiction that will make many stumble.

Three slaves, then, are entrusted with their master’s property, each according to his ability. A considerable amount is given to them on trust: from one to five talents, a talent being a measure of gold worth about fifteen years’ wages for an ordinary labourer.

It is not, however, the amount of money, but what they do with it, that matters. Two go off and trade. That’s risky business. There is no guarantee of a good outcome, no security. But, they double their money, are entrusted with even more, and are invited into the joy of their master.

The third slave does what Jesus’ audience actually might have expected him to do: he buries the money to keep it safe. He was afraid of the master, but he was also trying to treat the gift he has received as his own possession, something that, if it was used, would be used up. All he can see is the risk of loss. The tragedy for him is that, in trying to turn a gift into a possession, he does indeed lose everything.

We are to read this story in the light of Jesus the risen Victim. Jesus is the one who risked not two or five talents, but everything. He is the one who gave up himself on the cross, in order to gain everything, by his death saving the whole world. And this is his joy, the joy of the Master. Hebrews says, “for the sake of the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God”.

The slaves entrusted with their master’s business are to be like their master, risking everything for the sake of his joy. This is the risky business of the Church in this time after the Resurrection, this time that is being judged and saved by the Presence of the Risen Victim.

The Church’s task of evangelism, being good news, is not about snatching individual souls from the wreck of a doomed world into the safety of a holy club. It is both more risky, and more joyful, than that. Evangelism was once described by the Pope’s Preacher, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, like this:

“Christian evangelization is not a conquest, not propaganda; it is the gift of God to the world in his Son Jesus. It is to give the Head [Jesus] the joy of feeling life flow from his heart towards his body, to the point of giving life to its most distant limbs.”

This is the joy of the Master, the joy for which he risked everything on the cross. If we try to keep the Church as a pure sect of the saved, walled off and safe from the dark and sinful world around us, then we end up like the slave who buried his talent in the ground. Not risking anything, not gaining anything, shutting out the possibility of entering into the Master’s joy.

The great gift of love is given to us, to be given away. Just as Jesus gave up everything out of love for the world, giving away everything to the furthest extent, to gain everything and so to enter into his joy. Love, the Love of the Master, is given to be risked and expended. Not hidden away and kept safe. You can’t do that with love. If you try, it stops being love.

The parable of the talents tells us what the task of disciples is, in this time that is being judged and saved by the Presence of the Risen Victim. Risk, because the gift we are given is love, to be expended. Joy, because by doing so the Master’s love flows out and brings life to the most distant limbs.

That is our task in this present time. The last of the parables of Jesus is about the ultimate value and meaning of this time. That is the story of the sheep and the goats, and we will hear that next week.