The Parable of the Talents

Luke 19:11-27, or, the parable of the talents, may be one of the most well known passages of scripture (this parable also appears in Matthew). Being so well known, most Christians are familiar with traditional teaching on this passage. God distributes talents, we are to use those talents to build his kingdom… Old news nothing new to learn here right? WRONG! The wrongful interpretation of this text might be the strongest and most widespread misunderstanding of any text in scripture today. To begin this conversation let us examine exactly what is wrong with interpretation before moving on to try and come to a better one.

The biggest indicator that our interpretation of this text is wrong is probably all the problems that arise from seeing the absent ruler as allegorical to God. Here we will look at problems within the text that arise from viewing the ruler as God and problems with this interpretation in the historical context.

Problems Within the Text

To examine problems within the text I will follow a simple formula; I will past the problematic section in here for you to read and I will comment below. (all passages taken from the NRSV; bible.oremus)

¹²So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. 

Does God need to journey somewhere in order to get “royal power” for himself?

22He said to him, “I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.” 

Would God describe himself in this way? Would God break his own commands and charge interest?

²⁴He said to the bystanders, “Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.” ²⁵(And they said to him, “Lord, he has ten pounds!”) ²⁶“I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ²⁷But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.”

Would God say this? Do these words from God align with what God says in the rest of scripture?

God’s authority is not derived from external sources, Deut. 23:19 implies that he doesn’t look fondly on the charging of interest and verses 23-27 are thoroughly problematic in light of a graceful and forgiving God.

Problems With Historical Context

Interpreting scripture with knowledge of the historical context is very important. Research on historical context has been going on for ages and is continuing to give us insight into the past, but, one small piece of knowledge is needed to shed new light on this scripture:

In the early years of Jesus life, Herod the Great (remember the guy who ordered the slaughter of Israel’s babies) died and the territory ruled on behalf of the Romans was split amongst four of his sons who became tetrarchs. In order to gain this leadership each tetrarch had to travel to Rome in order to be recognized by the hierarchy there. The Jews in Israel didn't get any input on who would become ruler and much of society resented Roman rule, so, it is obvious that the original audience of this parable would not likely think highly of the nobleman distributing money to be used in his absence. It is clear that the associations between the nobleman in this text and Herod the Great’s unwanted successors would have been alive in the mind of Jews who heard this parable and this greatly complicates the understanding of this nobleman/new ruler as God. 

Other Problems

Other problems are evident with this interpretation of scripture due to the value of a talent (pound in Luke, mina in Matthew), the rewards for the faithful and the cloth which the pound is wrapped in when buried.

In Luke the value of the monetary unit is estimated to be approximately three months wages according to the NIV; this is approximately $6000 in Ontario on minimum wage. This isn’t the only place the parable happens in scripture though, in the Matthew version of this parable the NIV refers to bags of gold valued at 20 years of wages. In Ontario now, on minimum wage, this implies approximately half a million dollars. Based on these numbers, in the Luke text the ruler left behind about $96 000.00 in today’s Ontario, Canada dollars and in the Matthew text he left behind about 22.5 million dollars. These are clearly quite excessive sums. Sums that many today believe imply exploitation. 

If the amount of money left behind for investing doesn’t seem to imply oppression and exploitation to you consider that the “faithful slaves” were we rewarded not with more money but with control over ENTIRE CITIES: “Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.” (Luke 19:17)

One last problem with the current understanding of the text is the implications of the cloth. The cloth used to wrap the parable in, according to professors in seminary, was a cloth considered to be ceremonially unclean by the Jews according to scripture. This cloth may have been worn by a leper, a corpse or it may have been a feminine hygiene cloth. By using such a cloth the slave is identifying this currency as dirty money.  

Towards a Better Interpretation

Given all of this what are we supposed to make of this text?To me the implications are obvious; don’t participate in empire economics, but, looking back at the previous section of Luke 19 might help any one else who is skeptical.

The parable of the talents is the final part of its literary section within the book of Luke. This section is a compilation of Jesus powerful teaching—mostly through parables—with small stories of his works (miracles) sprinkled into the mix. Throughout this section of the Luke, a story about Jesus life is often either preceded or followed by a parable that reflects on the story itself. In these cases it is often useful to examine both the story and the connected parable in order to gain a greater understanding of both. The parable of the talents in Luke is preceded by the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). Please read it now to refresh your memory. In this story, Zacchaeus comes to understand something about the kingdom of God and realizes that he has been participating in the anti-jubilee economics of empire. His declaration of his own voluntary reprisals to those he had wronged or cheated are an acknowledgement of his own wrongs and a refusal to continue in the economics of empire. Jesus knew Zacchaeus had experienced an aha moment and was grasping a truth that continued to evade the crowd who grumbled that Jesus was to eat with a “sinner.” The parable of the talents is told to the crowd and it seems like Jesus is saying ‘yes Zacchaeus was and is a sinner, but now he understands something you all don’t.’ 

 
*** Most of the information I've gotten for this article was from conversations with profs and other students at Wycliffe College; specifically Sylvia Keesmaat and her class "Creation, Land and Food." I make no claims to originality in this interpretation, but, I thought this was an important revelation to share...***

Guidance

Beep, beep, beep...

Morning already!? When on Earth did I finally fall asleep last night?

Eyes burning I look through a fog at the same pattern I fell asleep staring at last night, the night before and before that. This morning, as most others, I wasn't so gentle to my alarm clock. So begins a day as most others. Fading into each other rarely with enough excitement to remember any.

Where are my crocs? I know I wore them in here last night.

Now sitting up in bed with my bed sweat back exposed to the rigid chill of leaving the blankets. I catch a glimpse of my crocs, which are important to me for the same reasons one's house slippers are important to them, and kick yesterday's pants into projectile motion. As my pants hit the floor I hear a discomforting thud.

It sure is a good thing I've got a tough cell phone. Why am I so ignorant in the morning?

I slip my recently exposed crocs on and stand up. My left hand instinctively catches my blanket before it hits the floor and whips it back onto the bed. I know my odds of finding my bed ready and made that night are slim.

Gosh I'm hungry. Some extra fruit with breakfast would be nice.

________________________________________

So began my day, much the same as any other, ready to blend one to another and be forgotten.
Now the significance of this day has yet to be determined. New ideas were hatched, and old ones reinforced, but, how far that carries, this Author has not the foresight to tell.
The first significant events of the day were simple enough. The alarm was set extremely early in relation to most days and I was to meet a my Pastor and a friend across town.

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Ding, dang, dong, the subway is constantly chiming. Chimes for the doors to open and chimes for the doors to close. I was quite dozy on the subway considering how easily I'd gotten up and through my routine.

Man I better pull out my book and read so I don't fall asleep. There has got to be a seat somewhere.

Standing at the subway's door I had realized I was in the way. Glancing around I noticed what looked to be the last seat in the car just on the other side of the girl reading beside me. Truthfully I noticed the girl more than the seat and shuffled to it. She had splendid complexion and the shape of her face was attractive despite not getting a square look at it. What I'd have done for a hint at what she was reading or a glimpse of her smile. I started reading and heard the loudspeaker announce "The next stop is St. George, St. George Station."

Man she'll get off here. Why don't I ever have the guts to say anything?

She got off and the ride lingered on in disappointment. I wished I were a more "manly" man.

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I got out of the subway and followed signs to the southbound 505 streetcar. This could have been an exhilarating search but, I often find myself trying to find my way to some random location in unknown territory. Both my Mom and Dad are great for direction and I'd seen a map so I had no worries about where I was going. I knew what I was doing.
The real exhilaration started when I left the streetcar. Last night brought had brought the first real snowfall of the year and this was the first I'd got to walk in it. That and being in a mostly new place made it seem like Winter Wonderland.
I crossed over the Don Valley and I could see the Parkway. Along the sides of the valley the trees were freshly frosted and glowing in early morning's blue light. Up ahead was a top of the line car dealership with cars on display in the third, fourth and fifth floor windows. Normally this rash of materialism would have irked me, but, the white surroundings blended with the showrooms well making the Beamer - or whatever car it was - on the fifth floor especially appealing. It was about here that I realized just how beautiful my surroundings were and I my brain clicked informing me that it was the Don River flowing below.

Hey I raised money to protect this river in the fall... It's looking well enough.

I'm sure there are better times for the untrained eye to judge the condition of a river than just after the first snowfall in the semi lighting of an early morning. Whatever the case I enjoyed the walk.
I was meeting a friend and we were to be picked up by my Pastor to head off to Hamilton. There we'd be facilitating a program teaching kids some ways to successfully deal with their anger. We stopped for coffee and hot chocolate and the ride was very quiet.
In Hamilton we had some breakfast before the program started. Pastor Joe said something significant that I agreed with, but, that it was good to hear from someone else, especially my authority figure. Basically he mused that if God wants to speak to us he'll get his words in. How difficult could it be for the creator of the Universe to get his message across? He also referred to Micah 5:8 whcih has some basic procedure in the absence of guidance from God; do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

________________________________________

Soon the program had started and I found myself, it being my first day, wishing none but the best for all the lads. Each somehow reminded me of myself at their age and I longed to be the voice to them I almost never had.

Jordan don't quit now man, if you do you'll quit all your life- Drake seems calm enough I wonder what he's here for? - Tyler sit down man...

The day seemed like a success. I was able to talk with a boy named Randall and we related pretty well. It was so easy to be relevant with these boys they were just like I was... or am. I found it ironic that the principal had apparently told one of the boys we were there to help them transition into being men.
The drive home was interesting as Joe and I talked about expanding the program from Hamilton to Toronto. We got back around four and I soon found myself reading the back half of Treasure Island. I finished it about Eight having taken a break for supper at some point.

I'll just have cereal and berries, it's about all I've got and cereal is cheap enough right now.

I then spent some time on the computer getting some chords for some new songs and learning a little about the common chord scales. I soon came back to my room, played guitar for a bit and decided to read some more. This is where the inspiration came from that might make today extraordinary. I decided to read a short story called "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Ernest Hemingway. It's a narrative of a would be Author about his death and he says this:

He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the end of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook... What was his talent anyway? It was a talent all right but instead of using it he traded on it. It was never what he had done but what he could do. And he had chosen to make his living with something else other than a pen and pencil.
Ernest Hemingway - The Snows of Kilimanjaro - pg 60 "Hemingway: The Short Stories"

I'm the one wasting talent! I need to write stuff down! I need to try and get published. I need to stop being the guy that can do and become the guy that has done and is doing!

For a brief moment everything made sense to me.

I'm going to University to study literature so my own can improve. Maybe I'll also be a teacher or something fantastic like that, but, I cannot waste more time. I have talents I need to develop and use.

Guidance doesn't often come much clearer than this. Go use your talents, do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Some of you would cross that last one off but I challenge you to try it. Whatever happens this is my path, where it takes me I know not for this author lacks the foresight to tell.

Democracy, Capitalism and Socialism

I wrote the following post in an online forum where there was much bashing of the "socialist" stances taken by Obama in the upcoming election. I thought it was decent stuff so here is:


I would like to point out to everyone who runs with tail between their legs from "Socialist" political stances a few key points.

Canada and most of Europe in comparison to the US are much closer to Socialism than the US and the results are not bad. As an example, a major result of Canada's more "Socialist" workings we have Universal Health Care (Health Care to all its citizens). The USA being the wealthiest country in the world has no excuse not to offer Universal Health Care (UHC) to its citizens. Instead it puts almost as much money a year into it's military then the rest of the World combined.

As an example of a major benefit UHC would give the states when I was doing work with some homeless I met in LA I came across multiple people who were entrapped in the cycles of homelessness, drugs and the lot as a result of a minor injury that they couldn't afford to have righted. This put them out of work and down into the dumps where alcoholism and drug abuse drag them lower and lower. UHC would prevent hundreds if not thousands of these and similar tragedies a year in the US and add to the domestic workforce as a result.

In Europe, another step more "Socialist" than Canada every citizen is given the right to free Post Secondary Education if they excel through school and make the grade. I've not studied their system much farther than that observation, but, that alone IMO creates a situation where all citizens born the same year (rich or poor) are more likely to have an equal (or closer) chance at success.

Full blown socialism is not the answer to the World's problems. Full blown Capitalism has created a developed World that is most often dominated by the Rich who control elections through the economic backing of leaders who become their puppets who in turn control the governments. The Truth is that Capitalism has undermined Democracy in many cases and we should be looking for ways to return our countries to truly democratic states.

Capitalism and Democracy are not the same thing. In the same way Communism and Socialism are not the same thing. The World, the US and Canada, in particular should be looking for ways to improve the life of all by restoring true Democracy and not implementing Socialism but more of its ideas in order to harness the powers of Capitalism.

Random Blog... 1 Trillion dollars

I realized that I really need to post a blog on here because it has been way too long.

So here it is and it is going to be me just randomly writing about whatever comes to mind as worthy to mention since I last blogged.

-Why did we have an election? Nothing really changed and every party lost. What if we took all the thought, energy and cash that went into that election and invested it into fighting the rich poor gap or some other more worthy cause?

-Someone just told me Stephen Colbert is Canadian... That would be pretty cool... Although I think he should be President and that would render him ineligible.

-How many members of my Youth group should it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer = 1 but the truth is earlier in September it took 3... One on a chair, another providing moral support and stability and one looking standing there looking very confused holding a ladder...

-The US has just or is about to pass the 1 Trillion dollar milestone... For spending on the War in Iraq. 1 Trillion is a lot of money... It could pave the US interstate in 23.5 carrot gold... ALL OF IT

so what else could the money have gone to? I did a little experiment with some mediocre sources but here's my first try at what I would do with 1 trillion dollars:

-I would build 120 airports in the most secluded and regions of the world to help with development in the areas. If you are familiar with Jeffery Sachs and his novel "the end of poverty" you will know why such airports are so important in areas without access to Ocean based trade. This will help countries establish trade to become sustainably in charge of their own development.
Calculation: Denver Airport cost $4 882 000 000.00 * 120
Cost: 586 Billion ($585 840 000 000.00)

-I would pay for operations on those with cataracts.
Calculation: China estimated to have 4.5 million in need of cataracts surgery, China is approx 1/5 of the world population... 4.5 * 5 = 22.5 *surgery cost $33.00 = $742 500 000.00
Cost: .75 Billion

-I would purchase a goat for 1 in 5 people in Africa (every family) providing sustainable source of nutrition and income.
Calculation: Africa pop (2005) 922 Million / 5 = 184 400 000 * cost of goat $150 = $27 660 000 000.00
Cost: 27.7 Billion

Hospitals!! 1170 or the equivalent of 6 in every country in the world Though these are meant for the 3rd World -> Hopefully those with a strong enough health care system with those in greater need...
Calculation: 1170 Hospitals * $41 300 000.00 = $48 321 000 000.00
Cost: 48.3 Billion

- - - - Current Total = 662.75 Billion...
That still leaves: 337.25 Billion
- - - or - - -
-281 of the New York Yankees Franchise-

So lets keep on going:

I would feed 1.75 million children average in the world's 60 poorest countries from birth to age 18. (According to UN estimates I read about 56-58 countries are listed as third world, I rounded up to 60)
Calculation 1.75 mill * 60 = 105 000 000 * cost $2160 = $226 800 000 000
Cost: 226.8 Billion

To help out in developed countries how about some affordable housing? 500 000 houses from habitat for humanity at $60 000 a piece! Housing for approximately 2 million people at 4-5 residents per house.
Calculation: 500 000 * $60 000 = $30 000 000 000.00
Cost: 30 Billion

Calculator's input: $80.45 Billion remains

Hmmm

I got it!! Education!! Education in 3rd world countries is vastly undeveloped. According to a site that is starting schools in Sudan $5 for books and $60 for a teacher (at class ratio of 20 students 1 teacher) so throw it $1o for building maintenance and upgrades and you have $75/year at a primary level. Lets pay for each student's entire primary education though at $600.00 for 8 years. How many? 125 Million!
Calculation: 125 Million * cost $600.00 = $75 000 000 000
Cost: 75 Billion

5.45 Billion Remains

This is where I buy all of the adult world a Coke :)

Yeah, just think of what this world could be if we realized the true cost of war.

Working with Children

Over the past few months I've had the wonderful privilege of living with a wonderful lady and her family who I've learned so much from. One thing she has reminded me of over and over
is the plight of the single mother. I know firsthand the plight of single mothers because my Mom was a single mother and she did a fantastic job with me and my brother. I'll never fully appreciate the sacrifices she made for us two boys.
Well I've taken to getting involved in some of the stuff Maureen does for single Moms. Among other things she runs a group who meet every so often. It started before Christmas and has run a few times since. When it started I went and helped with the kids, we had a pizza party and got some ideas for how they would like to spend their time while Moms were at the meetings. I had so much fun with the bunch.
Tonight again we got to hang out with the kids. It was a little different of a scenario but way kool none the less. Sam an amazing girl who helped out with the kids a few previous times was there again and the kids all opened up to having fun with us a lot quicker. Maureen and I hope to get a program started with these guys where we start exploring some of their feelings and emotions a little more to promote some positive conversation where good role models like Sam (and hopefully me) can encourage these kids to be going in the right direction. I am so excited to get to know these kids more. They are pulling at my heart constantly.
Anyway I just thought I should post this I dunno why but I had to. If anyone out there feels like they could help single Moms out or their kids chase that idea. It is a beautiful path, take it from me...