Today is Stewardship Sunday, a day when we receive and dedicate our pledges for the coming year. We have one of the standard stories for stewardship: the parable of the talents. But this has been anything but a standard week. I still can not help but get a bit choked up when I see the faces of my African American brothers and sisters beaming with a new sense of pride and joy over the fact that America has elected an African American to be the next president of the United States. This isn't about partisan politics, it's about a people and a nation redefining itself. This is a spiritual moment. There are still racial issues to be dealt with, discrimination and inequality to be challenged, bigotry and fear to be healed, but the map has been redrawn and so much more is possible than we had thought before.

I also find it sadly ironic that while Colorado voters were helping to elect the first African American for president they were also voting to end Affirmative Action. And while Californians were voting to send a black man to the White House we were also amending our State Constitution to discriminate against same-sex couples and take away their right to marry. The bright side of California's Proposition Eight battle is that the margin was much closer than it was eight years ago when similar legislation was passed. It's also important to remember that voters here in Monterey County rejected Proposition Eight by 52%. Thank you, Monterey County!

I think that one of the main factors contributing to Proposition Eight's passage was the work of and financial contributions from conservative and fundamentalist churches. For me, this points to some of the work that remains to be done. First, the fear, intolerance, ignorance and legalistic theology that has long held the Christian Church in America hostage needs to be addressed. Some of it needs to be challenged and some of it needs to be healed. Secondly, we need to foster a greater degree of religious literacy and critical thinking about the Bible and theology in the local church today.

As I have continued to study the Bible and the development of the early Church it has become increasingly obvious to me that Jesus wanted disciples who could think for themselves, men and women who would add their own creativity and wisdom to his teachings on love and justice in the ever present Kindom of God. The differing versions of his parables and sayings that we find in the gospels are examples of how his followers felt free to interpret and adapt his teachings for their own communities and contexts. I do not believe that Jesus did would have wanted them to pass it on verbatim, that would take the life out of his teachings, rather he wanted them to be free, creative and bold in the ways that they brought the Spirit and the wisdom they had experienced in him and his teachings to others. His parables were open-ended and provocative because he meant for them to discover their own truths and to walk their own paths. The incredible diversity of interpretations of Jesus that existed from the beginning of his ministry is not cause for scandal or confusion, but for celebration. The parable of the talents may just offer us a glimpse into why Jesus wanted his followers to experience this freedom.

The first thing to bear in mind is that this parable is part of a type of narrative that is called a departure and return story. The first time this type of story makes an appearance in the Bible is at the beginning; in Genesis 2. Adam and Eve are created and given a lovely garden to live in. A beautiful tree with delicious fruit is placed in the middle and they are told not to touch it. God departs, leaving them alone in the garden for a bit, and then returns to find that they had done the most natural thing in the world, and the rest, as they say, is history. (Or at least, historical metaphor!) All this is to say that departure stories are usually set-ups.

In the departure story of the talents, a wealthy person entrusts his finances to three of his servants and then leaves. We know at the outset that two of them are going to do right and one of them is not. Let's focus on the third servant, the one who isn't going to get it right.

The third servant hides the silver he has been given in the ground. By the standards of the day this was a respectable thing to do. Brandon Scott writes,

When the master returns and this responsible servant "shows him the money" he makes a short speech in which he describes the master as a hardhearted man who takes what is not his. Next he expressed the fear he felt, a fear which motivated his burying the silver, and returns the money to the master. Then he waits, expecting to be commended for his honest and responsible behavior.

He has good reason to expect a positive response. Some scholars see in this story a resonance with a religious obligation toward the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and a critique of an overly zealous attitude towards religious rules and rituals. The Torah was sacred scripture which many of Jesus' contemporaries considered necessary to be protected. To Jewish ears in the first century this parable might have brought to mind the extremely valuable and precious gift of the Torah. Scott writes;

It seems to me that Jesus is engaging in a critique of what he considered to be a popular misconception of Israel's mission in the world. The parable is challenging both the notion that one should "build a fence around it" and the idea that God is so stern, demanding and harsh that we should live in fear.

The problem wasn't so much the high view of scripture as it was the way in which this obligation to protect the tradition from any and all threats led to the justification of injustice, inequality and oppression of groups of people who were deemed expendables. The historical Jesus was always getting into trouble with the religious establishment over his association with just such expendables and his rejection of any religious doctrine that denied their full humanity. The historical Jesus was constantly pushing the boundaries of cultural and religious propriety by welcoming the outcast and the unclean, by liberalizing the laws regarding religious purity, and by challenging notions of shame and honor and the social hierarchies of his day.

The most valuable gift God has given us is not meant to be hidden, sheltered, protected, but is rather something to be shared, risked, and lived so that it might grow and bear fruit, and so that we might grow and bear fruit. People whom we might normally exclude are invited into the sharing of this gift even when that inclusion might challenge our understanding of the gift. And this gift is meant to provide a future for us and our children; to open up opportunities for a more loving, more just society. Each one of us has been given something special and unique that is meant to be shared and risked for the benefit of all people. Thanks be to God!

It is like a man going on a journey and he entrusted to his servants his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one. Then he went away.

He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. He who had received one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's silver.

And the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. And coming forward, he who had received five talents brought five talents more saying, "Master, you delivered to me five talents; here! I have made a profit of five talents more." And his master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

And coming forward the one who had received two talents said, "Master, you delivered to me two talents; here! I have made a profit of two talents more." His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

And coming forward the one who had received one talent said, "Master, I know that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, gathering when you did not scatter. And being afraid, going out, I hid your talent in the earth. Here! You have what is yours."

But his master said to him, "Evil servant, you knew that I reap what I do not sow and gather where I do not scatter? You therefore should have placed my silver with the bankers and coming I could have received what was mine with interest. Take therefore from him the talent and give it to the one who has ten talents."