"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master replied, 'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
I am going to take a very different approach to applying the parable from today's Gospel to the focus of my blog. What if we replaced the word "talent" with "abilities to love or exist"? And what if we understood that every person was given something special and therefore should invest whatever that something is, even if it is not widely accepted by the Church or society? How might conservative Christians understand sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression?
Another approach to this parable is to understand that the Bible is the word of God through the words of human beings, speaking in the idiom of a time, culture and context as Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in "For the Bible Tells Me So". Therefore, every person is given the ability to understand the Bible differently depending on our "social location" as Rev. Irene Monroe said in the same movie. Those who invest into understanding Scripture in a historical, cultural as well as a literary context will learn that the way in which the Bible has been used to denigrate LGBT people, subordinate women and justify cruelty and violence towards people of different races, nationalities and religions is completely inappropriate.
Whatever our talent is, we are called to invest it in a way that multiplies it, so that it gives back to God all of the goodness that was given into it. A person's sexual orientation and/or gender expression/identity is part of the very nature of an individuals ability to love God, others and themselves. It is therefore a contradiction to the nature of God to suggest to anyone who is LGBT that the only way for them to be happy in their life with God is to "bury" our sexual orientation and/or gender expression/identity, or treat it as a "disorder." The age old idea that the Bible says that homosexuality is an abomination, is simply misquoted and misapplied. There is a terrific blog article about what the word abomination means on Change.org.
Today is a day to recognize in every person regardless of what their gender, race, class, religion, challenge, nationality, sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression or any other classification has been gifted by God to use those gifts for the good of the reign of God. We have all been placed here to accompany each other on our journey of Faith, not determine who's gifts just are not good enough. In the eyes of God all of us are God's children with whom God is well-pleased. If we could only stop once in a while to see ourselves through God's eyes and value how God sees other people, then we would learn to see ourselves and others in more positive and life-giving ways.
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and may also have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 10, Book of Common Prayer, Page 231).
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