God is Not Always Who is Presented to Us

Today was a busy day in worship, multiple ways of people talking about how they saw God, Ingathering day were the altar is decorated with produce and people bring forth non-perishable items for the local food pantry and we had a farewell and godspeed for Bob before he leaves for France on Monday.  In all honesty it was a little disjointed with so much going on, but yet worship was full of joy, love and a sense of community.  


Below is the written portion of today's sermon.  Like last week, I opened the sermon up to conversation and we had a great discussion about the negative ways God is portrayed in our society, some ideas I would never have thought of.  But please read the gospel for today Matthew 25:14-30 before you read this sermon.  Most often this parable is taken literally but when you do so it makes many people cringe because it is a difficult one to interpret that way.  


Enjoy!

Altar from Ingathering Sunday 2010

This gospel lesson does not make any sense to me.  How can this be the kingdom of heaven?  There is a master who is harsh and reaps where he does not sow and gather where he does not scatter seed.  The ones who double their money are praised and the one that does what a trustworthy steward at the time would have done, buried the master’s money, is berated and thrown into the outer darkness.  And the master insist that the one who buried the money should have put in the bank in order to get interest even though that is one of the big no-no prohibited by Jewish scripture.

Therefore I, and many biblical scholars, can only conclude that Jesus wasn’t actually saying this is what the kingdom of heaven is like but that Jesus was saying this tongue-in-cheek.  That Jesus’ original followers, after hearing a multitude of parables about what the kingdom of heaven is like, were starting to think allegorically – oh the master represents God, and we humans must be the slaves.  But then Jesus pulls the rug out from under them and all of a sudden this is not actually a straight allegory of what heaven is like.  He switched things up on them, to make sure that they were listening.

But isn’t that often the case.  That the God that is presented to us does not often make sense.  I’m sure we have all heard the argument that you must “accept Jesus as your personal Lord and savior in order to be saved.”  Well that doesn’t make any sense!  A God who sent Jesus to die for our sins isn’t going to say that you must admit that this happened in order to reap any benefits. 

Or we have heard that you must do good works in order to receive God’s love and blessing.  What?! God loves us regardless of our actions, and often when we the most turned from God is when we need God’s love the most. 

And there is the idea that there is only so much in this world and if we are blessed then others must suffer.  Nope, doesn’t work either because God is full of abundance and blessing and giving. 

Or that if things aren’t going your way or if bad things happen to you it is because you have done bad things to others.  Well sure if you sexually abuse children in your workplace there is a pretty good chance that you will end up fired and in jail because our actions often have consequences.  But God doesn’t have your grandma die in order to punish you for making fun of someone. 

How else is God presented to us that often doesn’t make sense? 

See the God that is presented to us by society, sometimes even by religious institutions, is not always God.  God is full of love and grace.  God forgives us before we even realize that we have sinned.  And sometimes God even has a sense of humor as Jesus told this parable tongue-in-cheek to make sure that people were listening.