The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 16, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 45

Everything But...
           Andrew Warner, a United Church minister in Milwaukee, wonders out loud whether the worthless servant who hid his one talent in the ground knew the parable of the foolish bridesmaids we heard last week? If he did know the story, perhaps that is why he was concerned about saving and not losing that precious one talent. They used up their oil; he wasn’t going to be caught in the same mistake.
           Unfortunately, he ends up in the same boat as the foolish bridesmaids, on the outside weeping and gnashing of teeth. As the Almost Right Reverend Eric Tillman proclaimed earlier this week, “It’s a tough business,” whether you are a Rider quarterback or a foolish servant who doesn’t know which play to call.
           If you were to ask what was the economic system at work in the early church, most would probably reply some sort of socialism - remember in Acts 2 how the earliest Christians shared all they possessed and gave to each according to their need? Does that mean Saskatchewan is like the early church? Let’s not go there right now. But here Jesus certainly is promoting a form of capitalism and investment profiteering. The one who was conservative to the extreme [politics can figure in anywhere!] was the servant who had it all wrong. As in economics, so in spirituality, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
           Does that mean our faith and our pocketbooks are somehow related? Our stewardship campaign is still going, so I could be a little sinister and pecuniary in my comments on scripture. Faith and money do live in the same physical world and those who have faith usually do spend money at some point. How many talents do you keep in your pocket?