Month: November 2023

25th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 28, November 19,2023: Judges 4:1-7; Psalm 123; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

When I first started reading today’s gospel, I groaned inwardly. This parable of the talents so easily slides into “being rich is good, and you’ll get richer”. After all, the slave with 5 talents trades with them and doubles his wealth, as does the slave with 2 talents. The slave given only one talent was afraid of losing it. When the master returns, he rewards the first two and then punishes the third, who is thrown into “outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. I’ve always had a soft spot for the third slave, who had little and was afraid of losing it.

But as I read it, I began to play with the biblical word “talent”, a unit of money, and the English word talent, or gift. And I started to think in the way I do in my day job as a teacher. Every teacher knows that their students have different abilities, skills, and knowledge. When I was in high school, I had a crusty Russian teacher who would ask students who were struggling if they did well in math. She then showed how learning a language was like learning math: she tried to help them use their gifts in a different context.

In my history classroom, some gifts and skills are more useful than others. What I and most teachers try to do is what my high school Russian teacher did: to help students use the skills and gifts they have as well as they can, to build on what they have to get a bit further.

God has given us each gifts, what Paul calls “gifts of the spirit”. We have choices about what to do with them. How do we share them? How do we ensure that the gifts we are given multiply? How can we avoid being so risk averse, like the third slave in the parable, that we don’t dare share our gifts? So often we are, like the slave with one talent, afraid that we won’t be good enough, holding ourselves to impossible standards. But whenever we share our gifts, even feeble ones, they somehow increase. Sharing our gifts is a risk, but it is a necessary one.

It’s not about making money. It’s about making God’s kingdom.

All Saints, November 5, 2023: Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 34:1-10, 22; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

Today we observed the feast of All Saints, when we remember the saints who have shown us the way. In the calendar, All Saints on November 1 is followed by All Souls day on November 2, when we remember all those who have died, whether or not they are saints.

In many Catholic cultures, there is a tradition that the time between October 31 and November 2 is a time when the dead can visit us – a source of many Halloween traditions. The Mexican traditions of Día de los Muertos (All Souls) encourage people to remember their ancestors, not just those they have known: the visual displays in ofrendas, with pictures and gifts, are a vivid reminder of those who have gone before us.

In the last year, many people I cared deeply about have died, so the remembrances of All Saints and All Souls seem more important than ever. The Litany of the Saints incorporates saints known and unknown, and gives us an opportunity to remember those in our personal pantheons.

This remembrance is important, because we carry things from those we have known and loved. They have all have taught us something. In honoring All Saints and All Souls, we have the opportunity to also give thanks for their lives and the gifts they have given us.

May we remember those who have gone before, and pass their lessons on to those who will follow us.