Love Like a Grandparent

You are a good and faithful servant

…you wicked and lazy servant!

Wow! First thing in the morning that is hard to hear!

The challenge with so much of our scripture

is that unless we take the time to unpack it,

or to really try to understand some of the deeper meanings,

the true message gets lost. 

And this parable is a great example.

It is probably one of the most misunderstood

or misused parables in all of Matthew's gospel.

It is the second from last of three parables that

we will hear before the end of our liturgical year

explaining how to be when Christ is no longer around.

But there is always a key to unlock the mystery

or the deeper meaning in the scripture passage.

In this particular one, the key is understanding what a “talent” is.

In ancient times, a ”talent” is not a particular talent as we know it.

A talent was a sum of money, 20 years of wages.

If we earn $100,000 a year then the first person was given $10 million

and to the second person, he gave $6 million

and to the last, he gave just $1 million.

It is an extraordinary amount of money in any era.

The other part that we need to understand,

and the original hearers would have understood this, but we do not,

the word “servant” is really better translated as “slave.”

Each of these servants were slaves as in they were owned by the master.

To give that much money to a slave was just outrageous.

The original hearers would have thought that was just crazy.

One does not do that.

What is Jesus trying to communicate then?

Two of the servants are considered good, and one is wicked.

What is the distinction?

The distinction is understanding what has happened to them.

The slave is still owned and has received their freedom with this money.

They know that.

This outrageous amount of money

was given to them as a custodian, as a test

to see how well they will manage it.

Two of them go and invest and react very absurdly.

They also take a risk just like the master did. Why?

Because the master was reckless in giving it to them.

And they were somewhat reckless and invested.

The one that would have been “prudent” in that time

did not want to take any risk.

Just give back what he gave us so that I will not lose anything.

And he buries it.

But Jesus holds him up as a lazy and wicked servant.

And the other two as praiseworthy.

The question then is, what is the distinction?

And this is key to understanding the parable.

What Jesus is trying to communicate to us

and to his disciples at that time

is that God is reckless with his love for us.

It is absurd.

He created all of us.

And we ought to know that, right?

We know we are created by God,

and he just showers us abundantly with his love,

absolutely recklessly showers us with his love.

And what he is asking us to do is

to be equally reckless in passing that love onto others.

That is the message; to be reckless with our love for others.

We are not meant to be stingy like that last servant

who holds onto it out of fear.

I will break this open a little bit later,

but fear here really does mean fear, as in afraid,

as we understand fear today.

But when we sing the responsorial of the Psalm,

that “fear” is a different word.

That really means in “awe” of the Lord.

And this is where there is a word-play.

In the original Greek, there is a play on words, right?

How do we translate this for our own day?

You have heard me give this example,

and the greatest example of reckless love is grandparents.

They are just wonderful.

Grandparents are just completely reckless with their love.

They do not care about the rules, right?

You know the way they ask, “do you want some more?

Can I have another cookie? Sure. Have the whole bag!”

And parents are going like, “Wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no.

What are you doing?”

They respond, “Who cares? That is your role.

That is your role as the parent with rules.

I am the grandparent.”

And they just shower their grandchild with love and gifts!

The rules go out the door, they do not care.

That is the parents' role, right?

That is why grandparents love being grandparents.

Because they do not have to worry about the rules anymore, right?

That is a wonderful image for God;

a grandmother or grandfather who dotes on their grandchild,

who is reckless and showers their grandchild with love without any restraint,

absolutely reckless and without abandonment.

It is a beautiful image and

that is what God wants us to do with one another, right?

I am a mathematician by training.

I was a cybersecurity nerd when I was in college,

and that is what I did my Master in Science in.

I understand numbers.

Love does not follow the logic of math.

It has no equation!

An equation would say, if I give my love away, then I have no love left.

That is the equation of Mathematics, right?

You lose one, you take it away.

But love does not follow that equation.

Love only follows the equation that the more you give away,

the more you get.

It does not follow logic, it does not follow any mathematical rule.

The more you give, the more you receive,

the more you receive, the more you give.

And it just keeps on going.

There is no logic!

In America we all struggle with it.

We follow this logic of math.

Love does not follow that equation.

It cannot and will not.

And most certainly, God's love does not, right?

Because God's love is completely unconditional,

and it is given away to us without merit.

There is no tether, plus or minus hanging on to the love at the end.

What am what am I asking of you today?

Thanksgiving is coming up and if just for no other week,

could we be reckless with our love this week?

Can we just shower people with love?

I get that Thanksgiving feasts are not all equal. I get it.

And I know that there are some people at that table

who you love and they are wonderful to have.

And then there are some at that table, you wish weren’t there!

I understand familes!

But this is your opportunity to be part of God's mission,

to be reckless with your love without abandon

and to not worry about the logic of math,

to just shower your love on them without regard;

to act like God does with us.   

The way to inspire us to do that is to be in a little bit of awe,

the fear of the Lord, of how blessed we are,

what we have now, and understand how blessed we are

with what we already have.

Our health, our family, our job, our friends, etc.

And here is where St. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians comes in

because he sharpens the pencil a little bit more.

He turns around and he says,

we never know the time or the hour.

That sharpens things really fast

because we do not know if this is our last Thanksgiving.

We do not know how many Thanksgivings we have left.

And so, we ought not to measure it stingily

giving a piece of our love away.

We give it all recklessly away. Why?

Because it does not hold logic.

There is no equation for love.

Love, like God loves us,

with reckless abandonment

and give away like a good grandparent does.