Jesus, the original communist.

Communism works on paper.  I'm glad we all agree on that.

It's a good system in theory, isnt' it? Yeah, yeah, I know we're all capitalists here, with our fancy computers and tablets, but communism works in theory.  And no, I'm not talking about Marxism, please don't conflate the two.  I'm talking about pure communism.  It works in theory.

Now there's a reason that things work in theory and not in practice, and that breakdown is normally in the human element.  That is, the reason communism doesn't work isn't because the system is bad per se, but because we are bad at implementing it.  The reason Capitalism works is that we as human beings can be trusted to follow the profit motive - we will work harder for more reward.  We will put more effort in if we expect more of a payoff for it.  If there isn't a larger payday in store for us, then there's a real lack of possibility that we will be motivated by things being just a good idea.  And so we will follow the profit motive, we will be motivated by the possibility that we might earn more, make more, by doing our jobs. And we expect that those who work hardest, who want it most, will earn the most, and rise to the top of the heap.

And capitalism, it's the basis for everything we do.  We understand the world in a capitalistic sense, and because of that, we tend to understand God in a capitalistic sense as well.  This is where works righteousness really comes from, our desire to implant capitalism onto every aspect of the universe.  Works righteousness tells us that it is our works that make us righteous in the eyes of God, that he look at what we have done, the decisions we have made, and will be swayed by the magnitude of our actions.  And although Lutheranism teaches against that, it's still something that sneaks into the minds of essentially each and every individual Christian at some point.  And it usually goes like this:  I work hard in the church, I give 10%, I observe the festivals of the church year, and I hardly ever gossip.  I'll bet that God is delighted with me and what I do.  I do it all for his glory, and thankfully, his glory ends up being my glory too, which is awfully convenient.  God has richly blessed me, his servant, with grace, and love and honesty and humility.



Indeed.  If we do things for God, he will do things for us.  If we keep his commandments, he will bless us.  If we do what he says, he will do nice things for us, and the harder we work, the more we will earn, right?  Well, not really.  This is a situation in which things don't work like that.  It's not as though if you keep God's law more, you will be more blessed, or at least by God.  Not really.   Hold on, I'll explain.

Think for a moment about the 10 commandments.  If you're Lutheran, you ought to know them already, but even if you're not, pretend that you are. And by pretending that you are, you will have the commandments in the right order (none of this graven images as commandment #2 rigamarole).  Now, commandment number four is a pretty clear one, which tells us that we should 'honor your mother and your father.'  That's good advice, kids of today.  But the commandment doesn't end there, though we think it does.  It continues, in Exodus 20:12

'Honor your father and your mother 

that your days may be long in the land

that the Lord your God is giving you.'

The book of Ephesians talks about this.  Ephesians tells us that this is the first commandment with a promise.  Now, if you're a good Lutheran, you will be already asking yourself 'what does this mean?'  Does this mean that if you keep this commandment, then God will richly bless you and make your days long on the earth?  Not really .

For you see, in the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Melancthon tells us that it isn't as though we are going to be blessed more by God if we're good, but rather that doing what God says to do carries blessings all on its own.  If you honor your mother and father, it's not as though God is going to be nicer to you on account of your works, but rather that the commandments of God were given to us partially because they're the best way to run a life.  If you plan on living long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, then the best way to do that is to obey his commandments.  If we could all do that, then we wouldn't need other laws at all!  We would be living fairly and equitably amongst each other constantly.  

But we don't do that.  We don't follow God's laws that well at all. And even when we do, we end up grumbling, saying that it isn't fair, all the things that we have to do and observe while other people seem to float along just fine paying none of it any mind at all.  We grumble, and we grumble all the more when we realize that you can get into heaven without any works at all! All your attempts at keeping commandments, all your tithes and offerings, all your keeping to God's rules whenever you could, it didn't get you anything extra at all.  Just like with the Gospel reading for today, those who had been labouring for the whole day naturally assumed that they'd get paid more if they had been working for longer.  And come the end of the day, they were wrong.  Everyone got the same wage.  No matter how long they had worked, no matter how hard they had worked, whether right away at daybreak or at an hour before the end of the day, everyone got the same wage.  And those who had been working all day were outraged, and complained.  It was unfair that everyone received the same reward!

Yes, it was unfair.  It's unfair that no matter how hard you work, you all go to the same heaven.  It's unfair that those of us who work hard, tithe regularly, do what the Bible says when we remember, it's unfair that we go to the same heaven as deathbed converts.  It's unfair because none of us deserve it.  There is none righteous, not even one.  All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Period, the end.  So the unfairness comes into it when we think about how unfair it is that Christ should die for us, to break the bonds of sin, and lead us to heaven.  

What we forget is that it isn't our works that justify us before God.  Keeping the commandments doesn't make God bless you any more, but it does lead to a potentially longer, more peaceful life. And that's the motivation right there.

Communist principles tell us that it should be from each according to his ability, and to each according to his needs.  And the Bible, well, it backs that up.  You're not going to earn more heaven than you're currently getting by working hard.  You're going to earn the same reward as always, which is none.  The reward is given to you freely, no matter how much you worked.  So why work? 

Because the work is there to be done.  Because your neighbor needs your good works.  Because there are a great many things to accomplish, because you were given hands and feet and a brain to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for you to do.  And it's when you fail at following through with these things, it's when you botch them up, that's when you need the ultimate communist - Jesus.

Communism doesn't work in practice because we need the profit motive to stay motivated.  We require the profit motive dangled before us all the time, or we won't work.  We won't do anything unless we're being paid well for it.  But Jesus, he took it seriously: From him according to his ability.  He could do what he wanted with what he had.  He could make decisions to give us grace, to be generous and he was generous.  To us according to our needs, because in the midst of our despair, we cried out to him, knowing that we were in bondage to sin and could not free ourselves.  We needed his grace. We could not under any circumstances work our way out of the hole we'd gotten ourselves into.  

And whenever we get tempted to think that there's someone out there who seems to have gotten the same grace as us, who seems to be on the same path to heaven as us, though they don't deserve it, we need to remember that none of us deserve it.  And if working hard doesn't get you any extra reward, why work hard?

Maybe because the work is worth doing.

PJ.

Such talent! $13,513,519,237.50

If you were in church on Sunday, you will recall that I brought this scene from Star Trek up at great length, but here it is.  Kirk asking the great question of the ages.

It's a good question, Kirk.  This scene happens when Kirk is selling an antique pair of glasses to an antique dealer, and is offered a hundred dollars.  And not only is that an old form of currency, but those are 1980s dollars, and Kirk has zero frame of reference for it. In the same way that we have no frame of reference for it either!  

Do you know what a dollar could buy in 1986?  Do you remember?  There's a good chance that you don't or that you never knew.  In 1986, you could send a letter for 22 cents.  You could buy a dozen eggs for 87 cents.  Heady days.  But if I was to give you a hundred dollars for 1986, you may very well ask the same question that Kirk asked.

So, knowing that we're largely ignorant about how much things cost even three decades ago, how much could we possibly know about money from two thousand years ago?  For you see, the gospel reading from Sunday was the parable of the servant who owed ten thousand talents.  Owing ten thousand talents sure sounds like a lot.  Owing ten thousand talents seems like a lot of money, especially the way the man acts when he is asked to pay it back.  But is ten thousand talents like ten thousand dollars?  Could you consolidate that loan and pay it back in installments?  

Well, if you were paying attention on Sunday, you'll know that the odds of that man paying back that debt is just about zero.  No chance at all.  A talent of gold is roughly 75 pounds.  75 pounds of gold in today's dollars will set you back $1,351, 406.61.  That's one talent of gold.  If you owed that much debt, it would be crippling enough to wipe you out, and your children, and probably your grandchildren too.  It would take generations to get out of this debt.  But think not just about this one talent.  Think about the ten thousand talents, the ten grand of talents which, when added up, will cost an awful lot of money.  In fact, the amount of money we're talking about is so big that you can't even really picture it.  It will add up to a whopping total of $13, 513, 519, 237.50.  That's actually more than it was earlier in the week.  It crept up.  Now, this is 13 billion dollars we're talking about, and 13 billion is not as easy to come across as cookie clicker might lead you to believe.  For you see, 13 billion dollars is not too far off from the GDP of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Yes, all 65 million people in the DRC working for a year would make what that man owed.  For him to work by himself, it would take him 65 million years to pay it all off.  Do you know what happened 65 million years ago?  Sure you do. If this guy were to work every day from the time the dinosaurs died out until today, he might be able to pay this off. 

You can see that this is a preposterous amount of money.  It's an incredible amount of money to be contemplating.  You can't even picture it, it's so big.  I've done my best to make this into an amount of money in real world terms, but when you're talking 13 billion dollars, it's still too big to even contemplate.  But what you need to know, for sure for sure, is that nobody's paying this debt off by themselves.  You're not going to be consolidating that loan, you're not going to be figuring that out, the only thing that's going to happen is that you're going to be tossed into slavery.  You, and your family, and the generations that follow you for a million generations, will be enslaved on account of that debt.  That's the thing, is that the weight of what is owed is so big, it will never be payed off.  

And it is into this world that the master of the servants comes.  The one to whom all is owed.  The one who holds the purse strings that all this story is attached to.  The one who holds the balance, and holds the debt in his hands. And when it comes time for the accounts to come due, those hands have the power to free, or to enslave.  And it was this edge that the servant was walking, that he would either be freed or enslaved, crippled for lifetimes.  And so the servant, upon being told that he was going to be sold into slavery, threw himself at his master's feet, and begged for mercy.  And surprise of surprises, that mercy was given.  The debt was wiped out, eliminated.  No longer was a single cent owed, no longer did the man owe his master a penny, if we still even had those.  No debt, no slavery, 13 billion dollars wiped out in the blink of a eye.  

And the servant left 13 billion dollars to the good. and while he was on his way out, he came across a fellow servant of his, someone who owed him money this time.  And this man who had been forgiven so much, he saw his fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii.  100 denarii will clock in at about two thousand dollars in today's money.  That is not that much in comparison.  Compared to what had been forgiven, it's nothing.  Nothing at all.  But the man who had just been forgiven the ten thousand, we'll call him Simon, grabbed the other man who had owed him money, we'll call him Adrian, and choked him, saying 'pay back what you owe!'  And Simon had Adrian tossed in jail until he could pay that money back.  

This is one of those things that seems on paper like it should make total sense.  It seems obvious that in this world, if you have been forgiven much, that you too ought to forgive.  But that's the funny thing about paper, is that it doesn't always hold up too terribly well in practice.   For in honesty, we see this on paper, but it doesn't make sense when applied to our lives.  And there's a simple reason for this.  

Have you ever wondered why stories about plucky underdogs always seem to do well?  Have you ever wondered how it is that stories about bullies getting their cumuppance always seem to do okay even among bullies?  Isn't it strange that everyone seems to enjoy the story of the plucky underdog, the one facing great odds, even the ones who are involved in putting the common man down? Have you ever found it to be strange that capitalists can be Christians, and not even blink when it talks about how the rich won't enter into the kingdom of Heaven.  Have you ever found it slightly odd that adulterers like King David can claim to be a follower of God, even though they are breaking his laws flagrantly?

Well, David found out, through Nathan the prophet's words, that there was more to life than that.  David had to have it explained to him, that the laws that he felt others should keep were the laws that he was in the midst of breaking.  In that same way, this parable is before us, telling us that the way we know people should behave is not the way we behave.  We have people by the throat all the time, every day, and we feel as though it's the right thing to do, that we are justifies, that no matter how much we have been forgiven, people still will owe us more. It's something that plagues us all universally. As the main characters in our own stories, nobody ought to dare ask us for much of anything.  And yet, this parable, like all good stories, shows us a test case, and forces us to agree that yes, this man ought to have forgiven.

The real juice for us ends up being that we need to dwell more on the ten thousand talents.  Instead of asking "is that a lot", we need to be mindful of how much it is. We are forgiven much so often that we lose track, and the confession of sins on Sunday morning becomes so much noise.  But being aware of your sins, instead of despair brings great joy and peace.  It's largely the same as pretending you don't have a medical problem, and evading all the symptoms instead of, you know, googling them.  And then promptly seeing a doctor.  Knowing your sins, turning them over to God, is the only way to get rid of them.  If you forget, if you instantly move on from those sins, and forget how much Christ suffered on your behalf, then grace gets very cheap. Then you get vengeful.  Then you get angry.  

But knowing your sin, and knowing the grace of Christ, makes it all the more likely that you, in the depths of your despair, will find solace and grace, Christ's love poured out for you.  And the guilt and shame and damnation will evaporate.  And once you know that, then you will know why the scriptures say the following words - "Freely you have received.  Freely give.'

Be like the boy!

Do you remember that classic simpsons episode where the whole town was told to be like Bart Simpson?  If you don't recall, here is a vital clip from it.

Yes, it's a classic episode, one in which the entire town, with the notable exception of Lisa, gets on board with the idea that they ought to be more like Bart, and do whatever they feel like.  And it starts

out okay, with people expressing themselves, doing stuff they'd always wanted to do, and so on, but gradually, it gets out of control with nobody doing their jobs, nobody enforcing rules, and the entire town of Springfield going to the dogs.

Now, this is not entirely different from the reading that we had from the Gospel today.  For in our Gospel reading, Jesus set someone aside, a child, and said to the people who were assembled around him that they all needed to be more like this child.

How old was the child?  Who knows.  Old enough to stand by himself, that's really all we know for sure.  But what we do know is that this child was placed in from of the group of probably very serious, very religious people, and they were all compared to him.  Unfavourably.  If this was the Simpsons, the matter that the nice, sophisticated people would have been told to pay attention to would be that they weren't expressive enough, and needed to get in touch with their feelings more.  But with Jesus, it goes in a different direction.

The big question that exists in our minds, is what on earth are we missing that children have?  In our lives, we grow, we mature, we get better at everything, we excel, and we develop.  And what do we leave behind?  Our baby teeth, maybe, but is there anything else that children have that we adults don't?  Well, listen to what Jesus says.  He tells us that we ought to humble ourselves like that child.  Yes.  Humility.

Humility is one of the first casualties of growing up.  We dont' take to it overly well.  We don't get more humble as time goes on, quite the opposite actually.  We get very full of ourselves. We get so full

of ourselves, that if the pastor pulled one of us up in front of the church, and said 'you know, this would be a much better congregation if we were all more like this fella/lady.'  And we would think to ourselves, 'yup, spot on.'

The more we grow, the more we learn, the more we accomplish, the more the humility leaves us.  It abandons us, and is replaced by our thoughts about how well we are doing, and how much we've done, and how neat we are.  These thoughts are semi-universal, and occupy a great deal of all of our time.  And we tend to compare all the other people we meet unfavourably to us, seeing that they rank solidly beneath us.  This is the lack of humility that Jesus was talking about.  He knew that the very respectable people who had crowded in around him were not exactly the most humble people on earth.  They were people who, like people in churches today, spent a lot of time trying to look good and to do the right things.  And it's crazy to think of, that the church is a hotbed of pride, but you best believe that it is. 

For humility, real, genuine humility, carries with it a few hallmarks. One of them is this one, where you realize that you are going to have to be given direction on your life.  Children, at least up to a certain age, do this.  They may do it reluctantly, they may mope, they may groan, but they do it.  And even if they don't do it, even if they break the rules, they at least acknowledge that you have the right to make and enforce the rules, and to tell them what to do.  But that goes away.  It goes away, and then we have a way of fighting back against our parents, and everyone else, who may or may not tell us what to do.  Nobody gets to tell us what to do.  Nobody, not anyone anywhere, gets to tell us what to do, or how to behave, or anything.  Nobody dares tell us what to do.  The cops, the government, teachers, bosses, nobody gets to tell us what to do.  And that extends over to God.  He doesn't get to tell us what to do either.  All those words in the Bible are just so much noise, all those commands in the Bible, just so much ink, as we look at that in the same way as we would advice from an aging parent.  Oh, sure, that may have worked in the time of the dinosaurs, but it's absurd now.  We roll our eyes, we push our parents out of the picture, and we have no more time for them.  We have a habit of pushing those fuddy duddy parents out of the picture, and not taking their advice in the way we used to.  

And it's the same way with God.  Back in the day, when you were in Sunday school, when you were in Confirmation class, you took it all so very seriously.  There were things you were not supposed to do.  When you were a child, you took all those directives from God, from your parents, from your school, all so very seriously.  But then after a while, you found out that you could get away with it, that nobody would stop you, but that those rules stood in the way of what you wanted to do.  So you turned your back on all of it, even if you thought it was a good idea to begin with, and especially if you think it's a good idea for other people to do.  And it was your lack of humility, your opinion of yourself, that led to you looking at all those rules that you think are a good idea for everyone, and saying that you are by no means required to observe them yourself.  The better you think you are, the less likely you are to listen to anyone who has any advice for you.  Including God.

But there is another reason that that child was set aside by Jesus for us to look upon and to emulate.  That thing that the rest of us are missing is that we refuse to let others love us.  Think about your children.  They get to that day, that special day, where they wipe the kiss from their faces, where they say 'mooooooooom!' every time a hug or kiss is offered. My own mother mentioned this to me, saying that there would come a day in which I would refuse to let her love me.   Children won't let anyone love them, least of all you.  They resist love, and they become standoffish.  And that's what we do.  We get standoffish, we walk away from love, and we avoid affection, from our spouses, from our parents, from pretty much everyone.  We become prickly pears, we become difficult, sandpaper people.  And all the while, our parents are chasing us, saying 'let me love you!'  And this is what God

the father does.  The whole Bible is a big long story of God chasing us, chasing after us, pleading with us 'let me love you!'  And how does God love us?  God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  And this is a kind of love that only children, and those who humble themselves like children, can understand.  Only they can understand that there is love that is shown by someone doing something for you.  By someone providing you with all that you need, the way were loved when we were children.  That kind of love, that as adults we don't really get.  We keep on saying 'stay out of the way, I can do this, I don't need help, I don't need you to do anything for me, I'm fine!'  As our parents chase us, we keep on saying the same thing.

And it is only if you are humble that you can be loved like this.  It is only if you look at the person trying to love you and understand that they are better than you at something, that you can be loved like this.  You have to be humble enough to see that, to see that you are less than them at something, and can be loved by them, in them doing things for you.  You can only really be loved by God in the all-

availing sacrifice of Jesus on the cross if you're humble enough to realize that this is God doing everything for you, because you can't do it yourself.  You can't manage righteousness, you can't manage holiness, you can't manage any of that stuff, you're still a child.  If you have that humility, then you'll be able to accept that gift. If you're insisting that you can do it all, then you will be missed.  You will be beat down by the world, by sin, that you can't possibly hope to deal with.  But humble yourself, and you will be exalted.  If you are humbled, you will be lifted up.  If you can be humble, humble like a child, then you can both be directed, and loved.  But if you insist on going your own way, you'll lose it all.  Hear the words of Christ.  Humble yourself like this child, and you will enter the kingdom of heaven.  And the most wonderful thing about humility is you can't fake it.  Pride will show itself no matter what.  And so will humility.  There's an easy test.  If the idea of anyone being shown to you, behold the man style, and being told about them being an example for you to emulate bothers you, then you still have a lot of humility to learn.  But the great relief is that that's what Jesus is all about.  Take his yoke upon you, for he is gentle and humble of heart.  For his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.  And he's the ultimate example of someone who can freely say 'do as I say, and as I do.'

PJ