Your Image of God Creates You
“Your Image of God Creates You”
Psalm 123 Matthew 25:14-30
Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 28, Year A
November 15, 2020
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
What would you do if someone put 1.5 million dollars in your lap? Not yours to keep, just yours to use for a very long time. What about 3 million? Or 7.5? In today’s economy, that’s the kind of money this story in Matthew talks about as the Master entrusts three slaves with Talents, each equivalent to 1.5 million dollars. One gets 7 million, one gets 3 million, one gets 1.5. The response of the slaves as they’re given these amounts, how they make use of them, or not, and the reaction of the Master upon return; these point to deep lessons about Wisdom. Spiritual wellbeing involves relationship, trustworthiness, a sense of identity, and joy. The dynamics and dialogue of this story show these are what shape the use of the Talents.
The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico has founders like Cynthia Bourgeault, James Finley, and Richard Rohr. These teachers, along with others, share various insights on Perennial Wisdom, on the living presence of God continually emerging as one moment leads to another. They have countless hours of podcasts, conferences, CDs, DVDs, and books. These help provide ways to articulate and describe experiences of spiritual growth. Inclinations, hunches, feelings, inner wrestling, soul work; these are given frameworks or handholds or ways of understanding through spiritual practices, intentional community, and prayerful reflection as faith matures and develops.
Out of all these resources, one of my favorite Rohr quotes is this: “Your image of God creates you.” Your image of God creates you. Everyone has an images of God, and like a foundation is what gives a building its shape, our image of God gives our life its expressions. We notice this in Matthew’s story, especially in the reaction of the third servant, who views the Master as harsh. This image of the Master being harsh, held in the mind of the slave, shapes the reality that servant lives into as they go and bury the Talent, and the Master simply reflects back this perspective as its recognized. We also see it in the other two servants. The Master calls them “good and trustworthy.” Certainly this is their image of the Master, the one who leaves for a long time, trusting them, and out of goodness, left with them with Talents, his property shared with them. Your image of God creates you.
The fact that people are created by God and people are in relationship with each other is as evident as the character lineup in this story, and the power dynamics attached to these roles. Master and slave is the most obvious. The Master is the ultimate, and slave, by definition, is submissive, dependent, at the mercy of the Master. If the Master is good, the slaves will benefit, but if the Master is harsh, life can be very tragic. Slaves and Master, this is a set of relationships. The tone and energy involved in the Master leaving, entrusting Talent, and being gone for a long time points to a good Master who has high regard for the slaves. The Master knows the slaves quite well, giving to them according to their ability. The first two servants seem to pick up on the positive energy of a good master, reflecting this in their life as they are called “good and trustworthy,” when the Master returns.
That third slave is called “wicked.” That word, “wicked” means evil, morally unacceptable, sinful, terrible, bad. The slave says, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man,” and he goes on describing aspects of this perception of harshness. The slave said, “I knew.” This is knowledge, concepts, thinking that shapes assumptions, attitudes, constructs that create reality. The Master replies with a loaded question, saying, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I…” going on to reflect back the things the slave accuses him of. “You knew, did you?”
With our spiritual imagination we remember the Genesis story of creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden where everything is perfect, balanced, whole. Then they eat the forbidden fruit. This is from the tree of knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil. Now they’re not innocent; this knowledge opens their eyes to their nakedness and introduces shame. One of the things they did was go on walks in the evening with God, but once knowledge of good and evil come, they hide from God. God searches for them, and finds them, asking, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3). “You knew, did you” is pointing out that this servant, this slave, has forgotten who he really is, and what the Master is really like.
Wickedness is turning your back on the blessings of love, denying your true Essence, and allowing a false image of God to shape life in distorted ways. The Master calls the servant lazy, giving in to this false image, allowing wickedness to flourish, responding to the gift of Talent only by burying the treasure, of not allowing any kind of change or growth to take place.
As slaves, there is no choice but to be living life relative to the Master. As humans, there is no choice but to live life as created beings relative to Creator. We can certainly deny this, but again, that’s counterproductive. We can certainly fool ourselves based on an unhealthy image of God. That’s why it’s important to not be lazy, to take the effort to examine our spiritual assumptions, to explore what our image of God is, how it came to be, and what may lead us forward in a healthier, growing way.
Thankfully, the slaves have no say in their identity as slaves. In that sense, we can trust that we are children of God and the Lord is very excited to have that bond with us, a bond that will never break, even as God continues to seek us out, to draw us nearer to the connection that is always there. God, like the Master, is joyful, inviting us to share this bond of relationship. God is good, inviting us to live this. God is trustworthy, and we are invited to trust.
The Master gives Talents to each slave, according to their ability. What is it that makes us able? Ability for what? Love? Does your life exponentially help love flourish in the world? Or the ability for energy, for life’s essence? What are you pouring your life energy into, giving of yourself? If you’re wondering, look at your expenses, what you spend your money on; look at your calendar, what your time is devoted to; look at your relationships, how intimate or extensive your connections with family and friends really is, or not, how you view strangers, or what your stance is toward enemies. Look at your time; is it spent in silence, in prayer, in focusing on the Presence of God?
What is the image of God that is creating you? You knew, did you? What is it you know? How did you come to know those things? Are they really true? It’s very convenient if our image of God approves of our politics, validates our violence, and holds the same enemies that we do. Are we willing to give these up? What does good and trustworthy look like in your life?
These stories are designed to be out of reach of our control. They are like spiritual time bombs that go off long after we’ve read them or thought we understood them. Hopefully this story today will have a grand explosion in your life, ushering you into spiritual perception of the Perennial Wisdom of God’s creativity that has no end. May we live into the reality of the exponential expansion of blessings and goodness, as we trust and reflect the Master, for the Master knows us better than we know ourselves.
As our image of God creates us, may the loving goodness of God, in Christ, be with us exponentially, both now, and always. Amen.