Matthew 25:14-30
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
A wealthy man entrusted three slaves with his money. They weren’t asked to keep it safe. They were asked to make it work! The amounts given weren’t chump change either! Roughly half a million, a million, and 2.5 million dollars in today’s money. When the guy got back, two slaves had made money while the third had dug a hole and buried it, so as not to loose a penny. Two of them trusted. One could not. In FEAR, he had dug a hole. His fear ended him up sitting in the outer darkness, weeping, and gnashing his teeth.
Digging that hole, however, wasn’t a choice. His fear had left him only that one option… dig a hole. What was it that shut down his access to the part of his brain that did nuance, creativity, and trust? Was it an individual thing? Was it a collective trauma? Was his fear passed onto him by his parents? Maybe a little of all of it? Maybe a lot of all of it? We don’t know where his fear came from. All we know is what that fear did. It cut off every other option from his mind so that when he was given that money, his fear-filled mind gave him only ONE option, “dig a hole”… biologically that was ALL he had.
Now imagine how fear can work in a whole community, a whole country, a whole people… imagine what happens when fear shuts down access to the parts of the brain that do nuance, creativity, and trust for an entire people! Imagine an entire people with only one option left to them… to dig a hole. But we really don’t have to imagine what that looks like in an entire people do we? It’s Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge. It’s Israel and Palestine. It's church when money is tight. It is reason people are actively digging a fascist-shaped hole in our country right now. Stuck in fear, cut off in their minds from access to trust, creativity, and nuance, they do the only thing their minds can dish up as an option… dig a hole… in which they inevitably sit in darkness and weep, and gnash their teeth. So what can we do? For one, it’s probably better to start with ourselves and then maybe later we'll work on Israel and Palestine.
So the first thing we can do is to ask ourselves, “How is the outer darkness working for you? Is that where you want to be? How is this worried, fearful, anxious way of living going for you? Is the weeping working for you? Is taking out your fear filled frustrations and anxiety on your teeth by grinding away really working for you? Is any of that moving you closer to the people you love? Is any of that helping you to better embrace the things you value? Is it moving you toward your goals? No? Are you sure? Then, are you ready to put down the shovel and stop digging?”
That last question pretty much sums up the rest. Until a person is ready to stop digging the hole they’ve been digging… the hole they’ve maybe even become familiar with digging, used to digging, comfortable with digging. Until a person is ready to put down their shovel, they will be returned again and again and again to the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, time and time again until they are ready to do something different.
We all dig holes and we all dig because we are afraid. The source of our fears are different. The things we fear are different. But we all dig at some point in our lives and we all dig because we are afraid. Some dig out of the fear of being hurt, killed, kidnapped, bombed, or starved to death. Some dig out of the fear of not mattering, being alone, not being heard, not being taken seriously, or of being hated. Some dig out of financial fears. Not having enough regular income, rent money, food money, retirement savings, or enough to fix what needs to be fixed. Digging because of financial fears, by the way, is my personal favorite go to fear and reason for digging.
Like I said, we all dig. We all dig out of fear. And digging always lands us in darkness, weeping and gnashing our teeth at the bottom of a hole. So is there a way out? Yes. But the first thing that needs to be done is to put down the shovel and stop digging. If you’re ready to do that, then the next step I’d recommend… is lunch... there's even one right after church here today! So it isn't the food, although that will be incredible, but what it is, is an opportunity to sit down and talk to the folks at your table and ask one another, “what would you do if you were not afraid?” Ask one another what gives them joy here at church, and out in the world? Ask each other what is one small, teeny, tiny thing they might do this next week to grab just one little additional pinch of joy from this life? When you ask those questions it gives others the opportunity to put down the shovel. When you contemplate those questions asked of you, then you will have that same opportunity.
This parable is not about God sending people to hell. This parable is Jesus teaching us that living and acting out of fear WILL dig us right down into darkness, weeping and grinding our teeth because that’s just how fear affects humans. Jesus also teaches us in this parable that it doesn’t HAVE to be that way. In this parable there are two others who did not keep digging! It’s not that they had no fear! We all have fear. It’s that somewhere along the way, some folks asked them some questions, they got some help, stopped digging their hole and took some steps in a better direction.
I believe all of us, our congregation, any congregation, any nation or people, even those who have been digging for thousands of years CAN die to digging that hole out of fear and that they can be resurrected from that hole, no matter how deep it has become. Amen.
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