Lectio Divina is a significant part of my personal spiritual practice and sermon preparation, even though it does not always find its way into the sermon that I preach on Sunday.
I suspect that this will be one of those weeks, when my personal meditation and my final sermon go in different directions.
However, I found this meditation to be significant enough to merit sharing. As is commonly the case with Lectio Divina, this meditation is far more chaotic and less coherent than a homily. The purpose of this exercise is to foster personal engagement with the biblical text and the unconscious mind, not to offer an academic interpretation.
Disclaimer: I make no claim that what follows is a “correct” interpretation. It is simply what arose in the moment for me.
The text for this meditation is the Parable of the Talents from Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 25:14-30).
Jesus said, “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.
Much has been trusted to me, both in my family, and in my ministry. I sometimes feel overwhelmed and have imposter syndrome. I think there must have been some mistake, because I am not worthy or capable of this. I sometimes feel envious of those who seem to be so much more put together than I am.
God, help me to trust the trust that you have placed in me. When I feel overwhelmed, help me remember that I am not here by accident or mistake, but because you have called me and will provide everything I need.
Then he went away.
God often seems distant. I prefer to hedge my bets with philosophy. Yet, even my doubts, bring me back around to believing in a God that is within everything. I cannot seem to let go of the idea of God, even when I am trying to act like an atheist.
God, help me to trust in your presence within all things and working through me. Help me remember that there is no “away” for you, for you fill all things.
The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents.
The courageous servant had no hesitation, but eagerly went out to risk and to experiment. The willingness to do this is a mark of faith.
God, give me a faith that is willing to try new things, to experiment, and to take risks creatively for the benefit of your people.
In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents.
We are inspired and learn from the examples of others who have gone before us. I think particularly of Rich Mullins and Bob Ekblad in my own life.
God, help me to gain ideas from others who have gone before. Let me not seek to imitate or re-create their work, but use it to inspire my own unique work.
But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
I often dig myself into a hole with self-doubt. I want to hide and be safe. I run from the risks.
God, help me to recognize when I am digging a hole for myself, and trying to hide in it. Help me be honest about it, about where I might need to do it temporarily, and also have the courage to leave it behind when the time comes for me to move on.
After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
Just as God is not distant in space, God is also not distant in time. All of time and space are one eternal “here and now” with God. This too is about recognizing the presence of the divine in everything and everything in the divine.
God, help me to live in the eternal now, the fountain of all blessings and creativity, from which all things derive their being.
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.’
Faith brings its partial results, with the same courage that let it out to risk and to experiment.
God, help me to celebrate the partial results that my efforts bring, trusting that even an incomplete good is still good and further inspiring the ongoing work of others.
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.’
The universe is expanding and growing in complexity and consciousness, as Thomas Berry and Teilhard de Chardin have noted.
God, help me to recognize and participate in this expanding universe, which is growing in complexity and consciousness, as it develops in Christogenesis.
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.’
The word for “handed over” also means “tradition” in Greek.
God, help me to honor the living tradition that has been passed down to me. Help me to keep it alive and help it to move into its evolutionary future, taking on every new forms of life in this expanding universe.
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.’
Joy is a journey, not a destination.
God, help me to enter more fully into your joy. Give me the eyes of Faith, to see your wonders with my heart, and to participate in the unfolding journey of the universe.
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.
I sometimes forget to look at my small part in the context of the whole. I give credit to my ego, when I am actually “the product of the love of thousands,” as some poet once said.
God, help me to remember that it is you who is doing all of these things in me. There is nothing sown that you have not sown.
Here you have what is yours.’
I try to compartmentalize my life, dividing it into sacred and secular, mine and yours.
God, help me to overcome my ego consciousness, which tries to divide everything into private property. What is yours as everything, including me and all that is mine.
But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave!
My impulse to hide in self protection, and claim as private property my small crumbs of the universe, this is the root of all evil. It is folly and illusion.
God, bring me back to the truth, that all things live, move, and have their being in you. I pray as we do at the offertory in our liturgy: “all things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own, have we given thee.”
You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?
There are so many ridiculous things that I think I know. My small minded image of God is really a form of self limitation. I make it up to justify my fear, my hiding, and my selfishness.
God, help me to question what I think I know, and to adopt an ever-expanding image of you, the universe, and myself, which are all ultimately one thing.
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.
Regret is a wonderful teacher.
God, help me to learn from the past, including my own mistakes, and imagine new and better ways to live with creativity and courage and compassion, for the future.
So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.
What really matters is the exchange within the flow of the universe. It is like the episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where they explain how Ferengi religion works. The flow and the exchange reminds me of the Tao, Perichoresis, and Kenosis in the Trinity.
God, help me to be aware of the dynamic flow of energy within the relationships of relationships, within the universe. May all beings and all relationships be consciously welcomed as participants in the eternal network that is you.
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.
When I look at myself and the universe through the eyes of Faith, I see an overflowing of abundance and beauty. On the other hand, there is a hilarious irony that those who have nothing will have nothing taken away from them, therefore they lose nothing. What they then have at the end is nothing, which is exactly what they started with. So nothing is lost, but everything is transformed when it is brought into the network of the whole. We could say that “nothing changes“, not in the fatalistic sense but in the literal sense, because nothing becomes everything. It is like the raindrop falling into the ocean. “And they will have an abundance.”
God, give me the eyes of Faith to see my nothing in the context of your everything, so that I might behold the abundance.
As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
Death is an inescapable fact of life. I can try to make myself eternal, but will never succeed, so long as I continue to mistake my part for the whole. This last sentence is scary, because I am accustomed to associating it with punishment and hell. But if it is simply a statement about the fact of mortality, it can hit quite differently. The self-limiting way of the third slave leads inevitably to this. Individual survival is always an illusion and a losing battle.
God, help me learn to identify myself with the universal network of relationships, where the abundant life of the whole can never be quenched, and I am never alone.
