SO many people may judge me and my education because I go to a "liberal" school but REALLY there is nothing to judge because I honestly don't know enough to declare that I am this way or that at this point.   I consider myself to be way more conservative than my school is....I just like to wrestle with things before I accept what "everybody else" accepts...

I think this plays out in my family life.  I NEVER just do what my parents say to do because I refuse to just go along with what they say before I find out more about the different choices that is out there....

I don't think this is a bad quality.  People have called me a "sponge" because I tend to like learning from people and am open to change in the way I think because I know I don't know EVERYTHING yet....

I am tired of people that at so oppressive with even the Bible as if to say they KNOW it means this and that when no one but God REALLY knows.  Just because it has been read that way doesn't mean its THE way to read it.  Jesus did it to the way Pharisees read their scripture.  We would not have protestantism without Luther having done the same.  

Is it so ludicrous to believe that the Word of God can speak to 2 different people differently(to a limit of course)?  Isn't that true living Word of God?

Would not a Chinese peasant in China read the Bible differently than the King of England? (I just made this up...haha)

We NEED to be open YET also guard ourselves from false teachings....

Some people actually laugh at these discourses as if to say they know it all and so these other scholars of the Bible are just making things up that isn't there...

I'd liked to think that these people also love God and know Jesus is their savior (maybe not all but most..) they also just trying know God more...(I know, "lean not on your own understanding..."  but how about also, "seek and you will find"?)

I mean there are things that are for sure of,  OF COURSE but lets be honest, God reveals himself to us but not EVERYTHING! 

I think that leaves us some space to wrestle with God.  I mean, isn't that a more active Christian walk than quietly accepting what everybody says?  If this thing we call Christianity is a relationship, shouldn't we ask God questions and be open to hear God speak through others even if they aren't saying things that are familiar or perhaps different than what we are used to?  Jesus was a carpenter....the villagers listened to the Samaritan woman...they said different things, strange things....and it came from unlikely characters....

ALL I know is that Jesus died for my sins and all I want to do is follow HIM....

I loved it when a preacher said that Jesus didn't do theology, He just lived it...

sadly, theology when it is really meant to help us get a better understanding of God (hence theo + ology), usually rips Christians apart from each other and sometimes even God....

SO all in all I am just seeking in order to find....

Now that I have set the stage, I don't completely understand this interpretation but it doesn't seem ridiculous to me either.  Especially since the conclusion that is reached is not unbiblical....but I also know the road is as important as the destination...so even how the conclusion is made is important...

I just want to see if any of you have any input on this as I wrestle with this interpretation of the Parable of the Talents....I miss doing this with Jon Mendoza...the funny thing was he always tried to be the opposing side...we had some good discussions...and he also kept me in check...

..this is NOT from my school so don't go bashing Garrett, and this is NOT a Methodist thing since I read it out of sermons by a Prebytarian pastors, Baptist pastors.....it's out there...I just came across some reading that talked about this and I want to know what others think..

Matthew 25

The first thing we have to do for this parable to open up for us is to stop reading it as an allegory, where everything is supposed to stand for something else. The first thing we see when we stop reading it as an allegory is that the master is NOT to be seen as God. No, you see this master doesn't act in the way that Jesus in other places in Matthew specifically taught that God acted. You know, with mercy, bringing the blessing of sun and rain for both the good and the evil, the just and the unjust, loving even lazy sinners and enemies?

No, this master like the master in several of Jesus' other parables seems to be more like the despised absentee landlords that were somewhat common in Palestine at the time. These were rich landowners who did no work themselves, but simply made money off the backs of and at the expense of others, namely their poor slaves. They were people who, indeed, reaped where they did not sow and gathered where they had not scattered seed. From the perspective of common peasants who did actual sowing and reaping, harsh men indeed. Now, you might say, “ah, but in the parable this master looks very generous.” Just look at the large sums he entrusts to his slaves! But, I would say to you it is not generosity. It is simply the way he wants to continue to make money off his money, by the efforts of others. Jesus says, he entrusted them these sums according to their “abilities.” He wants and expects these slaves to buy into his same agenda of “more, more, more.” “More is better.”

Two of them do. And these two enter into the “joy” of who has indeed become their master... the “joy” of this man, which is the “joy” of material goods. But, Jesus, you remember has said, “you can't serve God and money.” That would be to have two masters. They have entered into the joy of their master, but that master is not God. No, I think Jesus has diagnosed the problem he wants to talk about in this parable and has put it in the mouth of this master when he says: “For 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.” “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and that's just the way it works, and can I help it if I'm rich?”

You see, this master seems the most angry at the third servant because he, at least, should have taken his money and invested it with a banker and gotten interest! (You notice that he doesn't anywhere deny that he reaps where he doesn't sow, he's just mad at the third slave for not doing the same thing, reaping where he hasn't sown, which, of course, is what interest does.) Now, I like getting what little bit of interest I sometimes get on investments. So, I don't want to go into a whole thing about interest. Except to say that the context of this parable is Jewish law, which specifically forbade loaning money at interest. It was seen as taking advantage of the poor, taking advantage of people who needed a loan. And in the parable, gain from interest is at least implied in what the other two slaves did to double the master's money, “trading” with it.

So, without getting into a whole thing about interest, per se, we do know something about loan sharks, don't we, and something about lenders lending money at interest rates they know the people before them can't afford. So the problem Jesus addresses in this parable is that because of sin, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is still a problem. At least, it should be for us who have been claimed by Jesus as his people. In our very individualistic society, we know that it's not a problem for a lot of people. A lot of people just seem to think that their money is just theirs, and God's grace had nothing to do with anything in their life and everyone's free to work hard and make a good life for themselves and that's enough.

And I guess a lot of times you and I are tempted to think that way. But, as Christians we know that a community isn't judged by the amount of its riches. It's judged by how it cares for the last and the least in its midst: If you've done it to the least of these, which is the teaching of Jesus that follows directly on the heels of this parable. So, maybe the real question Jesus would have us wrestle with is: what can free us from our desire for more? What can free us for instead, desiring and cherishing what we have? You know, in a “bull” market, it's easy to tell ourselves who we are. “Look at me; I doubled what I started with.” “I'm successful and know how to make good money!” But, in a “bear” market, it feels bankrupt inside us. It's not so easy to feel good about ourselves.

 But, should it be that way? Is that really the way we have defined ourselves? What can free us from our desire for more? What can free us for instead, desiring and cherishing what we have? I think Jesus would say that if we can get there, we will be embodying the Kingdom and the problem of the poor getting poorer will no longer be a problem. It was Dwight Moody who said, “If you don't have much, but give, you will have more. But if you don't give, whatever you have will never be enough.” You see, that's an insight firmly grounded in a Judeo-Christian worldview that understands that what's given us in creation is a limited, but sufficient, even super-abundant good.

It's that worldview that's behind Jesus' parable. It's Genesis, chapters one through three! God is creating all things, and with each thing, you remember, God looks and sees that it's good, indeed very, very good. But, there are limits to creation which is what is symbolized by the tree God tells the humans they can't eat from. There are limits in this good and sufficient creation. It's not a world where unlimited gain and endless profit is possible. That may seem foreign to a lot of our thinking. But, you remember, that is the human temptation spoken of in Genesis, to pridefully say, “I want it all.” “Forget the limits, I don't trust the limits, I might not get enough, so I will take what I want.”

 See, in the parable, the master's money is a good and sufficient gift for life in the kingdom. It's enough to provide a good life for him and for all who work for him and for countless others. But, no he wants more for himself, and he thinks his slaves should buy into that agenda as well. Life's about getting more, more, more. I think the 3 rd slave in the parable is not the goat at all, he’s the hero! He knows how to be content with his life. He is, as he says of himself, afraid. But, he's not afraid of what will happen to him at the hands of the master. He's afraid of Page 3 becoming like the master, a harsh man who reaps where he didn't sow. He's the hero because he fears God more than he fears the threat of life's insufficiency, a threat wielded by this master and his greed. He's the hero because he is unafraid to name greed as greed, and suffer the judgment of the world for telling the truth. In fact, if anything, I think Matthew would have us see the third slave as Jesus, the one judged worthless by the agendas of the world and thrown into the outer darkness by that world, crucified in shame.

 Friends, here's what Jesus is saying: We don't have to buy into the quest to get rich. We don't have to buy into the perspective that “more is better.” As a good friend of mine says: More than everything, is less. And we have everything we need. The gospel of Jesus Christ says that world of endless striving for more, that world of never being satisfied with the gifts of life, that world is passing away! And in the world Christ is bringing, even now, every day if we don't miss it, we are set free! We are set free for life, for a life to be cherished and freely shared with and for the sake of each other because we know in the resurrection of our Lord that even the threat of death has no power over us!


ANOTHER one can be found here (I like this one a little better)   http://mennonit.es/chmf/2008/11/hope-buried-or-planted/

..we all agree that the HOLY SPIRIT  speak to us through scripture...

...but discussion of Biblical interpretation always settles on the word "context"

..people always say its not in context...blah blah blah...but these other interpreters have used context as well and came up with this interpretations...they are not idiots....these people have earned their PHD (I know not all are the same but there is some creditability)

...there are many layers of contexts....which one we take into account contributes to the meaning....

...there is context of the original writer, of the redactor, of the translator, of the time when it was originally written, the time when it was redacted, literary context, etc.......we can't forget the context of the reader (this doesn't mean us in general, I mean the individual because we are all different)....


Write me a comment....I am a sponge...

Do you realize that Cyclops is one of the most poorly represented heroes?  He has lasers coming out of his eyes!  Friggin lasers!  Secondly, literally, he should NEVER miss.  Lasers are instantaneous.  Travels at the speed of light!  And it's coming out of his eyes!  All he has to do is look so even if you are moving side to side, his eyes should be faster.    Only things he can't follow with his eyes would trump him like Flash.

In the cartoon show, he was the most worthless character.  Always making those constipated faces...

I really wander what "tip" really means in the U.S.  Some restaurants even add it into the receipt as if to say, "you owe us this much because we earned it"....who is the judge of how they did?  Should it not be the customers?  (I understand that some waitresses and waiters work off tips...then they must do better to earn it...)

Yeah, sometimes they don't deserve any tip...having to ask for water once, I can understand, but asking more than once is definitely a failure in service....therefore sometimes they deserve less tip....

I admit some Asians are cheap when it comes to tips but I knwo I am not one of those.  In fact I am fairly generous...

This restaurant has the right idea....you pay what you feel like the food is worth....

...that is awesome....

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/03/24/sotvo.pay.cafe.ktxa?iref=videosearch