+In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Fifteen years ago, I moved from the Netherlands to Manchester to start a Master’s programme at the University of Manchester. For almost a year I lived in a student accommodation on the Fallowfield campus.
Before moving to Manchester, I had already decided that I wanted to explore and enjoy the Anglican tradition and liturgy. So, when my first Sunday in Manchester was approaching, I looked on a map and discovered that there was actually an Anglican church nearby. On that Sunday, I came here and celebrated the Eucharist with you. For a full year, I would attend mass almost every Sunday morning. The beauty of your liturgy, your hymns, your music; your warm and welcoming spirit; your personal attention and support – through all this, you have enriched that part of my life. For that, I want to say: Thank you! Thank you for the community that you were and that I believe you still are!
You have meant even more to me than I realised back then. Having returned to the Netherlands, I looked for a new spiritual home and I found this in the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands. With Catholic Anglicans we share a devotion to ‘traditional’ liturgy, a sacramental spirituality, and an open and progressive attitude towards the world. As some of you might know, the family of Old Catholic Churches on the European continent, united in the Union of Utrecht, and the Church of England have established full communion in 1931. This was an unprecedented ecumenical decision.
My spiritual journey reached another crucial point in April this year, when I was ordained a transitional deacon by the Archbishop of Utrecht. And here we are, back at Holy Innocent’s, after fifteen years, to serve you as a deacon by proclaiming the gospel in your midst.
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However, that parable on the worthless slave sounds harsh and the short application that Jesus gives feels denigratory. Doesn’t sound like good news to me at first sound. Jesus expects his disciples to confess: “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” Should they really think and speak in such harsh and denigratory terms about themselves? Is this a healthy spiritual attitude?
By telling a parable about a slave and a master, Jesus uses a particular relationship that the disciples were quite familiar with. However, he does not seem to make any critical remarks about the institution of slavery. Instead, he uses it to characterise his relationship with his disciples, implying that they are worthless slaves to him.
If this is proclaimed to us as today’s gospel, Jesus’ message to his disciples is redirected to us. Does Jesus consider us worthless slaves as well? Isn’t he then promoting a rather toxic work ethic?
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It took me a while until I discovered a different way of reading this parable and short application. We should not consider “slave” and “master” as fixed identities. We should instead look at the dynamics between Jesus and his disciples, and at the future direction of their relationship.
Jesus starts this parable by asking them to imagine a master – or, more precisely, to imagine that each of them is a master: “Who among you would say to your slave…” That makes sense to them: they might indeed have had one or more slaves themselves. They probably were masters themselves.
The parable’s master has just one slave who does all the work: ploughing, tending sheep and serving dinner. Apparently, this is not a rich master who can afford to have different slaves for each type of work. The master demands a lot from his one and only slave.
Jesus asks his disciples a few rhetorical questions: “Would you not rather say to him…?” Of course, I would! “Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?” Of course not! It is as if the disciples are implicitly approving how things go between a master and a slave. Some people are free, and some people are slaves – this, for them, was a natural order.
But then Jesus applies it to them by changing the identification: “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’” Within a split second, Jesus turns his disciples from masters into slaves.
This change is a shocking experience. As masters the disciples are free men, but being a slave means being bound and, in a certain way, unmanly. Being a slave is tough (because of the hard labour), sad (because of the lack of freedom) and shameful (because you’re not a real man).
As masters, the disciples were free men in privileged positions. From such a position, it is easy to simply accept the way things go, to present such a hierarchical order as natural. But when Jesus rhetorically turns them into slaves, they become aware that this natural order can be – or, actually, will be – destabilised in their encounter with Jesus. This is the first step: by becoming like slaves to their Lord, Jesus Christ, they become humble, receptive and open to God’s grace.
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The disciples need to do all that Jesus has commanded them to do. As Jesus rhetorically turns them into slaves, Jesus himself turns out to be the master. However, Jesus does not behave like a master in the way human masters used – and use – to be. Jesus is not a master like his disciples might have been. Jesus is not a master like to master in the parable he has just told them.
Jesus too would take the form of a slave, subject to human evil while simultaneously receptive to his Father’s love. In the way Jesus lived his life, and gave his life, he showed that serving is not a condition for receiving grace, but a gracious act in itself.
The disciples need to do all that Jesus has commanded them to do. As the parable’s slave ploughs the land, so they will work on God’s acre. As the parable’s slave tends the sheep, so they will guide God’s flock. Like the parable’s slave, they will serve all who gather at God’s table. So let us do what we ought to do: offer ourselves to God by celebrating the eucharist in remembrance of our lord and servant, Jesus Christ.
+In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This sermon was delivered at Holy Innocents Fallowfield, Manchester, UK, on Sunday October 2, 2022. The service can be watched on Facebook.