For It Is As If
Pentecost 25; Judges 4:1-10; Matthew 25:14-30
“For It is as if”
parables jostle together
what is like and unlike
in the story and society,
in God and in us.
Settled patterns shift
in the kaleidoscope of soul.
Sometimes Sunday readings
challenge or reveal each other
and the values and faults
of certain world views.
So, this week, shake together
Deborah, prophet and judge of Israel,
and a disillusioned slave,
judged of little ability,
burying the only talent
allocated to him,
in fear of a harsh master,
who is mostly absent,
but expects to profit
from those he controls.
As these jostle together,
I picture the buried talents
of generations of women,
judged by patriarchal society
to be deficient in ability,
and treated as powerless servants.
Though I can glimpse
women in this story,
no amount of twists
of the kaleidoscope
show an image of the God
whom Jesus embodies.
“For it is as if”
this parable is a parody
of how an autocratic god or man
might relate to human beings
whose sole worth is judged
by the profit they produce.
Barbara Messner 12/11/2026
