November 19, 2017 - Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost - God's Slave?

In the Parable of the Talents I am used to the Greek word δοῦλος (doulos) being translated as servant or bond-servant rather than the word slave as it appeared in our worship bulletin. That word complicates how I read this parable.

As a reader of Martin Luther I immediately recalled his 1520 tract On the Freedom of the Christian.

The tract begins with two seemingly contradictory propositions:
A Christian is an utterly free man, lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is an utterly dutiful man, servant of all, subject to all.

I was on call at work this Sunday and did not attend Sunday worship, following a certain duty to work when I would have been at worship otherwise.

Is the servant or bond-servant a euphemistic translation? the word slave fundamentally changes this parable for me in that it is hard for me to recognize the man going on a journey as the God whose voice I know. Thinking of all men as slaves to God changes my perspective.  I ask myself, "Do I belong to God as a slave or do I belong to God in a different way?. Am I utterly free or utterly dutiful, both or neither?".

Then other questions come to mind. This man gives his slaves different amounts of money depending on their ability without instruction. Are these slaves rightfully judged by the work they do? Are they judged in the end merely by the money they bring in? Doesn't this actually confirm the the slave's initial fears about his master? The man seems to demonstrate the qualities the slave feared. The man is hard and also reaps where he does not sow and gathers where he scattered no seed.

This is not the voice of God of relationship that I recognize. Don't misunderstand me. There is no temptation to ignore this parable in my mind or imagine that the true meaning was lost in some translation. I await God's relationship voice to speak through this parable to my heart.

Perhaps this man is not a stand-in for God but rather illustrates worldly power as it is made manifest. Is the one talent slave instead judged based on his perceptions of his master? Does the slave's fear of his master ultimately determine whether his wicked and if he gets cast into outer darkness? Is outer darkness truly eternal damnation?

Currently the challenge for me is to ponder how I belong to God and what freedom means to me and if what I feel and think about the answers are compatible or not.