By Rev. Russell Daye
St. Andrew's United Church, Halifax

Mighty Trucks of Midnight

Matthew 24:14-30

Those of you who were here last week will remember the chilling words we read from the book of the Amos:

Alas for you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

Here the prophet, who seems to cherish turning Israel's notions of national righteousness on their head, speaks to the belief that a day will come when God will intervene in human history, bending it away from war and exploitation toward justice and peace. A great day, for certain, but Amos is saying to his hearers that they will not experience it as such. He asserts rather that they will experience terror that day because they are the very stumbling blocks that must be removed before peace and justice can be fulfilled. The Jesus that we meet in the gospels is a dedicated student of Amos and the other Hebrew prophets. He too speaks of 'the Eschaton' - that awe-full day when the very fabric of creation will be altered to absorb greater measures of peace, justice, and truth. He too suggests that this renewal will involve much trauma.

Jesus speaks of an implicate order, a hidden realm where life is fully shaped by the laws and loves of God. He calls it the Reign of Heaven, and suggests that this Reign will burst powerfully into our reality. The entire chapter of Matthew 25 bends toward this horizon. It uses parables to teach us about the Reign of Heaven.

Today's parable goes like this: A rich man is going away. He summons his workers and entrust large sums of money to each one. To one he entrusts five talents - let us say five million dollars. That worker invests the money in various enterprises and makes five million dollars profit. To another he entrusts two million dollars. That worker invests the money in various enterprises and makes two million dollars profit. To a third he entrusts one million dollars. That worker hides his money under a mattress as thousands are doing in Iceland right now. After a long time the rich man returns to settle accounts. To the two workers who used their opportunity well, he says 'Enter into the joy of your master; I will put you in charge of many things.' To the cautious (cowardly?) worker the rich man responds with rage: 'You could have left the money in a savings account at least. Everything will be taken from you and you will be thrown into darkness where you will weep and gnash your teeth.'

Let's get something straight here and now. It is a mistake to interpret Jesus' parables as straight analogy. One cannot simply replace the rich man in the parable of the talents with God and think we are reading a description of our Creator. Rather, the parables construe a social structure, a dynamic, an experience at the time when the Reign of Heaven pierces 'everyday life.' Here is something contemporary that, while not exactly a parable, reads like one. These are the lyrics of a Bruce Cockburn song called Mighty Trucks of Midnight:

Used to have a town but the factory moved away
Down to Mexico where they work for hardly any pay
Used to have a country but they sold it down the river
Like a repossessed farm auctioned off to the highest bidder
Mighty trucks of midnight
Moving on, Moving on

Wave a flag, wave the Bible, wave your sex or your business degree
Whatever you want -- but don't wave that thing at me
The tide of love can leave your prizes scattered
But when you get to the bottom love's the only thing that matters
Mighty trucks of midnight
Moving on, Moving on

I believe it's a sin to try and make things last forever
Everything that exists in time runs out of time some day
Got to let go of the things that keep you tethered
Take your place with grace and then be on your way

Cockburn's 'parabolic' song, while written almost twenty years ago is a good anthem for the times we are living right now. His two powerful metaphors - 'mighty trucks of midnight' and 'the tide of love' - speak to the tumult of our time. In my office I have a picture of a boy named Penni sitting on my shoulders. Penni lives in the South Pacific atoll nation of Tuvalu and the Mighty Trucks of Midnight are rolling over his country. It's about to disappear. The rising waters of global warming are washing it away. It's not the only nation being destroyed by these trucks. Just this week the president of the Maldives announced his country would begin saving to buy a new homeland. And there are other trucks. Any of you who have helped with our Sunday Suppers or who have served breakfast at Brunswick Street Mission have met people who've been run over by these trucks. And we are all too familiar with the Mighty Trucks of Midnight that are ravaging the global financial system.

Now, here is a striking assertion that Amos, and Jesus, and our Canadian prophet Bruce Cockburn all make: there is hope in this mayhem. Listen to Cockburn: 'The tide of love can leave your prizes scattered, but when you get to the bottom love's the only thing that matters.' All these prophets assert that trauma and upheaval in our world can be a sign that the tide of love - the Reign of Heaven - is shaking things up ... or that the turmoil can be an opening through which the tide of love can rise in our lives. In fact, one of the things Jesus' parables do is instruct us on how to live when the mighty trucks are rolling and the tide is scattering.

So what does today's parable, the 'Parable of the Talents' have to teach us about living in times of turmoil? This parable champions entrepreneurship. We live multiple economies simultaneously: economies of money and goods, economies of talent, economies of culture, even economies of spirit and love. When the big trucks are rolling and the tide is scattering, it is not time to run in fear and bury our money in a hole. Neither is it time to bury our love, our talents, our passion, or our spirit. It's time to invest. It's time to take risks. It's time to deploy our resources. The parable celebrates those who take advantage of their opportunities, who put to work what has been entrusted to them. It condemns cowardice.

Those of you who have been listening to me preach for the last few years are probably surprised to hear me celebrate entrepreneurship. Well, you're going to be even more shocked by what's to come. The best current example we have of how to respond to the mighty trucks and the scattering tide is the United States of America. As the U.S. was falling into its worst economic collapse in decades, as chaos advanced, this nation did not turn to the familiar and the secure. Instead, it elected its first African American president who is also a clear herald of change. What we have seen south of the border in the recent days is a rising tide of love. The outpouring of joy and hope, often from the most unexpected sources, constitutes a rising tide of love. Yes this tide has left much scattered, and has brought unrest - since the election expressions of racial hatred have increased exponentially - but the U.S. is stepping into hope in a way that people my age have never witnessed.

There is a lesson in this. God's infusion of love in human history is not surgical, is not precise; it does not micromanage outcomes. No, God's love comes like a tide that sweeps us up leaving us to choose how to respond. We are the ones called upon to be precise and manage outcomes. And what of us here, North of the border? What of us here in Halifax? What of us here at St. Andrew's? How are we called to respond to the mighty trucks of midnight and the rising tide of love? Let us go back to Matthew 25. We are called to respond not with cowardice but with enterprise. We are called to deploy our riches and gifts? But how?

To know, we need turn only to the verses in Matthew 25 that follow the parable of the talents: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate people one from another and say to some 'inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of the human family, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food …

We at St. Andrew's are pretty good at providing food and drink and clothing to members of the human family. It is time that we went a step further. I'm going to suggest that we take our example from the parable of the talents. The rich man in the parable provided opportunity to three others. Those of us who hang out at our Sunday Suppers or at Brunswick Street Mission have met lots of folks who just need food and drink and clothing. But we have met others whose greatest need is for opportunity. They need a chance to deploy their own gifts. They need training or capital or a job. Yes, there are men and women who are in bad straights because they have buried their talent in a hole - a hole dug by liquor or drugs or foolish living. But let us be more compassionate than the rich man in the parable and give them a second chance. And there are no shortage of women and men who were never given a first chance.

Friends, the mighty trucks are rolling, the tide is scattering much, but this is not a time to withdraw into obsession with our own security. This is a time to invest what we have. Our experience, our training, our talents, and our riches. This is a time to be swept up in the rising tide of love.


(Our service was followed by a roundtable meeting with community workers and poverty activists to discuss the turning of our mission to the provision of life opportunities).