Ordinary Time #8: Written-Out Slaves | @kaleophx

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July 23, 2023

On this eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we are guided through the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat in Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 from the perspective of Raj Bharat Patta. "When we, as people of color, narrate our own stories, we take control of our representation, explaining and celebrating the agency of liberation within us. For generations, the colonial perspective imposed powerful epistemology on us, misrepresenting and objectifying our lives, even distorting our connection with God to seek converts."

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Good evening, Kaleo! My name is Erin my pronouns are she / her.

I’d like to begin with a land acknowledgment to honor the Native people that existed here before us. I honor the First Peoples of current-day downtown Phoenix, the Tohono O’odham (Thaw-naw-Awe-Thumb) Nation.

In the words of Lisa Sharon Harper: “They were and are here. We see you. We honor you. And we thank you for laying foundations of harmony, balance, truth, and honor. Thank you for stewarding the land where Creator settled your people. We bless you. We bless your elders: past, present, and emerging.”

INTRODUCTION

As we continue to move through the Liturgical Calendar, we find ourselves on week 8 of Ordinary Time reading through the parable of the weeds.

Because Jesus lived in an agrarian society, it shouldn’t surprise us that his many parables use metaphors related to farming. Because when he told these stories to people, his audience would have resonated with words about fields, seeds, and crops.

Jesus tells a very interesting and rather mysterious story about a wheat farmer who has an enemy — one who secretly sows weeds in the dead of night. That alone is intriguing, but things get even more interesting when the story ends with a rather surprising twist in terms of how the farmer reacts to the agricultural mischief of this mysterious enemy.

The story raises many questions: What does it mean? What do the weeds stand for? Who’s the enemy? And why not judge good from bad by harvesting the wheat field the same way many of us harvest vegetable gardens?

Let's read the story together:

MATTHEW 13:24-30, 36-43 (NRSV)

24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

…

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 (Jesus) answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

Now, I’m wondering if anyone paid attention to who was left out in the interpretation of the parable?

There is a people group that was named when Jesus said the parable…but now they are left out when the parable is interpreted.

THE WRITTEN-OUT SLAVES

I recently discovered the work of Raj Bharat Patta...his perspective on the parable of the wheat is one of the best works I've ever read. I want to share his writings with us tonight, that have been adapted to fit in our context and my voice, but I still want to honor him and his work.

Raj Bharat Patta, is an ordained minister of the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church in India and co-editor of the book Multiple Faiths in Postcolonial Cities: Living Together after Empire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

He says…
In the context of #BlackLivesMatter, there are many people in the public spheres who are arguing that the rhetoric should be “#alllivesmatter.” They insist that in the ambit of ‘all lives’ mattering ‘black lives’ will be there…anyway. However, with the reality of ongoing…violence against Black people, and their torture and killing, it has been revealing that ‘Black lives’ did not and do not matter at all. Therefore the cry and demand has been #BlackLivesMatter, which is a cry for justice for the oppressed communities.

On a similar note in the context of the caste system in India, the cry for justice has been #Dalitlivesmatter, again for the similar reason that ‘Dalit lives’ and ‘Dalit bodies’ have not mattered and have been battered for centuries, for their bodies are raped, killed, tortured, disappeared, erased and even forgotten. The logic of empire destroys bodies by killings, scatters bodies through terror, unjustly crucifies bodies, disappears bodies by torture, disintegrates the bio-politics of life and conveniently writes out the stories of people on the margins. Dalit lives and Black lives have not only been ‘hidden transcripts’ in the face of empire today, but are also ‘forgotten trans-scripts,’ where their lives are consciously forgotten and if otherwise are forced as ‘no-humans’ in our public spheres today.

The gospel writer Matthew, in his reworking of Mark’s account, has replaced the parable of a seed growing secretly (Mark 4:26-29) with this unique parable, which the NRSV titles as ‘the parable of weeds among the wheat,’ to communicate about the kingdom of heaven’s mysteries. Matthew records both Jesus’ narration of this parable to the crowds (24-30 verses) and its explanation to his disciples (36-43 verses), so that Matthew’s audience would clearly understand the parable.

Matthew took note of every detail in Jesus’ explanation of the parable including the sower is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed are children of the kingdom, the weeds are the children of the evil one, the enemy is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels (37-39 verses).

That’s how Matthew transcribes the interpretation of the parable.

However, as I read it, (Parrat says) I recognize a colonial (point of view) of #alllivesmatter in Matthew’s recording in those details.

There is a stark distinction between Jesus’ narration of this parable and his explanation of it, where the slaves who are mentioned in the narration (27, 28 verses) are missed in the explanation.

(This) conscious omission in the explanation of the parable demonstrates slaves’ lives did not matter, which mirrors the reality of first-century Palestine living under (the) colonial Roman empire.

While the rest of the characters in the parable got attention and an explanation, the unrecording, the unrecognition and even erasure of who these slaves are and who these slaves represent in the explanation of the parable expose a deep (interpretational) problem.

The slaves existed in the original story of the parable but are (somehow) forgotten in the interpretation, which is only symptomatic of the (reality of society at that time)...and I would argue, even still today.

They are forgotten in the worldview of the society as ‘no-bodies,’ for the slaves are treated as property, tradable goods, ‘sub-humans,’ ‘de-humans’ and ‘no-humans.’ The slaves, their bodies and their lives are the ‘forgotten trans-scripts’ of both the texts and the society, for they are overlooked and are taken for granted as their existence is recognised in their non-existence.

Many commentators chose to explain about judgement and fire in this text, lest they forget that by erasing the lives of the slaves in the interpretation, they have already (mis)judged that the lives of the slaves do not matter to the story of this parable.

So, let’s decolonize this text…shall we.

It’s okay to think critically as you read the Bible…say to your neighbor…it’s okay to think critically as you read the Bible.

A decolonial reading of this text, therefore, challenges us to recover and reclaim the forgotten lives in the text and the context. A recovery of these forgotten lives is by ‘hearing to speech’ their voices, which is an affirmation of their existence in society. #Slaveslivesmatter, #Blacklivesmatter and #Dalitlivesmatter.

(As I apply) decolonial (interpretation) to this text, I attempt to narrate this parable from the perspective of the forgotten slaves, particularly from a (marginalized) perspective, for such writing is liberative and therapeutic for our communities.

To achieve a (decolonized interpretation), an engagement with the question of “what is Jesus doing today?” takes precedence to the questions of “what would Jesus do? (WWJD) and “What did Jesus do?” for any given text.

The hermeneutic of “what is Jesus doing today?” allows us to reflect on the work of Jesus beyond a textual evidence, in a way that God works mysteriously and differently than what God has always done.

This hermeneutic (gives us) space to recognize God’s creative ways of revelation, (which is) different from the paradigms we have always known like God’s word is only available in the written texts, by deconstructing the (colonial aspects) of (Scripture, we are deconstructing what an Indian Biblical theologian calls, “scriptural imperialism.” (Si-ger-tha-ra-ja) Sugirtharajah

As we are reading this text today, Jesus encourages the forgotten voices of the slaves in this text to speak, for in ‘hearing to speech’ their voices Jesus wants to join them and the movement for justice today.

Here is Lucinda Chamberlain, my 4th great-grandmother, born into slavery in 1835 under the ownership of the Long family in Scobey Mississippi.

She labored tirelessly in the fields, nursing and taking care of White children, cooking, laundering, and breeding with her body Melato children who would also be slaves for her White owners. Tonight we’ll be narrating this parable from her perspective.

Hearing to speech…let us write again the narrative of those who have been erased.

For many generations, we as a family have been working under our White owners, the Long family as agricultural labourers. One fine day, we are commanded by our owner to sow the seeds in the field. We worked day in and day out in getting the field ready, and as is our practice, we collectively worked in sowing the seeds. We guarded the field day and night from the pests and took extra care of the field. One night when we were all asleep, the rival group of our owner, who were other slave owners trying to make money, came, attacked us and sowed weeds in our field. We resisted them but could not stop it. In that fight one of our uncles died. As the plants grew, we noticed weeds growing along with grain. At that moment I garnered all the strength in the world, stood up and repeated the words of our former ancestors, “It could be your interest to be our master, how could it be ours to be your slaves?” We told our owner should we gather the weeds and the enemies? He did not encourage us to do it. Finally, when the crop came to harvest, we first cut the weeds and bundled it and then reaped the harvest of the grain, gathering it in our owner’s barn. When the harvest has come, our master called us all as a family, confessed for keeping us as slaves for several centuries, and for sacrificing our lives for the cause of land, money, and power. In response to his repentance, he offered retributive justice by distributing the grain equally among us all, and made us to own equal proportion of land along with him. From then on, we all lived in equality, dignity, and justice, sharing and caring for one another without any discrimination.

When my 4th great grandmother, Luncinda writes this parable, she explains that it is not the master who has sown the seeds but it is them, Black laborers, who do that work. It is their family, who collectively works and guards the field from enemies.

It is their family that receives attacks and even lost the life of one of their family members in protecting the field. Grandma Lucinda stood up and spoke truth to the slave owner, which was costly, yet necessary. It is her family that cut the weeds and reaped the harvest.

Through their acts of care for the field and resistance to the enemy, Grandma Lucinda and her family challenged the slave owner to repent and offer retributive justice by sharing that land with them.

Does that interpretation sound a little bit more like Jesus? Let us not erase the voices, lives, and stories of people who are actually doing the work.

Wherever society is erasing stories, that’s where Jesus is.
Wherever society is looking over, ignoring, or not helping…that’s where Jesus is.
Wherever the poor and needy are, that’s where Jesus is.
Wherever the slave has set up camp, that’s where Jesus is.
Whatever the Indigenous woman needs, that’s where Jesus is.
Wherever the Black woman is sitting, that’s where Jesus is.
Wherever the queer folk are trying to exist, that’s where Jesus is.

Jesus is inviting us to pay attention wherever erasure is happening. Pay attention where forced silence is happening. Pay attention when bodies go missing and nobody pays any mind. Pay attention to who's not at the table you're sitting.

When you bring those who are at the outskirts, those whose backs are against the wall, those who live on the margins of society…and you choose to center their lives, their experiences, their stories…Liberation and dignity for all will ALWAYS be there.

When we, as people of color, narrate our own stories, we take control of our representation, explaining and celebrating the agency of liberation within us. For generations, the colonial perspective imposed powerful epistemology on us, misrepresenting and objectifying our lives, even distorting our connection with God to seek converts.

However, when we write, we challenge these falsehoods, offering an authentic, subversive version of our experiences. Through our writing and truth-telling, through our music and our drawing, through our crocheting and our creating…we tell our stories and find liberation. As we read this text from a decolonized lens, we unite in support and solidarity with #Blacklivesmatter and #Dalitlivesmatter, recognizing the liberating power within our bodies of color, lives, and narratives.

We must never forget, overlook, erase, or take for granted the lives and stories of marginalized people, for the divine works within and through them…us. May those with ears to hear, listen and understand!

As the band comes up, let’s give Jesus the last word. What do you want us to know? What do you want us to do?