In the absence of God

The First World War poet, Wilfred Owen, wrote in a poem called Exposure about the literally chilling experience of waiting in the trenches for something to happen. He wrote that the soldiers he was with endured their horrific experience:

“Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn; Nor ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit. For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid; Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born, For love of God seems dying.”

In a world where love of God seemed to be dying, Owen writes that the soldiers he was with fought to ensure that love of God would not die, fought that God’s love would be seen again in kind fires burning and the sun smiling true on children, fields and fruit.

Owen’s poem has echoes for us in the story that Jesus told about the three servants and their talents. In that story the God figure, the Master, has gone away and is absent. In those days if someone went on a long journey, they could be gone for several years and no news could be heard of them during that time. It would be easy to believe, as one day passed into another, that they had gone away for good and were not returning.

For many in wartime that is their experience; love of God seems to be dying, God himself seems absent or dead. Famously, Western society in the twentieth century declared that God was dead and for many of us today, this is how we live; with the sense that there is no God. So it may be of interest to us that Jesus anticipates this sense by telling a story in which it appears that the God-figure is absent.

What does Jesus’ story suggest that we do in the absence of God? Well, the story suggests that we have a responsibility to use all that we have for the benefit of the world. If the Master represents God then his property is the world and so we, his servants, are placed in charge of his world and given responsibility for its change and development. It is also worth noting that in the story we have the abilities needed for this responsibility. The Master considers that all the servants have abilities and gives responsibility to them according to their differing abilities.

How we respond to this situation is what is at the heart of the Jesus’ story. The faithful servants are those that accept this responsibility and act on it. The unfaithful servant is the one who does nothing, who does not act. This is, of course, similar to what we have heard Wilfred Owen saying in Exposure; that the soldiers he was with were acting, by fighting to maintain a world in which kind fires can burn and the sun shine true on child and field and fruit.

More than this, it seems to me that this is something on which we could all agree regardless of whether we believe in God or not. Whether we think that God is not there or only seems to be absent, we could perhaps agree that our response is to be responsible for the change and development of the world in which we live. That it is fundamentally wrong to sit back and do nothing; whether out of laziness or fear.

In Jesus’ story, of course, the God-figure is not dead and returns to call the servants to account. What have they done with all that had been entrusted to them? Similarly, Wilfred Owen saw Christ in No-Man’s Land as his fellow-soldiers laid down their lives in self-sacrifice and said, on behalf of those he fought alongside, for this we were born; to fight to maintain a world in which kind fires can burn and the sun shine true on child and field and fruit.

Can we say something similar? Are we faithful or unfaithful servants? Are our lives dedicated to using the gifts which God has given to us for the benefit of others and our world? Do we recognise that each of us has much that we can give; that we are all people with talents and possessions however lacking in confidence and means we may be? We all have something we can offer.

As Christians we give in gratitude for all that we believe God has given us in Jesus. But if there are those here who may not view themselves as Christians or as religious, this story still has something to say to you. To dedicate our lives to the service of others and of the world, as those who have lost their lives in war have done, is something that each of us can do whether we believe that the suffering and issues that we see bedevilling our world indicates that there is no God or that God shares with us those issues and that suffering.

How will we respond? What will we do to dedicate our lives to the service of others and our world? Can we work to make cohesive communities or to make poverty history or to address environmental issues or to achieve political change? What talents do we have and what will we make of them? Will we be faithful or unfaithful servants? How will we respond?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Jam - Start.