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. In a world where love of God seemed to be dying, Owen wrote 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.

What does Jesus’ story suggest that we do if we experience 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. 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.

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.

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Jim White - A Town Called Amen.