Bumble Harder

In praise of failure, and Matthew 25.

In Matthew 25, Christ preaches about the ten virgins, the parable of the talents, and the sheep and goats with the famous line “inasmuch as ye had done it unto the least of these my brethren . . . .”

We tend to think of the sheep as the righteous and the goats as the wicked, or at least I do.  So it came as something of a shock to me this time when I realized all three parables are about the difference between the righteous and the bland mediocrities who are lukewarm.  The foolish virgins don’t hate the bridegroom or show up without oil on purpose.  The servant whom the Master rejects didn’t steal the talent or blow it on drink.  The goats didn’t steal food from the hungry or deprive the poor of their clothing–they merely neglected to remedy these problems when they came across their view.

[Entering Stream of Consciousness Mode . . .]

These parables are not about sin.  They are about the difference between the celestial and the telestial.  They fit into our discussion of the different types of evil that the virtue charts reveal–the bland grey evil which merely defies its maker by allowing itself to be less than it should be.

We are meant to be agents and First Causes, like God in that some things will only happen because I do them.  Timelines rise and fall because of me.  But that is a fearful thing, and we shrink.

The message of the parable of the talents is that you must risk.  The two servants who invested succeeded, but there is no guarantee, as the last servant was well aware.  The first two servants could have failed.  It is wrong to fail, but you can repent of it.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for tomorrow we die . . . and God will beat us a with a few stripes, etc.  You know the thing.  We reject that petty hedonism,but why?  What is so wrong with just a little indulgence?  What’s so wrong is that a little indulgence is a form of hiding from who you are.  Christ feasted and so can you, but what you can’t do is eat to avoid being great.  If you try to throw a banquet, and fail, then, yes, you will only be beat with a ‘few stripes’ and be forgiven.  But hiding your fears in a little hedonism is damnable.

The Garden of Eden is over.  We can’t return.  We shouldn’t return.  The goal is not to be safe.  In fact, the esoteric or symbolic meaning of the Fall is that now that we are out of the safety of the garden failure is inevitable.  We will fail.  We will get stuck in places we can’t get out of (because if you can get out, its not really a failure yet).

There is no guarantee that if you follow the commandments and studiously obey the prophets that everything will be great for you.  In the long run, sure.  In the short run, expect failures galore.

We aren’t failing enough.  We let our faith shake when the Church does something or says something that might have been wrong.  We should have our faith shaken that we aren’t wrong more often.  The lack of spectacular failures (and successes) is what should really challenge your faith.