November 16, 2014: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
Today in our gospel text, we get to another parable in which Jesus is talking about what is expected of those who are part of the Kingdom of God. The servants were entrusted with treasure – and I do mean treasure. As I am sure other preachers have told you, a single talent in the first century was roughly equivalent to fifteen to twenty years worth of wages for the average laborer. Taking even the lowest number of years of wages for comparison, the master in this story gave one of them five talents or seventy-five years wages! And the second one received thirty years and the last fifteen. Think about that. At a our state’s minimum wage for 2015, $8.38, and assuming the laborer worked 40hrs/week for 52 weeks, even the last servant, who received only 1 talent, in today’s dollars was holding onto a bag of money worth $261,456. The second servant was given $522,906. And the one with the most was standing there with a whopping $1,307,280. Holy Cow! That’s a whole lot of money.
The master went away, and when he returned, he wanted an accounting of what had been entrusted to the servants. The first two had doubled what had been given them, but the last servant, living in fear, not only did nothing with the talent given, but blamed his lack of return on the master – that it was because the master was reaping what he did not sow, was a harsh taskmaster, that made this servant hide the money. This, as we hear, did not go over very well.
Now, I am not sure why the authors of Matthew love to use the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” as the fav description for the worst that can happen to you, but nevertheless, that is the fate for this unfortunate servant. Better than in Mark and Luke where the result was that this “enemy” was to be killed immediately. Nice!
But there is more to this story – isn’t there always when it comes to Jesus’ parables?
I think the other versions of this parable in Mark and Luke offer a clearer view. The enemies of Jesus were those who hearing the Word, being given the incarnate Word of God standing in front of them, did nothing with it. Quite the contrary. They keep attempting to hide it. They are the ones who have tossed grace to the side out of fear – fear of what it would mean for them – because they would have to let go of control, they would have to get their hands dirty – they would have to give over what was given to them. That would make the third servant in this parable one of Jesus’s critics, the ones who keep challenging him, and he will be surprised that he has chosen wrongly (unless he changes his criticism and abandons the critics plotting to kill Jesus). The disciples who put Jesus’s teachings into action will be wonderfully vindicated and surprised by the generosity of God towards them.
Yet, when we hear about this last servant, I think many of us feel a bit sorry for the guy. Not for nuthin’ but this doesn’t warm the cockles of my heart with the sense of the Kingdom of God being sweetness and light – or for that matter, very fair. I mean, the last servant didn’t lose any money. The master got back exactly what he had given the servant. But, maybe that’s the point – the servant hadn’t changed anything. In trying not to lose anything, the servant lost everything. In some ways, I think the parable would have been better if the second servant had lost some of it in attempting to increase it. At least it would show that in risking something big for something even bigger, the servant had shown faith in the goodness of the master. That was part of the point Jesus was making.
Still, to be cast out into darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth – is that fair?
The truth is – the last servant was already living in darkness. The darkness of fear.
Jesus talked a lot about money, but as we know, it was rarely money that was his concern. The parables he uses help us to understand something that is so important, but that we seem unable to comprehend outright. “On a deeper lever this [parable] is [also] not about money. It’s about taking what God has given to us and working with it…without fear, being willing to take a risk. A true story is told of a Croatian immigrant living in California who was a superb furniture maker, real upscale stuff. But not willing to risk failure he took a job as a longshoreman. His furniture making never became more than a hobby. For the most part he buried his talent in the ground because the risk of stepping out and doing it full time was too scary. How do we know what God wants us to do? We learn from the Bible that God does not lure us into abundant life by urging us to play it safe. Hints of God’s guidance may be found” everywhere, if only we would get out of our own way and listen. If only we could let go of the fear and remember who we are.
See, Jesus would remind us that each of us came out of the womb a beloved child of God, full of grace and blessed with a life to live. It is what we do with that life that matters most. Like the servants, we don’t all start with equal shares of life’s treasures, but what we do with what we have makes all the difference in the world, in our lives, and to God. And part of what Jesus is calling us to do is to risk.
From the moment we are born, we are lured by God to growth – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Some growth will happen naturally, but much of it happens through lived experience. And the key to growth is taking risks, because growth requires change, and change is always based on taking a risk – a risk that the difference between where one is at some future moment will be an improvement on where one is now. It is the ultimate leap of faith. We teach our children to try new things knowing that they may fall, skin their knee, or not succeed in the way they hoped, yet we know they must try. Note that I did not say that they failed. There is no failure in an attempt made, even if the outcome is different than planned. Failure is potential hidden in a box and buried in the ground. Failure is in not trying. But in the attempt, we are forever changed. Yes, sometimes bruised and worn, but changed nonetheless.
And all of it – the growth, the joy, the pain – all of it Jesus was making clear in this parable, isn’t for our own purposes. We live – not for ourselves alone, but for God, and God’s purpose for our lives. That is why he tells this story. The people of his day had forgotten this. The temple elite had begun to live life as if the perpetuation of their own desires was their purpose. They had forgotten who they were – children of God called to care for the widow, orphan, and stranger. Jesus gets more specific about that in our gospel next week.
And today? Well, sometimes we can be like the “man [who] said, “If I had some extra money, I’d give it to God, but I have just enough to support myself and my family.” And the same man said, “If I had some extra time, I’d give it to God, but every minute is taken up with my job, my family, my clubs, and what have you–every single minute.” And the same man said, “If I had a talent I’d give it to God, but I have no lovely voice; I have no special skill; I’ve never been able to lead a group; I can’t think cleverly or quickly, the way I would like to.” And God was touched, and although it was unlike God to do this, God gave that man money, time, and a glorious talent. And then God waited, and waited, and waited…..And then after a long while [of getting nothing back from the man,] God shrugged, and took all those things right back from the man – the money, the time and the glorious talent. After a while, the man sighed and said, “If I only had some of that money back, I’d give it to God. If I only had some of that time, I’d give it to God. If I could only rediscover that glorious talent, I’d give it to God.”
And God said, “Oh, shut up.”
And the man told some of his friends, “You know, I’m not so sure that I believe in God anymore.”
Yes, there are some today that are very much like that man in the story, never having enough time or money or talent to give over to God. But the truth is – we always have enough of all of it – we just choose to give it to other things. And we can also be like the earlier man, the one who had a talent for making furniture, but didn’t trust enough in himself or in God, and so he just buried it away.
But there is hope.
Today, there is a sign that people are starting understand the great truth about who they are and what they are called to do. We see it in the seekers reentering the church, the people who, having turned away from religion earlier in life, are seeking it again – even if cautiously – because in the twists and turns of their lives, they have begun to sense a greater purpose for it all. A purpose beyond the promotions and the trappings of life. They seem to be honing in on the synchronicity of our being – a connectedness to one another and to God. We see it also in those mid-life moments of wanting to do something meaningful, something we are passionate about, something that matters in the world view. People changing careers to do something that makes their heart sing, or trying new things. In some ways these people remind me of this poem. It’s called “If I had my life to live over”:
If I had my life to live over …
I would take more chances, I would take more Trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would Watch more sunsets. I would eat more Ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles And fewer imaginary ones.
You see …
I was one of those people who lived Prophylactically and sensibly and sanely, Hour after hour and day after day ….
… I’ve been
One of those people who never went anywhere without A thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a Raincoat and a parachute ….
If I had it to do all over again,
I’d travel lighter, much lighter, Than I have.
I would start barefoot earlier In the spring, and I’d stay that way Later in the fall. And I would Ride more merry-go-rounds, and Catch more gold rings, and greet More people, and pick more flowers, And dance more often.
If I had it To do all over again.
But you see,
I don’t.
That poem was by Nadine Stair, 85-year-old patient of Bernie Siegel, facing death.[1]
Jesus, in this parable of the talents, is imploring us to let go of fear and let God guide us. “The metaphor of “outer darkness” in which the scared man found himself in the [gospel] story could easily point to the kind of “outer darkness” and empty existence that any of us could experience if and when we don’t partner with God in the use of those things with which God has entrusted us. When we don’t live into our fullest potential, when we don’t work to allow the initial aim of God to find concrescence in our lives, and when we don’t expend our God-given creativity, we find ourselves in very lost and lonely places, spiritually and emotionally. […]
The gifts that God gives us for the work of co-creation and creative transformation are themselves God’s invitation to each of us to “enter into the joy” which God intends for us….” The gifts we have from God are meant to be invested for our neighbors and for God, and the return on that investment will be to ourselves. To invest something though we must let it go out of our hands. We cannot bury, hoard, or hide it.
And in the model of some of our youth, we are being given an example of what it means to live this out here at Christ Church. See, in the pages of your bulletin, we list those who have graciously given of the talents entrusted to them by God, for the work of Christ here in this church. And among those names are some of our youth. The offering of their talent – in treasure and in service are a model of what it means to live in love not fear. They do not have fifteen years of wages to invest, but they give of what they do have. And the youth shall indeed lead us. In their willingness to pledge of the talents God has given them, they are walking in love not fear – serving as an example to all of us of what it truly means to walk the way of Christ.
The church isn’t about itself, but about something greater than itself – that is the message of Jesus today. This church, Christ Church, is first and foremost a community of faith living out the good news of God in Christ. We are called to use the talents given us by God to further the work of Christ in the world. When we do, we really cannot fail! The only failure is in not being a part of it. The only failure is in standing on the sidelines. The only failure is thinking we have to control it, holding on so tightly to what we have, burying the talents entrusted to us by Christ for his gospel, for his church, and wasting them in the process. The only failure is in living in fear rather than “walking in love as Christ loved us.”
This church, at one time going through some lean years is now stepping boldly forward in faith, and the results are amazing! Unlike that servant in the parable, we are responding to the word of God. Not only have we grown by 13%, but in just these past two initial weeks of the stewardship in-gathering, so many of you have responded to Christ’s call to us all to pitch in our talents, not bury them, that the years to come, others will look back to all of you, and remember that it was you – yes, you, and you and you – all you’all – who invested what was given to you by God’s grace into the work of God here – reaping for God far more than could ever be imagined – all in the name of Christ.
And because of that, Jesus will say to you “Well done my good and trustworthy servant. Well done.” Amen.
[1] As quoted in his Peace, Love and Healing: Bodymind Communication and the Path to Self-Healing (New York: Harper and Row, 1989), 245-46.
[Sermon as written may not be as delivered on any given Sunday]
The Rev. Diana Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
November 16, 2014
Pent 23 – Proper 28 – Year A – Track 1
1st Reading – Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123
2nd Reading – 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Gospel – Matthew 25:14-30
