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Pentecost 24A
November 15, 2020
Matthew 25:14-30
INTRODUCTION
Today we continue our jaunt through the end of the world. It should be a real blast today. Zephaniah offers us this very uplifting description of how the last days will look – it’s the sort of text, full of judgment and destruction, that makes you wonder if you really want to say, “thanks be to God” at the end! Texts like this were often drawn upon by New Testament writers in describing the end of the world. 1 Thessalonians offers a bit more hope, saying that while the coming of the Lord will be a dark and terrible time, and one that comes just when we thought we were safe and secure, we need not worry because we are children of the light. Paul implores us to keep living faithfully, always ready for the day of the Lord.
The Gospel continues through chapter 25, which contains four parables about accountability and judgment (next week we’ll hear the fourth, the infamous parable about the sheep and the goats). Remember that in the overall narrative this is like, Wednesday of Holy Week, just before Jesus will die, so we know that the underlying question in all these parables is, “What are you gonna do when Jesus is no longer here in the flesh? When the going gets tough, how will you respond?” One textual point to keep in mind as you hear this parable of the talents: a talent in this case is a sum of money equal to 15-20 years wages, so no small amount. It is intentionally outrageous, to hit home the points Jesus is trying to make.
As you listen to these texts, notice how they make you feel – anxious? Hopeful? Relieved? And keep in mind the question I mentioned above: when the going gets tough, how will you, as a Christ-follower, respond? Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s parable, the Parable of the Talents, is in some ways a preacher’s dream, especially during a stewardship campaign! It is so rich, and there are so many angles to take. The biggest challenge, really, is not finding something to say, but rather, which thing to say! Pardon the pun, but it is an embarrassment of riches!
Perhaps it is a parable about God’s providence. At the beginning, the Master gives the servants five, two, and one talent respectively. A talent, as I mentioned, is a currency equal to about 15-20 years of labor – a huge amount! If we think of God as the Master, then we can read this to mean that our God is one who entrusts to us exorbitant riches, charging us to use what God provides to us for good and for gain. That seems a reasonable interpretation, yes?
Or, perhaps it is a parable about what we understand as “talents” – our particular gifts and skills – and being good stewards of these talents. This is a common reading of this text because it makes a lot of sense: God gives us many gifts, and good, faithful people will use those gifts to serve the world. Those who are willing to share their gifts with the world, especially for the purpose of serving God and neighbor, will find great return for their efforts. On the other hand, those who “bury” their gifts and never share them will be diminished, perhaps in the form of losing that skill they once had. Moral of the story: use it or lose it, and if you use it, God will be praised and pleased.
Or thinking more metaphorically, perhaps the talent currency in this parable is actually a metaphor for faith and love. If we exercise our faith by reading our Bibles, praying, going to church, and serving our neighbor, and if we spread God’s love throughout the world, telling others about God’s saving grace, then faith and love will increase. If we don’t tend to it, it will diminish, and eventually, we will lose it. It’s like that song my mom taught her kindergarteners: “Love is something if you give it away – you end up having more!” That’s a very nice interpretation. After all, who could argue with the idea that love and faith are something to be shared?
All three of these, though, get a little close for comfort to works righteousness – the idea that in the final judgment we will be judged based on what we do or don’t do with what God has given us. And Lutherans don’t believe that our actions determine our salvation – we believe God’s actions determine our salvation. God is a God of grace, and while I do think God cares about whether I get out there and live out my faith, or sit on my bum and do nothing, I don’t think that this, finally, will be what determines whether I am sent to heaven or to the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So what if this isn’t a parable about retribution (do this, don’t do that, and you will receive your reward accordingly)? What if it is a parable about trust in God, and about expectations?
What makes me go there is the third servant’s explanation to the Master about why he buried the talent. He says, “I knew you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.” Traditionally Christians have read this parable allegorically, in which the Master is God… but this does not describe the God that I know! The God I know is gracious and merciful, full of compassion, and abounding in steadfast love – not harsh and greedy and overbearing. But you see, the third servant expected the Master to be harsh, greedy, and overbearing… and so that is what he was.
Have you ever experienced that? Like, you expect someone to be one way (liberal, conservative, smart, not smart, etc.), and so everything they say and do you fit into that mold and it then becomes proof for your expectation? I see that so much in our increasingly divided country, in which we are quick to label people based on what we expect to be true of them. We even do it with our experiences – you expect a conflict to be awful and painful, and that is exactly what it is… or on the other hand, you see conflict as an opportunity to grow, and that is what it becomes. Our expectations about a person or a situation are very powerful, and can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The problem is, this allows expectations to become a barrier to growth, a barrier to connection, and a barrier to relationship. And they can definitely become a barrier to trust. That is the real issue with this third servant. He does not trust. He assumes the Master is a certain way, and so he does not trust. Instead, he fears. He even says as much: “I was afraid,” he says.
Now, fear is a great motivator. It can even motivate us to do acts that on the surface seem faithful – like go to church, or pray, or tithe. But is this truly faith, if you are acting out of fear? In my experience, fear seldom (or never!) motivates us to act in true faith or generosity. Only trust can do that – trust in a God who will take care of us, and bring us into God’s abounding joy.
It’s quite telling that Jesus chooses a tale about money to make this point. I think he does so because he knows that money has the power to negatively affect our trust in God. That’s why he talks about money more than anything else in the Bible, apart from the kingdom of God itself. Money has a strong grip on us. Its wiles so often disguise themselves as honest and admirable – how good we are at justifying spending our money on selfish needs – and yet if you’re anything like me, my justifications and explanations mostly serve to mask the fact that I’m not always certain my management of my money is entirely faithful.
As we think this month about stewardship, and prepare to make our commitments for the coming year, let me share a bit about my own stewardship journey. When I was first starting out as an adult with a job, I was a cheerful giver, glad to finally be making money so I could then give it away. But then my student loan deferment ended, and I got a mortgage, and with a cancer diagnosis my medical bills started accumulating, and then we had a couple babies and the daycare costs that go with them… and suddenly I was justifying hanging onto a little more of the money God had entrusted to me to offset those costs. And then the wily ways of money made their move – the more I hung onto, the more I felt I needed to hang onto, and the better I became at justifying my tight grip. And not coincidentally, the less joyful I felt about returning to God what has always been rightfully God’s. I regret to say that giving started becoming more of a burden then a joy.
“I knew you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground,” said the servant to the Master… and earlier I observed, and I hope you agreed, “But that’s not the God I believe in!” And yet, how quickly we slip into exactly that – believing that if we loosen our grip on our material gains, our God will no longer take care of us. How quickly we slip into not trusting the God who gave us our very lives. How quickly we slip into expecting that God will work the way that the world works.
The third servant did not trust. That is why he saw the Master as harsh, over-bearing, and greedy. A trusting servant sees the Master as gracious and merciful, full of compassion and abounding in steadfast love. A trusting servant knows that God will provide. A trusting servant is able, then, to joyfully give their talents – in both senses of the word – toward God’s work in the world, because that servant knows that a God who would give his only son so that we would not perish but have eternal life, would also provide for us our every need.
Let us pray… Gracious God, we know you to be a loving and merciful God, a God we can trust with all our heart. Help us, then, to trust, and to give our whole selves to you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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