But I can’t deny the presence of this text. Here it
is. What do we make of it? Jesus tells a parable, and this one, as
always meant to describe what the kingdom of heaven is like, comes in
the midst of a series of Jesus’ teaching. A man going on a journey calls
his slaves to him and divides among them care of his property. One slave
receives one talent, one five, and one ten, each, we read, receiving
according to ability. The slaves who receive five and ten talents
immediately take them, trade with them, and double their money to
present to their master when he returns home. But the slave who received
just one talent dug a hole and hid the money, and returned it to his
master on his return. When the master returned, he praised the faithful
servants for their stewardship of his talents, and said, “Well done,
good and trustworthy slave. You have been trustworthy in a few things; I
will put you in charge of many things.” But when the third slave
returned the single talent to his master, explaining that he thought his
Master was hard-hearted and harsh, taking what was not rightfully his,
the Master rebuked the man, and took the one talent from him and gave it
to the one who had already been given ten. And so, Jesus concludes with
that strange sentiment: “For to all those who have, more will be given,
and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even
what we have will be taken away.”
What do we make of Jesus’ parable and his conclusion?
Perhaps we are ready and willing to agree that the slaves who multiplied
their masters’ money were to be praised. But was the other slave really
so out of line just to return to the master what he had been given to
watch over in the first place? What exactly did he do wrong? If we look
closely at his actions and attitudes, I think we may begin to understand
where things go wrong.
First, I think the slave has a wrong idea about whose
stuff belongs to whom. When his master comes back to town, he pleads his
case by saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where
you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed.” But the
thing is, the talent was the master’s, not the slave’s.
The slave is in the service of the master, and the master has given him
charge of the talent while he is away, not as a something he is giving
to the slave to keep, but given in trust for the slave to take care
over. The master has entrusted the slave to work on his behalf in his
absence, and coming to gather back his talents is gathering what he
indeed did scatter and sow. So the slave needs to remembers what
belongs to who.
Secondly, the slave is stuck in a mindset of
scarcity. He only seems to focus on exactly how little he has to take
care of, instead of how much he has control over. Maybe, receiving only
one talent when the other slaves receive twice and five times as much as
him, maybe he feels jealous or inadequate because of how little he has
in comparison. Perhaps that the others have so much makes him feel that
the talent in his care doesn’t amount to much on its own, and doesn’t
matter, and that the master won’t care much what happens to it. The
slave behaves as if what he has is so little that it won’t matter if he
just digs a hole and buries it. Instead of seeing what he does
have, he sees only what he does not have.
And third, the slave just plays it safe, and won’t
take any risks on behalf of the one he’s serving. The other slaves took
the talents they were given and traded them until they were double
what they started. That’s a pretty good return on their investments,
isn’t it? But no doubt, things could have gone the other way in their
trading, and they might have lost what they had been given by the
master. They had to take a risk, and have a little faith that they could
take what they had care of and make more from it. The slave wouldn’t
even take the risk of putting his talent in the bank where it could earn
interest. He’s not willing to risk anything to gain anything.
I think we, in our own lives and in the life of the
church, sometimes have the same attitudes as the slave with the one
talent, not only about our money, but about all that belongs to
us, tangible objects, and intangible objects like the gifts and talents
that make us the people we are. We must remember, first, and above all,
that the talents and gifts we have aren’t ours to begin with. We
are so interested in our society in owning things and having things and
possessing things. Financially speaking, we might even think it’s a bad
idea to have things on loan, because we know that loans require
repayment with interest – we have to pay back more than we took to begin
with. We like to know that what we have is ours and no one else’s. But
we have to remember that the talents given to the slaves in the stories
aren’t really theirs to own. So it is with us - the gifts that
God gives to us are ours only as far as we are stewards of them. We are
stewards, or caretakers, of all God gives us – caretakers of creation,
caretakers of one another, and caretakers of our gifts and talents. What
we have – our money, our time, the things we excel at, our possessions,
you name it – all of it belongs to God first, and is just on loan
to us.
Second, I think we, like the slave, think our
resources are scarce instead of abundant. One of the things I worry
about at St. Paul’s is that we sometimes operate out this culture of
scarcity. In other words, we, like the slave, focus more on what we
don’t have than on what we do have. I’m guilty of doing so myself. I
worry about how few we have in attendance on any given Sunday, which
sometimes distracts me from focusing on the presence of those who are
here. We worry about the money that we don’t have and the parts of
our budget that we haven’t been meeting instead of focusing on the money
that we do have and how we will spend it in ministry and mission and
outreach. We worry about the positions we can’t fill on our committees
instead of giving thanks for the names that have been lifted up and the
people who have already agreed to try something new in service of St.
Paul’s. We worry about the young people and young families and youth
that are not here instead of celebrating the presence of young people
that are already in the midst of our worship space. Instead of seeing
our church and the people in it and counting our blessings, we look
around and get worried that we don’t have enough to be the church we
want to be. Of course we want more – with more we can reach out and
share the gospel more. But we’re not without resources, and if we can’t
look at our lives and our church and count the blessings we have – if we
see only what is missing – then we end up not even using that is
in our power, and we lose our chance to be a voice for the good news of
God’s grace in the world. We are blessed with immeasurable abundance,
and we need to start living like that’s the case.
And finally, we need to learn to be risk takers for
the sake of Jesus. And again, I don’t mean just risk takers with our
finances, but risk takers with our selves. Jesus never promises
that being disciples isn’t going to be risky business. Some of us are
more prone to be risk-takers them others. I’m personally not much of a
thrill seeker. I’ve never liked roller-coasters. A good water slide has
always been thrilling enough for me. In my retirement fund, some of my
money is in variable accounts, but a good chunk of my investments are in
safe, secure, and steady bonds – slowly but certainly earning interest.
I like to have plans and see them through and know what to expect. But
in our spiritual lives, and in the life of the church, the
“play-it-safe” attitude won’t always get us very far. God wants to see
what we have been given and what we can make of what we’ve been given.
If we can’t take some risks in our discipleship, then chances are we’ll
only have to offer back to God the piece we started with, and that
speaks to a lack of faith on our parts.
Jesus says, “For to all those who have, more will be
given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing,
even what they have will be taken away.” And so, instead of seeing this
as a preference to give more to the rich who already have, and taking
from the poor the little they have, I see it as a statement where we are
in control. How do you perceive what you have? Do you look at your life
– your money, your skills, your things, your life – and think
that you are lacking? That you don’t have enough to make anything out of
it? Or do you look at your look and think, “I can’t imagine how lucky I
am to be so blessed”? If you start counting your blessings, I bet you’ll
find your blessings seem to be countless. And we, faithful in what God
gives us, will find that God showers us with even more, so that our
lives are overflowing with God’s love.
Amen.
