What to Do with Talents

Psalm 78: 1-7; Matthew 25: 14-30

FPC; 11-16-08

           The whole story begins at the initiative of the master.  He calls in his servants and entrusts his entire property to them.  He gives them everything he’s got.  To the first one he gives five talents, to the second two talents and to the third servant he gives one talent.  Keep in mind: one talent in the ancient world was equivalent to five years’ worth of wages.  The five talent servant is in possession of 25 years’ wages.  Even the one talent servant has been entrusted with something of great worth.  What an extravagant, giving, generous master he is! 

           Remember the literary context of this parable.  Like the master in the story, Jesus is on a journey.  In just a few chapters Jesus will enter Jerusalem where he will die.  As he tells the story of the master who gave everything, Jesus knows he is going to give everything, including his own life. What an extravagant, giving and generous master he is!

           When the early church heard this parable, it was awaiting the Parousia, the second coming of Jesus.  The story reminded that organization of ordinary people that something extraordinary had happened to them.  God had entrusted to them all that God had.  The story asked the first century church: “What have you done with what you have been given? What have you done with the love God through Christ has shared with you?  What have you done to invest in the kingdom God is establishing?

           Here we are ordinary people with the extraordinary blessing of having received the extravagant, generous love of God.   We are redeemed and forgiven, not because of anything we have done, but because of God’s initiative of love.  God has written the story of his saving love upon the pages of our hearts and lives. 

           The text says that third servant was fearful, fearful of taking a risk, perhaps, or fearful of the Master’s response should the risks result in a loss.  Fear paralyzed that man, so that he did nothing with what he had been given. 

           One Christian theologian has said, “The greatest risk of all, as it turns out, is not to risk anything, is not to care deeply and profoundly enough about anything to invest deeply, … the greatest risk of all, as it turns out, is to play it safe, to live cautiously,” to bury God’s gift of love and not share it with anyone.[1]

          C.S. Lewis, the great 20^th century theologian has written: 

          “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.  If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one…

          Wrap it around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements, lock it safe in the casket or coffin of your own selfishness.

          But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless-it will change.  It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable.”

          Lewis concludes: “The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers…of love is hell.”[2]

          The third servant, the one who did nothing with what the Master had given him, ends up in outer darkness, which is, I suppose, something like hell.  He’s there because he did nothing with the gifts of his master. 

          The other two, conversely, used what had been given them in a way that pleased the master.  They are invited to experience the joy of the master’s presence. 

          Tom Long tells about moving to a new community and worshipping in a Presbyterian church on a major university campus.  A lot of professors attended that church and that congregation prided itself on its intellectual life and worship. 

          Long recalls going to a Wednesday night supper and sitting beside a church member he didn’t know.  “I don’t think I’ve met you before,” the man said to Tom Long.  “No.”  “We just moved here.” “What about you?”  “Have you been a member here long?”

          “Oh my goodness,” he said.  “I’ve been a member of this church all my life.  I think I’m the last non-intellectual left in the congregation.”  “You’re kidding!”  “No, I’m not kidding.”  “I haven’t understood a sermon preached here in over twenty-five years.” 

           “But, I’d never leave this church.”  “Why?”  He told Long that every Monday night he and a few members get into the church van and go to a youth prison.  “Sometimes we’ll have a bible study with them, but most of the time we just get to know the guys and try to bring them some comfort and hope.”

           “I started doing that because it is the kind of thing I thought Christians should do.  But I wouldn’t miss a Monday night because it’s how God nourishes my soul, just as God promised.” “Then”, according to Long, “he said something very interesting.”   “You can’t prove the promises of God in advance, but if you live them they are true every time.”[3] 

           You can’t prove the promises of God in advance.  If you lean into God’s promise that his grace is sufficient for you, take what the Lord has given you and invest yourself in the building up of God’s kingdom, you will see that God’s promise is true every time.   

           You can’t prove the promises of God in advance. But, if you live into God’s promise that he is a constant presence in your life, use whatever the master has given you for his sake and glory, you will see that his promise is true every time. 

           Trust frees us to take the gifts the Lord has given us-his wondrous love and boundless mercy and all others- and invest them and all that we are in a life of worship and service.

           As we live a life of service and worship, we will receive from our Lord these words, “Well done good and faithful servants, experience the joy of the master’s presence.”