Matt. 25:14-30 (The Message)
The Parable of the Talents
14-18 “It is like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, to a third one, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.
19-21 “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
22-23 “The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
24-25 “The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’
26-27 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28-30 “‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this one, throw him out into utter darkness.’
What a great strange story we have for our scripture today! I love these parables- they take seemingly mundane situations and wham- you get to the end and you wind up saying – I didn’t see that one coming.
It seems so unfair…after all the third servant didn’t actually lose anything- He just didn’t, well, do anything either. He sort of just sat there beside the hole he had dug and took the bag of gold and plopped in it and kept it safe - and I will say gave it back intact. Seems to me no harm- no foul.
But is that good enough. For those of us who have seen investments drop and values decrease – we might think that keeping something the same doesn’t sound so bad but not in this story. In this story that servant is just about cast into hell – as if he couldn’t have done anything worse – like lost the whole amount in an unwise investment. In fact – it almost sounds like losing on the investment would have been judged with a lot more leniency than was imposed on this man.
Worse we know that Jesus wouldn’t have bothered to tell the story if it was only about a man and his servants, this has to be a story about us and for us. The amounts given by master to the servants are most often interpreted as the gifts we are given in whatever portion and when someone has a gift we don’t expect them to be buried in the ground.
In fact, Jesus is just telling us the same old story in a different way – if you light a candle you don’t hide it in the closet and expect you are going to find your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. We expect our lights to shine when we need them, well God has no other lights in this world except us, and we can’t shine our light if we hide it under a bucket, the only thing it will light up is the bucket but bring it out into the open and into proximity with other lights and the whole room is illuminated. We can’t shine our light if we hoard it – sure we will find our way around the house but it’s like burying treasure in the sand no one gets to enjoy it or even know it’s shining.
I came across this little story that says it quite well especially because we just celebrated Halloween not very long ago.
A 10 year old little girl was asked by another classmate, "what is it like to be a Christian?". The 10 year old little girl replied, "it's like being a pumpkin. God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. Then he cuts open the top and scoops out all of the yucky stuff. He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see."
What is it like to be a Christian? 50 -60 years ago it was pretty much like being every other person you knew –well except in my neighbourhood where I’m pretty sure the Catholics didn’t think Protestants were Christian and many people were Jewish. There might have been a few other faiths thrown in the mix.
What is it like for you to be a Christian?
Would it be very much like being a Jesus follower in Galilee? Would you want to shine your light or hide it away? Would you have taken the talents from the property owner and buried it or invested it?
Maybe a clearer way to put the question is What does it mean to believe?
Advent is not far off, a couple of weeks and we enter into the time of anticipation and waiting.
But what do we wait for?
What do we anticipate?
Why do we think this year will be different?
What do we believe?
Karl Barth a noted theologian wrote:
“Believing is not something as special and difficult or even unnatural as we often suppose. Believing means that what we listen to, we listen to as God’s speech. What moves us is not just our own concern, but precisely God’s concern. What causes me worry, that is God’s worry, what gives me joy is God’s joy, what I hope for is God’s hope. In other words, in all that I am, I am only a party to that which God thinks and does. In all that I do it is not I, but rather God who is important. Imagine if everything were brought into this great and proper connection, if we were willing to suffer, be angry, love and rejoice with God, instead of always wanting to make everything our own private affair, as if we were alone.”
What if believing in God means that we are never alone? Just like our creed says.
What if believing in Jesus as a pathway to God means that we get to share who we are and who we want to be, our fears and worries, our joys and insights, our weakness and our strengths, our dreams and be loved for who we are just because we are.
What if we were to take these gifts that God has given us, which we will use to light our advent candles in the coming weeks – hope, and peace and love and joy – what if we were to take these gifts, these talents and invest them no – I mean use them abundantly, use them generously, use them freely, use them often and well and spread them throughout your day – give them away to people regardless of what people give to you.
hope,
peace,
love
joy
Just let’s not hoard them, try not bury them in the ground, don’t put them in a closet or hide them under a bucket.
If possible let’s add to them
Practice compassion,
Practice listening,
Practice encouragement
Practice being with the moment
Practice – well as the 10 year old said:
Let the light that God has placed inside of us shine out.
We have been wonderfully made and wonderfully blessed- Let’s share it.
Amen
The Parable of the Talents
14-18 “It is like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, to a third one, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.
19-21 “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
22-23 “The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
24-25 “The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’
26-27 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28-30 “‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this one, throw him out into utter darkness.’
What a great strange story we have for our scripture today! I love these parables- they take seemingly mundane situations and wham- you get to the end and you wind up saying – I didn’t see that one coming.
It seems so unfair…after all the third servant didn’t actually lose anything- He just didn’t, well, do anything either. He sort of just sat there beside the hole he had dug and took the bag of gold and plopped in it and kept it safe - and I will say gave it back intact. Seems to me no harm- no foul.
But is that good enough. For those of us who have seen investments drop and values decrease – we might think that keeping something the same doesn’t sound so bad but not in this story. In this story that servant is just about cast into hell – as if he couldn’t have done anything worse – like lost the whole amount in an unwise investment. In fact – it almost sounds like losing on the investment would have been judged with a lot more leniency than was imposed on this man.
Worse we know that Jesus wouldn’t have bothered to tell the story if it was only about a man and his servants, this has to be a story about us and for us. The amounts given by master to the servants are most often interpreted as the gifts we are given in whatever portion and when someone has a gift we don’t expect them to be buried in the ground.
In fact, Jesus is just telling us the same old story in a different way – if you light a candle you don’t hide it in the closet and expect you are going to find your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. We expect our lights to shine when we need them, well God has no other lights in this world except us, and we can’t shine our light if we hide it under a bucket, the only thing it will light up is the bucket but bring it out into the open and into proximity with other lights and the whole room is illuminated. We can’t shine our light if we hoard it – sure we will find our way around the house but it’s like burying treasure in the sand no one gets to enjoy it or even know it’s shining.
I came across this little story that says it quite well especially because we just celebrated Halloween not very long ago.
A 10 year old little girl was asked by another classmate, "what is it like to be a Christian?". The 10 year old little girl replied, "it's like being a pumpkin. God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. Then he cuts open the top and scoops out all of the yucky stuff. He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see."
What is it like to be a Christian? 50 -60 years ago it was pretty much like being every other person you knew –well except in my neighbourhood where I’m pretty sure the Catholics didn’t think Protestants were Christian and many people were Jewish. There might have been a few other faiths thrown in the mix.
What is it like for you to be a Christian?
Would it be very much like being a Jesus follower in Galilee? Would you want to shine your light or hide it away? Would you have taken the talents from the property owner and buried it or invested it?
Maybe a clearer way to put the question is What does it mean to believe?
Advent is not far off, a couple of weeks and we enter into the time of anticipation and waiting.
But what do we wait for?
What do we anticipate?
Why do we think this year will be different?
What do we believe?
Karl Barth a noted theologian wrote:
“Believing is not something as special and difficult or even unnatural as we often suppose. Believing means that what we listen to, we listen to as God’s speech. What moves us is not just our own concern, but precisely God’s concern. What causes me worry, that is God’s worry, what gives me joy is God’s joy, what I hope for is God’s hope. In other words, in all that I am, I am only a party to that which God thinks and does. In all that I do it is not I, but rather God who is important. Imagine if everything were brought into this great and proper connection, if we were willing to suffer, be angry, love and rejoice with God, instead of always wanting to make everything our own private affair, as if we were alone.”
What if believing in God means that we are never alone? Just like our creed says.
What if believing in Jesus as a pathway to God means that we get to share who we are and who we want to be, our fears and worries, our joys and insights, our weakness and our strengths, our dreams and be loved for who we are just because we are.
What if we were to take these gifts that God has given us, which we will use to light our advent candles in the coming weeks – hope, and peace and love and joy – what if we were to take these gifts, these talents and invest them no – I mean use them abundantly, use them generously, use them freely, use them often and well and spread them throughout your day – give them away to people regardless of what people give to you.
hope,
peace,
love
joy
Just let’s not hoard them, try not bury them in the ground, don’t put them in a closet or hide them under a bucket.
If possible let’s add to them
Practice compassion,
Practice listening,
Practice encouragement
Practice being with the moment
Practice – well as the 10 year old said:
Let the light that God has placed inside of us shine out.
We have been wonderfully made and wonderfully blessed- Let’s share it.
Amen
