Journey of Generosity: Risky
Business Rev. Heather Jepsen
Matthew 25:14-30
This morning we are continuing our
stewardship sermon series as part of our journey of generosity together. We have been praying and asking God how God
might work through us as individuals and as a church. This morning’s scripture reading from Matthew
invites us to consider taking risks in our lives of faith.
Today’s
reading continues right where we left off last week. Jesus is with the disciples on the Mount of Olives and he has been teaching them about the
end times. Last week we studied the
parable of the 10 bridesmaids, which reminded us that we need to be prepared to
wait by making sure we have enough oil, or faith to get us through the lean times. This Sunday’s parable is also concerned with
what we do while we wait.
The
kingdom of heaven is like a generous land owner who was headed out on a
journey. Before he left he gave
extravagant gifts to his slaves, to each according to his ability. To one slave he gave five talents, to another
two, and to another one. A talent was
more than 15 years’ worth of wages. In
today’s terms, if you made about $10 an hour, then a talent would be over
$300,000 dollars. That means the slave
with five talents received over 1.5 million dollars. That’s quite the gift!
The
first two slaves invest their money, doubling their return. The last slave is afraid of the wrath of the
master and so he does the only safe thing he can think of . . . he buries the
money in the ground.
The
master comes home and is pleased with the work of the first two slaves. Both enter into the joy of their master,
which seems to be some reference to heaven.
The master is upset with the last slave, who didn’t even invest the
money and this slave is thrown into the outer darkness . . . not good.
There
are lots of ways to preach this parable.
The most common one of course, and one I am sure you have already heard,
is to preach a sermon based on a literal reading of the word talent. It is from the Greek word, talanta, used in this reading, that we
get our modern word, talent, which has come to mean any natural gift we
possess. I have a talent for playing the
harp, maybe you can sing or sew, maybe you are good with woodworking or good at
fishing, maybe you can really throw a football, maybe you are great with
numbers or an excellent chef. All of us
possess some talent, some gift, given to us by God.
The
traditional sermon here is to ask you to go out and use your talent for the
good of the kingdom. Don’t hide your
light under a bushel basket but put it on the lamp stand for all to see. Find some way to harness the power of your
gifts for ministry in God’s name. If you
have attended one of our stewardship small groups you received a time and
talent pledge card. Considering sharing
your gifts of talent with the church is an important part of stewardship. If you didn’t get one of these pledge cards,
you can grab one from me after the service today. Jesus encourages us to use our talents for
the good of the kingdom.
Of
course, its pledge time and this morning I have another great opportunity to
make you uncomfortable by talking about money.
This parable is about money
after all. Now is the time to ask you how
you are investing your finances for the kingdom of God. We all know that churches need money to
function. It is money that pays the
salaries of those who work here, and money that keeps the lights on and puts
that bulletin in your hand. Now is not the
time to bury your money, and your head, in the sand. Now is the time to give extravagantly for
God’s mission here at First Presbyterian Church.
Those are two
great ideas, two great sermon possibilities, but I think you’ve heard them
before. You heard last week about giving
money and you’ve heard about giving talents as well. Today I really want to go another
direction. Today I want to talk about
risk, faith, and the person and image of God.
When we read
this parable, it seems to us that the master going on the journey is God, or
perhaps Jesus Christ. That assumption
makes good sense since this is a part of a greater discourse on what we are to
do while we await Jesus’ triumphant return.
What doesn’t fit that is the part where the slave says the master is a
harsh man who reaps where he does not sow.
That doesn’t sound like God. Well
I got to thinking this week, what if that isn’t really the way the master is but
simply the way the slave views the master.
Follow
me here. First of all, the master is one
who understands the servants on a deep level.
He specifically gives gifts that match each servant’s ability. That doesn’t sound like something just any
master in Jesus’ time would do. In fact
I wonder how many masters even knew their slaves’ names, let alone their
abilities at various tasks. This master
sounds a lot like God, who knows each one of us intimately and personally.
Second,
the master gives generous and abundant gifts.
That doesn’t sound like any earthly master I know. We’ve already talked about the sums; this was
more than a lifetime’s worth of money for any slave. This master gives super generously and he
does not say that he expects anything in return. That sounds like God to me.
Third,
when he returns the master welcomes the slaves into his presence, putting them
on a level playing field with himself.
That also doesn’t sound like an earthly master. When he welcomes the first two slaves into
his joy he is making them equal to him.
What master wants to welcome his slaves into his household like an
equal? That doesn’t sound like any
earthly master I know, but it sure sounds like the welcoming nature of God to
me.
So,
when we finally get to the third slave his claim that the master is a harsh man
who reaps where he does not sow just doesn’t ring true. That just isn’t the way the master has acted
in the parable so far. But it seems, if
that’s the master he wants, than that is the master he gets. And the last slave is treated harshly as he
is thrown into the outer darkness.
This
got me thinking, just how do we imagine God?
I personally imagine a loving and generous God, full of grace and
mercy. I imagine a God who will forgive
the mistakes I have made in the pastorate, which is more than I can say for
myself. I imagine a God who wants to
entrust me with great gifts and a God that wants me to go out and risk with
those gifts. I imagine a God who longs
to welcome me and everyone else into the joy of God’s company.
But
this is not the God everyone imagines. I
know quite a few people who imagine a harsh God, a judgmental God, a God who is
more concerned that we get it right rather than we just get it. I hear about this God all the time on TV and
on the radio and even here in conversation in Warrensburg. This is the God of judgment and wrath, the
God of hell fire, the God who is going to throw us into the outer darkness if
we don’t measure up.
I
have noticed that when I talk to people who worship this God, they often live
and worship in fear. Like the third
slave, these people take their gifts from God and bury them because they are
afraid of doing the wrong thing. They
are afraid of God’s wrath and so they tow the party line, even if they don’t
really believe it, just so they won’t find themselves on the wrong side of this
God. This experience of faith driven by
fear and guilt is a common one.
While
we can read this parable as a lesson about using our gifts or about giving our
money, I think we can also read it as a lesson about how we view God. The first two slaves thought of the master as
a kind and generous master, and that is the master they experienced. The last slave saw a harsh judge, and that is
the master he experienced. Perhaps the
God we face is the one we imagine.
If
we go with that thought, then I think this parable is asking us not be afraid
of God, but rather to respond to God with trust and risk. What if the master was pleased not so much
that the slaves doubled his money, but that they went out into the world and used
the gifts he gave them? I think the
master was pleased that the slaves weren’t afraid of his anger but rather were
willing to take risks with his gifts. In
fact, I imagine that even if they had lost the money, the master would have
been pleased with their endeavors
I
think this parable challenges us to take more risks in our faith. We have made church and faith a pretty boring
thing. It’s all about coming here on
Sunday, spacing out for an hour, eating a donut, and then going home. Where’s the fun in that? We have forgotten that for Jesus and the
early church, faith was anything but boring.
Jesus
risked everything to teach us about a generous and loving master. We remember that when we gather around the
table. Jesus didn’t play it safe in the
temple preaching about towing the party line.
No, he put himself in risky situations, got out there with the people,
and paid the ultimate price. A God who
dies on the cross is not a God who avoids risks. Likewise the early church risked life and
limb to gather together in worship.
Today
our faith is all about being comfortable and that’s not right. Your faith should challenge you to take
risks, to say what you believe and to preach the gospel in our world. This parable teaches us that God has been and
will be generous with us, but God calls us to spread that generosity around in the
world. As a church, we took a risk in doing
to Africa this year. Has God not doubled
our efforts, wasn’t that risk worth it?
I certainly think so. What is the
next faith risk on the horizon for our church?
And what is the next faith risk on the horizon for your life? If you are willing to make a risk in faith,
what could God do through you this year?
Like
the parable of the 10 bridesmaids, Jesus is telling us what to do while we wait
for his return. It seems to me today
that this parable urges us to get out into the world and take risks with our
faith. If you believe that God is a
generous and loving master who wants to welcome you into his presence, than you
can take that confidence, rather than fear, out into the world in
ministry. Be willing to risk what God
has given you for God’s ministry in the world.
It’s about our talents, it’s about our money, and it’s about our
hearts. Let us not be motivated by fear,
but let us be motivated by love and joy.
Let us get out there and take generous risks for the gospel. Amen.
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