Readings
Zephaniah 1:7,12-18
Psalm 90:1-8, (9-11), 12
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
Taken at face value it would be easy to think that our Gospel lesson was written with venture capitalists in mind. On the surface it seems as if Jesus is commending successful investments rather than a strict fiscal conservatism. But, as is often the case, in Jesus’ parables what appears to be happening is often just the tip of the iceberg, and today’s lesson is no exception.
In today’s parable about the Kingdom of God we have three slaves, each with different levels of ability. The master before leaving his home calls them together and gives to them, based on their ability, a large sum of money. We hear the word “talents.” Now a talent was the equivalent of fifteen years’ worth of wages for the average laborer. Can you imagine? Based on this, the slave who receives five talents is being given roughly $2.25 million in today’s wages. And the slave who is given just one talent is being entrusted with about $450,000. These are huge amounts of money by anyone’s standards.
They receive no instruction, but immediately the slave with five talents goes out and makes five more through shrewd trading. And the one with two talents doubled his master’s money. But the third slave, we are told he went and dug a hole and hid the money that had been entrusted to him.
When the master returns each slave comes and offers back the money along with what they earned. The first is commended for his good work and rewarded for it. So too is the second slave. But the third slave, informing the master of his concerns returns only the money originally given. To this the master responds in anger and chides the slave telling him that he could have taken the most conservative approach and still done something with it. The master then 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.” In the end this slave is proverbially kicked to the curb and finds himself with no one and nothing.
Just as I raised at the beginning, one has to ask whether this parable is about production. Are we to think that inheriting the blessings, peace, joy, and comfort of the Kingdom of God is about whether or not we produce or not? And if it is, what then are we to produce? Certainly not money, are we? So, what exactly is Jesus getting at?
Well friends I do not believe that this story is about production. It is not about wise or shrewd investment. Nor is the sin of the slave with one talent that he did not make money off of it.
No. Today’s story is about fear and the dangers of being captive to fear. The sin of the slave with one talent wasn’t his lack of investment, although that was the symptom, but his fear of the master.
Much like last Sunday’s parable about the five foolish bridesmaids and the five wise bridesmaids, which goes with today’s parable as a single text in the Gospel, Jesus is commending his followers to be without fear, or at the very least to not be captive to it.
The issue in last week’s Gospel with the foolish bridesmaids was not their lack of preparation in bringing enough oil, but in their anxiety and their need to go buy oil when they ran out. One can imagine that had they stayed the master would have welcomed them into the wedding banquet even without their lamps sufficiently trimmed. It may have even been the case that the other bridesmaids would have been chided for their lack of generosity.
So too in today’s Gospel, as the master articulates. Had the slave with one talent simply used his abilities and made the most modest and conservative of investments, even in the midst of his fear, the master would have commended him, and he too would have “entered into the joy of his master.”
You see, each of the servants was given the talents they were given with their abilities in mind. Each of them were not without capability. Each of them, presumably, knew how to handle what they had been given. And each of them knew what kind of person their master was. The difference between them was a willingness to move beyond their anxiety, their fear, and live into the possibilities of how they had been gifted.
That’s the great challenge for us as well. We have been gifted in so many ways by God. We have resources at our disposal that have enormous potential for growth. Whether we are talking about emotional, physical, material, or spiritual gifts all of us have been given more than we can imagine.
The difficulty is that it is easy to be captive to our anxieties. It is easy to focus on what we don’t have, on the limitations, on the dangers, and on the threats.
Do I have enough to live? Is it safe to go out after dark? Am I smart enough? Is where I live secure? Is our society going down the tubes? And the list goes on and on.
You name it, there’s more than enough to worry about and there’s more than enough scarcity to go around.
The problem is that the reality that Jesus teaches is that we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity. We live in a world where all that we need is already available to us. We need simply to step out in faith, to invest ourselves and what we have been given.
Now I said it was simple, but I didn’t say it is easy. Just because we want to believe in God’s abundance doesn’t mean our fears and anxieties simply go away.
But the life of faith is a life of courage. And courage does not mean the absence of fear. Rather, courage is moving forward even in the face of fear.
Imagine what our lives and our world might be like if we trusted that our faith was sufficient for us to speak with others about it. Imagine if we set aside our fears of being ineloquent or facing rejection. Imagine the impact we might have on those we know who struggle or are suffering.
I grew up in a home where the wolf was always at the door. And yet, we never went hungry. I always had clothes and a roof over my head. But I was trained to focus on what I didn’t have, rather than what I did. I was trained to live in a world of scarcity. And it has taken me many years to learn that such living undermines all the ways I can invest my life in others. It is hard to be generous when you think you have nothing.
Now don’t get me wrong. Poverty is real and some of us are financially challenged. But we are more than our finances and we are blessed in many many ways. And when we embrace that truth then our lives begin to open up to a different world and a different way of living in the world.
This is what I think the sentence in today’s gospel about from those who have nothing all will be taken is all about. It isn’t that God will take away what little we have as much as it is that we will never have what we have as long as we believe we have nothing.
No, the blessings, peace, joy, and comfort of the Kingdom of God are within our grasp if we but recognize the incredible gifts we have been given and the abundance within our grasp. And we will not only find the blessings for ourselves, but we will be a blessing to others.
Yes, we are called to be like those first slaves, knowing that we have been given much and that there is much more still available to us. We are called to move beyond our fears. We are called take what we have been given and invest it in ourselves, others, and the very world we live in. We are being called to do nothing less than embrace the Kingdom of God that is always within our grasp.
Or as one of the blessings I use at the end of the service says, “Live without fear: your Creator has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Go in peace to follow the good road and may God’s blessing be with you always.”