11.05.2023 - Wisdom and Courage

Scripture: Matthew 25:14–30

Matthew 25:14–30 NIV

14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ 21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ 23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28 “ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

11/5/2023

Order of Service:

Announcements

Kid’s Time

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

All Saints’ Day Liturgy

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Communion

Closing Song

Benediction

Wisdom and Courage

Buying a Bridge

Have you ever been offered something that seemed “too good to be true?”

In the early 1900s, the famous con man George C. Parker illegally sold the Brooklyn Bridge to many immigrants, who were then arrested as they tried to set up toll booths along the bridge. Parker pretended to sell several other landmarks: the original Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant's Tomb, and the Statue of Liberty. He was convicted of fraud three times, and after one arrest, he escaped the courthouse by calmly walking out wearing a sheriff's hat and coat he found in the courthouse. After his fourth conviction on December 17, 1928, he was sentenced to a mandatory life term at Sing Sing Prison and spent the last eight years of his life incarcerated there.

Sometimes, people offer us one thing when we think we are getting something else. We often believe wisdom protects us from being taken in by con artists. If we refuse to talk to anyone on the phone that we don’t know and don’t open emails from strange senders, that should keep us out of trouble. We hear that we should avoid giving out cash to people because we don’t know what they will use it for and because a request for five dollars can become five hundred dollars within a few days. These are beneficial strategies, and we need to be safe when interacting with people we don’t know. However, the fear of strangers is not truly wisdom, and it leaves us open to being taken advantage of by the people we know, which happens a lot.

Several years ago, a gentleman visited the church asking for financial help. I reached out to my contact within the community assistance network to find out more about his situation and was immediately warned against giving him anything. I was told that he had been kicked out of numerous churches across several counties and had a history of taking advantage of people. Sure enough, within the first two Sundays he visited us, he made off with several hundred dollars between church people who had all thought they were the only ones helping him. It caused a bit of upset within the congregation, and we spent the better part of an hour during one Church Council meeting trying to figure out what God wanted us to do about him.

After much prayer and discussion, we decided there was nothing we could give him to help his situation, but we could do our best to be the church for him and treat him as we would treat any other member. So, at our next church meal, several leaders sat and ate with him and his family, as we would for any guest we hoped would return. He returned the next week, and this time, he brought food to share with the church. Rather than giving him something to make him go away, we courageously invited him into our family and treated him with the same boundaries and expectations we gave each other. It took us all working together, sharing the wisdom and courage we received from God, to recognize that this man was not an opportunity for us to share our wealth. He was a gift from God to us, lost and looking for a church family that could help him grow into the man God created him to be.

God's gifts are meant to be gratefully given and grown, and it takes both wisdom and courage to recognize what those gifts are and how to use them faithfully.

📷

The Wisdom of Stewards

For the next month, we will focus on what it means to be grateful and generous stewards of God’s gifts. Our passage today is sandwiched between two passages we will share over the next few weeks. Like most sandwiches, this part in the middle helps show the overall message of all three parables.

In this parable of the talents, Jesus taught that being good stewards of God’s gifts requires wisdom. Three servants were left in charge of their master’s money when he went on a journey. The money was distributed by weight to each servant according to their ability. The first was given five talents, the second was given two talents, and the last was given one talent. How much money was that?

If the money weighed out was silver (which is what is commonly referenced in the gospels), then this would have been an enormous amount of money. In the parable of the field workers, each worker was given a denarius, a standard day's wage. A talent of silver would have been equal to 6,000 denarii, which was enough to hire one hundred laborers for a year. It might be easier to think of each coin as a hundred-dollar bill. Each talent was like a bag filled with 6,000 one hundred dollar bills or $600,000. So, the amount of money Jesus talked about in this parable was enormous. The first servant had enough to pay a hundred people for five years, the second servant could pay them for two years, and the smallest amount was enough to pay a hundred people for one year.

The first servant with the five talents immediately put that money to work, trading it in the marketplace. He had enough money to invest in several things, so if one failed, several others would succeed and grow the overall investment. He had wisdom and skill, and his master knew it, which is why he was entrusted with so much. This was not his first time handling his master’s money.

The second servant followed right along after the first one. He had less than half of the first servant's gift, but he was eager to invest it and see it grow. He had a good model and mentor in the servant ahead of him. Sometimes wisdom is in knowing what to do with what we have. Other times, wisdom comes in knowing who to ask for advice and follow their lead. Wise stewards seek out both and are rewarded for their efforts. Both of these two servants doubled the money that their master gave them. It took wisdom to do that and something else as well.

📷

The Courage of Stewards

The third servant did neither. He did not take his enormous gift to the marketplace, nor did he seek or follow the counsel of his two partners. He did not demonstrate wisdom. Instead, he showed laziness and fear. He made the lazy choice to stay home and the fearful choice to dig a hole and bury that talent of silver his master gave him. Unlike the first two servants, this third servant claimed the master was harsh and cruel. He claimed that the master had a habit of going after things that were not his. This is how he justified his fear that that pretended to be wisdom and buried his gift in the ground.

When the master returned, the first two servants were rewarded for their work. They showed wisdom and courage in seeking new investments and growing their master's money. Because they showed faithfulness in a few things, their master put them in charge of many things and invited them into his joy and happiness. Can you imagine? That lesser servant was in charge of over a million dollars, and Jesus acted as if that was kid stuff. Just wait until you see what you will be in charge of next.

But the third servant was not rewarded. The master ignored the insult he was given by being called harsh or cruel. Instead, he focused on what the service got right. He did indeed have a habit of going after things that were not his, but the servant did not understand that this was an intentional habit. In the past, I have read this parable and thought that Jesus was painting God out to be like the monopoly man. It made it seem like God wanted to take over every business everywhere so that he could own it all. So, a part of me can relate to this third servant, who thought his master was harsh, cruel, and greedy. But I learned something just a few weeks ago that has helped me understand this parable in a different light.

Many of you shared that when a local farmer gets hurt or is unable to bring in his crops, his neighboring farmers and friends would jump in and help him with that work. Some of you do that for family members, but it sounds like it is also part of the local culture to look out for those outside your close family. Like you all, God will not let the fruit rot in the field. It doesn't matter if the owner of that field is unwilling or unable to use it to its potential. God will go after it and redeem it. In doing so, God builds bridges between people that become pathways of blessing and righteousness for years to come.

The master was right to call the third servant lazy. He didn't care if the fruit rotted in the field. He only cared for himself. He only cared for himself. So the master left him to himself, thrown outside into the darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. All that he had tried to keep safe, he ended up losing. But those other servants who immediately took their master's gifts and looked to the world, wondering where they could be used for their master’s gain, were rewarded more than they could imagine.

📷

Taking Stock

You can have feelings of gratitude and generosity without much effort. But to begin living gratefully and generously requires cultivating several other characteristics. Wisdom and Courage are two things that help us be stewards who invest in God’s Kingdom well: Not haphazardly, nor with too much constraint. God’s wisdom and courage allow us to live to our full potential.

This passage today is clearly about money. It helps us to understand that when we serve Jesus, we recognize that all we have is His, not just the 10% tithe. Everything we own and have and are we got because of His graciousness to us. So, we respond in gratitude by putting it to use for Him. Indeed, next week is Consecration Sunday, where we will celebrate in gratitude what God has done for us. The consecration is setting something aside to be redeemed for God’s use. If you want to keep something away from God, don’t bring it to Him. If you're going to keep parts of your life broken and sin-stained, bury it in a hole somewhere. But if you want to experience what it means to be redeemed... not just saved as in scooped out of the fire at the last minute, but truly redeemed, made new, made holy, give it to God and watch what He will do with it.

Today, I want you to take stock of what you have so you will be prepared next week to make your spiritual commitment to God. We have money, we have possessions, we have health, energy, and time. We all have some unique talents and abilities. We have experiences, hopes, and dreams, and we all have them in varying amounts. Each of us has a specific number of days to walk this earth. How many of those days do you want to give to God to redeem?

When we get down to it, money is easier than everything else God has given us. What would it look like to tithe your time? That’s two and a half hours every day. What would that look like?

What has God given you that you are grateful for?

How can you redeem that gift by investing it in His Kingdom?

God has put good fruit in your field. Don’t let it rot there. If you can’t harvest it yourself, ask one of your fellow servants for help so God can redeem your life and the lives of many others through your redeemed gifts.