Proper 28

Matthew 25:14-30 - “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ “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!’ “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’ “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!’ “Then the man who had received the one talent 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. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “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? 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. “ ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What we have here is another warning parable from Jesus.

It’s reminding us that when Jesus returns he will be ushering in the FULL expression of the kingdom

… and when that happens there will be some who enter into it and there will be some on the outside of it, including some people who take it for granted that they’re all good.

It’s a jarring warning, but as we discussed last week, it’s not meant to lock us up in anxiety, it’s meant to get our attention and help us focus.

Because Jesus doesn’t want anyone to be left out.

And his teaching that only those who live a certain way will enter the kingdom isn’t adding work to salvation

We’re still saved by grace through faith.

What Jesus is saying here, echoing the rest of scripture, is that real faith manifests in real ways in our lives

Faith in Jesus means following Jesus and finding that as we go with him our lives are transformed

And as we learn to live out his example and his teaching we find that our lives become kingdom oriented and we start to experience a taste of the kingdom NOW

And so when he returns and brings the kingdom in full it’s simply an extension of the lives we’ve already been living

Thus his return is a joyous occasion, not something we fear, or something that takes us off guard

So even though Jesus is teaching about the Last Judgment, it’s really about how we live NOW leading up to that day.

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas has said that all of his teaching boils down to helping people understand how to spend the day as a Christian.

I love that. It’s so real life and grounded.

And that’s really what Jesus is getting at here.

There’s a lot in this parable and we can try to dissect what this parable means about the afterlife, but it’s really about how to live NOW.

That’s all we need to be concerned with.

And what we see is that Jesus wants us to spend our days actively participating with him in the real world, getting our hands dirty, and even taking risks as we try to live out his teaching in real life.

This parable emphasizes just that: ACTIVE participation instead of just waiting

In this parable a master, or Lord, who represents Jesus, goes away for while.

Before he goes he entrusts three people with talents.

And for reference, a talent here is actually a weight measurement, equal to about 75 pounds.

A single talent of money would be worth almost a lifetime’s worth of wages for the average day laborer.

Point is, even 1 talent of money is almost an unfathomable amount to be entrusted with.

One person gets 1 talent, another gets 2, and another gets 5

Given that this story is a metaphor, the talent is meant to represent some gift that God entrusts to us in the in-between, not-yet season we’re living in before Christ’s return.

You’ll find just about every possible interpretation of what a talent represents in the Christian life

From actual money to actual talents (as we use the word), or spiritual gifts, and so on

Truth is, life itself, and everything that constitutes it, is a gift entrusted to us

All of these things and more could be in view here

The question becomes then: what will we do with the life entrusted to us until Jesus returns?

Jesus builds a contrast

Two of the people take what they have been entrusted with and invest it

Note how there’s risk involved in that move

But in simply putting the money to work they saw it multiplied

Using what the Lord had given them produced something for the Lord

The person with five gained five more, the person with two gained two more

They present it all back to the Lord

And note that Jesus gives the EXACT same response to both

“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!”

The point isn’t HOW MUCH they earned, it’s not a competition

the point is that they did something with what they were given, however big or however small

In contrast the person who is given 1 buries it in the ground

He doesn’t steal it or spend it

And at the end he returns what was entrusted to him

But he doesn’t do ANYTHING with it while the master is away

And so if you think about it, it might as well not even be in his possession while the master is away

The master could have buried it.

So this talent that’s full of potential is essentially neutralized and, in a sense, wasted

He pleads his case though

I knew that you are a hard man

This most likely means strong and serious

Certainly some people view the Lord primarily as stern and wanting to punish

Harvesting where you have not sown …

This is simply meant to give a picture of a master who believes everything belongs to him. And so it is with the Lord.

So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground.

OK. There it is. He was afraid.

Afraid of investing it wrongly?

The master didn’t leave specific instructions after all.

One wonders what the masters response would be if the servant said, “I invested the one talent but I made a mistake and I only have half a talent now. And I would have done it differently but … here’s what I have left.”

Once again, there’s risk in this right?

But I think it’s fair to say that’s Jesus’s point.

Following him is a risk

ask the first disciples who left their nets and banked EVERYTHING on Jesus

part of the issue with Western Christendom is that it strove to make associating with Jesus profitable in the world

Evangelicalism has done the same, projecting a vision of the faith that fits pretty seamlessly with the American Dream

While inviting people to really just consume and not put anything out there themselves

But people in Muslim countries or mainland China know how much of a risk it is to confess Jesus

We need to reclaim some understanding of that.

And the truth is, ACTUALLY aligning our lives to the kingdom should feel like a risk because it means we’re no longer investing in the things of the world for meaning and joy

I’m no longer giving my life to climbing to social and economic ladder so if that’s all life really is about then I blew it.

That’s why Paul says in 1 Cor that if Christ didn’t raise from the dead then the whole thing is a sham and we’re the most pitiful people ever because we bet our lives on the wrong thing

And following Jesus in certain situations is often risky

ask Peter who got out of the boat to walk on water

Think of the professional who’s asked to participate in fraud

Even bringing up Jesus with your neighbor risks something

And then this question looms: what if we have the courage to follow Jesus but we do it wrong?

What if we blow it?

What if do more harm than good?

Jesus is saying that we can’t let that paralyze us.

His grace abounds, even in our fumbling attempts to be faithful.

The point is we’re called to accept the risk and take steps forward.

We’re called to trust him.

That’s faith.

And look the man who hid the talent presents his case with some depth

There’s some “fear of God” in there and some “stewardship” principles in there

He sounds real pious

But the truth is we can come up with really sophisticated arguments for why doing nothing instead of something is actually the faithful thing to do.

And in some situations it might be.

But let’s not use the talent of our intellect to find ways to justify our fears or our laziness when Jesus is clearly calling us to go and do

SO this is a parable AGAINST just waiting to go to heaven or waiting for Jesus to come back.

Jesus invited us to the adventure of following him

He has entrusted us with life and capabilities and invited us to participate with him in his restorative work in the world

But like the man with one talent sometimes we confuse playing it safe with faithfulness

And that can take different forms

It can look like burying our resources in things we don’t need when we could help our neighbor

It can look like burying our intellect and never asking questions about the faith or pressing deeper

It can look like burying our creativity and never allowing ourselves to worship with free expression

It can look like burying our prophetic insight and never altering how we “do church”

It can look like never investing in a church community at all

It can look like burying our ability to teach or counsel because we think people wouldn’t want to hear from us

It can look like burying the good news itself and never telling another soul what we believe.

The result is that all these things entrusted to us get neutralized and bear no fruit

The things that Jesus gave his church for flourishing go unused

How tragic.

Some of us are more risk averse than others and so this teaching is really uncomfortable

And sometimes you have to fight through the voices of others that say

“That talent’s not worth as much as you think, you should probably just bury it.”

or “You don’t know how to invest that wisely so just bury it until you’re certain.”

And that shame or fear can stick with you and make you feel like you have nothing of value to invest or that you’ll never do it well.

Don’t listen to those voices.

Listen to Jesus instead. Use what you’ve been given. Invest it.

Everything we have, down to the breath in our lungs, is a gift from God entrusted to us to use wisely

Seek first the kingdom, use what you got, and get your hands dirty

There’s gonna be risk in that

But burying it all is not the answer

aversion to risk can mean a preocuppation with our own security and a belief that we’re in control of it

I want to close with this encouragement from Lesslie Newbigin from his book Proper Confidence

It’s maybe a little tangential but I think it helps reinforce the point that we aren’t called to have everything figured, we’re simply called to follow and actively participate with Jesus in the world.

Newbigin offers the metaphor of a building site.

And we might think we need all the plans memorized before we put our hands to work.

But what Jesus really tells us is “join the others who are building and I’ll guide you along the way.”

He puts it like this.

We are invited to respond to a word of calling by believing and acting, specifically, by becoming part of the community which is already committed to the service of the Builder. We are invited to commit ourselves and to learn as we go what our role in the whole enterprise is to be. Our commitment is an act of personal faith. There is no possibility of the kind of certainty that … has been the criterion for reliable knowledge in modern society. There is no insurance against risk. We are invited to make a personal commitment to a personal Lord and to entrust our lives to his service. We are promised that as we so commit ourselves we shall be led step-by-step into a fuller understanding of the truth. All of this is canonically embodied in the words that are so central in the gospel narrative: "Follow me."

We don’t commit to the plans, we commit to the builder.

It is not that we are given a vision of the new world which God purposes and then consider how we might translate this vision into practical action. We are not given a theory which we then translate into practice. Instead, w