INTRODUCTION
I am told that the inventor offered it, first to the Swiss, and only then to the Japanese. The Swiss said that no one would buy such a thing. The Swiss never imagined a situation where their product, with its history and impeccable reputation, was not be the most sought after in the world. The Swiss were not willing to risk their reputation on this newfangled technology, a technology that was, without a doubt ONLY a passing fad. What was the new venture that the Swiss turned down ? It was the quartz chip technology that has revolutionized watch making. In the world of watch making nothing has been the same since. Within a very few years the 80% share of the world watch market, previously enjoyed by the Swiss, was given over to companies such as Seiko and the Swiss were reduced to a mere 20% share. The Swiss passed up the opportunity of a lifetime because they were unwilling to risk what they already had. To make it in today’s rapidly changing and competitive global market it is said you that a company cannot rely on past success or rest on present achievements but must risk everything on what the future may hold. Amazingly, the same can be said about the kingdom of God
A PARABLE OF WARNING
This morning’s gospel reading is the parable of the talents. This is a story about the opportunities God offers his children to participate in what God is doing in the world. It’s a parable about those who receive what God gives them and then invest it for God’s glory. It’s a story about those who turn away from divine opportunity and reap God’s judgment. It is a straightforward account. A man who is about to leave on a journey entrusts his servants with different portions of his property. They are to look after that property, and to ensure that it continues to work for the master, that it continues to make a profit while he is away. To one servant he gives 10 talents, to another 5 and to another 1 talent. Now a talent in the days of Jesus was a sum of money, but it was not chump change. Each talent was worth 15 to 20 years salary. In other words, even the man who was given one talent was on easy street. Two of the servants take this gift and double the investment they are entrusted with, and are richly rewarded for doing so and given even more responsibility; But the third gains nothing from it for his master, all he does is keep safe what he was given - and so what he was entrusted with is taken from him and he is cast off the estate of his master and into the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
USE IT OR LOSE IT
On one hand this a frank and simple exhortation to work hard at developing the gifts and talents that God has given us. The message Jesus is giving us is to use what God has entrusted to us, whatever that is, however much or little we have. His warning is that if you aren’t productive with what God has given you, you will lose it. It explains why so many people are so spiritually impoverished, why our churches and our societies are in so much trouble. Too many of us have failed to use what God has given to us. We have ailed to do anything more than hide his gifts deep in our own lives. We have failed to reach out - and to share his gifts with others, and so those gifts have done us - and everyone else - no good. It is as if those gifts had never existed, as if God had never given us anything. Use it - or lose it - that is the warning of this parable. But on the other hand, there is something more to this story than simply a fearful exhortation. While it is true that God wants us to use his gifts and to multiply them for the benefit of his Kingdom. We must also understand that we are not judged according to the quantity of the work we do for God, nor even by the quality of that work, or by how much we produce. Rather we are judged by our attitude. By our willingness to do as God wants us to do. by our
willingness to risk all that we have been given for the sake of the Kingdom just as Jesus
risked all of himself for our sake. As Paul writes
"it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved, not by works, lest anyone should boast."
If we reduce the parable of the talents simply to a matter of saying that we must be productive for God - or else be condemned by God. Then we miss what is so good about the Christian life. We miss the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news of the grace and mercy won for us on the cross. I believe that, in the end, if we focus on productivity, we will end up like the servant who failed to invest the talent that his master gave him because of fear. We will end up being afraid. Worried more about how well we are doing in the eyes of God than we are about actually doing anything at all. Consider the servant who buried the talent entrusted unto him. When he is asked by the master to give an accounting of what he has done with his talent what does he say?
"Master, I knew that you were a hard man and that you harvest where you have not sown and gather 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." The servant was afraid - he knew his master had high expectations of him, He was afraid and so he took no risks, he buries what he has to keep it safe and ends up doing nothing. The judgment of the master falls upon the servant when he hears his explanation of what he done: "You wicked, lazy servant. 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 had received it back with interest."
There is no sin in failure my friends. There is only sin in not attempting to succeed. The parable of the talents is not a lesson about our degree of ability or productivity. It is a lesson about our attitude and responsibility. About stepping out with God’s treasure in our hands and risking it all for the sake of others - for the sake of God. The servant was afraid - and so he did not try. This is the basis on which he was judged. This is the basis on which we are judged.
You knew that I harvest where I have not sown...!! You knew!! You should have put my money on deposit with the bankers so at least I got interest...!! But you did nothing! You were afraid. You did nothing - you did not even try.
HOW ARE YOUR INVESTMENTS?
How have you been doing at investing the divine talent that God has given you? Ask yourself this question, “What would the church be like if every member were just like me?” Would our church be empty on Sunday, or full to overflowing, if everyone attended as I do? How much Bible Study and prayer would occur if everyone took the time I do? How many bruised, hurting, lonely people, would be touched by the church if every member acted exactly as I do? Would we need more ushers and offering plates if everyone gave like me? How many children would be led to faith through the Sunday School and church if everyone had my priorities? Would the church just be an attractive social club. Would it be closed, bankrupt, out of business? Or would it be a dynamic force for Jesus Christ in our community and our world if everyone were just like me? So, what would the church be like if every member were just like you?
I am sorry, but you can not avoid this question. Jesus says that our heavenly king will determine our eternal destiny on how we respond to this question. What have you done with what God has given you. Have you invested it that you might reap divine dividends for God’s glory? Or have you wasted it by hiding it away where no one can see it or receive the benefit of its use? Divine judgment, this parable tells us, awaits us at the return of Christ. But within this parable can also be found Divine Grace, a master’s praise, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Grace that is found in the sporting encouragement “what counts is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game” That is a true statement. God gives us many things. Why he does so is not always clear, but what God expects of us is clear. God expects us to try to develop the good things we have. God expects us to invest what he has given to us in his work. But in seeking to invest in others what you have received from God, have you ever felt like giving up? Have you ever wondered, even in what you try to do for God, whether it is doing any good? Let God be the judge of that!
THE STORY OF MAGGIE
I remember reading about a little girl named Annie who in 1876 was ten years of age. She was put into a poor house for children called the Tewkesbury Alms House in Massachusetts. Her mother had died and her father had deserted her. Her aunt and uncle found her too difficult to handle. She had a bad disposition, a violent temper, stemming
in part from eyes afflicted with painful trachoma. She had been put in the poorhouse because no one wanted her. She was such a wild one that at times she had to be tied down. But there was another inmate named Maggie who cared for Annie. Maggie talked to her, fed her, even though Annie would throw her food on the floor, cursing and rebelling with every ounce of her being. But Maggie was a Christian and out of her convictions she was determined to love this dirty, unkempt, spiteful, unloving little girl. It wasn’t easy, but slowly it got through to Annie that she was not the only who was suffering. Maggie also had been abandoned. And gradually Annie began to respond. Maggie told her about a school for the blind and Annie began to beg to be sent there, and finally, consent was given and she went to the Perkins Institute. After a series of operations her sight was partially restored. She was able to finish her schooling and graduate at age twenty. Having been blind so long she told the director of Perkins that she wanted to work with blind and difficult children. They found a little girl seven years old in Alabama who was blind and deaf from the age of two. So, Annie Sullivan went to Tuscumbia, Alabama to unlock the door of Helen Keller’s dark prison and to set her free.
CONCLUSION
One human being, in the name of Christ, helping another human being! That’s is how you invest in the kingdom of God. That is how God’s kingdom comes! What counts in this divine endeavor is not whether we are successful at the attempt. But whether or not we are willing to risk it all for God’s sake. To invest ourselves in God’s kingdom. To take what we have and use it in God’s work. To pass on the blessings we have received from God to those who hunger and those who thirst. To seek to build community and bring hope to the outcasts and the aliens among us. God, like the master in today’s parable believes in us. He trusts us to do well with the talent He gives us, Do not fear failure - because even if we personally do not double the goodness we have received; even if we do not personally conquer all our problems and together solve all the crises we face, if we
have tried to work with what God has given, if we have invested ourselves as well as we
are able in his work then God will be pleased with us - and he will invite us to enter into
his joy and give to us even more than we first received from him. Thanks be to God for his
mercy and his grace. Amen