Pentecost 22

"For [the Kingdom of Heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away." Dear friends in Christ, We serve a generous God. He gives us all we have. He gives us the freedom to use it for our pleasure and our joy. And he gives to us the privilege of using it for him in his kingdom. This is message our Lord would have us to take away from our Gospel text today. Jesus tells us a parable about a man who, going away on a journey, divides up his estate to be managed by his servants. He doesn’t give every one the same amount, to some he gives more, to some he gives less. He divides the property up and assigns the responsibility for it according to each one’s ability. And then he goes away. Dear friends, I am sure you know this, but Jesus is that master. He has divided up his kingdom and has left us to manage it. He has given out the responsibility for it to each one of us. And then he went away. Jesus ascended into heaven, where he is right now watching over us, guarding us and protecting us. He is planning his return. He will come back on the last day, even as the master of the house returned in the parable to see what his servants had been up to while he was gone. As we can see from the parable, he expects us to be hard at work in his absence. To refuse to work is, spiritually speaking, quite catastrophic. The question is, what to do… I mean, with all that the Lord has given to us, with all the responsibility he has entrusted to us, the decision of what to do with it is quite an important one, don’t you think? What we do and how we do it? Won’t the Lord judge us for our performance when he returns? We are inclined to think that he will. We are inclined to think that the standard Christ will use to judge us on the last day has to do with how well we have managed, our process and procedure. Our level of effort and dedication. We think that will determine how big our prize will be or won’t be on the last day. Is that what our text says? I think the first thing to notice when reading our text and the first question to answer is that we determine just what Jesus has in mind when he says that the man of the house divided up talents. In our use of the word a talent is something you are good at; we might say that Lebron James is a talented basket ball player, or our Chuckery ladies are talented turkey chefs and pie bakers. Our biblical text uses the word as a monetary unit. It represents a large sum of money – about 20 years wages for your typical day laborer. That said, each of the servants was richly blessed and given a large sum to manage. Certainly one received the greater share. 5 times that of the third servant. But even then, that third servant had a lot to work with. But still the question remains, what do these talents represent? Is it purely a parable about money? Managing the financial resources that God has given? Well, yes, that is involved. But it is more than that. Looking to the Apostle Paul as he writes in Romans we receive some insights into what Jesus might have in mind. He writes: 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Paul has an important principal in mind here. He echoes the teaching of Jesus, teaching that everyone receives a different proportion and then he teaches us these gifts are given to us so that we might build up the greater body of Christ! They are ours for service, for work in the kingdom, for the benefit of each other. And they are not just monetary or material gifts. Those are there, but so are many other gifts. Again he says, Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes,(that’s the financial, material gift) in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Now this is not intended to be a complete of an exhaustive list. But it gets us started. Prophecy, serving, teaching, exhorting, contributing to the material needs, taking leadership roles in the congregation, serving in mercy. These are all gifts that God gives out, things that he enables each of you to do. These are jobs that need to be done in the church, not everyone has the ability to do each job to the level that everyone else performs. Yet each of you can do something. Typically, when we read this parable, we read it in terms of the financial and material piece. I think that probably says more about us and about what’s important to us, than what is actually contained in the parable. That is to say, we hear it in terms of what is most important to us. Case in point: take a drive around the city of Columbus and the largest and busiest buildings are the shopping malls. It used to be that if you wanted a pair of shoes you would go to a shoe store. These days, it depends on what kind of shoes you need; do you need dress shoes? work shoes? casual shoes? beach shoes? Golf shoes? Basketball shoes? Court shoes? Running Shoes? You'd better know ahead of time because that will determine where you go to buy your shoes. After you have figured that out, you go to the mall as you one stop shop for all these different types of shoes and you go to buy them and in the mean time come home with new bedding, new wallet, new underwear, a two year commitment for satellite tv and a puppy. Ours is a consumer based, materialistic society. That dominates every aspect of our lives. I can’t help but observe that a good percentage of the new churches being built today look a lot less like churches and a lot more like shopping malls. Makes one wonder what people are going to church for? Makes one wonder what people are hoping their god will do for them. Materialistic gods can only offer materialistic salvation. Your shoes will wear out, your satellite tv will break, your new wallet will get heavy with debt and lite with money. Then what will you do? We don’t go to church to get rich. We don’t pray to get more stuff. We pray to receive what God want to give, and that is salvation, that is forgiveness of sins, that is baptism, absolution, his own body and blood, his word of life. There was a police officer who stopped by for a k-9 demonstration and he poked his head here in to the sanctuary. He remarked that it looks a lot bigger on the inside that what it appears from the out. That’s kind of the way it works, isn’t it? That is really what we are hoping for, don’t you think? On the outside it’s a brick building with a steep roof line. On the inside this is where heaven and earth come together so that God can make dead sinners into vibrant Christians, so that God can make detached and self serving individuals, into people united together into one body. And then, that body, those formerly singular work together, some preaching, some teaching, some serving, some mercy-ing, some chipping in the material needs, everyone working together to make it go. Is one more necessary or important than the other? Is a hand more important than an elbow? Can either one do its job without the other? We all need each other. We all work together. We all are Christ’s body. But we are mixing our metaphors… Jesus, the man of this house has gone off, ascended into heaven and he has richly blessed you, some with talents of mercy, others with talents of money, everyone with talents to serve. He is coming back. He will be interested to see how we have done. Now here is the important point. We always get distracted by the what and the how. What are we going to do and how are we going to do it. We spend long hours with meetings and discussions. That is fine, to a point. But notice that Jesus doesn’t even give that a mention. Those who served faithfully just went out and got to work. The master gave them their portion, and immediately they got going. What they did, how they did it, isn’t mentioned at all. What is mentioned is the return on investment. They brought in 100%! I wish I could do that! I can’t. you can’t. But God can and that is the point. We do our work. God gives the return on our investment. And then He blesses us and rewards us for being faithful. The point is, God gives you freedom. Freedom to make your plans and set your goals according to whatever criteria you choose to define. Do the best job you can with the gifts God has given you, with the resources God has provided to you, and other than that, have fun! Work together, work with joy, work with love, work with grateful and loving service. Notice the character of this master, this man of the house, this Jesus. He is good. He gives us work to do and the tools to do it. He equips us for any and every task that he lays before us. As I look out over this congregation I see it, I see a people well resourced to tackle all the projects we determine to accomplish for the good of Christ’s kingdom. Right now, we open our hands to receive forgiveness. In a few hours we turn those hand to serve turkey. Tomorrow, we will use those hands to serve somewhere else. God has given us what we need. Let’s get to work. Amen.