November 13, 2011 – Matthew 25:14-30
Matthew 25:14-30
Parable of the Talents [Stewardship Sunday Sermon]
22nd Sunday after Pentecost [Lectionary 33] – Nov. 13, 2011
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
This parable is in that portion of Matthew in which Jesus instructs his followers –
that is, you – how to live until he comes to finally usher in God’s reign of
justice and peace.
How are we to live in the time between Jesus’ announcing that God’s reign is
beginning to break into the world and its final fulfillment?
In other words: how can we be part of the solution rather than the problem?
Well, says Jesus, it’s like this. And then he tells his story.
Now the point of money for a business person is for it to be used and spent and
put to work in order to make more money.
As an old infomercial used to put it, if you want to be successful in business,
you buy things and then you sell them for more money.
Just so, Jesus is telling us, the point of what God has lavishly and graciously and
freely given us – our selves, our amazing bodies,
our almost unimaginably wondrous brains, our lives, our faith,
our abilities, our gifts, our possessions –
the point of all this is for it to be used and spent and
put to work for the benefit of our neighbours in need.
God doesn’t need our good works, Martin Luther says, but our neighbour certainly does.
Jesus’s point seems to be: the absolute worst thing we can do is nothing.
You sense this from his, uh, very strong language at the end of the parable,
reserved, of course, for the slave who simply does nothing, who will,
apparently, be thrown into the outer darkness where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Whoa. Apparently the consequences of doing nothing are serious.
Matthew, remember, takes works very seriously,
not as how we earn our salvation but as a consequence of it.
“Let others see your good works that they may glorify your Father in Heaven.” (5:16)
Jesus says the woman who anoints his body with oil has “worked a good work for me.”
We are to be “workers” in God’s plentiful harvest. (26:10 and 9:37-38)
The third slave, though, is characterized as lazy, and there are consequences to laziness.
Perhaps there are personal consequences for laziness, but surely there are societal ones.
Without our good works, our neighbourhoods become dark places indeed.
I recently had a conversation with a person who didn’t think it would be
such a great tragedy if, as a result of decreasing financial giving,
we had to pull the plug on our Kids Klub free drop-in program for
neighbourhood children.
“Somebody else would do it,” he said.
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but I think my look betrayed my utter disbelief.
If we Christians don’t do this work, who on earth will?
Faithful living, Jesus invites us to consider this morning, consists not in doing nothing,
but rather in simply emulating Jesus, who took what he had been lavishly and
graciously given from God and recklessly put it to work for
his neighbour in need.
See, Jesus announced that in him God’s reign of justice and peace were
breaking into world.
His ministry announced that good news and anticipated its final fulfillment by
feeding the hungry, pointing to a time when hunger would be no more.
By curing the sick, pointing to a time when sickness would be no more.
Raising the dead, pointing to a time when death would be no more.
Jesus blessed the meek, served the least, and forgave the sinful.
In him we have been blessed, we have been fed, we have been healed, we have
been raised to new life, we have been served.
And so we are to share these gifts of the new life, by being blessing,
by feeding the hungry, by serving the least, by forgiving the sinful,
by raising others to new life, by serving, by being,
we remember today – Remembrance Sunday – peacemakers.
As St. Teresa of Avila wrote long ago, we are the body of Christ on earth now while
we await his full return.
We are his eyes, we are his hands, we are his feet.
Faithful living consists in simply emulating Jesus while we await his final return.
Now the gifts we have been given for this are lavish, like the slaves in the parable.
A talent is the amount it would take a common labourer 20 years to earn!
It’s an astronomical sum of money.
And the master simply gives it to them to make the best use of it they can.
The master is lavish and generous.
Now the third slave is afraid because it is so much and he’s afraid of risking it.
At least he knows how great a gift he’s been given, but I wonder if we do.
Do we realize what a thing a human being is? What a wonder? What a miracle?
The human body is an amazing, astonishing thing, capable of great feats,
of noble purpose, of deep empathy, and of great compassion.
But are we truly aware of what a great, stupendous gift it is: to be a body and to be alive?
If we were, we might live day to day more like a child who’s been given a
great sum of birthday money and has a hard time deciding how to spend it.
Remember that feeling of wanting to do just the best thing with birthday money,
because it was such a super gift?
As I wrote this week in Story of Stewardship #3, one of our confirmands this past year
Had exactly that experience, when she received several hundred dollars in
Confirmation gift money.
Rhiannon decided to spend all of it in making a contribution to
Canadian Lutheran World Relief: she bought a whole whack of
chickens and goats for a family in the developing world,
freeing them from hunger.
She didn’t bury it, or put it in a bank to earn interest: she put it to work for
the benefit of her neighbour in need.
This is a living parable for us of living faithfully in
the time between Jesus announcing God’s reign and its fulfillment.
The parable Jesus tells does indicate that we’ve been given different gifts and
different abilities.
And any community of faith simply has to take a look at itself and figure out what it can
do with the unique gifts and abilities its members have to contribute.
Cam Harder, a theology professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon,
says in a way that this means our congregations need to be like MacGyver,
the dude in the TV show of the same name from the 80s.
Got a leaky radiator? Do a MacGyver: look around and see what you have.
When you realize all you’ve got is a raw egg, you think, “What can I do with that?”
And then you think, “I can crack that egg into the radiator where it will heat up and
cook and plug the leak.” And so you do.
Our ministries are a good example of MacGyvering,
whether you think of the Kids Klub free drop-in for neighbourhood children,
which will continue every Saturday this winter,
or the food bank, or the hats for the homeless project,
or our caregiver ministry for shut-in members,
or our meal teams for the Urban, or our quilters for CLWR.
These ministries show an inventive use of the gifts we’ve been given as a community.
They show good stewardship.
They show that, like the first and second slaves in the story, your investment in
the ministry of First Lutheran Church has easily been doubled.
God is inviting you this morning to give further and more generous gifts to
this ministry of First Lutheran Church.
We’ve shown what can happen with the financial gifts that are given here:
a lot of ministry. A lot of ministry.
And I know that you want to be better and better stewards in this congregation.
You know how I know? Because a couple of weeks ago on Reformation Sunday,
I asked you to write down on a slip of paper how we can reform in order to
Even more clearly be the congregation God intends us to be.
I received 35 responses, and almost half had to do with being better stewards.
Someone said, Let’s have more opportunities for meaningful service in the community.
Another said, Let’s individually make better money decisions.
Another suggested that we all move toward tithing,
that is, giving 10 percent of our incomes to this ministry.
Another wanted to see increased sharing of ourselves and our time for our ministry.
Someone else suggests that we all live out more fully the priesthood of all believers –
so that ministry is seen to BE US ALL.
Another said, Look for ways to reduce the congregation’s carbon footprint – not just
insulation [but] how we get to church.
Another said, Encourage all members to be part of the work of the Church.
Someone else suggested we Sponsor a refugee from Africa.
Another wants to see us Restore more neighbourhood houses.
Wow! You want to be better and better stewards! Which is friggin’ amazing!
And is a real gift. You are the real gift.
Each and every one of you. You are gift. To me. To the world. You are the talent.
There’s an old story about one of the Desert Fathers from early, early Christianity.
One day a young monk came to Abba Joseph and asked him what more he could do.
He fasted, he prayed, he worked, mostly weaving baskets.
Abba Joseph responded by raising his hands,
and as he did so fire shot out from his fingers as he said to the young man,
“Why not become totally fire?”
Well: why not? We are catching fire here at First Lutheran Church.
There is much to give thanks for and much to celebrate.
I am grateful for the gift that each one of you is and for the commitment you have shown
in being willing to catch fire for the sake of God’s mission to heal, bless, and
love this world and every person in it.
I’m grateful for your continuing financial commitment in gracious response to the
gifts of a gracious God.
Please hand in your commitment cards and please commit to giving more generously in
the coming year, for it makes so much ministry possible.
Let’s catch fire and put it all recklessly to work for our neighbours in need.
Surely, the worst and least faithful thing we can do is nothing.
But the best and most faithful thing we can do is emulate Jesus who gave his whole life
for us and for all creation.
So let us be found faithful. And together let us say, “Amen.
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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