This week's sermon is based on Matthew 25:14-30, "The Parable of the Talents".
"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”
But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
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The Gospel for this morning is from the 25th chapter of Matthew. Jesus is speaking. Matthew 25 beginning at verse 14.
Glory to you, O Lord.
"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”
But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
Raise your hand if you have a boss or someone that has authority over you, raise your hand. Okay. And if you didn't have your hand up then, if you used to have a boss or someone in authority over you, put your hand up. Okay.
So, what a boss does or people in authority, what do they do? Yes, they tell you what to do, right? Give assignments. And when you've done your assignment, then what do they do? Give you more, but they also evaluate, right? Don't they evaluate what you've done? Evaluate your performance?
Jesus says that there will be an accounting. Not just here in the scripture we read this morning, but throughout the scriptures, the scriptures tell us that there will be an accounting. There will be a judgment. God will evaluate our performance.
For two of the servants in the parable this morning the master said, "Well done good and faithful servant. Well done good and faithful servant." We like to think that God will say that about us, wouldn't we? Isn't that what we want to hear from God? Well done good and faithful servants.
So the question for this morning is, how are we performing in God's eyes? What grade is God writing down in his grade book for us?
In the parable the servant who was given one talent, you know the story very well, did nothing with it whatsoever, and when the master returned he said, "Here, here's back what you gave me." And the master was truly angry. Why?
Because he didn't even try. He didn't even try. The servant said it was because he was afraid.
When I was in seminary we had a professor that it seemed that no one could please that person. No one. But he had a class that was required, so my attitude was okay, I have to get through this, so I'm just going to do whatever I have to do so I can get through it. And I think pretty much everyone else had the same kind of thinking.
And then there was another professor who had very high expectations of his classes, but he also just had a completely different attitude. He made clear expectations. Everybody knew what was expected from him, but he also was willing to help you understand what was expected. Everyone loved to take a class from him.
The point is, how a person feels about the person who will evaluate him or her I believe makes a big difference in how well they perform. How do you view God? What is the image of God that you carry with you?
Do you see God as an absentee boss? Is God the cosmic police officer? Is God some hard to please task master with unreasonable expectations?
Or do you see God as gentle, and kind, and slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
See, I believe how we view God makes a tremendous difference in how we respond and trust in faith. One day we will be face-to-face with God. It will be our day of judgment, our time to give an accounting.
Scripture tells us that God is slow to anger, but it also tells us that God does get angry. God does get angry. Righteous anger, deserved anger. And what angers God? Well at least in this parable Jesus tells us what angers God. It's not using what's been given to us. Not using what has been given to us. Not even trying.
But God's measure of performance doesn't say okay, what you've been given you have to double it, because we couldn't do that. We can't do that. God's measure of performance is being faithful. It's receiving what God has given to us and doing our best, trying our best to use the gifts we've been given.
If we're sitting here we know everything that we have came from God. And also we're not dumb. We are not like the servant with one talent. Not a single person here has just decided to give up and they are not going to use anything that God has given to them.
But most of us know we're not the superstars either. We're not Saint Paul. We're not Martin Luther King Jr. We're not Billy Graham. We're not even Martin Luther. We're not the servant who started out with five talents and ended up with eleven. We're in the middle. We're more like the one who got two talents. The expectations for us are according to what we have been given. What have you been given? That's the question. What are you doing with it?
We're not all equal in abilities, we know that. Every single person in this room has different abilities. We are not all equal in abilities, but we can be equal in effort.
I always wished there would be a fourth servant in this parable. A servant who got maybe two or three talents and took them out and just did everything in his power to use them and still lost them and had nothing, lost everything, all gone. And then the master returns. And he says, "Master, I tried my very best. I used everything you gave me, and it's all gone, it's all used up."
And if you know the God that I know in my heart, You would know that that God would say, "Well done good and faithful servant. Well done. Enter into the joy of your master."
A last thought. A very well known conductor was rehearsing with an orchestra, and they were going along and it was building up to the final crescendo, they're almost there, and then all of a sudden he starts hitting his baton on the music stand and the orchestra comes to a quick halt. And the conductor says, "Where is the piccolo?"
Now anybody who is sitting down in a chair and might have been listening to this rehearsal would have thought wow, it sounded great. What does he mean? I didn't hear anything missing. It sounded fabulous.
But not to the conductor. See apparently the piccolo player had lost his place or just thought nobody can hear me in all this noise and music, so he just quit playing. But the conductor, he wanted to hear that counterpoint to the melody that the piccolo was supposed to play, because for the conductor there is no heart or no instrument that is too small. The smallest instrument to the biggest instrument all have a part in that piece of music.
And life is the same for us. We have different abilities, different things that each of us is called to do. We've been given these gifts, we've been called to use them, and sometimes we make things that we do seem inconsequential or small, and we may feel like giving up, or we might even give up.
But our gifts, and our application, and performance is not small in God's eyes. Our contribution may seem small to us, but in God's eyes it’s critical. Its crucial.
Amen.
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