“More Than Talented!”
Matthew 25:14-30
September 30, 2007
Rev. John A. Fleming
There is an old preacher’s story that makes it around
from time to time. It is the one about
the husband and wife, a father and mother, whose practice it was to give their
three daughters a dollar bill each Sunday morning to place in the offering
plate. The two of them were proud to see
their girls place the bills in the plate as it passed down their pew. They hoped they were teaching their children,
at an early age, the importance of giving to God and His church.
One
Sunday, when the offering plate passed the father’s hands to the mother’s hands
and on to the three girls’ hands. The
youngest of the three (and the one who was just beyond the reach of her mother
and father) passed the plate on to the worshiper beside her without putting her
dollar in it. Her parents, the ones who
gave her the dollar for the sole purpose of placing it in the plate, saw what
happened. They strategized. They wrote notes back and forth to one
another during the sermon about what to
do about their daughter and her apparent act of greed.
They missed what the worship service was about. They knew they could not talk to their
youngest about what had happened until they were home. So they waited. Their plan was that following lunch, the two
of them would go to their daughter’s room and have a talk with her about what
had happened.
The talk never happened. On
their way out of the Sanctuary, as their youngest was shaking her pastor’s
hand, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the crisp dollar bill. She looked into the eyes of her pastor. She handed him the crisp dollar bill and then
said these words, “Pastor, I want to help you.
Please take this dollar. My daddy
says you are the poorest preacher we have ever had. I hope this helps.” Yikes!
Well,
the truth is that when it comes to poor preaching, some of our poorest is about
our financial gifts to the church. I
wonder why that is? I have never been
one who looked forward to the Sundays of October and November when letters and
pledge cards are mailed out and placed in pew racks, nestled there with
hymnals, Bibles, and offering envelopes.
I
can remember growing up in the church and hearing money sermons. The sermons were not stewardship
sermons. There was nothing said about
our commitment to pray or to be present in worship services. And if there was a word uttered about how we
could help the church, I do not remember it.
I only remember that it was four weeks of preaching about money and how
we ought to fill out a pledge card. I could not wait under those Sundays were
over.
And now here I am, a pastor of a church. I do not preach three or four weeks on
money. I want us to always think about
our four fold promises and commitments to the church. That is the reason we are preaching this
sermon series, giving each commitment equal time.
Now when it comes to this third week and the sermon
subject is gifts, I must admit that I get uncomfortable. In year’s
past I have apologized for having to preach the sermon. I will not do that anymore. I know it is my responsibility to talk to you
about giving back to the God who has given us everything. It is my joy to tell you that there is a
freedom and a joy and a blessing we receive when we give to the church.
Someone
sent me a series of comic strips about churches. In one of them two men are standing out in
front of the church in their undershirts, boxer shorts, shoes and socks. Behind them is a church sign that has the
sermon subject on it. The sign simply
reads, “Stewardship.” One of the men
says to the other, “Now that’s the best sermon on giving I’ve ever heard.”
Truthfully
one sermon will not do it. Jesus knew
that. Clearly one-third of the teachings
he offered and the parables he taught have to do with money and our possession.
Let’s
look at one of his teachings this morning.
At first glance our lesson doesn’t appear to be a lesson about money,
but if you take a deeper look you will see that it is a parable about what we
are to do with the things God has entrusted us with until he comes again.
Jesus
says, “It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted
his property to them.” That is important
and we will come back to it. Matthew
tells us that to one of his slaves he gave five talents, to another he gave two
talents and to a third, he gave a single talent. I think the word talent is unfortunate
here. When we hear the word talent we tend to think of the things we
are good at. Sometimes the sermon is
preached, “Everyone has a talent. Some
have many. Others have few, but all of
us have at least one talent and you should use it. For some it might mean the playing the piano for a Sunday School class or driving the van on Sunday morning, or
delivering cookie mix to our first time visitors. Regardless of how many talents you have, God
wants you to use them wisely and not to waste them.” Unfortunately that sermon is too tame for the
parable.
A talent, you see, has a dollar figure attached it to.
At least it did in Jesus’ day.
According to the currency rate of the time, one talent equaled an
average workers’ salary for fifteen years.
So it was an extravagant amount of money and the slaves to whom it was entrusted
had a great responsibility.
I
want you to learn what I learned this week.
The great preacher and commentary writer Thomas Long,
helped me to see this. The treasure the
man entrusted to his servants when he left town was not something they were
good at. The treasure wasn’t even
money. According to Thomas Long and I
like this, the talent is no less than the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the real question is this, “What will you
do with the gospel, this good news, the teaching of Jesus until he comes
again?”
Remember
how this story ends up. The master
returns. Notice that. Matthew now calls the man a master. Earlier he called him a man, now he calls him
a master. That is significant. When the master returns, he wanted to settle
accounts with the servants. The first
two slaves are called good and trustworthy because they set out immediately to
work with the treasure that had been entrusted to them.
He
called each of them in one at a time.
The man who had been given five talents brought with him five more
talents. His master was happy and said,
“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.” A
similar thing happened with the second slave, the one who had been entrusted
with two talents. He doubled the talents
and brought two more. He, too, heard the
master’s praise.
I
think you need to know this. This story
is told in a culture where slaves were expected to do their duty without praise,
without pats on the back, or plaques for their walls. This master astonishingly gives them a great
tribute, more authority, and perhaps even welcomes them into his home. They may now be members of his family and not
merely servants. Everything about this
story leads us to believe that the master was an extraordinary man, a trusting
man, a welcoming man, a generous man, a benevolent man. That’s
how the narrator of the parable presents this master. Otherwise the first two wouldn’t have taken
the risks they did.
Unfortunately
that is not how the last of the three slaves saw him, perceived him and
understood him. He saw the master as a
harsh man. He said as much. The master replied, “You knew, did you, that
I reap where I do not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with
the bankers.” At the very least he could
have done some low risk investing. But
he was afraid.
I
need for you to know this. This is not
about a generous master who suddenly turns cruel. It’s
about living with your faith. If you
trust the goodness of God, you can boldly invest in this life with what God has
given you.
Now I don’t know how it is for you, but I’m not afraid of Jesus.
I respect Jesus. I am in awe of
Jesus. I know of His power and His
might, but when it comes to my discipleship, I’m not afraid to take great risks
for him. Jesus has given me things to
use. Jesus has entrusted much to me in
my lifetime.
Church,
with the time we have left this morning, I would like for us to think about the
things that God has entrusted us with.
First, God has entrusted us with a church building and properties. I know the church is more than a
building. I have preached that
sermon. But God has given us this church
building to take care of. What a great leap
of faith it must have taken these many years ago to move from a building we
owned on the corner of Pierce and Cantrell to buying five lots on
This
morning we will burn two mortgages, two debts.
I’m equally proud of both of them because when you saw a need to give,
you gave. You gave what God had
entrusted to your care and I am very grateful to all of you. The second note had to do with a house we
owned. And now the land will expand a
playground and announce as you come up the hill who we
are.
We
have been entrusted with a building, but we have also have
more than a building to take care of. We
also have children to take care of. It’s
our job to teach them the stories of Jesus.
We do that with rotation Sunday School. We do that with things like Kids’ Club and
VISION and children’s choirs. We make a
promise to them when we baptize them and God helps us to keep that promise.
Our
youth have been entrusted to our care. What will we do with our youth? Will we bury them in the ground or
will we minister to them? What will we do with those who come to us for
help? Will we turn them away
because we are afraid? What will we do
with our young adults? What will we do with the gospel, the good
news of Jesus Christ? That is the
question I want you to consider this week.
Let us pray.
(Special
thanks to the writing of Thomas Long. I
am indebted to him for several thoughts in this sermon).