“A Risky Business”

Matthew 25:14-30

November 13, 2005

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

We have just read and heard the parable of the talents from Matthew’s gospel. It is the familiar story of what happened when a master went away on a journey and entrusted his valuables to three of his servants.

The parable has an unfortunate title, because the title gives you the idea that a talent is something that you are good at. Routinely this parable is taken as encouragement to discover what gifts and talents we have and to use them. Taken this way, the parable teaches that everyone has a talent. Some have many. Others just a few, but all of us have at least one. Maybe our talent is playing the piano or maybe it is the gift of hospitality. Perhaps we have the gift of organization. Regardless of how many talents we have and whatever they are, God wants us to use them wisely and not to waste them. So the usual interpretation goes. The problem with this interpretation is that it is too tame for this story of Jesus.

A talent, you see, was a measure of money. A talent was not a measly coin. It was more like a heavy brick, perhaps like a bar of gold. It would have weighed somewhere between fifty and seventy pounds. A talent was worth a lot. In Jesus’ day, one talent would have been worth a usual wage earner’s wages for a period of fifteen years. So to say that the master gave his servants five, two, and a talent respectively means that this man has a lot of money. I want you to think about the amount in terms of today. Today what he entrusted these three with would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half million dollars.

So the story is before us. Now, I want you to know that I am one who respects the Word of God. I am amazed by it. I also try to understand it, as best I can. The Bible says that you are not supposed to add to or take away from scripture, and so today I am just wondering. Today I am wondering what would have happened if Jesus’ story had another ending, a different ending,

Today you can buy movies on a dvd format. The disk has things on it that you don’t see on the big screen. Tthe disks have deleted scenes, shots that didn’t work out for one reason r another. Some of these movies have alternate endings. So if you don’t like the real ending, you can think about a movie ending a different. way. One of the movies that Susie and I own is Sweet Home Alabama. It has an alternate ending. Susie and I prefer the real ending to the alternate one.

If this parable of Jesus were on a dvd and if we had Jesus’ permission to consider it, then it might go something like this. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man who went on a journey. He summoned his servants and trusted his property to them while he was away. To the first he gave a sum of two million dollars. To the second, he handed over one million dollars. And to the third, he entrusted half a million dollars to his care. Then he went away. The one who had been given two million dollars took some chances, used every opportunity that he could, and doubled his master’s money in a short period of time. The second servant, the one who had been given one million dollars, also took some chances. He made good decisions. He had a little luck. He, too, doubled his master’s money. The third servant, the one who had half a million dollars at his disposal, did not do as well. Like the other two, he took some chances and made some calls. He received advice that was not helpful. He did not double the money. In fact, he lost every penny of it. He lost it all.

After a long time, the master came back and looked over the books to see what had happened in his absence. He rewarded the one who had been given two million dollars. He also rewarded the second servant who, too, had doubled the investment. Then he saw what the third servant had done. The servant wanted a chance to speak on his own behalf and so he said, “Master, I took the money that you gave me. I read everything that I could get my hands on about investments. I made decisions. I swallowed hard and I took some chances. But the investments didn’t pay off and I lost everything that you gave me.” With the words still ringing in the air, the servant waited to see what his master would say. The master thought about the situation for just a minute. Then he said, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your master.”

Well, we all know that that is not the way that the story really goes. In the story that Jesus tells, the third servant digs a hole and buries his talent. But still, I think that Jesus would like the alternate ending because this story of his has nothing to do with making money and everything to do with taking some chances and some risks. I think that you need to know what is really entrusted to us; we have been trusted with the good news of Jesus Christ. The question is what we will do with it until our Lord returns.

The problem with the guy who buried his talent, it seems to me, is that he opted for the easy way out. He didn’t take any risks at all for his master. If he had done something, even if he had lost it all, I think that his master would have been pleased, because he had given it his best shot. The message seems clear enough to me. But I think that the problem with the servant is not just an unwillingness to take a chance. I think that his problem goes deeper than that. Do you remember what he said? These are his words, “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.”

Oh, so that’s it. The poor guy was frightened. Perhaps while his master was away, he tossed and turned and got little sleep. Maybe while his master was away, his stomach churned and was upset most of the time. There is a chance that the following thoughts got to him: “What if I do something with the money and lose it? There’s no guarantee that I’ll be successful and if I’m not, everyone will know. Everyone will talk about me. And when my master gets back, I’ll lose my job! How can I possibly take such a chance? I’ll just bury what the master has given me!”

Poor guy. He was afraid. And this is where most of us want to put our arms around him, give him a hug and a little compassion, not a condemnation. After all, fear is not something that you can help, right? Fear is not something that we choose. It is not full of values. I just can’t imagine going up to Annie Grace, with anger in my voice and saying, “Annie Grace Fleming, you are in so much trouble for being afraid. Go to your room right now!” If I said that, she would be afraid of me, too. If my daughter is afraid, I go to her. I hold her. I hug her. I encourage her. I protect her. I say, “Your daddy’s here. There is nothing to be afraid of!” Fear is just, well, unfortunate. It’s something that happens to us. It seems to be beyond our control, against our wishes. One preacher put it this way, “No one puts the welcome mat out for fear.”

The problem with fear, at least one of them, is that it becomes an excuse for not doing something. So maybe a conversation goes something like this, “I’m sorry. I just can’t do that, because it scares me to death!” And the response, “Well of course you can’t. What was I thinking. I did not know that you were afraid of it. I’ll just ask someone else.” Just in case you are wondering, this is your preacher being sarcastic. Jesus is not nice and tolerant with fear. He knew the disciples would know fear. There are three hundred and sixty-six admonitions to not be afraid in our Bibles. Still, Jesus knew that fear and faith did not mix. Fear paralyzes us. Fear gets in the way of our saying yes to things. I guess that you could put it this way, fear, for all practical purposes can cause you to bury your discipleship in a hole and cover it up, and hope that when the master comes, there will be great grace!

Following Jesus, friends, is all about risk! It is a financial risk to follow Jesus. You have to ask yourself, “Can I really give this much away and still live comfortably, do all the things that I want to do, and put a little back for a rainy day?” Following Jesus is a relationship risk. There are those who will want you to do one thing, while you feel that God is tugging you in the other direction. And if you choose God, sometimes it means that the relationship may change. Ah, yes, discipleship is risky and says Jesus, it is risky and if you are afraid of it, well, you will just have to deal with it! There is something else here. There is another layer to this story that we must consider.

The man, servant number three, is afraid of his master. He thinks that his master is harsh. Read the story again and you will see that there is nothing in the story that indicates that the master is that way. Instead, he is generous and trusting his servants with great wealth. Some commentators believe that not only did he welcome the servants into his home, but let them keep the talents and the extra ones that they had earned. I guess that we could say that how we view God affects our discipleship. If you think of God as a Lord who is just waiting for you to mess up, with His finger on the smite button, that will affect you. But if you think of God as a Lord who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. If you view God as someone who likes risk takers and who says, “If you mess up, it is all right. I still love you and there is nothing that you can do to change that” then you will be more apt to be risky in your discipleship.

And here we are on commitment Sunday, making our promises with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. The commitments that we are making are important, very important. But as important as they are, the real challenge is to put them into action, to get them off a piece of paper and into action. And that reminds me of a Peanuts cartoon. As you know, Lucy is madly in love with Schroeder, the musician, but he never notices her. He just sits on the floor and plays his toy piano with great intensity. Finally, Lucy says, “Schroeder, do you even know what love is?” Abruptly, Schroeder stops his piano playing. He stands up and declares very precisely, “Love: a verb, it means to be fond of, to value; it’s to have a strong affection for or an attachment to or devotion to a person or persons.” Then he sits back down and resumes his piano playing. Lucy sits there, stunned for a moment. Then she says, rather sarcastically, “On paper, he’s great. Our commitments are on paper. What will we do to get them off of the paper and into action?

Let me close with a story about commitment. In 1904 William Borden, heir to the Borden Dairy estate, graduated from a Chicago high school as a millionaire. His parents gave him a trip around the world as a gift. He traveled throughout Asia and the Middle East. And while he traveled, he was given a burden by God to help people. Writing home, he said that he was going to give his life to God and to prepare to be a missionary. That day, he wrote these words in the back of his Bible, “No reserves.” After graduating from Yale, he turned down many job offers and headed to seminary. One day, he wrote two more words in his Bible, “No retreats.” When he finished his seminary training, he sailed for China. On the way, he stopped in Egypt for some additional training. While he was there, he was stricken with cerebral meningitis and died within a month. It seemed like a waste of a great young man, but he didn’t think so. Shortly before he died, William Borden wrote two more words that made his statement of faith complete, “No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.”

The commitment cards that we are turning in this morning are symbols to God who has trusted us with so much. The message that they send say this, “This is a sign of my gratitude and my commitment to you, O God.” Make sure that your commitment card clearly says, “No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.” Let us pray.

(I dedicate this sermon to the faithful members and worship attenders at the St. Paul United Methodist Church. I know that all of you will commit yourselves entirely to the Lord in 2006. With your commitments you will say, “No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.” I would like to thank Jeanie Burton for an idea or two in this sermon. I would also like to thank Bill Bouknight for the Peanuts illustration and the story about William Borden).