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November 15, 2005

Sermon - Anne Jensen - Nov. 13

Proper 28 A Matt. 25: 14-29

This is a day of Thanksgiving. Don’t panic! The national holiday of that name is still 11 days away. It is a day of Thanksgiving in the same way that every Sunday is a day of Thanksgiving…Eucharist means “Thanksgiving.” It is the great Thanksgiving for all that God has given us, especially the Gift of God’s son, Jesus. Through him we receive redemption, grace, and the hope of glory.

It is also a day of Thanksgiving as we bring forward our pledge cards, pledges made in gratitude for all that God has given us and for this community of faith. Trinity Parish is a very special place, more importantly it is a community in which God’s love is known and shared, a truth that has been expressed in our listening meetings this past week. We are doing something a little different this year. We are asking you to come forward to make your offering. If you need a pledge card, the ushers have extras. We also have time and talent cards. Everyone can offer something. No gift is too small. Could you offer to pray for the mission of this congregation everyday? Could you make a few phone calls? Could you help host a special event?

Once all the cards are collected, we will bring them to the altar for a prayer of dedication and thanksgiving…and we will leave them on the altar as a sign of offering of our lives, along with the bread and the wine, elements from everyday life, and with our weekly offering.

Some people might feel like the money doesn’t belong on the altar, but I believe it does, because it IS a symbol of our lives and our work. Jesus didn’t shy away from speaking about money, as today’s gospel demonstrates.

Before we delve into the gospel I want to explain why our inserts look different today. The readings appointed for the day were all about judgment, and I believe we need to take God’s judgment seriously. I believe God’s judgment is intended to get our attention and to motivate us to get back into relationship with God, but that’s a sermon for another day. However for the 1st and 2nd lessons and the psalm, I chose to use the readings appointed for Thanksgiving, readings which speak to us as we draw this season of our stewardship effort to its conclusion. These passages remind us of all that God has given us and how we are to live as Christians.

And now to this very familiar parable of the talents: First, a little background—this parable is set in the middle of several which point to what will happen when the kingdom comes. We cannot avoid the element of judgment of this parable. Throughout scripture we hear God’s instructions on how to live; sometime there will be an accounting. This parable points to a time when Christ will come again.

Also, let’s remember the definition of a parable: “At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.”(C. H. Dodd, Parable of the Kingdom, p. 5) This story, like other parable of this season, leaves us unsettled.

In modern English the word “talent” has come to mean a mental endowment, skill, aptitude or physical ability that a person might have. Our understanding of the word is based on this parable. This English usage, which first began in the 15th century, has become important in the interpretation of the parable in modern times. We talk about discovering and using our talents for the glory of God.

However, a talent in this story is not what we think of as a talent now. A talent was the largest denomination of money in the Greco-Roman world, equal to about 20 years’ worth of wages for a day-laborer. Five talents would be about a 100 years’ worth of wages. It’s winning-the-lottery type money. This amount would stagger any recipient and send him into utterly uncharted territory.

I suspect that we identify with the first two slaves—the ones who used the enormous amount of money to make more money. That’s very American and entrepreneurial. It reflects our culture. And of course, we take pleasure in the approval of the master. At some level we all seek approval.

But consider for a moment two other options, one that speaks to the church and the other that speaks to our personal spiritual lives.

Jesus used this huge amount of money, an outrageous hyperbole, to symbolize the gospel. What value would Jesus attach to the gospel? It is the pearl of great price, it is like the Torah of old, “more precious than gold;” you sell all you have and don’t notice the door slamming behind you as you sprint after this Jesus. The gospel that Jesus proclaimed and that we share is that in Jesus we experience the love and forgiveness of God. Through Jesus we are redeemed from a life of sin, from the burden of guilt, and from fear of death. That’s the Good News we’re talking about.

First option: What if the servants are not individual believers, but represent the church, a corporate body to whom the gospel has been entrusted? And what if the rewards are not neat progress reports after 90 days, but the joy of the messianic banquet? Some communities, like the first two slaves, embrace the gospel and take risks for it. The gospel spreads; lives are changed, and there is a lot of joy on earth and hope in eternal life.

This would be true for the first two examples, but what about the slave who buried the money for safe-keeping and received a verbal thrashing from the master. This is the church that keeps the status quo and takes no risks. It is a fearful church. It takes a stance that does not please the master and which produces nothing—no joy, no hope, no changed lives. The gift from the master just stays buried. The gospel that is not used and is not shared, dies. It disappears, as does the community. All will be taken away.

The question to take away is, “How are we like the slaves in this story?” Established churches tend to be like the slave who buried the talent for fear of losing it. Do we have the faintest idea of how to embrace such huge and overwhelming gifts as forgiveness, grace, and new life? If we admitted to being overwhelmed, would God smile on us, and say, “Let me show you the way.”?

The second option is very much like the first, only it has to do with our personal spiritual lives. Again, we like to think we would be like the first two servants and receive approbation for receiving the gospel and living it, being not only believers, but doers of the word.

Step back for a moment. Using the metaphor of the talent, the huge gift from the owner, imagine it in the form of a Bible, and the first servant was entrusted with a beautiful Bible, with copious footnotes, scholarly articles and devotional writings, and beautiful illustrations. That person read and believed, and experienced the grace that followed. Her personal relationship to God deepened. She reached out to many others, and through her they knew God’s love. The owner, when he returned, was pleased.

Another servant also entrusted with a Bible, this one with a good serviceable binding, a good introduction to scripture, some footnotes and some attractive illustrations. This servant began to read and was moved to read more carefully and reflectively. And his personal relationship with God grew. He shared his growing faith with others in his small group at church, and they all benefited. When the owner returned, he was pleased to see faith taking root in this servant.

The third servant was also entrusted with a Bible. This Bible was written in simple sentences. It had a good glossary and some maps to help the reader. The print was large and easy to read. This person was afraid to use this book because she didn’t want anything to happen to it, so she put it on a shelf for safe keeping, and went on about her life, just as she had before. When the owner came to see how she had used it, she said she had kept it safe. The owner was not pleased and took it back to give to someone who would read it.

Over the last four weeks we have talked about stewardship of our money, of our skills, and of our time. Today I ask you to consider how we are going to be stewards of the gospel. It is a good question to consider for the interim period.

This past week we had two of the three listening sessions. It has been a great experience to hear the love and affection that people have for this community. It was good that people felt safe enough to say what is on their minds. It was wonderful to see people really listening to each other. It was exciting to hear people wanting to take risks for the sake of the gospel. (Parenthetically, there will be a third listening opportunity this coming Wednesday, and if you haven’t yet attended a listening group, I hope you will try to come to this one.)

Spiritual growth, both on the congregational level and the personal level requires that we put aside our personal security in the status quo and open ourselves to the gospel and the movement of the Holy Spirit. As Christians we are thankful people; we are thankful for the goodness of creation and for the gift of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The gospel entrusted to us has taken root here. It is here and alive among us. How shall we be stewards of this enormous gift?