13 November 2011 Our Stewardship with God Matthew 25:14-30

13 November 2011 Our Stewardship with God Matthew 25:14-30

In the accounts of family life there are rules. At our house we begin our day with the one cup rule. There are a number of does and don’ts associated with this rule but one of the most sacred is no budget talk in the morning until we have both had at least one cup of coffee. To even dare start talking about the budget too early brings on the biggest frown or scowl or glare sending the perpetrator to silence. That would be me, the perpetrator.
I certainly understand the need for the rule. We do not want to be inundated or overburdened and depressed before we are awake. We want to be sharp in order to understand the details to make a good plan. We do not want to make a mistake for then we will not have a good plan – one that will keep us safe, take care of our obligations, and help us have fun.

This morning we celebrate Stewardship Sunday. I trust you have all had your one cup of whatever you need. Jesus is calling us to a budget meeting of sorts. One where we will be faced with tough questions. What are we willing to do for this church, given our situation? What are we willing to give for God’s work, knowing we have limited resources? What are we willing to sacrifice that the kingdom of heaven will come, knowing we are timid and afraid?
Listening to Matthew’s gospel for answers we may sense the need for a one cup rule. Each of the servants in this parable are singled out according to their ability, and entrusted accordingly with a sum of money to invest. One in particular seems overwhelmed. Perhaps it is not just a cup of coffee he needs.

When the time comes for a budget talk we find this poor slave has not invested wisely. He actually has not invested at all. He hid the talent in the ground. I guess this was the best he could do without adequate caffeine.

First impression is this parable is about wise investment and judgment. For those astute in this sort of thing there is comfort. Not so for those who are less astute or afraid.

This passage is near the end of the final major teaching section in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has announced signs of his return and the future establishment of God’s empire. He says now is the time for disciples to be faithful and hopeful in their anticipation of God’s future return even though no one knows when that will be. The important reminder from Jesus is that we, his disciples, are to be faithful and wise.

Last Sunday we read the parable about the five wise bridesmaids and the five foolish bridesmaids. Jesus’ message was one of being prepared. Not out of fear, but out of hope. A hope grounded in the assurance that the coming of the Son of Man brings forgiveness, comfort, rest and eternal salvation. Today, Jesus gives us this parable of the talents. Wisely investing verses foolishly burying.
We can look at the object to be invested, the talent, in one of two ways. In New Testament times, as money, the talent was equal to six thousand drachmas, worth more than fifteen years’ wages for a laborer.

In a different way, a talent may also be a gift we have been given from God in the form of an individual skill, or ability, or characteristic, or passion. Something special we can do that is unique to us.

Being near the end of his earthly life, Jesus wants to leave us with another important teaching. He calls us, his slaves, and entrusts his property to us in the form of our special talents and abilities. He expects we will use our talents and abilities to his glory, to grow his kingdom here on earth, for he will come again.
We don’t need to know when, we just need to be prepared, be wise, we must be ready, and use the talents we have been given. When Jesus does come again he will settle accounts with us.
The scripture makes it clear, we are to take the talent from him, be trustworthy in our investing in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom here in our midst, for to those of us who have much even more will be given for we will ultimately have an abundance. The foolish slave, who buries the talent, who does not use their God given gifts, even what they have will be taken away and they will be thrown into the outer darkness.

This sounds so harsh. I understand Jesus will come again in judgment, but the requirement to invest wisely or be judged unworthy for inclusion in the kingdom sounds like we have to work towards our salvation. Didn’t Jesus pay the price for our salvation once and for all on the cross? How could that sacrifice have been forgotten and replaced by a works righteousness sort of rule?
Perhaps we haven’t truly understood this parable after all. We know Jesus is on a fast track to teach us who he is, who God is and the price he is about to pay to remove our sins forever. We know Jesus is teaching about the kingdom in our midst, what we as disciples must do, what we must give, how we must live to be faithful servants in the kingdom here and now. There is also the promise of the kingdom to come, the promise that Jesus will come again to take us, his disciples, with him. But we are here now and we have a role to play and sometimes we are not the most attentive students.

The unwise bridesmaids were left out of the banquet and the unwise slave is thrown into the outer darkness. Sounds like punishment. Sounds like having oil on hand to keep our lamp burning and being wise in our investing will include us in the kingdom. Or does it?

Everything we have in this world comes from God. As such, nothing we can do alone will help us be faithful disciples destined for this kingdom or the kingdom to come. Everything we have comes from God. We, therefore, are individually inadequate to the task of discipleship no matter how hard we try.

It is true that God gives us skills, abilities, and talents to invest in this kingdom. God gives them to us because we are inadequate otherwise. But there is more. Not only does everything come from God, everything belongs to God. Those talents are not ours. They are Gods.

I once read the Christian Century magazine about a popular little book called The Kingdom Assignment. It is the story of a pastor, Denny Bellesi, who gave out $10,000 in $100 increments to church members one Sunday. Please do not look under you pew cushion, you will not find $100 unless it slipped out of your purse or pocket.
He gave the church members $100 with three requirements: The $100 belongs to God. You must invest it in God’s work. You must report your results in 90 days. The reports were startling: people made money hand over fist to contribute to the work of the church, creative ministries were begun, lives were transformed, people wept for joy – and it was all covered by NBC’s Dateline.
This is a heart warming story. But let us be careful about being overly joyful with their good fortune, we might be placing a limit on our possibilities for real joy. Let us also be careful we not limit our investment in the kingdom of God to $100.

Jesus gave his slaves a talent, in terms of money, a huge amount, in terms of individual abilities, a great confidence. If we consider the talent we have been given may be not only money or individual abilities but the very gospel of Jesus Christ, why then we see how astounding this parable is. Jesus is calling on us to prepare ourselves this very moment, in this very place, to invest our lives, not in money or individual abilities alone, but in the gospel message of the good news of Jesus Christ who is our Lord and our Savior, sovereign about all things.

Our Book of Order lists six Great Ends of the church. They are: the proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation of humankind ; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

In her recent book, The Promotion of Social Righteousness, the Reverend Doctor Cynthia Rigby from Austin Seminary addresses the theological and practical implications of the promotion of social righteousness.

She writes, “…to imagine justice is to envision everyone having what they need, and to move from imagining justice to participating in it so deeply that we make a contribution to it (that) requires fundamental change not only to how we handle our material resources, but a lot to who we are.”

What would it mean for everyone to have what they need from us here at Genesis Presbyterian Church? What would it mean in respect to the Gospel? To the nurturing of the children of God? To the maintenance of divine worship? To the preservation of the truth? To the promotion of social righteousness? To the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven? How would we be fundamentally changed?

Jesus is calling us this morning to imagine what we can do to help fulfill these needs. More than as an individual, we are being called as a church. It is to this corporate body, Genesis Presbyterian Church, the Mission Presbytery of which we are a member church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), this is to whom the gospel has been entrusted. The rewards are not neat progress reports after 90 days, but the joy of the messianic banquet. The table where just this past Sunday Jesus offered again his body, given for us, and his blood, shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins. Where each time we eat the bread and drink from the cup we proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord, until he comes again.

Isn’t this worth more than $100? Isn’t this worth more than a reserved giving of our time and talent? Why should we give everybody $100 and say, “This belongs to God,” implying the greater amount in our investment portfolio is ours?

Would it be more honest if we admitted this morning how difficult it is to do what this parable is asking us to do, to realize what Jesus has called us to invest, not just a talent or two, but our entire life, all of it? Isn’t this part of Jesus’ call to fundamental change, to transformation, to servant discipleship?

If it is Jesus’ intention that an astonishing gift like his gospel has been unloaded upon an unsuspecting church like ours that has not the faintest notion how to handle it, then might it be that the parable asks from us not the offering up of our individual abilities, but rather the frank, embarrassing admission of our corporate inability?

Instead of thinking we can with any degree of confidence have insight into the gospel we have been entrusted with maybe God needs for us to huddle up, shake our heads and confess, “We just have no idea, the treasure is too big, too heavy.” We haven’t had our cup of coffee yet!

Maybe then, and only then, in our humility, can we dare do something for God. God does not give the gospel to me or you so our individual ability alone can be put to good use. No, God gives the gospel to all of us so our inability might be exposed and instead of feeling ourselves glorified in what we think we have done, God will be glorified. God will be glorified because our work is inadequate. We must depend on God’s ability for ours is too small. We must depend on God’s ability to unleash the fullness of the gospel message. The gospel is too big, remember, left alone, we will bury it. We will bury our best intentions and we will bury the church!

The gospel isn’t being unleashed if we begin to think an extra $100 or so is all that belongs to God. The message of the gospel is too big for such trifles. Fundamental change requires we give our all. Time, yes. Talents, yes. Tithes, that too.

Surely it is only to the dumbfounded, to the clueless, to the overwhelmed, to those of us who are under no illusion that God calls. For we have never known quite what to do because of what Jesus did for us and asks of us and we don’t pretend it has ever have been otherwise – surely this is our shared inability, or inability to bear the weight of the gospel alone.

Yet despite that, we dare unleash the gospel, not for ourselves, but for God. We dare trust in God and unleash the gospel that those lost will be found, that those hungry will be fed, that those lost will be loved.

To unleash the gospel is our calling. For when we do and when we give our all we will become the ones to whom God will ultimately say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Well done.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. And all God’s people say. Amen


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