Bible Text: Matthew 25: 14-30 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
I have not lived in my childhood home for 17 years. My parents, however, still live there and every once in a while a letter or publication will be sent to their home addressed to me. Most of the time those items go right into the recycling bin as they are no longer relevant to me. In the summer a letter came addressed to me and began “dear customer” and the letter went directly into the trash. When the second letter arrived this fall my Mother decided to open it and it began, “Dear Bond Owner, our records indicate that in Sept. 2017 you owned a Canada Savings Bond that will be maturing Nov. 1St, 2017.” The letter goes on to say that the bond was purchased in 1995 and I need the certificate to redeem it. Here’s the thing: no one seems to have any recollection of purchasing a CSB for me nor do we have any idea where the certificate may be. So I phoned the help line and discovered I have five bonds that will be maturing over the next year and have set in motion the forms required to receive the certificates. Have you ever had that dream of receiving a letter from a long lost relative that states you have just inherited millions? Well, the CSBs are not worth millions but it’s kind of like that. Funds I had no idea I was accumulating are almost at my fingertips. What a blessing. My mother’s response was, “It’s nice to know the government is so honest or else we would not have known about this at all.” Probably one of the only times my mother has called any government honest. Here’s the other thing: I don’t really understand what a Canada Savings Bond is but I do know the program has been discontinued, and I am incredibly grateful for this anonymous legacy, and in an effort to pay it forward I plan on not only investing some of these funds but donating them as well.
Like most parables the one we hear this morning is meant to convey or illuminate a truth that is often not immediately understood by the audience or the reader. At first read, one might think this parable is about growing your money, and indeed, it is sometimes used at stewardship seminars to encourage accumulation of wealth. Sometimes people don’t think this is about money at all, and focus on the message that people should use their God-given talents, skills and abilities. It is both and neither of these themes.
The Greek word for talent is talanton. It was worth about 3000 silver coins and weighed approximately 95 pounds and a single talent would be equal to 15 years of earnings for a labourer. According to the PCC’s legacy page the servant who received five talents received today’s equivalent of $3.75 million dollars. This parable is not just talking about money, it is talking about the kind of money that most people would never earn in their lifetime. The third servant buried his money and the master was furious. He called him lazy and shunned him for keeping his money safe. I don’t know about you, but in today’s market the servant who received one talent would be equal to $750,000 and I would have been cautious too if I were asked to look after that amount of money for someone else.
There is another detail in this story that gives us an important clue about its meaning. We learn is that the third servant sees the master as a harsh man. The key here is that the third servant only saw bad things about the master and he was fearful. He didn’t see the master’s abundance or generosity, only judgement and wrath, and so he didn’t recognize the generosity of the master nor the opportunity to share in his joy. This story is about how we use or don’t use the resources we have been given to advance God’s work in the world. The money in the context of this story symbolizes both a huge amount of potential and God’s generosity. Will we be faithful stewards and put the resources God has given us to work? Or will we allow our fear of scarcity, our need for false financial security, our inability to see abundance, to overtake us- to the point that we deny that God has given us anything?
In our consumer society with messages like, “Freedom 55” and “because you’re worth it”; we are repeatedly told that we deserve to accumulate wealth; that the accumulation of possessions makes us feel safe and secure, and may even provide meaning to our lives. The truth is, buying more stuff for the sake of it- even if it was earned by our own labour- is as good as burying our talents.
This parable is about creating a different world. It’s about realizing the extravagant generosity and graciousness of God. Remember, like the servants, we are stewards, caretakers of what we’ve been given. As followers of Jesus Christ we are called to live out the gospel, not to idly bury our treasures in the ground. We can use our resources to show people what God is all about, so that they will know God’s love. In the end, if we haven’t shared our resources and blessings, what good are they?
The servants in the parable who grew their talents were not growing them for their own sake. They put their gifts to work and returned to the master more than they’d been given. God provided unimaginable abundance and the first two servants responded in turn by creatively generating more abundance and returning it to the source. They were given more and were invited to enter “the joy of their master”. The third servant was scared. He didn’t see the master as abundant and giving, but as ruthless and taking. He didn’t see that the resources were given to him as an opportunity to do that master’s work.
We recognize that God has given us may gifts: time, talent and money; and also opportunities to do creative things with all we’ve earned or achieved, according to the values Jesus taught: loving our neighbour, caring for the marginalized, the vulnerable, the outcasts in our midst with our skills, talents and our money. The parable challenges us to grow our wealth and accumulate possessions for the right reasons. Part of doing God’s work and stewarding generosity is being responsible to the people in our lives.
The legacy of being a faithful servant is also about how we’ll be remembered; whether we have lived an abundant and generous life, or one of scarcity and fear. When our lives are finished, each of us must decide what will happen to our possessions. It’s our final chance to act in this life and it gives us a blessed opportunity. If we don’t make decisions about how our estate will be used, the government will make them for us, and while sometimes the government is honest, most of the time we’d be better off making those decisions for ourselves. It is one of the many opportunities we have to look after our families and leave a legacy that puts God’s resources to work.
Every gift given, be it funds or talents or time or creativity, no matter how big or how small, has the ability to impact more lives and carry out more of God’s mission and ministry in our church and the world than we could ever imagine on our own. We need to use all of our resources prayerfully and wisely which is one reason why I implore you to prayerfully read over the budget. You have a vote and a say in all of this. Think seriously of what is being asked of you. Think about how we can pay it forward. When we put our resources to good use in God’s world and don’t bury them needlessly, we will surely hear these words from the master, “Well done good and faithful servant.” Amen