Bible Text: Matthew 25: 14-30 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
On January 24, 1941 a boy was born in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up he moved from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, attending 9 different elementary schools. As a result he suffered socially, always having to make new friends. His parents decided that it would be best to keep him busy by enrolling him in music lessons. He decided to play guitar after watching a camp counselor play one night at a camp fire. But he really thought nothing of it. After he graduated high school he enrolled at NYU on a fencing scholarship in pre-med. While in university he met a few other musicians and would play at open mic nights around town. Again, not thinking much of it. One night Jack Packer heard him play and wanted to release a duet album with him. Now, this album was never very successful, so he continued in his studies. After all, taking the risk of having a career in the music industry was, well, risky. Medicine had more promise in terms of secured income, success, and stability. But during his senior year a music publishing company made him an offer he could not refuse, to write songs for $50 a week and this started him on the road to stardom. After receiving his undergraduate degree this man decided that instead of pursuing a career in medicine he would take the risk and sign a deal with Columbia. This man was Neil Diamond. Imagine a world without The Monkees’s song “I’m A Believer” or “Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon” let alone a world without “Sweet Caroline”. Talk about sharing your talents.
Ok, maybe Jesus wasn’t talking about star search, talent quest or American Idol when he used this parable to describe the Kingdom of God. The term talents in this parable comes from the Greek word “talanton”. It actually means an “absurd amount of money”. In fact some scholars believe that the amount of a talent was equal to fifteen years’ wages for a common labourer. We aren’t talking small change, especially when we realize that this master had eight talents to trust in keeping to his servants.
This parable uses the image of money and what it can achieve to describe what is important in the kingdom and for the kingdom of God. It is slightly missing the point to think it is talking about how we use our various natural abilities (talents in the modern sense). It has more to do with how we allow the life of God to flow through us – because it is powerful- like money. But also because the stock market is risky.
We hear that a very wealthy man decides to go on a trip. He calls his servants together and delegates responsibilities, each according to their abilities. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, to a third one talent. Right away the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single talent dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.
Now I want to stop here, because for the longest time I always thought that it was the third servant who did the best thing. After all, putting money into big investments is risky business. It is easy to feel for the third servant especially in today’s economy. Who doesn’t feel like burying his or her wealth in the ground?! In Jesus’ day, it wasn’t considered foolish to bury one’s wealth. Burying money was regarded as the best security against theft. There are similarities in this parable with the parable we heard last week, namely, there are things I don’t like. I don’t like that this is a story about a wealthy master who has slaves. I don’t like that it says that the master gave the servants responsibilities according to their abilities because it tells me that the master knew the third servant was incapable of taking the risk. But like in our parable from last week the wealthy man’s return is delayed.
When he does return he goes to his three servants to settle up his accounts. He is pleased that the first two servants have doubled their investments. However the servant who was given but one talent says, “I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.” I don’t like that the master is furious and I don’t like what he has to say about it. “That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least?”
Jesus is using this parable to illustrate that one’s work as a follower of Christ is supposed to be risky. It takes courage to believe and even more courage to spread the good news. The parable challenges me because, like last week, there are things I don’t like and I identify most with the third servant. However, being a disciple of Christ takes a leap of faith and it is risky business.
If the modern use of talents has any relation to the text, it is at the level of allowing God to work through us and putting our talents (our natural abilities) at God’s disposal. The tragedy is that we are afraid when in reality we have been made courageous. Through Christ we have been given the freedom to take risks. Martin Luther called it the “freedom of the Christian in the gospel. We do not have to be afraid of failure. We do not have to fear criticism from our Master, so long as we take those risks because in Christ we have been given our security.”
Protecting our talents is like protecting God. We do not need to protect God-the greatest talent- richer than any earthly wealth. In fact a lot of the time we find God is pulling in great profits in areas which we have deemed beyond God’s interests. We can’t bury God in the backyard. We can’t put God under the mattress for a rainy day. We need to take risks- even when they are scary, even when we don’t know what the future will hold, even when we think we aren’t talented enough. We need to trust that God is moving through us, changing lives, changing the church, changing our community so that we may all be changed in the kingdom of God. Amen