Year A Proper 28 16 November 2014
Judges 4: 1-7 Psalm 123 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11 Matthew 25: 14-30
A LIFE UNCOMMON
Have you seen the tinsel? Already the stores are getting ready for Christmas, and although the church calendar has not yet reached the season of Advent, there is a definite sense of something about to happen in our readings this weekend.
Our Gospel reading is the parable of the talents. A man goes off on a journey and leaves certain amounts of money in the hands of his servants. A first servant turns five bags of gold into ten. The second servant turn two bags of Gold into four, but a third servant just hides the money away for safe keeping.
1) A message for ministers and those in charge of church communities or groups:
Who are the people that make up your church community? These people are our bags of Gold. Do you have a large or small congregation? It doesn’t matter. These people have the ability to double, but it is up to you to encourage them, to deal with them in a way that they desire to ask their friends and family to join them.
Many churches try to encourage their member to ask friends and family to come to church…. WRONG! This way you may get some extra people for a while but if you want to make a real difference then you need to inspire your congregation in such a way that they spontaneously ask others to join them. I hear you laughing, and I know that I’m not in your shoes, but I really believe that this is what Jesus is challenging in this Gospel reading.
Do you have a small aging congregation? You can keep them safe. You can nurture them and make them comfortable. You can shield them from the evils of the outside world and feel that you are doing a good job at pastoring, but this is the equivalent of the servant who kept the one bag of gold hidden safely away and safely returned it to it’s master…. What did the master say to this servant?
Matthew 25:26- ““His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
It is a seemingly harsh reward for keeping the money safe. But Jesus is not talking about Gold. He is talking about people and our great commission to go and make disciple of all people.
2) A message for those who are ministers and members of the church or Christians in the secular workplace.
The people around you are your bags of gold that have been entrusted to you. You may or may not have charge over them, but you certainly do have influence. All of us are called to be as Christ to others and that old phrase, “What Would Jesus Do?”, has to be foremost in our minds, or even better, we can simply pray that Christ live through us.
What did Jesus do when he encountered people? Somehow people were spontaneously changed by the encounter. And Jesus said these things and greater we will do. Hmmm… haven’t seen much of it lately.
If the people around us are our “bags of gold” then they are our “talents”. Do we think, “how can I encourage the people around me so that they become more”?
Each person has gifts, skills and abilities, but it often needs to be empowered. YOU have the power to set those gifts free and double them…. Quadruple them…. YES YOU!!
I have played basketball all my life and have often played with a new player. Most of the team will NOT throw them the ball and the inexperienced player will pretty soon become disheartened and give up. There was something that I realized in this game of basketball…. The opposition often neglects the neglected player also…. So I would throw them the ball. An amazing thing happened – can you guess? MOST of those new players that I played with were there because they were actually quite sporty in other areas and with just a bit of encouragement and confidence these players became every bit as good as the rest of the team and team spirit was encouraged by the inclusivity and valuing of every person. There is a whole lot that we can learn from this.
Who are the people around you that God wants you to empower?
3) A Message for each of us personally
Each of us has gifts and abilities that God has given us. How interesting that what was a sum of money in the Bible called a “talent”, is the same word we use to describe our gifts.
I remember a poster that said, “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.” It has stayed with me.
Certainly, I notice all the time how practice and working away at something increases our talents.
On a personal level, this week’s readings speak about being left for a time. Jesus is the master and has left talents in the hands of his servants. We are the servants and just as there was no explicit directive to the servants in the story, about what to do with the money, same goes for us with the abilities that God has given us, but the ending of the story makes it clear that we are certainly to do something.
Recently someone’s facebook status had a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi; “Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
There are needs all around us. We start there. But sometimes there are things that are possible. They may not seem necessary, but they are good things to do that promote the kingdom of God. I do think that if people stand together doing the necessities of church life and going on to do what is possible that they will one day look back and see that the impossible was achieved and those five talents became ten or even more. BUT we need to be prepared to step out and live a life uncommon.
We live in a generation that is SELF promoting and this whole encouragement of other people’s gifts is certainly counter-cultural.
Our New Testament reading also confirms this message:
1 Thessalonians 1:9-11 “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Our first reading is another amazing story of something that seemed counter-cultural;
Judges 4-4-7 “ Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “TheLORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”
Did you notice that? It was a woman who was leading Israel. It was a woman who was a prophet and was leading Israel. God works through those that you might not expect and gives extraordinary gifts to people that you might “culturally” discount.
At this time in the church calendar we are called to read the signs of the time; Jesus came, died, rose, ascended to the father and WILL come again. In the meantime it is very much like that master who went on a journey… we are the servants in that interim time and we have been given talents on many levels, in our church and those around us and personally. It calls to mind the song that Jewel put out a number of years ago called, “A Life Uncommon”…. “ and lend your voices only to sounds of freedom. No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from. Fill your lives with love and bravery and we shall lead – a life uncommon!”
