Faithful Risk-Taking

Transcript

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[0:00] Our sermon text is from Matthew 25. And so we have been in the latter part of Matthew now for several weeks running here. And I think it's great. Just a little bit of introduction before we go to our reading, Matthew 25, 14 through 30. And by the way, what's printed in your bulletin is from last week. So don't look at your bulletin, but you'll be able to follow along up here on the screen if you want to follow along. Or just like super old fashioned, there's this brown book in the pew in front of you. You know, you might have seen it before. You can actually open it up. It has pages and it's very easy, intuitive user interface. You just kind of want to go forward. You go like this. If you want to go back, it's just simple. Something at the beginning called the table of contents. And there's numbers on all the pages. I don't know. I don't know who invented it. It's pretty smart. Anyway, so you can try that, too. But it's going to be up here. It's all computerized. Anyway, so we're in Matthew. This is Passion Week. This is the week where Jesus goes to the cross. Earlier on in this week, he's had these intense, difficult, contentious encounters. With the religious leaders. Now he's gone and been apart with his disciples.

[1:03] And he's giving them some last teachings that he really wants them to know before he goes. Because he knows he's going. They are still in denial. They still can't quite figure it out. If you look at John's gospel, a huge section of John, probably about a third of the whole book, is this last segment where Jesus is preparing his disciples for his own departure. And he's giving them sort of these last instructions. And so today he's teaching them again. With the parable. And this is a parable about, it's called the parable of the talents. As Pastor Victoria said, it's a parable about doing what God needs you to do or wants you to do with the gifts that you've been given. But there's more to it than that, as we'll see. Because parables are rich. And so we're going to have some richness of it come out. And as last week, we had a parable about the foolish and wise maidens waiting for the bridegroom. Which was a parable about delay. It was a parable about preparation. Being ready. For when the groom arrives. This one is similar. There's a master that goes away and then comes back. But in the meantime, this is more about stewardship in a way. Doing what you are supposed to be doing with the gifts that you have been given.

[2:13] And when the master returns, he asks for an accounting. An accounting. What have you done with what you've been given? That's kind of the central question in the parable. So that's what we can look forward to as we listen to the reading. And one note on a word here. Which this is very fascinating. Which is the word talent. Which Victoria was absolutely right. It's a measure of weight. But it was also thus, if it was a talent of silver or a talent of gold. It was also sort of a measure of currency. It was a very valuable thing. It's worth 6,000 days of labor. Or about 20 years of labor. Which is really interesting. It's worth about 6,000 denarius. Which the denarius was the Greek coin. Was the standard wages that you would pay to a day laborer. At the end of the day. So if somebody worked for about 300 days a year. You remember they would take the Sabbath off. And you would work for 20 years. You're getting close to about one talent. Now what else about the talent though is. We call a talent. Back then a talent was a unit of weight and money. We use the word talent exactly as Joel said. To describe an ability that we have. That word in English is actually derived from this parable. So it's very interesting that if you look in the dictionary.

[3:25] And the etymology of the word talent. It says look up Matthew 25. So somehow this what was originally a word that was describing money. Has now become a word to describe your certain ability. Or your special ability that you may have. So the English language as we know. But some people really don't realize this. Has been absolutely sort of influenced by the scriptures. And in this case very directly. Because there's no other etymology that points to this word talent. Other than Matthew 25. Anyways. Little for those of you who are word nuts out there. It's really fun. Okay. Let's go to our reading. Matthew 25. 14 through 30. Another parable. Verse 14. Jesus says. For it is as if a man. And in a way he's saying the kingdom of God is like this. This is how he started the previous parable. For it is as if a man going on a journey summoned his slaves. And entrusted his property to them. Remember the words slave and servant are interchangeable. And in the New Testament. And NRSV always prefers. Almost always prefers to use the word slaves. But you could easily hear the word servant here. Just so that you know. Summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents. To another two. To another one.

[4:45] To each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once. And traded with them. And made five more talents. In the same way the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off. And dug a hole in the ground. And hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those slaves came. And settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward. Bringing five more talents saying. Master you handed over to me five talents. See I have made five more talents. His master said to him. Well done. Good and trustworthy slave you have been trustworthy in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. And the one with the two talents also came forward saying. Master you handed over to me two talents. See I have made two more. His master said to him. Well done. Good and trustworthy slave you have been trustworthy in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.

[5:59] Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward. Saying. Master I knew that you were a harsh man reaping where you did not sow. And gathering where you did not scatter seed. So I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master replied. You wicked and lazy slave. You knew did you. That I reap where I do not sow. And gather where I did not scatter. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.

[6:41] So take the talent from him. And give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have more will be given. And they will have an abundance. But from those who have nothing even what they have will be given. And they will be taken away. As for this worthless slave. Throw him into the outer darkness. Where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Let's pray.

[7:05] Heavenly Father. We thank you for your word. We ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus name. Amen. Well another tough parable. We're going to ask Steve a little more art. Did you guys like the art from last time? That's kind of fun. So we'll do a little more art. Here's a cathedral. In Ireland named St. Coleman's Cathedral in Cove. But Cove is spelled weird. It's spelled C-O-B-H but it's pronounced Cove. It's kind of hard to see but there would be a way to zoom in. I didn't do it. But as you can see at the top people are counting out things. And down here on the right side there's the master sitting on his chair. And people are coming up to him with their books. Their books. So that's one. And then here's a twelfth. Let's go to the book cutting. A wood cutting from 1712. You see the master there. He's at on a... You can tell that this is pretty regal. And these people are showing up. You see down here I'm going to kind of point it point to it from the bottom. There's... Oops. Well anyways it's right there. There's like a pile of money. See that? And they're like kind of here's... Look here's all the money we got back.

[8:16] And then this is... John Lycan has an etching from the Bauer Bible. And that's next. And there the people are coming with their... With their reward. A big treasure chest there at the bottom. And then finally let's go to the next one is Willem de Poortuers. The parable of the talents of the minus. This is the one we have in color which I like. And you get the same idea. Now two of these artists were Dutch. And it made me think why do the Dutch like this parable so much? Do you know any Dutch people? Sorry Dutch people. I love the Dutch. But... Uh... I can see that this parable would be... They would like this one. They're like oh we went out and we traded and we made more and we brought it back and we're Dutch. And no. Everybody's like that. But if you've met some Dutch people you know what I'm talking about.

[9:09] So anyways let's go to an outline of the... Sort of not an outline of the parable. But let's kind of go through it and then we'll try to interpret it. We'll try to interpret it together. Kind of fun. So this one's similar to the last one. It's framed as a time of delay. Last week we had this delay. The bridegroom was delayed. We didn't know how long. In this case a man goes away but the expectation is that he'll return and ask for some accounting of what it says. But in verse 19 it says it will be a long time. It's a long time. Time enough to do something but also a long time. And so what do we...

[9:45] Now instead of expecting preparation like the oil of the wise maidens, the master is expecting his servants to have risked the wealth that he has. He's entrusted them. And we'll get into that topic of risk later. But I think that's the interpretive idea that we want to think about. He's expecting a return of some sort or he's expecting at least some risk of what they've been given. Now two of the three double the investment. That's great. 100% return. But we'll see later. It may not be that they gained a profit but it's something else. We'll see what that is. And then we have the third one who buried it in the ground. It did absolutely nothing there. Even the master says, If you had at least given it... The bankers, a little bit of interest would have been garnered from it. But instead you completely hid it. Right? So the master returns. He praises the two who ventured out with his wealth and says, What I think must have been a beautiful thing. This is what we want to hear when we go to the throne is, Well done, good and trustworthy servant. You have been trustworthy in a few things and I will put you in charge of many things. And then this, Enter into the joy of your master. Isn't that beautiful? I mean, that could be...

[10:53] Right there, the sermon in itself is the idea of entering into the joy of the master. But we'll save that for another day. But it's a beautiful thing that the master says to these faithful servants. Enter into the joy of your master. You've been faithful with small things. I will entrust you greater things. Then the third one does give his account, right? And he really...

[11:13] He starts off not too apologetic, a little apologetic, but more accusatory. He says, I thought that you're... I think that you're a bad person. I think you're a bad master. And the master's like, Oh, this is not started well. This is not going to be... This is... You know how when somebody starts a sentence, you're like, This is not going anywhere good. And that's what's happening. He says, You're, you know, you're a harsh man. You reap what you don't sow. Right?

[11:42] And so I was afraid. So I think that's the word we want to kind of look at is he was afraid. There was fear at heart here. He was paralyzed by his fear. So I thought, I don't want to lose it. I just want to give it back to you the way it was as if you had never left really, or as if you had never really given it to me, right? Then I don't take any risk and I just give it back to you. Now the master doesn't praise this one at all and says, there's the harsh words and harsh words we find in the other parables and harsh words we find in Jesus's interaction with the religious leaders. This is the final week of Jesus's life and he's not expecting to make any new friends. In fact, he makes a ton of new enemies. That week and not on purpose. He's not trying to alienate people, but he's trying to be honest with people about what the kingdom of heaven is like. And the kingdom of heaven is like those who are unprepared will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And the kingdom of heaven is like those who are not good stewards of what they've been given will be sent into the outer darkness. He wants people to know this so that they can know what to do while he's gone and before he returns. And again, this parable functions in some way of Jesus preparing his disciples that,

[12:53] I'm leaving in just a few days, then I'll come back three days later or on the third day, and then I'll leave again. And that's that long time that we don't know how long it is. And then I'll come back again. And many of them thought that would be in his life, in their own lifetimes. Even the apostle Paul probably thought that Jesus would return in Paul's own lifetime. But that day of grace has been extended. And so this is a very long time, but the Lord will return again. And he expects to have an end. And he's going to be ready for it. And so I see it as an act of love, even though it is harsh. And actually, this man is true. The man, the final servant is correct. The man, the master is harsh on one level. The master is merciful. The master has joy. But the master is harsh for those who don't do what the master expects. And so this is an act of love that Jesus tells everybody. This is the actuality. This is the reality of what's going to happen when I finally make my final return to earth. And you need to be ready for it. And all sorts of ways. Okay.

[13:55] Yeah. So that last servant, it doesn't go well for him. This bit of a formula in Matthew, we hear it in several other places in Matthew. Somebody sent into the outer darkness. It doesn't sound like a nice place. Where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's a place of separation. It's like the foolish maidens that come to the banquet. And nobody's there. Nobody lets them in. I don't know you, says the groom. Right? So time for interpretation.

[14:29] We start off and who's the master? Jesus. I think that's right. Could be God. Could be Jesus. I think it's pretty interchangeable. It's not probably the most important thing to figure out who it is. Although it might be more likely Jesus because of this idea of a delay and a return. And Jesus is kind of preparing his disciples for that. Right? Um. So he's preparing his disciples for this. This extended absence. He will be gone for a long time. Just as it says in verse 9. And he's going to come back someday. And so as we said, this could extend beyond his disciples' lives. And he wants them to be prepared for that. That just like in last week, the parable that talked about the maidens fell asleep, which was a euphemism for death. That they died before the bridegroom came. But then they woke up. You know, they were awoken. And that's when the evaluation takes place. This parable lacks that idea of death. So that's how interesting like each parable functions on its own. So Jesus doesn't introduce the same concept in this parable. In fact, you could say that this parable, even though it's similar, is quite different in what it's saying. Last week it was about preparation. This week it's about something else. We're going to get to that.

[15:40] Now who are the servants? Anyone? The servants or the slaves? It's us. Yeah. And specifically it's Jesus' disciples as he speaks. And Jesus is speaking to them in that place. But it absolutely is us. And it could also be the church.

[15:59] And we're servants of God. We're also slaves of Christ. The Apostle Paul actually uses that phrase for himself. I'm a slave of Christ or a servant of Christ. And again, that word, Greek word, could be either servant or slave. And there was a whole range of meaning. All the way from indentured servitude. All the way to somebody who was owned by somebody else. And that's where it's kind of rich for us to ask ourselves, what is our relationship to the master? Are we just his servants? Do we work 9 to 5 and then we're done? We can walk away? Or do we belong to him?

[16:38] Do we belong to the master? And we don't like the word slave. And understandably so. But in this context, does it make more sense for us to say we're the slaves? We're a slave of Christ. The Apostle Paul says that. The Apostle Paul says, do we belong to him, heart and soul, everything that we have? It's a great question. It's for another time. Now, what are the talents? What are the talents?

[17:02] The gifts he gives us. Or something he's entrusted to us. Yeah. Yeah. Could be wealth. Right? Could be actual talents. We don't know. What I like about how large this monetary unit is of a talent is that it represents a life's work. If somebody could work for about 20 years, and remember the life expectancy in the time of Jesus, it wasn't 76 years for a man and 79 years for a woman. It was probably like 40, 50 years, 60 if you were lucky. So 20 years might be your whole life's labor right there. 20 years might be a life or a sizable portion of a life. No less than half a life. Maybe two. Two talents in your lifetime if you were lucky. You could eke it out. Right? So in other sense, a talent just might mean your life. The labor of your life. The energy of your life. The work of your life. The entirety of your ability to produce something in your life. I think that's maybe when the disciples heard the word talents, they might have gone, ah, not just lots and lots of money, but a unit of my existence and being. Kind of interesting way to think about it, right?

[18:19] And later, the saints, this word came to mean abilities. We get a little stuck and we think that this means the unique talents and abilities of a disciple. That is to be put to work for the master. And that's often how this parable is interpreted because we use the word, when we read the word talent in English, we think of it as an ability. It really is money. And so some people interpret this parable to say you have to use your talents for the service of God. But I'm not sure how talent is. I'm not sure how talents make more talents in that sense, right? Unless you're, because my ability to play the piano, which is poor, but even if I got really good at it, would not produce the talent to play the flute, I don't think. Like, you know what I mean? One talent doesn't make another talent or I can fix things, but I, you know, I can fix small things, but I can't fix a jet engine. I can't do that. You know, that takes, that takes energy.

[19:10] But remember how parables work. This, this probably should be in the realm of money, but the idea isn't money. As we'll see, it's about something else. So we're, we're slowly narrowing down, right? So what does it mean in the parable for the talents to make more talents, right? Playing the piano doesn't create the ability to play the flute, not directly at least. So it's, it's not so economic that it means we get all our wealth from the master and then we're to make more actual wealth for the master. And so this isn't a stewardship sermon. Right? This could be like, oh, did you get your lifetime of money that the Lord gave you?

[19:57] We expect you to double that and bring it back to the church. We're not saying that this is not a stewardship sermon. Okay. Just so you know, that's not what's happening here. And, and if you thought that was happening, you'd be every had every right to get up and walk out right now. Cause that's not what I'm saying. This is about something else. Okay.

[20:14] It could be that your life. One way to interpret it. This is through evangelism, your life, which the master entrusted to you is to go out in the world and make more lives for the master. I'm not talking about having children, although that's sometimes part of it, right? I'm talking about evangelism. I'm talking about bringing people back to the Lord that don't know the Lord yet so that your life multiplies in some way and brings other lives to God.

[20:45] And that's one other way of thinking about this parable. And. And I think what we need here also is the freedom for each of you to, and in some ways or others decide what the parable means for yourself. I think that's sometimes the value of the parable is it can touch you in a certain way. And if it speaks to you in that way, then listen to it. Okay. So if you think this is about evangelism, that's fine. If you think this is about stewardship, you know, like giving money to the church, that's fine. You can, if God puts it on your heart that way, then don't, you know, then go with it for a while and see where it develops. Um, but I want to bring in a twist here. That's actually in the parable. And I think that's why parables work so well as they sometimes hide a little detail at the end that sheds light on everything that comes before it. And here's the detail that is at the end that turns everything on and said the third is about the third server. The third servant hid the talent buried under the ground, and he blamed the master for why he did it. And the master is not mad that he didn't double it as the others did. He would have had at least cause he would have been happy. He said, at least if you had taken it to the bank and I could have gotten interest on it,

[21:53] that would have been one thing, but you've hit it completely in the ground. You did nothing with it. Right. Okay. And I think he was mad because the servant didn't risk anything at all. He didn't risk anything. Right.

[22:08] So I think we should see that this really is a parable about risk. Why? One of the reasons is the verb that's used to go out and trade. It says, and Okay. the first two went out and traded with this, it implies that they risked something. It implies that they went about and did some commerce with it. Now, when you start with capital and you go out and do commerce with it, is it guaranteed to double your money? I mean, if it was, good luck. If you figure that out, then you can write a book about it or whatever. Nobody's figured this out. All commerce involves risk. All commerce involves risk. The only thing that had no risk at all was to bury it in the ground. That had no risk at all, because then you knew where it was. Even putting it in the bank has risk, right? Silicon Valley Bank, have you heard of it? You know? It's just like a month ago or six months ago. Banks can go under. And they did not have the FDIC in Jesus's time, where $100,000 of your deposit is insured by the federal government. They didn't have that. A bank could get wiped out. It could burn down. A marauding band of Parthians could come into town and tear it all down and write off with all the gold. And the bank would say, if he was still alive, your money's gone and sorry.

[23:22] But if you put it in your refrigerator, you put it under your mattress, or you bury it where only you know where it is, then it's safe. That's the least risk that you can do with it, is just to bury it. But what is the master most mad about?

[23:37] Not taking risk. Not taking risk. It's more about risk than it is about doubling your money. It's more about risk. So, and if you took money back then, say you took a talent or five talents, and you tried to make more money with it, what would you do? You could buy a plot of land, rent it to some farmers. What if a famine came, right? You're out of luck. You could buy a bunch of wares, stick it on a ship. The ship goes to another port and trades it and then comes back with other wares which you can then sell. That's how people did make money. But ships got sunk by shipwrecks and pirates and all sorts of things. My point is that this really, the way you double your money is to take risk. So I think the master was proud of the first two, not because they doubled their money, but because they risked something with it. Because they trusted something, that something good was gonna happen with it. And so the master's not expecting a return on his investment. The master is expecting servants who will take risks. This is a different way of thinking about this parable, isn't it, right? Now, and like I said, but if you wanna think about it a different way, and God tells you to, that's fine.

[24:45] This is one interpretation of it. Is that it's about risk. So I went way ahead of myself, now I have to find, okay. Right, so I think the master cares more about, more that his servants take a risk than he does about whether that risk pays off. And thus, interestingly, if a servant went out with five, instead of coming back with ten, came back with three, would the master praise him?

[25:11] Given this way of thinking, I think the master would. He said, you took a risk. It didn't work out, but you took a risk. Good job, I'm proud of you. But you decide for yourself. Now, how can we adapt this parable? Cuz we're almost done, right? All right.

[25:27] I do think that the concept of a talent, as we understand it now, as an ability can work for us. Or it's our whole life, or the special abilities we've been entrusted with. So the whole person that we are includes our special abilities and talents, and we can go out and use them for God. And so there's vocation in the kingdom for everyone. And that's worth looking at more someday. I'd like to do that where there's many parts of the body, there's many tasks in the kingdom, and many different talents are needed to make God's work happen in the kingdom. And so we do need to be good stewards with our own unique abilities as we build the body together.

[26:04] And Jesus will return someday, and he's gonna ask for us to account for what we've done with what we've been given. And so the parable definitely works on that level, is that we're gonna be asked to give an accounting. And I would say that the parable would work on that level, is that we're gonna be asked to give We gave you all this. God's going to say, I gave you all this stuff.

[26:22] What did you do with it? Did you risk it? Did you bury it? At least you could have done this little bit with it. I would have even been happy with that, right? I also, though, think the bigger question that he's going to ask us is he's going to return someday, and he's going to ask us, have you taken risks for me? Have you risked for me? That's what this parable, I think, is asking. And that's what I think Jesus will ask. Have you risked? And is he going to be more interested in whether we've taken risks or that we've gained some profit, however we define it? And so for us, I think that we need to be bold. There's a time for boldness in life. And if we listen to this parable, it's like all the time there's a time for boldness in this life, right? To extend ourselves to other people, to be willing to lose what we have in the hopes that it will bring other people into the kingdom or other things into the kingdom that God wants. It's the first step in the way that God wants to happen. And, you know, I think there's one way of thinking about it, because if God said to us, I'll preface this by saying it's very hard to be responsible to produce some outcome that we can't control. That's really stressful, right?

[27:35] It's like getting two people that you love to get along with each other. You can't control them. They're either going to fight or make up. You can't make them do either way. But if your happiness depends on them getting along, you're in trouble.

[27:46] In the same way, if God says to us, you have to double everything that I've given you, you may not be able to control that. Because if it's other people coming to Jesus, you can't control that. You can't control that. But if Jesus says you need to risk, you can do that. You can risk, and you can leave the outcome to God. Do you see what I'm saying? So God's not asking us to do something that we can't control.

[28:12] We can risk. God can take care of the rest. And it may double, or it may go in half, and it doesn't matter because you're being faithful. You're risking for God. So I think we need to be bold. We need to extend ourselves. We need to be willing to lose what we have in the hopes that we bring others to Jesus, risk what we have because we're obedient, and we don't always stick with the safe bet. And so I wonder if we all in some way can be roused from our sleep and say, I'm tired of the safe move.

[28:41] I'm tired of safe bets. I'm tired of the easy way out. I want to do something for God in this world. I want to take a risk with what I have. I want to be able to say, I risked it all, and I put it all in God's hands. That we can control. So that's for us, is living a life of boldness, trusting that God is responsible for the outcome. We're responsible for holding loosely to the things he's given and to risk it in the ways that he tells us to. Now, as for a church, how do we interpret this as a church? I think we can hunker down. As a church, we can bury our talents we have. And one thing is that if we're always worried about losing things, that's what was motivating this third person, this third servant. He was worried that he'd lose something. If we always think, I don't want to lose something, I don't want to lose something, I don't want to lose something, then you're never going to make a decision. You're never going to move forward with anything that you think that God calls you to do because you might worry that we might lose people. We might lose this. We might lose wealth. We might lose something.

[29:49] And so I'm not saying the church should go and risk everything tomorrow. I'm not saying that. This is something you do communally. But as a church, we look at a parable like this and go, what is God asking us to risk? What risks do we need to take? What new things do we need to do that God is asking us to do?

[30:09] In what ways are we just burying what we have? We have to stop doing that. Because the Lord will come back and say, give me an account. We don't want to be the ones, the church that he says, take away what they've got and give it to somebody else who's doing more. We don't want to be that church.

[30:27] So what does it look like for the church to take a risk? And I'm going to leave that question out there. I mean, I have some ideas, but we need to talk about it together. So sometime when we do our goals next time, maybe we can also say, what does it look like for us to be a faithful servant that risks the talents that we've been given as a church? And in the end, what we want to hear is this. We want the Lord to say, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been trustworthy in small things. And now you will be set over larger things, greater things. Enter into the joy of your master. Let's pray.

[31:04] Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for this parable. Teach us to risk, Lord. Teach us to value risk. As strange as that sounds. Thank you that you're responsible for the outcomes. And Lord, we want to hear from you someday when you return. Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. Amen.