When the Gospel Gets Risky: Nov 19, 2023

 Year A, Pentecost 25                                  Matthew 25:14-30                                                                                         

If you were so inclined, you could read 10 different commentaries about this gospel reading and discover 10 different theories about what this text means.  I am not going to pretend to have the definitive answer on what this should mean for you.  But here is what I keep coming back to.  Risk. This is a story about risk and what or who enables us to take risks. 

In our parable for today, we hear about a man who entrusted three slaves with an incredible amount of money. He gave one slave 5 talents, another 2 and another 1.  A talent was a unit of measure and one would have been worth about 20 years wages for an average day laborer.  That’s a significant amount of money to leave a servant or a slave, or really anyone for that matter.  It would seem that this man had a lot of confidence in these three slaves.  This man didn’t provide them much direction. He didn’t tell them what to do with the property or even how long he would be gone.  It just says that he entrusted his property to them. If it were me, I would have wanted a lot more information and direction.

The slave who received 5 talents traded with them and doubled his money.  The slave who was given 2 talents also doubled his money.  Not bad.  The 3^rd slave dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.  When the master returned, he rewarded the slaves who were able to double the money they were entrusted with and the third was punished for…for what? That’s what I am not clear on.  It would be easy to assume that the third slave was punished for not making money, but given that this was Jesus talking, it’s has to be more than that. 

In order to figure out why he was being punished, I kept looking at what the master said to the third slave before he cast him into outer darkness.  However, the answer might be more easily discovered not in the reprimand of the third slave but in the accolade for the first two slaves.  To the first two the master said, “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.” They were not commended for the money that they made.  They were commended for being trustworthy in what they were given. They had taken what they were given and they had used those things well.

The other clue is in how the 3^rd slave addressed the master. The others met the master by simply saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents, but I have made 5 more talents.”  The 3^rd slave told the man on his return, “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.”

            He was afraid of his master.  He perceived him as a harsh man with questionable business practices.   But it would appear from the way the two others addressed the master (and maybe even by the way that they acted in his absence) that they didn’t fear the master.  If they had feared him, they probably would have not had the confidence to take the risks that they did.

Was the master as bad as the slave described him?  It would seem that the master affirmed what the 3^rd slave said, but not necessarily.  The master did not say, “You are right, I am all of those things you said I am.”  No he said, “You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?” It was a question, almost a challenge.   He was challenging the way the slave perceived him. You see, I don’t think the issue was his trust of the slave, as much as the slave’s trust of the master.

The slave was anticipating a harsh and unfair man, and that was what he got.  Because that was what he was anticipating…because that was the master he knew, he didn’t have freedom to actually use what the master gave him.  No, instead he buried it.  He had no desire to serve the master…he simply wanted to keep what had been given secure.  That provided not only security for the talent, but security for him.  His main priority was protecting himself.

            I confess I struggled with the language of slave and master.  But remember, parables were meant to be understood by the people who were hearing them at the time. This would have been familiar language to people in the first century.  Jesus was constantly trying to teach people another way of seeing things.  At the time, many people perceived God as a harsh master who punished without good reason.  But Jesus wanted people to know that God wanted more out of God’s relationship with humanity.  Yes, there is judgment.  The text right after this is the story of God judging those who did not care for the poor and the suffering. 

However, God’s relationship with humanity is more than judgement and punishment.  It’s a relationship that involves trust in God and in ourselves.  God has given us each gifts.  We can look at it more broadly and consider that God has given us the gift of life or love.  Or we can look at it as the unique gifts that we each carry.  I am not sure it matters. The point is that these gifts are meant to be used---sometimes…in ways that challenge us and others.

I am a risk adverse person. I hate taking risks. I definitely don’t do it as much as I should.  If we never take risks, then we are saying that we have no confidence in God’s call to us.  It’s saying that we don’t believe that we can actually be God’s hands and feet on this earth.  It’s saying that we care more about how other people perceive us, then how God judges us.  I am definitely guilty of that. 

You know when I was first working on this sermon, the thing that kept nagging at me was not why this 3^rd slave got punished, but I really wanted to know, what would have happened if he had trusted his master and then lost the money.  That is the question that haunted me.  Do you know why that question was bothering me? Because I just really wanted an excuse not to take a risk. I kept thinking, well of course these other two were rewarded, because they succeeded. And this other was reprimanded because he refused to risk.  But what about the one who took the risk and failed.  What happens to them?  Where are they in this story?

They fail. And then they try again.  I wonder how long the master was gone. I wonder how much money the slaves lost before they gained anything?  Ultimately this is a story about the 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ-- when Jesus comes back.  This isn’t a few months we are talking about.  This is a lifetime.  We have a lifetime of opportunities to use the gifts that God has given us, to take risks, to fail, to fail again and maybe eventually to get it right. The only real failure is when we stop trying.  I am talking about us as individuals, but also as a church. If we aren’t taking risks.  If we aren’t failing a little.  We aren’t living the Gospel.

 

 

Risky Business: Nov. 15th 2020

 Year A, Pentecost 24                                  Matthew 25:14-30  

              This is one of those parables that’s a bit confusing.  It starts with Jesus telling a story about a man he refers to as a master.  In this story the master went away and left enormous sums of money in the hands of three of his slaves.  He left 5 talents to one, 2 to another and 1 to the last.  Jesus was known to use hyperbole in his parables and this was a huge sum of money that the master left to his slaves. In Jesus’ time a talent was equal to 20 years of wages for the average worker.  It’s impossible to know exactly what that would equate to today, but 5 talents would have been at least a million dollars. 

The first two slaves traded with the master’s talents and doubled their money.  The last one buried it in the ground to keep it safe. The master commended the first two and punished the third because he didn’t invest the money and make more money for the master.  It is understandable that the master chose to reward the first two slaves who made him more money.   What always troubles me is the reaction he had to the third slave who chose to bury the money to keep it safe.  The master was so angry that he threw him into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth---which seems like a bit of an overreaction. I mean, this third slave could have lost it. He could have run away with it and never returned. He didn’t do anything like that.  He saved it and kept it secure.  Granted, he did not display the business savvy of the other two slaves, but at least he didn’t lose the money.  

            If we simply read it as a story of financial risk taking, then it would indeed seem like an odd story for Jesus to tell, especially in this part of the Gospel of Matthew.  This story comes grouped with a number of parables that directly precede the story of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.  According to the Gospel of Matthew, these were some of his final words to his disciples.  He was preparing them for life without him.  While life with Jesus was certainly no cake walk for the disciples, life without him was an extraordinary challenge.  After Jesus died it was the disciples who had to carry out the Gospel.  That must have been a huge and terrifying endeavor.

The Gospel of Matthew was written in about 80 AD.  Most, if not all of Jesus 12 apostles were dead by the time this story was actually written.  Jesus had been dead for about 50 years.  There were small groups of Christians across the land, but it was barely even considered a religion at this point. We often talk about persecution of Christians in the early church.  But the Romans weren’t persecuting Christians at this point because they were so insignificant in numbers that they were not even a threat.  It was assumed this group would disappear in a generation or so. 

That certainly could have happened—but it didn’t.  Why? Was it because Jesus had left them with a clear structure for church governance? No.  Was it because they had money and powerful people leading the movement? No.  It was because they were bold, tenacious, and convicted.  The early Christians were confident in their belief that Jesus was the one true God and believing in him was essential for this life and the next.  They also believed that he was coming back and was probably coming back fairly soon, which is why there are so many references in the Bible to being ready.  That meant that there was some urgency in their actions.

The Gospels were not merely written to educate people, they were meant to inspire.  Many Christians felt it was enough to simply practice their faith in the comfort of their homes. They saw no reason to try to share the message with others---partially because while Christians weren’t necessarily persecuted, they weren’t respected.  The authors of the Gospels and early church leaders knew that this faith would only survive past the 1^st century if every believer was willing to share the Gospel.  This story of the master and the three slaves isn’t about investing money, it’s about investing in your faith and the faith of others.  It’s about a willingness to take risks for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When the master returned, the 3^rd slave told the master that he buried his talent because he was afraid.  His own security was his priority, not his service to the master.  He didn’t want to take risk because it wasn’t his money and it was all going to the master anyways.  I still think his punishment was a little extreme, but the stakes were high for the early Christian community.  They believed that Jesus was the way and the truth and the life. By keeping that Gospel message to themselves, they were saying that they didn’t care about the souls of others. They only cared for themselves.  If that were the case, and they kept it to themselves, we would not be Christians today. There would be no Christian faith.

Each one of us has taken some risk in our lives.  Maybe you went against your parents to pursue your own dream.  Maybe you started your own business, and took a great financial risk in doing so.  One of the riskiest things I ever did was going through the adoption process, knowing that there was always a chance that the birth mother could change her mind.  What I didn’t realize is that parenting in general is a huge risk because you become responsible for the life of another.  Marriage is a risk because it’s a commitment you make for the rest of your life.  Most things in life that are worth having demand risk. Yet for some reason, we have decided that our faith should not demand risk and courage.  We have decided that our faith should enable security and comfort.   I wish that was true, it would make things a lot easier.

We worship a God who risked everything on a helpless baby being cared for by a teenage, unmarried mother.  We worship a God who asked his son to risk his very life.  And all he gave him was a promise, a promise that death would not be the end.  We worship a God who demands that we too take risks, that we be willing to have our lives a little disrupted for the sake of the Gospel.  I can’t tell you what that will look like for your life.  It looks different for all of us.

Right now, it seems like the last thing we need is more risk in our lives.   Even going to the grocery store carries risk.  Most of are afraid of either getting sick ourselves or seeing someone we love sick.   Therefore when I tell you to take risk, I am not encouraging you to do lick a door handle of a public restroom. I would even discourage touching the handle.  Perhaps, we can each take some time to pray for direction from God.  Risk your own assurance of what and who you are supposed to be right now. Admit that maybe, you don’t have all the answers.  You don’t even have most of them. Sometimes, actually listening to God is the riskiest thing we can do.