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.  

God's Big Risk: Christmas Eve 2017

Christmas Eve, Year B                                                                       
Luke 2:1-20                                                                            

 

Deli meat, fish, soft cheeses, unpasteurized milk, caffeine and alcohol.   These are some of the things that pregnant women are supposed to avoid eating. Of course, there are also the daily pre-natal vitamins. It’s best to avoid stress.   Generally traveling in the last few weeks of your pregnancy is discouraged. 

While Mary probably avoided deli meat and caffeine, she did not avoid stress or travelling.  The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was 90 miles, much of it over hills.  Mary and Joseph travelled by foot and donkey.  It probably took them over a week to make that trip.  At that time of year it would have been 30 degrees during the day and colder at night.  They slept on the ground.  They lived on bread and water, because that was all they could easily carry.  It was a perilous journey for anyone, but especially a woman about to give birth.  When they arrived at their destination, the best place they could find was a stable.   This wasn’t a sterile environment, not the cleanest place to give birth.   

It makes me wonder a little about God’s judgment.  There are lots of ways he could have sent his son to earth to bring his message of love and salvation.  He could have sent him fully grown.  He could have sent him to a family with money and power. He could have waited a couple thousand years and sent him to a developed country where the baby Jesus would have been much safer. It’s baffling to me that God would take that kind of risk, that he would take a chance on this young powerless couple.  I personally think that all children should be wrapped in bubble wrap to ensure their safety. There was no bubble wrap! There was hay in a feeding trough. 

God had already tried many ways to reach God’s people.  He sent the prophets who shared his words and wisdom.  Some of them displayed acts of power.  He sent a great flood so the world could start fresh.  He spoke through kings and warriors.  While some of the words of the prophets and kings got people’s attention, it never made the lasting impact that was intended. 

It seems that God then took a break.  There is about a 500 year gap between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus.  500 years where it seems that God wasn’t communicating much, at least not in the big ways he had before. 

We can’t know what was going on with God in those 500 years.  But I like to think that he was pondering, maybe even convincing himself of what had to come next.  He realized that he had to take a risk, make himself—God—vulnerable like he never had before. 

Because God never does anything half way, he made himself as vulnerable as possible. He came not just as a baby, but as a fetus in the womb of a young woman who had no husband and no way to support herself.   There is no greater vulnerability.  For 9 months and then at least a year after, Jesus (God incarnate) depended on Mary for his sustenance.  God’s life was dependent on this one woman.  The future of humanity in the hands of one young woman.

Surely, God was still watching and protecting Mary and the baby Jesus.  One of the first things that the Angel Gabriel told Mary was, “The Lord is with you.”  The angel promised that through this all, God would be with her….not only in the literal sense as she was carrying the Son of God, but also that God the Father was providing strength and assurance.

As Christians, we talk a lot about trusting God and what that means.  It’s challenging to trust God, perhaps one of the greatest challenges that we as Christians face. What we sometimes forget is that God trusts us as well. He displayed that by allowing his son to come to earth in the form of a baby, a helpless baby.  One of the things that distinguished Jesus from other religious leaders, and certainly from anyone considered a god, was that he never asked people to do anything that he was not willing to do. 

We as Christians, put our lives in his hands.  Technically we do.  Let’s face it, it’s usually more figurative than literal. We put our future life in God’s hands in that we believe that if we follow God in this world, then we will live eternally. It’s a lot harder to put our day to day needs and concerns in the hands of God.  Jesus put his life in our hands.  He was completely dependent on human parents to provide for his needs.  He did not come out of the womb as a fully grown man; he was a tiny baby. 

If you look at Medieval art, the baby Jesus always looks kind of weird.  He usually has the face of a man, or maybe even the body of a man, but miniature. Obviously medieval painters knew what babies looked like.  But they could not imagine God in the flesh in that helpless state.  While we have gotten better at depicting baby Jesus in art, I am not sure we truly appreciate the kind of trust and love that God showed in sending his only son to earth.  How could we?

We have romanticized the story of Jesus’ birth and painted it in gentle and vibrant hues.  We have made it sweet and sentimental.  But if you look at the facts of the story, it was a very strange way to introduce God to this world. The crazy thing is, that it worked.  Because God wasn’t just telling people what to believe, he was showing them how he loved us.  For millennia, God had amazed and terrified people with his awesome power.  But with Jesus, people learned what it was to know God and be known by God. 

You might think, well that is all fine and good, but that was thousands of years ago. What do we do when we don’t have God in the flesh here with us? How can we learn to trust and love a God who we don’t know? That’s a tough one.  The best way to trust God is to enter into a relationship with God.  We can do this by reading the Bible, which is full of stories like the one we heard tonight.  We can embrace the traditions of the church, many of which are 100s, maybe even 1000 years old.  We have the Christian religion and the Episcopal Church, that while imperfect, have done a great deal of good in the world.  We have community worship, an opportunity to come and sit with a community of believers and worship God through music and prayers.  We have prayer and meditation.   Some people think that these are the things we do after we learn to trust God.  That certainly is true.  But these are also the practices we use to get to know God. 

People sometimes worry about coming to church when their faith is on perilous ground, or because they are doubting or perhaps even teetering on the cusp of disbelief.  This is exactly where we belong when we are in those situations.  Someone once said that the church is not a museum for saints, it is a hospital for the broken sinners.  I am convinced, that in a room full of broken people, we can find wholeness. We can create a mosaic of faith and trust.  It will not be perfect, but no relationship ever is.  The story of Jesus’ birth and life, is messy and disjointed. That is what makes it real. 

Jesus’ life on earth began with a 90 mile journey in the womb of a young woman.  This 90 mile journey was just the beginning of a wonderful, but difficult life; a life where Jesus loved and was loved, a life where trust was created and trust was broken.   As a result, God understands our journey.  While we are not carrying the baby Jesus in our womb (if you are, we need to talk), we are carrying a promise, a promise of God’s love, a promise that God will be with us now and until the end.    

(Quote from Abigail Van Buren.  It is assumed that she was quoting St. Augustine.)