Using our God-Given Talents – Matthew 25:14-30

Lectionary Readings for Nov. 15, 2020        24th Sunday After Pentecost, Year A
Judges 4:1-7          Deborah Becomes Israel’s Judge
Psalm 123 or Psalm 76   Psalm 123 v4 You are glorious and more majestic than the everlasting mountains.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  v11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.
Matthew 25:14-30 The Parable of the Talents

Peace Quotes

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’.” ~ Erma Bombeck

“Everyone has a purpose in life and a unique talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.” ~ Kallam Anji Reddy

Using our God-given talents to share God’s love with ourselves and others gives our souls life and space to flow.

Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me.           God loves me.            God has plans for me.

Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading

Today’s story is the second of three stories Jesus tells to explain what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The point of last week’s story was that we should stay alert and prepared for God to call us into action.

Today, Jesus makes His point with a humorous story. But if we don’t understand a few key concepts, today’s story sounds like God is a greedy, mean, self-centered god who is fine with causing people to suffer. To be clear, we do NOT believe that at all!

First off, Jesus begins today’s story with these words: “For it is as if…” That’s the equivalent of someone beginning a story with, “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…” Hearing those words, you would immediately know the story is “made up” and not meant to be surgically examined.

Secondly, today’s story talks about people investing “talents.” In Jesus’ day, the word “talent” meant a sum of money equal to (depending on who you ask) anywhere from 10-20 years’ worth of wages for an average worker. At today’s minimum wage, that is at least $300,000 – if not $1 million – per talent. I can imagine the people listening to Jesus got a good laugh out of this exorbitant amount.

As the word “talent” evolved into the modern American understanding of “skills and abilities,” English speaking Christians have also evolved how we commonly interpret and apply this parable to our lives. It’s fine if this new understanding of “skills and abilities” helps you in your faith journey. But keep in mind, this was not the original meaning in the story.

Finally, as best we can tell from the texts handed down to us, Jesus spent His entire life telling people how much God loved them. Jesus healed people as a way of demonstrating God’s compassionate, restoring love. That’s why – for millennia – we have called Jesus’ overall message the “Good News.”

As you listen to today’s story, process it in light of the Great Commandments (Matthew 22:34-40): love God, love yourself, and love others. The question becomes, how can this story help us live into each of those directives.

Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we read today’s story.

Read Matthew 25:14-30.

I chose this image of a man fishing because, based on the photo alone, this man conveys that he is using at least three talents – balancing, boating, and fishing – all at once. The deeper question this photo presses us to ask is, “Are we making the most of the variety of talents each of us has?” Are we combining our talents to maximize our potential?

That question naturally leads us to what many have assumed and preached about this text: If you don’t make the most of what God’s given you, God will be terribly disappointed with you, so much so that God might banish you to “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Well THAT doesn’t sound like Good News! HOW is this “Good News” for so many of us that are not top-of-our-class, overachieving workaholics? Have we done enough, and are we doing enough to earn God’s love?

Quite simply, that cannot possibly be the point of today’s story. We do not earn God’s love. God created us out of love and holds us in love, which means… we never have to earn God’s love (which is great because we’re messed up and can’t possibly do enough to earn our way into a relationship with the all-loving Creator of the universe). Also, we never have to wonder if God loves us. Never. God always loves us. Always.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is clear on several points:
1 – God made us and loves us. (Genesis 1-2:4, John 3:16-17)
2 – We are saved now and forever by God’s loving grace, not by anything we have done or could do. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
3 – Over 300 times the Bible tells us to not fear or be afraid. (Luke 8:50 is one of my favorites)
4 – Jesus minced no words when He shared the Great Commandments in (Matthew 22:34-40): love God, love yourself, and love others.
5 – As we’ve discussed in prior weeks, Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven in here-and-now terms, as a way of life and as an environment we need to be actively striving to create throughout our lives.

The question becomes, how can this story help us better understand and live into loving God, ourselves, and others in our quest to create the Kingdom of Heaven here and now?

Our Bible Study group really wrestled with this text and everyone offered a different way of understanding what this text may have meant to the original audience and what it might mean to us today.

One understanding is that we should make the most of the gifts God has given us. Paul offers two lists of “spiritual gifts” in 1 Corinthians 12. These lists are great tools to help us understand that God created each of us with different skills and abilities (i.e. talents) which we are to use with others for the benefit of all – it’s a team thing.
I’m fine with this interpretation IF we understand the final verses as God drawing our attention to people who are currently suffering. Who has society deemed unworthy of love and acceptance due to poor performance? Who has society rejected and cast out? Who do WE need to be seeking and finding so that we can offer them God’s redeeming love? These are not rhetorical questions!

Another understanding I’ve heard from multiple sources is that the rich master represents societies that demand people gain all they can no matter how they do it or the price others must pay for such gain. In this scenario, the third servant not only refuses the pressure to conform to society’s demands but also confronts the source of corruption. The third servant sacrifices his own safety, security, and personal gain by speaking truth to power. Repeatedly, Jesus sacrificed His own safety, security, and personal gain by speaking truth to power. How might God be calling us to do the same?

One of our church’s leaders offered me a very different interpretation, which I have never seen nor heard before, but I think it’s worth pondering. What if Jesus used the third servant, the one who buried the gift they were given, to reprimand the Jewish leaders for not investing wisely to expand their faith communities. Considering that Jesus directed some of His sharpest, harshest words to the Pharisees and Sadducees, this certainly seems plausible. Only days earlier, in Matthew 23, Jesus spent the entire chapter ripping those leaders up one side and down another.

Jesus ends His tongue-lashing with this comment “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” (Matthew 23:37). The next time you see a hen with her chicks, think about how God works to shield us from harm, how God tries to gather us close.

A common thread running through each of these three interpretations is social justice. Jesus’ story prompts us to ask… Who is afraid? Who is rejected? Who is suffering? These are not rhetorical questions!

Jesus calls us to do more than just sit comfortably at home and pray for them. Jesus calls us – as we are able – to find them, connect with them, and share the Good News that they are loved, they are welcomed, and they have a place and a role in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Our church’s future, and I would assert every church’s future, depends on all of us, each and every one of us answering Jesus’ call to action. When we, individually and collectively as a faith community, understand the gifts and talents God has given us and use them to welcome, include, and encourage those who are fearful, rejected, and suffering… THEN we will truly fulfill our role as the bearers of the Good News of God’s love.

Amen? Amen!