So - What Have you Done Lately?
Matthew 25:14-30
The Lord Be With You.
A parable …
There once was a young girl who was born with a very high IQ. Her score was over 200 which was 60 points above the most notable person considered a genius, Albert Einstein. This girl was kept from the public eye because her parents didn’t want her to be subject to the public relations that would eventually surround her. They were afraid of what it might cause to her childhood. She went to a normal public school and surrounded herself with all the things children do. She played games with her classmates but never let on just how smart she really was. She carried her parents fear with her. However, when she grew up, she also failed to use her wisdom to better others. She failed to help those who would benefit from her knowledge of a vast array of subjects. So she ultimately failed in her first marriage. She ultimately failed in doing anything that would expand her life so others could overcome theirs. She was afraid of the limelight. Afraid of something she did not know was true. Ultimately, this remarkable woman would finally be forced into the limelight when her IQ scores were published. It was only then, many year later, that her knowledge aided her new husband to develop a mechanical artificial heart that would go on to help many others. That and her desire to write on subjects that would impact other people’s lives. She was quoted as saying partly, “I think we all bear a great responsibility to give back to society. We cannot give as much as we can gain.” You see, it was only through living outside her own self that she was able to discover and experience the glorious gift of knowledge that God granted to her and begin to live through herself to others.
Here ends the parable.
Our Gospel asks the question of all of us, “So, what have we done lately?” What have we done that expands our own relationship with the one who created us? The one who gave up His only Son just so we could come together and have the security and confidence that we can live on in eternity forever? What have we done that expands the kingdom of God just like the talents the master gave his slaves? Enable others to receive even a portion of those talents we’ve been given? What have we done with the time that we have left, here on this earth, to lift one another up in ways that will live on even after we’re gone? So, what have we done lately?
With all the holidays coming down on us in a few weeks, it’s gonna be real hard to clear our heads to get a good look at what each gift is the gift each of us really has. What blessings we’ve been given. What talents we can share. It’s gonna be real hard to come to grips with our own mortality because our own pasts are filled with times that we’d rather forget. Our own present is filled with uncertainty because of all the forces that want to drag us down into the depths of deceit. Our own futures are anyone’s guess as to what will be force fed to us. It’s gonna be real hard.
But, sometimes, what we’re faced with is outside our immediate control but, much of the time, all that uncertainty, all that grief, all those memories are things that we have imposed on ourselves. We make decisions that lead into other decisions and, before you know it, undesirable outcomes are the result. Sort of like the slave that hid the talent. Sort of like actions we choose to do in life that end up being imposed on us by others. Sort of like this story I’m reminded of …
I remember a conversation I had concerning celibacy while being a chaplain with the really good looking young man who was studying to become a priest. I remarked to him that he was gonna have a real hard time with the ladies in his parish because he was talented and smooth. But I had to ask him why do people, men and women, agree to be celibate? Where did it come from? When did it start?
He told me that celibacy can be a choice in life or a condition imposed by circumstances and so he related this tale he had heard.
While attending a Marriage Weekend, Frank and his wife Ann listened to the instructor declare, “It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other.”
He then addressed the men. “Can you name and describe your wife's favorite flower?”
Frank leaned over, touched Ann’s arm gently, and whispered, “Gold Medal-All-Purpose, isn't it?”
And thus began Frank's life of celibacy.
Now taking a look at this Gospel brings to mind that in all the years we have recorded history, nothing has changed. In the macro sense, people don’t change. The power plays forced upon us today are no different than those of 2,000 plus years ago. Those that spread misinformation were there, back then. And the people, then, didn’t even have alternative information sources to confirm or deny what was said. To top it all off, the people living then didn’t live as long as we do today so everything sort of got compressed.
Today, it seems that what we do get for information is not that at all but the speaker’s own view point. LBJ once remarked, “If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.'” What we now have is a splitting apart the communities that we are all in more so than in all of memory. And it’s splitting the communities in much the same way as pre-Civil War era did.
But what the people 2,000 plus years ago had was a great sense of community in the micro sense. Many would come together to celebrate. To gather around those in their community and spread the good news so that all would benefit. Many didn’t latch on to that good news as many don’t today but it was there and it spread like wild fire. How else could you explain the 5,000 and the 10,000 that came to hear Jesus speak? How else could you explain the massive growth in the Jesus followers, so much so, that in 325 Rome did a complete 180 and brought all the bishops together to get a handle on all the stories being told and written and compile it into something that you and I can enjoy and learn from.
How else, brothers and sisters, how else could you explain the desire and the directed actions of those who wanted even the lowest of the low, us, to have the words printed so we could use them, learn from them, get and become inspired within them today? In each of those time periods, the people of that time had to deal with much of what we deal with today. Those that grabbed on were the two slaves in the Gospel. Using their talents to create more talents. Using their days to give hope for others to have a better day. Those that turned away, hid from the reality striking them square in the jaw, were the one slave that got cast out. Cast out back into their utter darkness. The darkness that can only be overcome with the light of truth. The truth of Jesus.
The parable of the ten talents, in this Gospel, goes deep and should force us to ask the questions of what do we do with our own gifts. Our own talents. Originally, the term talent, used here, was defined as 60 minae or 6,000 denarii’s or 20 years’ worth of work to the average laborer. 1 denarii was equal to 1 days work and 1 minae was equal to 100 days work. Luke changed the term from talents to minas and each of the slaves were given 10. But, in either way, Jesus was using this great terminology as a value that everyone could relate to in order to point out that what each of the servants were given was valuable.
Specifically, Jesus is using this to point out that each of the talents is a part of our own life. But think of it as a day in our own lives. A day in which we can choose to make it gleam with the light of God and His truths or shrink with Satan’s deceit leaving us in fear. It’s a day that we can meet new people or gather with those we’ve come close to or a day in which we can board ourselves up into our own domains and seclude ourselves away. It’s a day we can choose to read what God has to say or we can choose what this world wants to convince us is true. All of this is what that talent or the minas represents. Not just the money side of it.
And the two slaves that took those talents given to them and multiplied them is Jesus illustrating for the people that God has given you your own tomorrows to multiply too. Or, we can be like the one slave that hid his away and Jesus is clear on the consequences of that too. Jesus points out that while our gift that God has given to us may differ, our opportunities for doing something with these gifts to the world at large and our communities are the same.
Verses 16 and 17 illustrate that no path we go down will be without challenge. A risk. Quite frankly, somedays just getting out of bed is a challenge. And going to the bathroom at night? That’s a risk especially if there’s furniture around and you’re barefoot. But those two verses say that the slaves did not avoid risk and that’s exactly what Jesus is trying to tell us.
We’ll run the risk that someone out there on social media will take offense at the truth. And there might be consequences. We’ll run the risk that what we’re charged to do, minister to others, might be hampered by some edict from up on high. We’ll run the risk that the mob will target us in a manner that makes stubbing your toe at night seem like child’s play. But Jesus is saying, right here, take the risk. Take the gamble. Take a shot. After all, when Jesus comes to “settle accounts” as it says in verse 18, we must be able to display that we have, indeed, been the disciples we were created to be. Not afraid of the risk. Willing to step out and step up.
Matthew 22:37 – 39 says to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. This Gospel harkens on that. The first two loved their neighbors. The last feared God. Not loved Him. It could be surmised that the last servant, who only returned what was given to him, operated out of fear. Operated out of a lack of trust or belief in God. It’s interesting to note that all of the stories in the Bible have more to do with our trust in God rather than whether God is all knowing or not. That asking the question, “Does God know everything before it happens?” is really not the question. That the real question is “Do we have the trust needed to allow God to operate in our own lives?”
Our answers to ourselves will tell us which servant we truly are. Our answers can point to us our patterns of living out our lives. Whether we’re complacent in the church. Content with the same old same old, or whether we have the trust in God to move out beyond these hallowed walls to the community at large to do something, anything.
It could mean whether we’re silent with what’s going on in our communities, in our state, in our government, in our nation, filled with fear and/or busyness so much so that our voice, our talent, is silenced by others or is silent within us, by us, or do we have the trust in God to move us to speak as the Apostles did on the day of Pentecost. Dale Carnegie once wrote, “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
Jesus is asking each of us what have we done with our own talents that support and embolden the love your neighbor part. Jesus points out that it’s not simply enough to “Do” church, we must be the church and that requires us to be the words and the actions of the church that Jesus established. The church is the community in which we are. Plain and simple. The last chapter of Matthew tells us to “Go and make disciples in every nation.” Multiply those talents. Not be the woman in our parable that withholds her gift but spread our gifts so that each and every one can benefit from them.
This Gospel points out that there will be a day of reckoning and it’s here that those that have done nothing with their “talents” or their treasures will receive nothing in return. Those that have buried their blessings so that it remains safe and secure rather than spreading it within the community so that it can grow and multiply will be cast out. Those that have taken the chance with their talents will be given more. Like the woman in our parable, once we step out we can find that what we have to offer will be engulfed by others because almost everyone needs and wants essentially much of the same things.
We’re all waiting for the same thing. The return of Jesus to set things straight. To bring a sense of honesty to our fallen world. What Jesus points out is that since we do not know when that will be, we should spread His good news so that more will come to the realization that His is the only true path that can be followed to receive that eternal reward made in heaven.
Our trust in God with what we’ve been given enables us to be one of the first two in this Gospel and not the last. Our trust in God allows us to see and believe that what He says will happen most assuredly does. Our trust in God allows us to know that He’s trusted us enough to send His Son to take back what had been ruled over by the king of this world, Satan. Folks, we’ve been given many talents. We can use them or store them away. Either way, we will be asked for them when the final days are here. What are you gonna do with yours? When are you gonna start using them? How are you gonna start using them? It’s your choice. Something to think about! Something to pray about?
Can we pray? …
Father in heaven, we pray for your wisdom and your energy to help us get through the trials of each day. As we face uncertainty in our immediate futures, we pray for strength to endure and to be the disciple you meant us to be. Give us the courage to expand our talents so that others may find peace in your words. Give us the ability to go out and love our neighbors as ourselves so that those who are questioning their mission can truly have their eyes open so they can become what you wanted them to be. Father, help us to have trust in you and to be able to give ourselves to you when called. We know that you have our futures well placed. We pray that we can be led in a way that alerts us of your mission for us. Father, help to end these trials we are living through in order to come out the other side stronger in our belief as a result. Father, we pray these things in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ.
And all God’s people said – Amen?!
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