Risk for Gain

Here is my sermon from 11/13. I'm getting further behind. Sorry.

Chapters 24 & 25 of Matthew’s gospel are called Jesus’ Eschatological Discourse. Eschatology is the study of the end times, or the end of the present age and the coming of the age to come. In other words, in this section, Jesus is telling the disciples about his return and about how to live during the time between his death and resurrection and his return. Of course, at this point they don’t really know about his death and resurrection yet.

One of the themes of this series of teachings and parables is absence, specifically extended absence or delayed return. Last week we read a parable about a wedding party awaiting the return of the groom. His return was delayed and 5 of the bridesmaids ran out of oil while the other 5 brought extra. Today we will read a continuation of that teaching, or perhaps a commentary on that parable.

Matthew 25:14-30

Jesus continues the theme of extended absence and when we read these stories as Jesus teaching about the end times, we can look at them as instructions on how to act while Jesus is away.

This passage is commonly known as the parable of the talents. It is a story that is probably familiar to most of you. You’ve probably heard a few sermons preached on this passage. Actually, I used this passage for the first sermon I ever preached. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find that sermon, so I had to write a new one.

The problem with Bible passages that are very familiar to us and we’ve heard preached several times is that we tend to think we know the verses and know what they say to us. So we tend to tune out and when we do that, we miss things. We assume that we’ve learned what we can from that story, so we just hear the same things we’ve always heard.

I had that problem the first time I preached this parable. I was taking part in a Lay Speaking class and we had to preach a 5 minute sermon based on this scripture. I read it and as I did I read about a man giving money to 3 servants. 2 servants invested it, used it, and it grew. The other buried his, ignored it. I read about 2 servants who used their talents, their gifts, and one who didn’t. Because that’s the way I’d always read that story, or heard it preached. So I sat and tried to figure out how I could preach about these talents and the one who wasted his and was punished for it.

Then I decided to read a different interpretation of the passage. I had a copy of The Message, so I read it from that version of the Bible. As I read this familiar story in fresh words, I heard it in a way I’d not heard it before. It took on a new meaning. Let me read it from The Message.

As I read, I realized that the 3^rd servant is not punished because he didn’t grow the investment. He is not punished because he failed to use his talents or gifts. It’s a matter of risk. He played it safe.

We are called to take risks for God. We are called to step out in faith and risk failure. To risk losing.

The mission statement of the North Alabama Conference of the UMC is “Every church challenged and equipped to grow more disciples of Jesus Christ by taking risks and changing lives.” And that is our calling. We are called to make more disciples, and the truth is, we’re not going to do that by playing it safe. We’re not going to fulfill that mission by sitting back and wait for people to come to us. We’re not going to make more disciples without trying.

As I prepared for this sermon, I re-read the parable. As I read, and read a few commentaries and what some other preachers had to say about the passage, I heard this passage in a new way again. I found a new meaning, a new truth.

There are a couple of traditional teachings of this passage. One deals with money. Some have used this parable to say that if you give, you will receive. There is truth to that message, but it has been perverted over the years. It has become the backbone of the prosperity gospel. “Send me money and God will make you rich.”

It has also been taught as a call for us to use our gifts and talents. If we don’t use them, they will be taken away. If we use them for the kingdom, we will be blessed. Again, I can’t really argue with that. Even though the story actually is talking about talents as a way of measuring money. Some linguists think that our word ‘Talent’ actually got its meaning from this parable.

But here’s another take. What if we look at allegorically? Let the characters and other elements of the story represent something else.

It’s easy enough to see the Master in the story as Jesus. Then maybe we can see the servants as disciples. Either a few of the original disciples of even as ourselves. But what about the talents? What about the money he gives them?

Well, when Jesus left, what did he leave? What did Jesus give his disciples to invest? What about the Gospel. The good news of Jesus’ message. Remember before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told the disciples to go make more disciples and teach them all that I have commanded you. The gospel. The good news of the reign of God, a new way of life.

Maybe the story could go like this (by the way, I borrowed this retelling from Anna Carter Florence who is a preacher and a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary):

A man—let’s call him Jesus—was going on a journey. He called his servants—let’s call them disciples—to him, and entrusted the gospel to them. To one, he gave stories; to another, he gave compassion; to a third, he gave the bread of life and the cup of salvation. There were other disciples who got other things, but we’ll concentrate on these three. Then Jesus went away.

The disciple who got the stories went out and told them, and soon there were five other disciples telling those stories. The disciple who received compassion went out and offered to someone else, and that person became a disciple, too, and she went on to give that compassion to others as well. But the disciple who had been given the bread of life and the cup of salvation dug a hole in the ground and buried them.

After a long time Jesus came back, and he asked his disciples to come and tell him what they had done with what he had given to them. The first two disciples told him about the stories and the compassion, and they introduced the new disciples, and those disciples introduced still other disciples that they had made. Jesus was very pleased. "Well done, good and trustworthy disciples," he said to them. "You have been trustworthy in a few thing, and now I will trust you with many things. Enter into my joy!"

Then it was the third disciple’s turn. The third disciple told Jesus, "Master, I knew you were a harsh man. I knew you reaped where you didn’t sow and gathered where you didn’t scatter seed. I was afraid—of messing up, of not getting the theology right, of what you’d do to me if I did—so I went and hid the bread of life and the cup of salvation in the ground. Here, you can have it back."

But Jesus replied, "You wicked and lazy disciple! You knew, did you, that ‘I reap where I do not sow and gather where I do not scatter’? Well, if you were sure of that (where did you get that?!), you at least should have taken the bread of life and the cup of salvation to the church, and let them figure out what to do with it! Then when I came back, at least we would have some broken bread and those baskets full of leftovers!"

Jesus continued, "Take the bread and the cup away from this disciple and give it to the one of the others. For all those who have the good news, even more will be given to them. But from those who have nothing—because they have buried my gospel in the ground!—even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless disciple, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! Then, bring him back to church next Sunday and we’ll start again."

So this is how we are to live while we wait for Jesus’ return. We are not called to bury the gospel, to hide it from the world. Or maybe we could use another image. Maybe we can think about the image of the church with closed doors. Because if we keep the gospel in this room or in this building, then we are burying it. We’re hiding it from the world instead of taking it out and sharing it. And if we hide it, we’ll never make new disciples.

Instead, we need to open our doors to the world. But just because we open the doors, doesn’t mean that people are going to come and hear the gospel. After all, there’s no risk in opening the doors and just preaching a little louder.

But if we get out of here and take the stories and the compassion and the bread and the cup to the world, that takes risk. In order to do that and do it well, we have to take risks.

What does that risk look like? That’s what we’re going to figure out together. That’s what we’ve been working toward for a few weeks. How can we step out, trusting God, and take risks so we can change lives.