"Gifts are for Sharing" - Sermon for Nov 19th

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us talents to risk.

            When I was in high school there was a contest on the cover of Sports Illustrated to win a Jeep. I entered! And I was all convinced for a little while that of course I would win. I thought about all the things I’d be able to do, I looked up accessories for Jeeps. I think the same thing happens to people who buy lottery tickets, the assuredness that they will win. This will be the one.

            That’s pretty close to what happens in our gospel this week. These three servants get 5, 2, and 1 Talents each. A talent being a unit of money worth around 20 years’ work. At the current US Median income of around 50,000 dollars a year, each talent is 1 million dollars today. This is not about rich vs poor in terms of money or gifts, all three get a crazy amount of money. And it also means that the one with least does indeed have the resources to double his money like the other two. And yet he doesn’t. And he’s called out by his master about it.

            This text isn’t about stewardship or money. And it’s not about the first two slaves or servants. The other two both invest or traded and made double what they started with, and they are both congratulated in the same way with the same words. The one with 5 talents is not congratulated more, so it’s not about how much you make, it’s not about your return on investment, it’s all about using you’ve been given not how much money you’ve made.

Unfortunately you will see if you look at various televangelists, give me money and God will give you double back. And it’s not about that the third guy didn’t have any return on his investment. This text is all about the fact that he didn’t do anything with what he was given. He goes out of his way to not do anything with it, and his master tells him, it’s not even hard! All you had to do was give it to the bankers and I’d have been happy.

            When we look at this text, we see that we too have talents, gifts from God, that God asks us to use in the world. And that means taking risks. Jesus connects this to last week, as he tells the two parables back to back. Last week we talked about how Christ calls us to always be prepared, and then further into how being prepared means doing God’s work in the world. By adding this parable after Jesus tells us, How we prepare ourselves is enacting and using the gifts, the talents, God has given us.

            Our question then is, why doesn’t the third servant use his talents, or maybe even why don’t we use our talents at times? Because he is afraid. He has a false fear of the master, everything we know about the master is that he is willing to entrust unheard amounts of money to people, that does not seem like the actions of a cruel mean person. The third servant thinks the master is though, I was afraid, so I didn’t do anything with them. He can only see the fear of failure that he has created for himself.

            How often do we do that? How often do we hold back because of fear of failure? How often does the thought that others will judge us keep us from using our talents? How often do we look at what others are doing and think, I can’t do that, so I won’t do anything? How often do we behave like the third servant and think God will judge us if we fail? Because the servant can only see his fear, he acts as if God can only see his failure. His motivation becomes only fear of judgement and failure.

            People of God, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to risk using your talents. God is not a God of judgement and failure, God is a God of resurrection, of new birth, of forgiveness, of love. It’s not about what your return is, it’s about whether you used your gifts. The precious gifts, the talents, that God has given you, because God see that you are capable. Because Christ has died and was resurrected we no longer need fear failure. Because of what Jesus does on the cross we can take risks with our talents in God’s world. That’s what this text is about. Because we are freed through Christ. We can therefore use our talents to care for the least in the world, we can take our lamps into the dark places, enter the places where we are needed and God calls us.

            It’s Thanksgiving this week, one of the things I always like to do as a family is do the ABC Thanksgiving game. Taking turns you go through the alphabet and mention things you are thankful for that start with each letter. A I’m thankful for apples, aunts, aardvarks, b thankful for baseball. I encourage you to do that this year. But, I want you to consider adding something else, part of the problem with fear and gifts and talents is that we are often not aware of our gifts, or we don’t trust that we have them. We see that God calls us to take risks with our talents in the world for our neighbors, but we don’t see what our gifts are to do so. So, in connection to the Thanksgiving game, I want you to tell the people you love what their gifts are. I want you to tell them what their talents are. I want you to give thanks for the abilities of others. Are they good at welcoming people? Are they good at empathy and caring for those who are fearful or grieving? Do they teach or raise children? Do they have a craft talent? Sewing? Woodworking? Painting? Writing? Do they smile at those who need a smile? Do they treat those around them with respect and care? Do they see that others are children of God? Tell them.

            People of God, this week, be thankful for who you are, a beloved child of God claimed and saved through the death and resurrection of Christ, be thankful for what God has giving you, your talents and gifts that are of use in God’s world, and be thankful for Christ who allows you to take risks because of the love of God found through him. Amen.