Sermon for Sunday, August 12, 2007

TAKE A RISK

8^th in a series on Tell Me A Story: The Subversive Parables of Jesus

by

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: Matthew 25: 14-30

 ¹⁴ "For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them;  ¹⁵ to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.  ¹⁶ The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents.  ¹⁷ In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents.  ¹⁸ But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.  ¹⁹ After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.  ²⁰ Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, "Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.'  ²¹ His master said to him, "Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'  ²² And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, "Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.'  ²³ His master said to him, "Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'  ²⁴ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, "Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed;  ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'  ²⁶ But his master replied, "You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?  ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.  ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.  ²⁹ For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.  ³⁰ As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

We have said in each of the sermons on Jesus’ parables this summer that there is usually a surprise or a shock in these subversive stories from Jesus, and that happens at the end of this story. The master who has returned is so unhappy with the servant who has hidden his money in the ground that he takes the money away and condemns the unfaithful servant to the “outer darkness”.

What is the error, the failure, of the third person in Jesus’ story? What does he do wrong? We will see in a moment.

Jesus begins the story by telling us about a master who gave three of his employees uneven amounts of money to be in charge of. Why are the amounts uneven? We don’t know exactly. Part of the story says that the distribution was done on the basis of their ability. The first point may be that the distribution was uneven and their abilities were uneven.

Is that true to your experience so far—that people show up with different abilities and with unequal  advantages and disadvantages. Some are born with many material advantages and do little with those advantages. One person talked about that in baseball imagery—a man who was born on third base and thought he had had hit a triple! And then went on to do little that was good with all the gifts he showed up with.

Others show up in life with some disadvantages and seem to use very well the gifts and abilities they have. Our family saw the truth in all of those statements last weekend when we were in Kansas City for the annual convention of the National Down Syndrome Organization where my wife Judy is a national officer. We were with 2000 other persons—families of persons with disabilities and also with 300 persons who have Down syndrome. It was clear that even among that population there is enormous diversity. Our son Todd has some reading ability but there were other young adults present who have gone to community college or who have their driver’s license or who own their own homes.

One of our favorite stories was from Karen Gaffney who was on a relay team that swam the English Channel in just a few hours. She not only has Down syndrome but she also has a physical disability related to her hip joint. She does not walk as well as most of us, and still she swam for an hour at a time—two times—to help her team accomplish their goal. Her next goal is to swim across Lake Tahoe on her own and she is training for that even right now.

The people in Jesus’ story were given different amounts to be in charge of, to be stewards of, to manage and make a difference with, and so are we. We don’t know exactly why the amounts were different but that is so like our life experience as well. 

Secondly, in Jesus’ parable, the one who gives the gifts expects that each servant will do something with those gifts! Make a difference! Put their gifts to work. That is what most of us have heard if we have read or listened to this story before. It is unfortunate that in many translations of the Bible we read about the master giving the servants a certain amount of talents. The word in Greek does not mean what it does for us. For us it means an ability like playing piano or teaching or singing and the lesson we got from the story is that we are not to let our abilities, our talents, go unused.

It is a good lesson but it is not enough and it misunderstands the main point Jesus made. In Jesus’ time, a talent was a measure of money. It was a huge amount of money! One talent equaled sixteen years of income for the average worker in ancient times!! It was an enormous amount of money. And that is just one talent! The first servant was given five talents, the second given two, the third given one sum that again equaled the money he would earn over a sixteen year period!! And they were given that money to manage by someone who had a harsh reputation and whom they feared.

That last word—fear—is the key to why Jesus tells the story: fear cannot be part of the abundant life that Christ comes to offer us.

Look at the excuse the third servant gives: “I was afraid and I hid your money in the ground.”

I WAS AFRAID! That is the failing of the third servant. I was afraid. It is OK to be afraid—but letting that fear take over our lives is the opposite of faith.

In the Bible, doubt is not the opposite of faith. In the Bible, fear is the opposite of faith.

In the Bible, faith can even contain some doubt as well.

In one of the gospels, Jesus is asked to heal a boy with epilepsy. Jesus talks about faith with the father of the boy, and the father of the boy says, I do have faith—but can you help me where my faith falls short? Jesus does help him of course. Other translations say, “I do believe—help me with my unbelief.”

The point is that faith and unfaith show up together in the Bible just as they do in our own lives. In the last few verses of Matthew’s gospel, right after Jesus has been resurrected, the eleven disciples go to meet him in Galilee where he gives them and us the great commission: go into all the world and create disciples of mine. Right before that Matthew says that when the eleven saw the risen Christ, most of them trusted him but even then some of them doubted.

In the Bible, doubt is often mixed with faith—just as it is for us. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Fear is.

In the Bible, fear is the opposite of faith. If fear has hold of our lives, we cannot be people of faith.

Jesus is in a boat with his friends crossing the Sea of Galilee. A storm comes up quickly as they are crossing. The disciples are terrified. Jesus is asleep. They wake him up and they shout, TEACHER DON’T YOU CARE THAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT TO DROWN!!

Jesus woke up, calmed the sea and asked all of them a very pointed question:  Why are you afraid. Do you still have no faith?

It is the question he could have asked the third servant. Why were you afraid to take a risk? Where is your faith?

It is the question he asks you and me: why are you afraid? Where is your faith? Is your life being controlled by fear or by faith? Do you think you can go through life without taking any risks? It will not be much of a life.

Let me ask a question about the third servant in the parable: what do you think would have happened in Jesus’ story if the third servant had taken the money he was given and had used it, risked it, but lost some of it. What if he tried to put it to work and did not succeed in the way the others had in multiplying it?  What would the owner have said? Would he have commended the servant for at least taking the risk? What do you think? That can be your discussion question for the day.

We need to read this story for the morning along with the parable from two weeks ago where Jesus commends a steward for being wise or shrewd or prudent about planning for his future in a crisis.

There are times to be shrewd and prudent. There are also times to take risks. I think of our church’s deliberations five years ago when we felt called to establish a youth ministry outpost that would reach adolescents who might never come to church but who needed a belonging place, a safe place, a place of fellowship and acceptance. We formed the LIFEspot team. We debated this decision in several meetings. We took a risk by signing a ten year lease on a storefront. We knew there were kids who might be on the fringes and who might never come here to church but who needed caring adults in their lives.

It was a risk. We did not know how it would turn out and it is still developing after its first three and a half years of operation. Patrick Scriven whom we honor today is part of the success of LIFEspot the past two years. But it was a risk.

And other things we do as a congregation and as individual followers of Christ will mean that we risk.

Where is that place in your life today that you need to hear this story about fear and risk? Where have you been letting unreasonable fear (some fear is reasonable!) control your behavior? Where do you need to hear the message of Jesus that says, it is time to take a step of faith. Make a difference with what you have been given. Don’t let yourself be dominated by fear. Take a risk.

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