Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
22. Sunday after Pentecost, 11/13/2011
Sermon on Matthew 25:14-30, by Frank C. Senn
Like many congregations at this time of the year, we're in the midst of our annual stewardship campaign. Pledge cards and time and talent surveys have been given to or mailed to our members. They've been asked to consider their response and place these forms in the offering plates in next week, on Christ the King Sunday.
So it seems that our Gospel reading today about talents is quite appropriate! Of course, the talents mentioned in Jesus' parables are not the things you can do as volunteers in the congregation, like singing in the choir or sitting on the congregation council (although the use of the word "talent" in the English language came from its use in this parable). The talents in the parable are money-large sums of money. Some scholars estimate that a talent was the equivalent to fifteen years of wages.
In Jesus' story there was a wealthy businessman who needed to leave town on an extended business trip. So he singled out three of his servants and handed his funds over to them. One of the servants was given five talents, another two talents, and the third one talent-to each according to his ability. This businessman handed over an enormous amount of money to these three servants-the equivalent to 120 years of wages. He obviously placed a lot of trust in these servants. The first two servants traded, took some risks themselves, invested, and doubled what had been entrusted to them. But the one talent servant dug a hole and hid his master's money.
Now we might think that that was a stupid thing to do. Playing the stock market or even investing in securities can be risky. You might lose your money. We all know about the ups and downs of the stock market over these last two years. But bury your money in the ground? That's like putting it under your mattress. Not only doesn't it earn anything, but it's not safe. My immigrant German grandfather used to keep his money under the mattress because he didn't trust banks. One night a thief broke into his house, hit him on the head, and took his money. So the businessman properly chastised this "wicked and lazy" servant and gave his one talent to the guy who had ten. Moral of the story? Use what you have-for the sake of the kingdom, of course.
But I'm not happy with a moral. Jesus didn't tell his parables to make moral points. This is parable number two out of three in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew that are placed under the heading, "The kingdom of heaven will be like this." Last week, if we had not observed All Saints' Day, we would have heard the parable of the ten maidens who were waiting with their lamps to greet the bridegroom, who was delayed until midnight. Five of them were foolish enough not to have an extra supply of oil, and had to miss out on the wedding banquet while they went to find some. Next week, on Christ the King Sunday, we will hear the parable of the last judgment. This parable of the talents, in between the other two, is also about living in anticipation of the coming again of Christ and the final judgment.
So far so good. But what about the businessman, the master? The servant with the one talent said, to justify his inaction, "I knew that you were a harsh man." The servant describes the master accurately considering what his response is. Do we expect Christ to come again as a harsh judge?
The description of the man in the parable is of a person who violates all of the expectations of a proper Israelite. He is a profiteer who seeks to benefit at the expense of others. The Letter of James 2:6 provides an early Christian attitude toward the rich: "Is it not the rich who oppress you?". This master does not seem to be an appropriate model for Christ, if that is who he is supposed to be.
So, says the one talent man, "I went and hid your talent in the ground." Customary law provided that since burying a pledge or deposit was the safest way to care for someone else's money, if a loss occurred the one burying the money had no responsibility. He did the right thing.
The master responded, "you ought to have invested my money with the bankers." But to invest money at interest is clearly in violation of the Torah, if the one to whom the money is loaned is an Israelite (this law is clearly set out in Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:36 f.; Deuteronomy 23:19 f.). Since Jesus would have been talking within an Israelite context, the master's complaint is not that of a proper Israelite. He was not following the law of Moses.
The phrase, "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," is a proverb found in other contexts in the Gospels (see Matthew 13:12; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18; 19:26). It is a common maxim, like our saying, ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer'-a more or less cynical comment on the injustices of life.
Moreover, the parable, as it is presented, reflects the interests of the elite landowners, who were probably not among those who made up Jesus' audience. In the world of the first-century Mediterranean society, seeking to make a profit at others' expense was morally wrong and brought dishonor to those who sought to gain riches in this way. In that world it was the third servant, the one who buried his master's money, who did the honorable thing. Yet, there's no doubt that he does not gain approval, either from his master or from us.
So what's going on here? I think the long and short of it is that Jesus has once again taken a familiar scenario (just because the master was not a strict Torah-observer doesn't mean he didn't represent ordinary practice!) and used that situation, with which his hearers would have been familiar, to make a point about living in anticipation of the coming kingdom of heaven.
The problem with the one talent servant is that he did nothing with what had been entrusted to him. Whether it was out of complacency or laziness, or fear of failure or punishment if he should make a mistake, the servant did nothing. He buried the trust. He hid it under a mattress. The irony is that by being so cautious not to lose the talent, he ended up losing everything. Use it or lose it.
I doubt that there's anyone here who would be sympathetic to that one-talent servant. Most of us do some investing, whether it's a small or a large amount. Many of us use brokers. If you have two brokers who, through shrewd trading, have doubled your investment while the third, simply out of fear of losing it, buried your money in low yielding instruments not even keeping pace with inflation, you would be a fool not to get rid of that broker and turn your money over to the one who had been most successful. Since that's what we would do, none of us should be shocked that the master takes what had been given to the third servant and gives it to the first.
The social scenario of the parable is definitely about making money. But as with all of Jesus' parables, an ordinary activity of life is used to illustrate what the kingdom of heaven is like. So what is this "talent" really all about?
It has to be about gifts God gives us to use in the service of his kingdom. Those gifts may very well turn out to be "talent" in the way we usually use that word. One talent may also be the ability to make money. Some people have that talent; I definitely don't. But I think that a common commodity given to all of us for life under God's reign is the gift of faith.
Like the talents in Jesus' parable, some people have great faith and some people have little faith. Jesus says to the pagan woman who wants him to heal her daughter, "great is your faith." He says to his disciples, "You of little faith." We have different amounts of faith, but it's all the same thing. Faith is trust in God's word of promise. It is acting in the light of God's trust in us.
I think the challenge of this parable is to make use of this gift of faith: to invest it, take risks with it, trade with it, so that it grows in us and extends the blessings of God's kingdom to others.
We have been entrusted with a great treasure-new life under the reign of God. It comes from the One who made an awesome investment in us, the investment of God's own self in Jesus Christ, entrusted to us through the Holy Spirit. It comes from the One who is the great risk-taker.
If ever there was a risky thing to do, it was the risk God took in sending his only-begotten Son into the world to live among us, to be crucified, and to die in order to save us. God does not play it safe. God risks all to gain all. Can we who have the risen Christ as the warrant of our salvation do less than take in hand the treasure entrusted to us, boldly investing it, knowing that God has every confidence in us?
This great Giver risked everything for us. He also took the risk of entrusting his gifts to us. What have we risked for God? What have we ventured for his mission in the world? Have we used the talent we have been given to the glory of God? Where have we employed our faith lately?
This parable is a clear statement about the economy of life in God's kingdom. To the extent that we invest ourselves in God's reign, we will know the joy of God's favor. We will "enter into the joy of our master." To the extent that we bury the gift in the ground, we will one day discover that it has been taken away from us. We will awaken unsure of what we are committed to or if we are committed to anything. Faith employed, engaged in and invested, grows. Bury it and it is taken away-along with our master's approval. Amen.