Göttinger Predigten
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Pentecost 24, 11/19/2017
Sermon on Matthew 25:14-30, by Beth A. Schlegel
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no 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 answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
This is a tricky text for English speakers, because when we hear the word “talents” we automatically begin to think of skills and creativity and what we can do. While “talent” in this sense may have something to do with today’s parable, I’m not sure it plumbs the depths of what God means for us to hear in this Word.
All people -- believers and unbelievers alike -- have talents and wealth which they use for great good, and certainly believers in Jesus Christ are expected to use their lives in service to God and others. But we must always realize that in the realm of human resources -- skills, talents, and money, we will always be in a diverse group with unbelievers, as well.
But Christian believers have more than just themselves and their collective ideas and skills -- we have been entrusted with something unique.
- more precious than the “talents” given to the slaves in the story, for those talents were a sum of money worth 15 years’ wages
- We have received from God that which is uniquely his -- his Word, Jesus. No unbeliever has that talent -- that gift. No matter how much good a person is able to do, one does not have God’s Word unless God himself gives it. It is not a general quality of humanity -- it is a precious trust from God.We receive this trust in Baptism, when God places it into our ears and onto our tongues and into our hearts. We live as members of his body, whose life depends upon it, and God puts his Word into our minds and into our hands.God puts his Word into our ears and hands and hearts in order that we, to whom it has been entrusted -- might proclaim it to others.This is simple, but not easy.Jonah was entrusted with God’s Word to the sinful city of Nineveh. But he knew that God reaped a harvest where he did not plant and so he ran the other way -- like the slave with one talent, he tried to bury God’s Word in the ground, to leave it unpreached. He tried to return it to God like an unwanted gift. Jonah was again entrusted with God’s Word – and he did not run away, but invested it in the people of Nineveh. We, too, are entrusted with God’s Word to invest in the people of the world Children are commanded to honor their parents because parents are given this sacred trust -- the gift of God’s Word to hand over to their children. When I don’t, I exclude myself from the very life which God wants to give me, just as Jonah in running away from God ran right into the jaws of death. And just as the one slave who buried the talent found himself in the place of darkness.The parable of the talents is a parable about choices. Two slaves chose to invest the money to gain interest. They put their gift to work. One slave chose to bury it, run away from the power of the gift.God has promised that his Word will not return to him empty. Whenever we invest the gift of God’s Word -- whenever we speak it to someone else, it will return interest to God. When Jonah preached God’s Word to Nineveh, the whole city fell on their knees and repented of their great sin, and God had mercy and saved them.What wonders God does in his Word! By his Word, we are saved. By his Word, we live.Today, God again entrusts us with the “talent’ of his Word, Jesus. Let us find ways this week of investing that gift so that others might know Christ and the joy of forgiveness in him and the kingdom of God might increase.Invite someone to come to worship with you next week.Be merciful to someone as God is merciful to youTeach Sunday School We cannot pretend we have not been entrusted with God’s Word without betraying our own unbelief. Remember -- it is God whose trust is it, and God will also bless our investment of it in others. God’s Word abides forever!Amen
- And let us Learn from Jonah -- we cannot run away from God;
- Whatever opportunity God provides for us to speak and live his Word is what we are to do as those whom God has entrusted with this most precious of God’s riches..
- Sit with a family with young children and help them
- Read the Bible at home with your family, or a neighbor, or a friend.
- Today, God again places his Word in our ears and on our tongues and in our hearts and on our minds, that we might reach others with his love.
- Once a person is old enough to get herself to worship, then the responsibility shifts more directly upon one’s own shoulders. As an adult, it is now my responsibility, as one to whom God’s Word is entrusted -- to get myself to worship, to bring myself to the altar for Communion, to seek opportunity to read and study the scriptures, to tell others of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ.
- Parents have an initial responsibility with regard to their children, particularly because the children depend on the parents for love, food, transportation, and the like.
- But the whole congregation is entrusted with this gift, to help parents and godparents carry out their responsibility, to assist young children in worship, to bear with them and to show them, in love, what it means to worship our God.
- How else will they learn of God’s love?
- Every time a baby or young child is baptized, the parents and godparents and sponsors are given a solemn responsibility -- to bring the child to worship, to teach him the 10 commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed, to place the Scriptures in his hands and provide for his instruction in the Christian faith.
- -- to tell the world that all is not lost, that Jesus is risen from the dead, that God is merciful, that sin must stop.
- But it was Jonah himself who became buried, in the belly of a big fish. And there he learned the power of God’s Word -- to raise the dead, to save the lost, to forgive sinners.