Readings
1
Thessalonians 5:1-11
Now concerning the times and the
seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you.
For you yourselves know very well that the day of God will come like a thief in
the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden
destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman,
and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that
day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and
children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.
So then let us not fall asleep as others
do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and
those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us
be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the
hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining
salvation through our Saviour Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we
are awake or asleep we may live with him.
Therefore encourage one another and
build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
Matthew
25:14-30
“For it is as if a man, going on a
journey, summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them; to one he
gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his
ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off
at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the
one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received
the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s
money. After a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts
with them. 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.’ His master said to him, ‘Well
done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things,
I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
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.’ His master said to
him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a
few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your
master.’ 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; so I was afraid, and I went
and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master
replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! You knew, did you, that I reap where I
did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 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. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one
with the ten talents. 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. As for this worthless servant, throw him into the outer
darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
***
Will you pray with me? Generous-hearted
God, open our human hearts to receive all that you want to give us today; bless
our hearing and speaking and doing, so that all our works and prayers may be a
blessing to others, and thus acceptable in your sight; in the name of your
child and our friend, Jesus Christ, amen.
What do we do with what we have? How do
we spend or use what is ours—our money, our possessions such as our home, our car,
clothes? How about our friends, our families—how do we treat them? Do we get
all the use we can out of them and then toss them aside like a used Kleenex?
That might be OK for clothes or a car, but not people—nor ideas or emotions or
relationships. We feel a responsibility for those, don’t we? We know that how
we treat people and feelings matters.
The talents Jesus is talking about—in
the parable, a talent is an amount of money, a lot of money—a year’s salary.
Imagine someone giving you a year’s income, all at once—a lot of money. Now, the
first two servants invest the money they are given, and so get a return, and have
something to give their master when he comes back—even though there is some
risk involved, as with any investment. But they take that risk; and for both of
them, their investment doubles. Now that last man—he buries his talent, rather
than risk losing it. And yet what happens? He’s the one who is condemned, who
did not do what he should have done.
This parable is where we get our modern
meaning of “talent;” people over the centuries have understood that Jesus is
talking about our gifts—the skills and capacities and abilities God has given
us. It matters what we do with them, whether we use them or do not use them.
How many of you have heard of sins of
commission and sins of omission? A sin of commission is when you do something
you know you should not do—steal, for example. That’s a sin of commission—you did
something, you acted, you “went with it.” Commit comes from the Latin, ‘com
mitteo,’ to go with something or someone, to act or to do. A sin of omission is
when you do not do something you know you should have done—ignored an
opportunity to help someone, perhaps. You did not “go with,” you did not act or
do—‘om-mitteo,; in the Latin. And that third man, my friends, committed a sin
of omission. He had the opportunity to use the gift he was given, and he did
not; instead, he fearfully hid it away.
Notice that he is the only one who says
that the master is harsh and unforgiving—the others don’t seem too worried
about the master’s reaction, because they both risked large sums of the
master’s money. If he was as harsh as the third man says, would they have run
that risk? I don’t think so—they had much more at stake than the third man, and
if he was really as harsh and cruel as the third man says, would they have
risked so much money, run the danger of his fury for an even greater loss? It
sounds to me like rationalising—that third man wanted an excuse not to do
anything, he was afraid of risking anything at all.
We all are given talents by God, and in
different measures. Maybe we have only one talent or gift or skill or ability;
maybe we have two or three; and maybe we have six or eight. The question is not
how many do we have, but—what do we do with them? By the way, this applies to
finances too—it is not how much money you have or give, but what you do with
it….
By the very fact that we are given this
gifts, we are also given the responsibility to do something with them, to use
them, and to use them for good, as the first two men did, and as the third man
did not.
A tremendous tragedy was revealed at
Penn State this past week. We do not know all the details, we probably never
will—and that’s OK, for the sake of the victims. I am not here to say who is
wrong is and who is right, or where the fault lies. But it raises urgent
questions about responsibility, doesn’t it?
To those whom much is given—athletic, creative,
or musical skill, leadership of a nation, university, corporation, church,
spiritual sensitivity, a calling—much is expected—honesty, reliability, respect
for justice, courage. Somewhere along all the line, this seems to have failed
in State College. If some people in authority knew of something—and it seems
that they had to have known something—why did they not report it to the proper
authorities? When momentary expediency or fear or arrogance take the place of
justice and protection of the helpless, in other words, responsibility—simple
humanity has flown out the window.
If someone suspected something, it
should have been acted upon—not reported up the authority chain, but action,
and follow-up and protection. As clergy, I am what is called a mandatory
reporter in many of the states of the US--everyone is a mandatory reporter in
Canada, as you know. If I even suspect abuse of any kind, I must report it—by
law. I don’t really require the law, I would report it in any case, but the
fact remains that somehow the system broke down in Pennsylvania. Someone didn’t report what they should have,
or someone didn’t respond as they should have, or someone didn’t follow up, or
a combination of those.
I am not trying to be the judge
here—that is up to someone else. But I do want us to see the point here—people
who had responsibility, who had gifts and skills—of leadership, teaching,
guidance—did not use those skills as they should have. It seems clear that some
people knew there was a possibility of child abuse, and yet they did not act on
it. Those who did not report or follow up on what they knew or suspected bear a
heavy burden of responsibility; they may have allowed further abuse.
A lack of responsibility for the gifts
they were given. Most of us don’t face situations as horrendous as that in
Pennsylvania. But nonetheless, we do sometimes abdicate responsibility for our
skills, graces, gifts, talents. We decide we are too tired, have too much else
happening, are too important, too poor, too rich… to do whatever it is. There
are other things that are more important, or safer, or will give us more
prestige or a better reputation. In effect, we bury our talents, whether we
have one or many. We bury them.
Whatever our gift or talent might be, we
have a responsibility to the One who gave it to us, gave them to us, to use
those gifts and talents properly. To do otherwise harms us and others. I don’t think we need to look any further
than Pennsylvania to see the results of gifts misused.
You all know what your talents are—your
gifts00and if you are not sure, let’s talk. There are spiritual gifts
inventories available online, and we offer one as part of our membership
classes. What gives you energy to get up in the morning? What keeps you working
when the others go home? What pulls you to sing or dance or cook or study or
create even when you are tired or have other things to do or the other people
in your life have other things they want you to do? You know what your passions
are—that is where your gifts lie. Use them—use your gifts, your talents—don’t
bury them. God has given them to you for a reason. Finding that reason,
learning how to use your gifts in God’s service, and then doing so—that is the
responsibility of God’s gifts to us.
Do not bury your talents. Use them. In
all God’s names, amen.
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