What You Do With What You Have

Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Theme: “What You Do With What You Have”
22nd Sunday After Pentecost
November 13, 2011
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Jesus Christ, at yesterday’s presbytery meeting in beautiful downtown Waxahachie, Texas, was acclaimed, by one of the prayer leaders, as a “universal Savior.” At face value, that’s wonderfully good news – for you, for me, and for the universe. If you accept life on life’s terms, if you read the newspaper enough or been an observer of current events, then you might conclude that the universe needs a little saving – if not, a lot! There is, for instance, the possibility of Iran nuking up. Then there’s the European financial crisis that has caused our money markets to experience something akin to financial schizophrenia – up 200 points one day, down 380 the next. And our universal Savior, never one to deliver dry lectures to yawning groups of people keeping an eye on the clock before the Cowboys game, told stories – parables they are often called – that arrested peoples’ attention, entertained them, illustrated the issues of their lives, delivered hope, and, at the very least, gave them something they could think about as they went on their way.

Today’s story from our universal Savior, the parable of the talents, is part of a grouping of tales that Jesus told that were related to the future. There’s a fancy theological term operative here, “eschatology”, which refers to the “eschaton”, or to the “last things”, or to the end. But that’s, perhaps, better left for a Bible study. For the time being just know this: at one point He came as a helpless baby lying in a manger. But, as He made abundantly evident in His stories, He was going to come again. And, at the second time around – or the “second coming”, if you will – there wasn’t going to be any more helplessness or vulnerability. It will truly be universal; it won’t be hidden away in a little nook, or cranny, or hamlet like Bethlehem, or in a little manger bed. The dead will know it; the living will know it; the universe will know it – and that’s going to be that. It’s enough just to ponder the great truth of The Apostles’ Creed: “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” If you don’t like the creed, then at least read Psalm 98 where God is praised for everything and especially for the fact that God will return and judge the people with truth and equity.

Today’s attention-grabbing story has to do with talents. As an aside, I have to remark that there has been a lot of theological gobbledygook based on this story. Congregational stewardship committees enlist this tale as an encouragement to give more to the church and so forth. I can understand that, but I also believe that if a congregation proclaims and lives the gospel as the good news it really is, people will respond accordingly. That way, ministers don’t have to be fund-raisers. Let me pause, at this point, and thank you for your generous response to the Gospel of Christ in this place. Your response to God’s love enables First Presbyterian Church to continue its mission to share the goods news of the Gospel and worship our universal Savior in a wonderful sanctuary and inviting facilities.

More political or economically-minded people like our story today too. Entrepreneurial capitalists love this story and have actually claimed Jesus just had to be a supply-side economist. I mean, look at it. You’ve got three private investors, and two make a nice return – and there’s no talk of government bailouts either. Three cheers for Jesus on that count. Of course, Jesus once told a rich young man to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. There weren’t so many cheers for Jesus among the capitalists on that point.

At any rate, we’ve got this story of a man – apparently a man of some material wealth – going on a long trip. The last thing he does before leaving town is gather his servants together. (We might call them his board of trustees, or something appropriate like that.) Three folks show up. The first one gets five talents. The second one gets two talents, and the third gets one. We are told that the talents were dished out according to the ability of the people for whom they were dished out. Now, the man who had the money to dish out didn’t say a thing to the three servants about what to do with what got dished out. Perhaps it was just understood that they were to take good care of their master’s money.

All three obviously did some things with the money – or the “talents” as they were called. And we’re going to get to that. But first let us consider what they didn’t do. They didn’t skim a little cash off the top to help support their political cause of choice. No “tea party” for them. Neither did fleece a little bit more for travel expenses to get where their like-minded friends were where they were occupying Jerusalem’s version of “Wall Street.” Maybe one of them was an environmentalist and used the money to support the cause “celebre’”. I read recently read of a group called “Environment Canada” that is trying to save the polar bear population and, of course, would love money to support the cause. But there’s nothing about that in the story. The trustees don’t appear to be corrupt. There’s no hint of a ponzi scheme. It all goes to show that when we try to line Jesus up with our political points of view or pet causes, we’re going to end up disappointed in the long run. Jesus is a lot of things, but He’s not a glob of spiritual silly putty that we mold and shape to our liking.

One thing’s for sure: He does like to travel. It’s hard to pin Him down. He is the man in the story who went on a long journey and distributed his money to his servants, “each according to his/her ability”, before he left town.

Now how much was a “talent” in today’s reckoning? A talent is, for starters, a bunch of money, but how much is a bunch of money in this case? If my research is anything near accurate, a talent – rounded up – was worth about one thousand dollars in real money at the time of Jesus. That is huge! If you adjust for inflation to our day, it’s even more than huge. One talent alone, in Jesus’ day, could support a family, a family’s family, and a family’s family’s family for a year or more.
As the story goes, the one who got the five talents didn’t sit around and twiddle his thumbs. The same holds true for the one who received two talents. Instead, on their own initiative, they went out and put their master’s money to work. They didn’t sit around waiting to be told what to do. They didn’t host an “idea summit” to come up with yet another idea that failed for lack of implementation. Instead, of their own volition, they put the money to work. That in itself was a gutzy move because it involved risk. As far as I know, there wasn’t a FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) back then. Neither did they take some cash off the top and hire some security firm to guard the cash while went out and did other things. All this reminds me of a story my dad told some years ago. He and his wife met their new neighbors in California, became friends over a period of time, and, eventually, enjoyed dinner at a fine restaurant. The couple was celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. My dad noticed the beautiful diamond necklace the lady was wearing. My dad was curious about the cost. The 60th anniversary celebrant whispered: “I paid a cool million for it.” Moments, later he pointed to a booth behind them in the restaurant. “Do you see that man behind us?” said the husband. Dad looked and saw him. The friend said, “That’s the security guard from the insurance company. My wife can’t wear the necklace in public without a guard keeping an eye on it. When we’re done with dinner, he’ll take the necklace back for safekeeping.” What do you do with what you have or what you acquire? Do you have to guard it?

Let’s turn again to our story. There’s a whole bunch of money that has been entrusted – put in trust, if you will – to three people. As it turns out, two out of the three see the money as a tool to use to support the cause of the master. Yes, there are risks involved. But what is life and the achievements that come with it without as measure of risk? As it is said, a ship is safe in the harbor – but that’s not what ships are for. Apparently, it was a bull market out there in Jesus’ day. The steward (or trustee) with the five talents got a 100% return on his investment. The same held true for the trustee with the two talents. How would you like it if your savings account, 401K, or investments yielded a 100% return? You’d be riding in high cotton! Even if you were just the trustee and only got a portion of your master’s money due to the agreed upon finance charges, you’d still be riding in high cotton!

But then there’s that third trustee. Like the other two, he did something with this vast amount of money. But instead of putting it to work, he hides it. There was no “bull market” in his future (his pessimism or lack of faith insured that), so it is best to just hang on to what you’ve got. More than that, make sure no one knows what you’ve got. Bury the money. Hide it. Pretend like it doesn’t exist. Go off and act as it it’s another rotten day in paradise. Turn it into a rainy day fund. The master isn’t going to be back any time soon, and who knows what might happen? The master harvests where he has not sown; he’s a hard man to please. His work is far more important than any of my little ideas on what to do with his money.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, and to everyone either listening to this message or will read it later online: either as individuals or as a group, we do not have to be the third man with the one talent.
We may not be the largest church. We may not have all the programs to meet all the needs, spiritual or otherwise, that a needy and scared world is crying out for. We may not have the best track record when it comes to what we do with what we have.
But November 13th, 2011 is a new day, it it not? We believe and love a universal Savior, do we not? On a personal note, I’ve been in big churches, mid-sized churches, and small churches. Person for person, I have never been at a church like First Presbyterian, Denton. We’ve had our troubles, but troubles always happen when faithfulness is operative. It’s the age-old struggle of light versus darknessa, of God versus evil. And faithfulness is operative here. Although small in number and in what some might call influence, I have never been in a church with more dedicated or talented trustees of the gifts of God.

This is a time of year, a prime time of year, to take stock of all the gifts God has given us in trust. This is the time of year when we resolve to set our shovels down because we’re not going to “bury” what we have and run away and hide.
This is the time to believe, all the more firmly, that God has given us all we need as it pertains to life and godliness. Each of us has gifts given according to our ability. They are gifts we hold in trust. We did not earn them. Christ earned them. They are given to us as a gift; this is what grace is all about. They are not meant to sit and collect dust. They are not designed to be covered over with dirt. They are to be nurtured and used – gladly and joyfully – for the cause of the master, the mission of our universal Savior. He is going to come back to settle accounts and look for a return on His investment.

You see, when it’s all said and done, I want to hear something – and I want you to hear the same thing with me. I want to stand with you before that universal Savior that will, indeed, come back. Then, by the grace of God, these are the words I want to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful. Come and share your master’s happiness.”

Amen.