TALENTS
The parable of the Talents is one that lots of people have heard but it’s often
misunderstood.
It’s got quite a violent ending which was one way Jesus used in his stories of
getting people’s attention.
But the thing I usually first notice is how the guy who does least well, and who
gets into trouble, is the guy that has the least. He’s the one who’s been given
only one talent. So it’s easy to feel a bit sorry for him.
But we shouldn’t really. The word ‘talent’ originally meant a very large sum of
money indeed.
Each servant was given big money to care for. The one talent that the poor
soul got was the equivalent of 1000 gold coins.
To put it into perspective, in Jesus’ day that would be more than a labourer
would earn in 15 years! And that’s the guy who is given the least!
When Jesus told the story he was telling people about a situation that would
be beyond their wildest dreams.
A parable is a story with a hidden meaning. And so it’s rarely about the thing
that it seems to be about.
For example, Margaret Thatcher actually tried to suggest this was all a
serious point Jesus was making about money and investments and banking,
but then it wouldn’t have been a parable!
We all know the English word ‘talent’.
The TV programme promises that “Britain’s Got Talent.”
Our talents are our gifts and skills and abilities.
But this meaning of the word “talent” actually comes from today’s parable.
Over the years, priests and preachers and teachers have tried to explain what
this story means and they have said that the talents in the story really
represent our gifts and abilities. And so successful has that explanation been
that the word has changed its meaning and this is what we understand when
we say a person has a ‘talent’.
In the story the first two people put the money to good use, whilst the one with
the one talent just buries it - literally!
When the master returns, he is pleased with the first two servants, but angry
with the third.
The third servant explains that he was afraid to use it, and thought he should
just play safe in case something goes wrong and the master is angry.
Well it turns out the master is angry, but he’s angry because the servant
hasn’t even made an effort.
There are a couple of messages we can take from this story for today.
First up is the most obvious.
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In this world we are on an uneven playing field. We are not all the same.
When it comes to life, things aren’t shared evenly.
For a start, we are born into different situations. If we live in the rich north we
will have more chance of a comfortable life than if we live in the undeveloped
south.
Added to that, some of us will be lucky and others unlucky.
And some of us are blessed with many and obvious skills and gifts, whilst
others aren’t.
Does anyone here enjoy watching Formula One racing?
Neither do I.
There’s a funny thing that happens in these races.
Before the race there is a time trial to determine each car’s starting position.
There’s not enough space to let everyone begin on the same starting line.
What happens is those that are fastest in the time trials get to go first. The
others have to queue up behind.
And so the first lot have an enormous advantage.
They just have to hope they don’t break down along the way and that no one
has improved dramatically enough over the last couple of days to overtake
them.
Life is unfair.
In recent years there is a message that goes out to kids – no doubt to inspire
and encourage them.
“You can do anything.”
That’s such a stupid thing to say.
No you can’t!
We can be more.
We can do much more than we tend to assume.
We are capable of great stuff.
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big.
There are adventures out there just waiting for us.
But we can’t do anything.
We cannot do anything and we can’t do everything. The secret of life is doing
the best with what we have.
Your job is to be you. My job is to be me.
This is even transferable to church situations. One of the most famous church
pastors in the USA is Rick Warren. He has a church called Saddleback
Church with thousands of attenders.
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It’s worth pointing out that he spent literally years working out where to start
his church. And he waited till he found an area where there was an explosion
of new homes and buildings, where there were no other churches, and where
most of the population were pretty affluent young families and began a new
church that was geared completely to those people.
And not surprisingly, it took off.
Now most churches don’t have the luxury of planning for years before doing
anything. Most churches are already here in a particular place and in a
particular setting.
We are here in Langside in the south side. We have a very particular area to
serve, and that includes looking after people of all ages.
We can’t be Saddleback Church even if we wanted to.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t grow.
It doesn’t mean we can’t become more effective.
But our job is not to be Saddleback Church. Our job is to be Langside Church.
And to be all that God is calling us to be.
The second message from this story of Jesus is that we all have a gift to offer.
Every one of us.
Maybe we aren’t as clever as this dog playing the piano. (picture appears on
screen)
I even know human beings who can’t play the piano.
In fact, I can’t play the piano!
But we all have something….
We need to recognize just who we are and what we have.
And get rid of that negative voice within us that tries to say we are not good
enough.
There’s a minister called Martin Copenhaver who wrote about a time when he
went on a weekend retreat with elders from his church.
They started talking about the part in 1 Corinthians when the church is
described as a body, and that each person is a part of the body – a part of the
whole.
He asked them all to think about what their spiritual gifts were, but it wasn’t
going too well. What people were good at expressing was listing the gifts they
didn’t have.
So then he suggested they do something else.
They should stop thinking about themselves and talk instead about the gifts
that the people sitting beside them had.
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‘After a brief pause someone said, “Liz is an ear. No doubt about it. When my
husband died there was Liz. She sat with me and listened, and through her
listening she created a quiet peaceful place for me to be myself and work
through my grief.”
And Liz replied, “Who me? It wasn’t anything. I didn’t do anything. I just
listened.”
“And John here,” someone else said, “I think of him as a strong right hand.
Whenever we go to the homeless shelter he is the one who hauls everything
in and out of the van and stays late to sweep the floor.”
And John said, “Who me? I always do that because I don’t feel comfortable
doing other things.”
The conversation went on like this for some time. Everyone had a gift. No one
was lacking but most of us were surprised to learn what others saw as our
gifts, and even more surprised to learn how others saw those gifts being used
in ministry. Oh, nothing here, we all protested…but when we are bound
together, we become the body of Christ the church, strangely equipped for
ministry. And no one would have guessed it.
No one has all the gifts…that is why we have each other.’
(M Copenhaver: To Begin at the Beginning p96f)
We all, every one of us, have a gift to bring.
Our messages so far – the world is uneven, but we all have gifts.
The final message is perhaps more surprising. It’s a call to us to be bold.
Here is a challenge to all of us.
In the story, the man with the one talent was scared to do anything
adventurous in case it went wrong and in case that his master would be
angry. So rather than risk anything, he would just play safe.
The message from God is that God doesn’t want us to play safe.
Even if things go wrong, God will still be on our side.
We need to be bold.
Boldness because we are capable of so much more than we think.
Boldness because we know God is encouraging us to be so, and God is not
some tyrant waiting to bring us into trouble.
It’s like that scene in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when God
appears to King Arthur and his knights.
And of course God is a cartoon man with a beard and a crown and he literally
appears through a cloud.
He’s about to give Arthur an exciting mission – the adventure of seeking the
Grail, but he starts off by complaining to Arthur about the way people are
always grovelling before him, apologizing, saying “I’m not worthy,” and singing
dull songs.
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Now the Monty Python team are just looking for a quick laugh in that scene
but there’s more than a little truth in here too.
If our relationship with God has to do with grovelling, or our image of God is
one of someone we must fear, then we are getting it badly wrong.
God calls us to adventure.
When we were building the new church we met regularly with the company
that was overseeing the project.
A man called Kenny who worked as a surveyor took the lead in the
negotiations from their end. There was an architect who had drawn up plans
for the new church and we were happy enough with what we saw.
One day, however, the architect wasn’t there and Kenny introduced another
colleague called Julie. She is going to take over as architect now.
Now Julie seemed very nice. But I wasn’t sure I wanted her to be the
architect.
For one thing she looked as if she was barely out of school.
We began our first meeting by walking around the remains of this building and
Julie seemed most concerned about avoiding the puddles. When we settled
down to our meeting, Kenny spoke at great length and Julie sat in silence
never opening her mouth.
Then finally he said, “I’ll let Julie speak now about the drawings.”
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. Serves me right for pre-judging her.
I’ll never forget what happened next.
She suddenly produced a bunch of drawings which she unrolled across the
table, and her opening words were these:
“The trouble with your plans is that they aren’t exciting enough!”
And Julie gave us great ideas about how to make our building more exciting,
more interesting, more inviting, more pleasing. The round garden room at the
entrance with all the windows was one of her suggestions.
And it meant us being a bit bolder and more imaginative, and boy has that
paid off!
We’ve got a great building that everyone raves about. And this building makes
what we do that bit easier.
But the church isn’t really a building - it’s us, the people – it’s our worship and
our projects and our plans.
“The trouble with your plans is that they aren’t exciting enough.”
Could that be said of our church?
I think it could be said of so many churches.
And the story from Jesus today is an encouragement to go further, to risk
more, to be more adventurous, and (dare I say it) to risk something failing for
the sake of the gospel.
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Our job is not to preserve an institution or prop up a tradition. Our job is to
share the best news of all with people around us many of whom don’t even
know what it is.
In God’s service we are being encouraged to take a risk, go out on a limb,
start something new, think big, do something exciting.
We are being challenged to refuse to settle for ordinary, dull, routine and look
instead for excitement, adventure and creativity.
God is on our side. God calls us to adventure. God calls each one of us to be
the best that we can be.
And God calls Langside Church to be bold in the huge adventure of
sharing the gospel,
in creating a fellowship and caring for others,
in standing for justice and peace,
and in helping to shape a kinder world.
So here’s three truths from today’s parable….
The world is uneven.
But we all have some gifts and talents.
And God challenges us as individuals and as a church, “Go For It!”
Matthew 25: 14-30
November 23 2014