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Use It
or Lose It Matthew
25:14-30 This past week it was announced that ComSat and AT&T, two communications giants, would likely merge. When they tried unsuccessfully to merge two years ago, it was to have been a $78 billion dollar deal. Now, if it goes through, it will be a $27 billion dollar deal. Can you believe that? That's how much value has been lost in those stocks in the past two years. That is enough to scare anyone off from investing. As a child, I recall the grownups as being clearly marked by the Great Depression through which they had all passed. They were very careful with a dime, and made the effort, at all times, to preserve the material goods that they had so that those goods would last as long as possible. Hardly any "everyday, regular" people invested in the stock market. Everybody was quite careful in spending, keeping and increasing. Very careful. I can almost imagine my mother, or our next-door neighbor, receiving the talent in this morning's Gospel, and burying it. Let's clarify what the talent was and what was happening in this Gospel narrative, because in this story, as in many Bible teachings, we have a genuine teaching as to how to live our lives. The Master in the story, who is going on an extended trip, entrusts to three slaves three different amounts of money. The slave who received the smallest amount of money was scared of his boss, and in order not to take any chance of losing the boss's money, buried it and kept it safe. For all we know he went out each evening and dug it up to make sure it had not been removed. When the Master returns he is exceedingly angry with that slave for not having at least put the money in the bank where it could have earned some interest. The slave is severely punished, which seems, at least to me, to explain why he was afraid of the Master in the first place. You might say that the slave had a "depression mindset," as did so many grownups during my childhood. Afraid of losing, they played it safe. Many did, in fact, keep their money under their mattresses rather than put it in banks, for they had seen banks fail. Like the slave with one talent's worth of money, they were cautious, perhaps to a fault. One thing
worth noting is that there were three slaves: one who was so scared of
the boss he couldn't really function well, and two others who didn't seem
to have this problem. They did their investing or trading with good success.
This scenario reminds me that if we see God as gracious, loving and tender
we will respond to God in one way; and if we experience God as harsh and
unforgiving, we will respond another way. I grieve for those who are raised
and trained to spend their lives afraid of a judging and harsh God. The timid
behavior of the slave in question is understandable. But the reason that
Jesus told this story, I believe, was to help us understand that to serve
and follow him we must use what we have been given by God. We must believe
and understand that God has a REASON for giving us gifts and skills
and moneymaking ability. I believe that this story is the ultimate statement
on stewardship in the entire Bible. We find other forms of this message
to us in such words as, "let your light so shine before men that
they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven;"
and the advice about putting our lamp out where all can see it rather
than hiding it under a bushel basket. Stewardship
is a word similar to evangelism: it may mean different things to different
people. Here's my definition: Stewardship is 1) identifying the gifts
God has given us as unique individuals; 2) developing those gifts through
experience, training and education; and 3) proceeding to use those gifts
in ways that further God's work on earth. What are
your gifts? How can we know what our gifts are? Well, let me define a
gift: a gift from God, I believe, is something that is useful to others
(and so ultimately useful to God); it is something that flows easily from
us but not so for many others; and it is something that when we do it
we feel good about doing it and we usually feel good as we do it. We also
may find that when we exercise our gift, people are grateful, and we find
ourselves wondering what the big deal is because it is so easy for us.
Often, if
we enjoy doing something it is because we do it well. Or we may wonder,
do we do it well because we enjoy it? A gift from God does not have to
be big or dramatic. Whether one of your gifts is working with numbers,
or being good at listening or practicing hospitality--you will usually
find that you do it well, easily and with enjoyment. Child prodigies are
a good example. When a young child plays the piano so well that he or
she is invited to perform in Carnegie Hall, that is a God-given gift.
Artists cannot be effective unless they are gifted in the art they practice.
Another teaching
of this parable is that we all have different gifts. I can speak in public
and enjoy doing it, but my brother-in-law has to take a special blue pill
to get through a training presentation at his workplace. But he plays
a really good game of golf and I gave up golf in my twenties for the good
of my own blood pressure, as well as that of others. As children we often
try to emulate those we admire, when actually we need to become more ourselves,
not more like someone else. We all have different gifts. And then
there is risk. If we know what our gift or gifts are, we have to be bold
enough in some cases to change careers or take some other kinds of chances.
The slave in our Gospel reading was condemned pretty much for being afraid
to take a risk. In the outstanding
motion picture by Stephen Spielberg called Saving Private Ryan,
near the end of World War II a soldier who is grievously wounded, says
to another soldier, "Make it count." He was asking those who
lived through it all to make it worthwhile when they got back to life
in the United States. So identifying
our gifts can be important. Some are lucky and know what they want to
do with their lives almost from the beginning. Others are still searching
in mid-life. And still others never ask the question. One way that
some have found the gifts that change their lives is through others pointing
out what they see as gifts in that person. Sometimes we have a gift but
we are blind to it. A very special gift is to be able to discern gifts
in others and to have the courage to tell them about it. How much impact can it have to be told you have a certain gift? Well, perhaps that varies from person to person, but let me tell you two little things that have happened to me. First, when I worked in the home office of a life insurance company, I applied for a life insurance policy on my own life. One day, wondering how the underwriting process was coming along, I walked down to that department and looked in the file on me. I found myself reading my own Retail Credit Report. Now perhaps today we all know that we all have the right to read such a document, but back in those days it didn't happen often that one got to read what others were saying about him or her. You see, these reports didn't just report on your credit rating; in many cases, the investigators also interviewed your neighbors and co-workers. If you party every night and carouse until 4 a.m., you just may not be a good insurance risk. Well, what I saw that I recall some 35 years later is that the report said that I was a very careful and courteous driver. And guess what? In the years that followed I was very aware of my driving, and strove consciously to be careful and courteous. Then there
was the morning that a lady was coming out of St. Thomas' Church in Mamaroneck,
New York. I had been Rector there only a short time. As this lady shook
my hand and told me that she had enjoyed my sermon, she said, "Reverend
Kolb, I hear that you are really good at pastoral care. Mrs. X said you
were so helpful when you went by to see her last week, and I have heard
it from others." Well, all that was news to me, but in the years since I have consciously concentrated on emphasizing pastoral care in my ministry and have gotten a lot of satisfaction doing it, and have gotten lots of good feedback about it. That comment that morning was very instrumental in forming my ministry to others in the past 20+years since. So we come back to the slave who got severely fussed at. And why? It looks like what he did wrong was not to use what he had been given to use. It looks as though we are to take from this reading the idea that we, too, are given gifts from God to use, and that God is pleased when we use the gifts we have been given. A gift unused is a gift wasted. A gift unused is missing an opportunity to be part of carrying out God's Will. For it is in this way, by distributing gifts to God's people, that God gets work done in the world. May each of us be part of God in discovering and using our gifts. Amen. Copyright 2002 Calvary Episcopal Church Gospel:
Matthew 25:14-30 |
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