Good Morning Friends,
I am always looking for opportunities to nudge others to experience new ways to serve God. Parables can help us in this regard. But actions too. Sometimes I will prompt others to experience the multiplying effect of God’s love by giving a specific person a $20 bill with the contingency that they must give it away within the next week and tell me about the experience later. Now this is a lot less than the talent given in today’s parable. If the talent was gold, we are talking about at least $1.4 million in today’s money!! That is a life’s wages. Still the whole $20 exercise is very practical but if we are talking about more than $1.4 million it becomes paradoxical too beyond an example of earning merits. Sure, we may analyze what has been blocking us from giving more and perhaps discover a right thinking about priority spending. But let’s be honest. This parable appears in the lectionary now before Advent and during the stewardship season to prompt a question about trust. So, How Much Spiritual Risk Capital Are You Thinking About Investing?
Scripture: A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31 (NRSV)
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 the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, ‘There is peace and security’, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor 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;
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 (NRSV)
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish.
Ephesians 5:25–27 (NRSV)
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves 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 slaves 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 slave; 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 slave; 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 slave! 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 abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:14-30 (NRSV)
Message: Today we look at a Parable of Jesus. Some gems for daily living about a good wife that I hope you link to an image of the ideal church. And a couple letters of Paul’s concerning the urgency of preparing for Jesus’ return and how Christ loves the church. Together they give us a 3-D picture of the importance of stewardship from the perspective of Wisdom literature, the Gospels and the letters to churches. Let’s start with the Parable from Matthew. It is not as famous at the Parable of the Prodigal Son nor as tender as the Parable of the Lost Sheep or as comforting for truly helpless people as the one about Lazarus and the Rich Man, but it is I think one of the most practical ones Jesus ever told but also one of the most paradoxical. Reading it one way can lead us to apply to how we live our lives today and how God acts and reacts to us and how we act and react to Him with the joy we have been given. But there is a problem with this approach alone, especially if you are an American Indian and we are talking about Manifest Destiny. At the core of the Parable Jesus understood that we have a lot of hang-ups about money and emotions. And to demonstrate this, Jesus tells a story where I think he portrays both Master and Slave. Now don’t let this derail you. This is not necessarily an either-or proposition but can be an and-both reality that is really very common in describing Jesus. For example, he is both Prince and Pauper. He is both Human and Godly. He is both Lamb and Shepherd. He is both Gift and Cost. So today we might look at how to open the gifts we have been given and hopefully realize the tragedy of never fully unpacking the gifts for investing in Kingdom service but also dig a little deeper in our understanding of the message Jesus offers in the reality our world is a messy place and sometimes requires strategic resistance. Friends, throughout the scriptures Jesus challenges us to invest and reinvest in the Kingdom. But there is more than one way to do that, and I think it is played out in today’s parable of the Talents. So, before you rush to say how it is a bad thing to bury the Talent, remember that usury in the Jewish culture was frowned upon and it was typical to bury money. In fact, it may have been the most honorable behavior. The problem I have with the passage is that the Master in the scripture seems to be a bit overly generous at the onset unfair to the least of the investors. And the context of the scripture to follow and the historical events surrounding its telling help us to see the passage in a different way. Still, we can gain from both understandings of the passage. For, I am not sure if the man with one talent was resentful and a God blamer or if the accusation of reaping where the Master did not sow was directed at the corrupt economic and religious institutions and people of the day. Maybe he was not a lazy slave. So, there are lots of ways of reading this parable. After all it is a parable. But if we are honest, I would suggest that we might suppress this understanding of Jesus being the honorable one with the one talent in the parable because it conflicts with our economic culture. Reading this parable as a wonderful support for the capitalistic system of big business might be a serious problem. Perhaps we are serving ‘two masters” with that interpretation.
And So, we live in a wealth based not honor based culture where some try to shame people into behavior they see as best. We are divided as a nation in how we interpret these things financially and morally. It is a sickness. We live in a society where the lack of money is the greatest of all sins. But there is more than one way to help provide Kingdom returns and often it is exercising restraint in order to help create reforms. But ultimate this too is not to be an either-or proposition. We are to do this together not alone and starting at home. Today’s Proverb makes it clear that if a man and wife do not have their home in order then they cannot help the work of the church of God. Here the good wife, like the good church, deals honorably with all, and she has much pleasure in doing so, and shall rejoice in time to come; for she is free of anxiety and worry. She shall reflect upon it with comfort, when she comes to be old, that she was not idle or useless when she was young. In the day of death, as she is about to go home with the Lord, it will be a pleasure to her to think that she has lived to her prescribed godly good purpose. Here the imagery and symbolism of marriage can also be applied to Christ and the body of believers known as the church. We see the urgency of investing now in Paul’s letter to the church of Thessalonica. And in Paul’s letter to the Church of Ephesus we see Christ, the Bridegroom, has sacrificially and lovingly chosen the church to be His bride. So too we are to love the church of Christ as we love ourselves and as a way of carrying out our purpose as followers of Jesus. We are called to be good stewards and to give as we would in marriage and sometimes that means restraint but always resilience investing in the Kingdom for those things worthy of being called valuable…namely the love and life we have been given by God.
Pray we keep a focus on Jesus. Pray we do not make the wrong assumptions about God. Pray we invest our life to glorify God. Pray we remember God’s standards are often different than ours. Pray we trust God. Pray we believe that with God’s help we can make a difference. Pray we invest our life courageously in the work of the Holy Spirit. Pray we realize that Jesus is the Master of wise investments. Pray we realize that the placement of God in the story of the talents as the character having power and privilege may be the wrong interpretation. Pray we contemplate today’s passages with clarity. Pray we use the money and resources we have but also pray that we do so ethically. Pray we lose our sense of certainty on exactly what the parables in the Bible mean and instead realize that there can be many truths discovered within them. Pray we do not try to serve two masters. Pray we are not double minded. Pray we realize we ultimately own nothing. Pray we realize we depend upon God. Pray we realize that if God was not generous and gracious, we would not be able to live. Pray we experience the abundant life. Pray we roll up our sleeves and get busy. Pray we realize that we all are supposed to be on the same team with the same goal: to build, provide for, a community of love in a spiritual family with God. Pray we invest now in relations of love in a community of grace. Pray we become more trusting. Pray we become more generous because to whom much is given, much is required. Pray we learn to merge ideas and actions in new ways of glorifying God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 