Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 25:14-30

November 19, 2023
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

With all the troubles in the world right now – wars, and climate change, and political division in our own country and more – it’s a hard pill to swallow to watch or read the news these days. We come to church wanting a break from all the bad news.

Then this is what we get in today’s gospel passage: “As for this worthless slave [who out of fear hid the talent given to him by his master], throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

I end each Sunday’s reading of the gospel with a confident acclamation: “The gospel of the Lord!” Today, I wanted to replace the exclamation mark with a question mark: “The gospel of the Lord?” That is to say, where’s the good news in today’s gospel?

So, let’s begin our treasure hunt to find the good news in today’s readings, feeling as we generally do the weight of the ways in which we and our world fail to live up to God’s high expectations of us, for many and perhaps most of us might identify with the cautious servant who let fear dictate his actions – or failures to act.

So, to begin our hunt for the treasure of the gospel, let me say this in no uncertain terms: the parables of Jesus are not self-help guides for better living. Which is to say, today’s parable is not a prescription for shrewd Wall Street investment strategies. It’s not a recipe for taking risks to make more money and get rich quick.

No. Jesus’ parables are stories that describe the qualities of the dominion of God. They point first and foremost to what God does in Christ Jesus who begins God’s reign through his ministry of preaching and teaching and healing and above all in his dying on the cross and his rising from the grave.

So, with a focus on Jesus in mind, how might we understand today’s parable about the talents? The man going on the journey might be viewed as Jesus himself, whose death, resurrection and ascension became a journey back to God in the heavenly places.

The divine figure in the parable entrusts all his property to the slaves, the disciples, if you will. That is to say, we who follow Jesus are entrusted with God’s abundance in Christ. And while no specific instructions are given about what we are to do with the talents, the expectation is that they would be used prudently until the master would come again. Hence, the affirmation upon the master’s return concerning the two slaves who doubled their number of talents: “Well done, good and trustworthy slave…. Enter into the joy of your master.”

But then there’s hell to pay for the slave who out of fear and with an abundance of caution simply dug a hole and hid his talent to give it back to his master upon his return. “You wicked and lazy slave!” the master exclaims. Clearly, again, the expectation was that the talent should be used and not just hidden away.

We get this sense of the danger of squandering our wealth, our talents, our abundance, also, in today’s reading from the prophet Zephaniah where the prophet speaks the word of the Lord: “At that time [that is, the day of the Lord’s judgment] I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who settle like dregs in wine, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will the Lord do harm.’ Their wealth shall be plundered and their house laid waste.” (Zephaniah 1:12-13a) Settling like the dregs in the bottom of the wine bottle is an apt image for doing nothing with what has been given to us by taking God for granted….

So, where does this find us on our treasure hunt for good news? Are we any closer to discovering the gospel in any of this?

Again, viewing the parable with Christ-colored glasses, we can indeed acknowledge the good news that God in Christ showers us with abundance. A talent in ancient times was the largest unit of measurement. One talent was worth 6000 denarii. And a denarius was one day’s wage for a laborer. So, one talent would be the equivalent of perhaps 15 to 20 years’ worth of wages. One talent was a lot. Two and five were far more.

So, God’s gifts to Christ’s followers are overflowing in abundance. And we’re not just talking about money here. The English word talent, as in skills and capabilities, derives from the ancient word for the unit of measurement. When we’re talented, we’re abundantly gifted in various ways, which are charisms, or gifts of the Spirit to us, given to each of us according to our ability.

And what are God’s gifts to us? Grace, mercy, forgiveness, salvation, healing, compassion, generosity and more and more. And all of these blessings are rooted in the gifts abundant realized in the death and resurrection of Christ. And God lavishes these gifts upon us in the bath, the washing, at baptism, and again at the table in feeding us with Christ’s very presence in Holy Communion where the bread and wine impart all the blessings of Christ to us. And then there are the gifts of God’s word in the scriptures and our engagement with those texts which are a bottomless reservoir of the abundance of the gifts of God’s wisdom. And then, too, we enjoy the gift of Christian community in the church and our holy conversations with each other. All of this makes us talented indeed!

Moreover, these many gifts generate our faith, that is to say, our being found to be trustworthy – or trusting – servants of our master, Jesus Christ. And in this faith, we view our master, our Lord, as the source of our lavish gifts. This trusting view is very much in contrast to the slave who in his mistrust, his faith-diminished stance, viewed his master as a harsh man, assuming that he was one who reaped where he did not sow and who gathered what did not belong to him. This misplaced trust is what resulted in the fear and caution that led him to dig a hole and hide his talent. It’s ultimately the absence of faith, the lack of trust, that resulted in the condemnation of finding himself banished to the outer darkness.

So, it seems we have good news and bad news so far, the bad news being that languishing in the outer darkness is the condition of being without faith, without trust in the goodness of God. It’s a self-imposed kind of exile it would seem.

Thus, the treasure hunt for more good news continues. So, expanding our explorations, let’s venture forth into today’s second reading in 1 Thessalonians where Paul writes of the day of the Lord, the return of Christ, a day of apparent impending doom and endless night. Paul offers words of reassurance, words of good news for all, those who are awake and even those found asleep without faith awakened: “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… So, then, let us not fall asleep as others do…. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord 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.” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6a, 9-11)

Whether we are asleep or whether we are awake, we will live with Christ. That gives me hope that even the servant with the one talent who was asleep in fear and caution, who had dug a hole for himself and his talent, would one day be awakened in faith and trust to return to the light of day, emerging from that outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. The promise which Paul expressed gives me hope, because I am more like that cautious servant than the others who were bolder risk takers. Thus, it seems to me, we end up with good news, with gospel, even for that apparently wicked, lazy slave. Which means there’s good news and gospel for all of us! Thanks be to God.

And in faith, trusting in God in Christ, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, and equipped with the abundance of talents with which we have been entrusted, we are freed from fear and can now throw caution to the wind to use our talents for the good of all, not to enrich ourselves or a harsh master, but to trade with others who also have talents.

And together with others, a kind of synergy is created that makes for more abundance, a commonwealth, for all. For generosity tends to beget more generosity. And with such an abundance of talents, of spiritual and other gifts, together we serve our neighbors in need and promote God’s justice for all people and all of creation.

So, when it’s all said and done, there is indeed good news to be found in today’s readings, good news desperately needed in our world overwhelmed by such bad news. Our search is ended. In Christ Jesus, we have found our treasure, the gospel, and in that treasure chest we discover again the abundance of talents that we generously get to share with everyone else. Thanks be to God. Amen.