Sermon for November 16th, 2014

Matthew 25:14-30

14 “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15 to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17 In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18 But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 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.’ 21 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.’ 22 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.’ 23 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.’ 24 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; 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 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? 27 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. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29 For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30 As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The Parable of the Talents

As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. What a great place to start a sermon, right? Fortunately that's the end of the scripture passage, not the beginning.

On the surface, this seems to be a parable about investing, and at one point in the parable, Jesus does mention bankers and interest...so... I couldn't resist one quick banker joke, with apologies to JM, our resident Bank President (of whom we are very proud!).

A man went to see his banker one day and asked him, "What's the best way to go about starting a small business?" The banker thinks about this for a moment, and then replies, "Start a large business and then wait six months."

You know, of course, that old bankers never die. They just lose interest.

The parable of the talents is one of three parables in Matthew 25, which is part of the last message Jesus gives to his disciples near the end of his ministry. Like the master in this parable, Jesus is about to leave, and also like the master, he plans to come back again.

So the master, we read in verse 14, "summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them." In Greek, there is no distinction between a slave and a servant: The word δουλοσ is the same for both. I trust that none of you have or are slaves, so although the NRSV translates this word as "slave" I'll be translating it as "servant" to keep it just a little closer to our own context. As I mentioned in a sermon last month, we are all servants, in one way or another.

The master entrusts his property to the servants. But the word translated as property comes from the Greek word υπαρχω which means to be, to exist, to possess. So what he entrusts is not just his possessions, but his very existence, the essence of himself. That's a lot of trust. If the servants were to squander or run off with what they've been given, the master would be completely ruined on his return. Basically, he gives them everything, and that should give you a hint as to the character of the master. He himself is taking a risk. He leads by example.

The first question that modern readers usually ask when reading this parable is this: How much is a talent? It's obviously currency of some sort, and as it turns out, a talent was the equivalent of 80lbs of silver. Think about that when you think about the servant who buries his one talent in the ground. That's a pretty big hole.

A talent was worth 6,000 denarii, and one denarius was a day's wages. So one talent was approximately twenty years of labor, or calculated using today's minimum wage, about half a million dollars. Servant number one in our parable turned 2.5 million dollars into 5 million. In other words, forget the servant gig--today he would have a nice job offer waiting for him at JM's bank!

0. Parable isn't about money. In a parable, things represent other things. 1. What you get out of church, faith, spirituality...is dependent upon what you put into it. Ora et Labora. Don't just say magic words (salvation prayer). 2. Not everyone is dealt the same hand in life. But God's praise (and hence eternal reward) is identical for the 5-talent servant and the 2-talent servant. 3. None of the servants got instructions. They were expected to know the master's wishes by knowing the master. 4. If you perceive the master as harsh and unfair, your perception might influence your reality. 5. Fear paralyzes. The last talent is the hardest one to invest.

οκνηρε - does not mean lazy. It means hesitating, unready, timid