A Gift To Be Used – Matthew 25:14-30

When I was a child in school, I used to be painfully shy. If I had any talents at all, no one ever knew because I was so afraid to use them. I can remember sitting in school dreading that the teacher might ask me to do something or say something in front of the class. It was terrible. Every once in awhile everyone in the class was expected to make a presentation on some subject or another. In one grade I had to make a short presentation on an explorer.     I felt like playing sick so I could stay home from school, but I knew that I would have to do it when I returned to school and so it was only putting off the inevitable. When it came to my turn I just wanted to crawl under the desk. Well I finally got through the ordeal.  That particular explorer that I spoke on made a very quick trip that day even before air travel. It was something like a little piece written by a schoolboy on Benjamin Franklin s life:

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, but soon got tired of that so he moved to Philadelphia. When he got to Philadelphia he was hungry so he bought a loaf of bread. He put the bread under his arm. He met a woman who smiled at him. He married her and discovered electricity. (quoted from Vital Speeches)

It was like that. One teacher told my mother that I should learn something that I could be proud of…like playing a musical instrument. So I was enrolled in piano lessons. Then when I was asked to play at school assembly or at recitals, I still felt like crawling under the desk.

So you see when it comes the sermon and I am no where to be found I tell the  congregation to look under a desk, or a table…I might be there.

Having said all that I must say that I have found since that time that God has given me gifts, some natural gifts that I have had all my life, but that I have been able to develop and use over the years, and spiritual gifts which God has given me for ministry. I also have found that God not only gives those gifts but also gives us the holy Spirit who enables us and strengthens us, and gives us the courage to use them.

If God has not given me gifts, and has not given me the Holy Spirit I could not stand up in front of a congregation. I would  not be able to preach. I could not teach, and I could not facilitate groups , meet with people and so on and so forth.

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God has given us gifts. Life itself is a gift. I is important to recognize the gift. It is important to use the gift. It is important to live the gift…to live life as it was intended.

I think that this is what this parable of the talents is all about. Can you imagine a person giving away to three other people this large sum of money, practically everything that was his and going away. Then when he comes back he doesn’t even wanted it back. He tells the two people who used it wisely, to keep it all and that they have made by using it, and enter into the master s joy. He condemns the person who didn’t use it. He takes it from him. What does he do with it. He doesn’t keep it for himself. He gives it to the one that did the most with it. There is a clear point. You are given gifts to be used. USE IT OR LOSE IT.

Matthew has given us is part of a series of Jesus  parables in this 24th and 25th Chapter of Matthew. Jesus tells these parables as he is going to his death in Jerusalem. He s on his way. He knows he is leaving. He knows that after he dies people will wonder what is going to happen. What will their life be like. How will they act? In all of these parables he says you have to act as if the end of world is right around the corner.

It is odd that when you know that the end is at hand you are likely to act differently. There is a values exercise that we do sometimes with groups. If your house was burning and you only had time to take out one thing , other than your family, what would it be? If you knew that you only had a few months to live, but you were still able to do anything that you wanted, what would you do? Then the next question is: “If that is so important to you, why don t you do them NOW.?”

That is what Jesus is saying here in these parables. Live each day as if the end times are here. As one person put it,

“Live each day as if it were your last. And one day, you will be right.”

How do you really live in the last times? The message of the parable of the talents is: you use everything that has been given for doing Gods work on earth…to work for Shalom, the Reign of God, or as it is also called the Kingdom of God — The reign in which there is justice for all, well being for everyone, there is mercy and forgiveness, there is unity, there is peace, where the love of God is proclaimed and the love of God is experienced, where the love of God will eventually triumph.

That is how we live. That is what we give all our time and energy to. That is what we use all that God has given us for. That is what God expects of us. God does not want us to go and bury it in the sand, or hide it under a desk, or under a table.

When I have talked with groups about this passage, there is almost a consensus that we have a tendncy to still act like the third servant — the one who buried his talent in the ground. If we are entrusted with someone else’s property we would not want to lose it. We want to be able to give it back to the master when he comes back. We don t want to have to come to this master empty handed, and bear the masters wrath. We would act like the third servant because of fear.

But that is what God has done. God has given us our lives and given us God s church, the community, the place where we live, God has given us the earth, the world and entrusted it to us. It’s as if God expects that we will do all that we can to do in order to accomplish God’s work in the world even if we have to take the risk of coming to God empty handed. It is far better than taking all that God has given us and not acting at all.

Some of that is just plain apathy. Some of it is fear….we are afraid to risk, to get involved in God s mission and ministry in the world, because in risking we might lose all.

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Do you remember Junior High, grade seven. The dance floor was a frightening place, even under the best circumstances. The music would start up. I can see all of us boys standing along the wall. waiting! “Who will be the first to go up to a girl and ask her to dance” Who will be the first to dance. The music would be paying and no one would be on the dance floor. Someone would say, “Well we don t come to a dance to dance. We come to take the girls home afterwards.” You think of all kinds of smart things to say. Make all kinds of excuses. You don’t want to be the first one. What if she says “No” — devastation! What if she says YES” that s even worse. And all the girls are thinking, “What if I don’t get asked?”, “and worse, “What if he asks?” During ladies choice we have the same fears. You don’t want to be the only ones dancing. You don’t want everyone to see how you dance. What about all those good dancers? We don t want to look foolish. What if I step on someone’s toes.? The tragedy of it all is that some of us spent the whole dance on the wall and never participated, we stayed like spectators. We didn’t enter into the joy of the occasion — we missed it.

God wants us to cut lose and dance to God s music. Jesus is saying in this parable, stop thinking of yourselves as spectators. He is asking us to join the dance. To leave the wall.. to take the risk.., to do our best to move in step with the music, the music of the kingdom, the music of the reign of God.

To kick up our heels in spite of our hesitation or doubts.

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My daughter Carol is a Yoga therapist, talented singer-songwriter and an alternative health practitioner.

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