Five Talents

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 9/30/18

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^NRS Matthew 25:14 "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.'

I heard a story once of a priest and his parishioners. A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairperson of his parish. The man, manager of a grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: No report would be due for a year, and no one would ask any questions during the year. At the end of the year, he made his report. He had paid off the church debt of $200,000. He had redecorated the church. He had sent $1,000 to missions. He had $5,000 in the bank. "How did you do all this?" asked the priest and the shocked congregation. Quietly he answered, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent and gave it to the church. You never missed it."

Today I want to talk to you about five talents. Now in Jesus day, this was money and a talent was about a week’s worth of wages for the common person. We are talking about a significant amount of money in His day. I wonder if that is all that He is talking about. You see this parable falls right in the middle of Jesus talking about the end of the world, the final time when Jesus is coming again to set the world right. As He often does, He talks in parables so that those who desire to understand will and those who could care less are not easily offended. There are always two main characters in a parable, you and God. There can be other characters but those two are always a part of every parable and the interesting thing is that we can be one character at this moment and a year later be another character all together.

Jesus is clearly talking about money here. I think we should notice that the Master, you know, God, only gives each person the amount that they can handle. The Master is testing them to see if they are worthy of his trust. So one takes five talents, invests them and earns five more. Good and faithful servant is he. The other takes the two talents, invests them, and earns two more, good and faithful servant is he. The third seems to be more interested in himself and his self-interests than being a good steward of his master. Why do I say that, because he could have simply taken it to the bank of his day, earned a little interest and not done a whole lot else. You have to wonder what is really going on here.

I believe the best message of this parable about money is this, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need. In other words, God has given each of us an abundance and if we are good stewards of that, we will do the best we can with it and return that investment to the Master. Tithing is the only subject that God actually challenges us to test God. Malachi 3:8, bring the tithe into the storehouse and I bless you beyond your understanding.

John Wesley in his sermon, “The Use of Money” shared how we should think about money.  He shared the scripture that tells us that money is the root of all-evil. Matthew 6:21 reminds us that wherever our treasure is there is where our hearts will be. The only time God tells us to test God is in Malachi 3:10 where God tells us to bring our whole tithe to the storehouse and if we do that, God will open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing in abundance. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 5:10 that whoever loves money never has enough and whoever loves wealth will never be satisfied with what they have. In addition, Hebrews 13:5 reminds us to keep our lives free from the love of money and to be content with what we have because God tells us that God will never leave us or forsake us.

Wesley believed that we should gain all that we can. In other words, work hard, be successful and strive to earn as much as you can. Are you surprised that he would say that? He tells us to work diligently to earn as much as we can as fast as we can. He remands us to work honestly with integrity to earn it, doing whatever labor or skill that God has given us to earn our way. He admonishes us to earn that wealth in ways that do not deceive or steal from others in our efforts to get rich, but to find ways to use our hands and our minds to find success. He goes on to say, save all that you can. Rather than spend our money on new cars, new houses and new clothes, learn to be content with what we have and put our earnings in places that grow the money and accumulate it for the future.

When I was growing up, I wish that my parents had spent more time teaching me important values about things, especially about money. We never had an abundance but it seems we always struggled. They did instill in me a work ethic at an early age. I began to deliver papers and cut grass before I could ever drive a car. I have never stopped working since that time. Had my own landscaping business at least that is what they call it now. You know it was me, my push mower that got pushed from job to job and the old weed eater of choice, hand clippers. For several summers, it earned me a great income. I only wish that I had learned back then about the 80-10-10 rule. Do you know it? If not get to know it and teach your children to use it! Learn to live on 80 % of your income. If you get a raise, adjust the percentages but continue to live on a maximum of 80 %. Take 10 % and put it away for a rainy day. For a retirement fund or education fund but never, and this is the key, never dip into that fund, your very future depends on leaving it alone. Then give the last 10 % back to God. Give it to the church you attend or to the benevolence that changes lives the most where you are. If I had learned that rule when I was young, I would be in a really good place right now. In fact, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need.

Finally, Wesley says to us, give all that you can. Wesley reminds us that we are all stewards of this great creation. That God put us here to care for all of creation. That means that we should care about how the land is cared for, how the air is kept clean from pollution and how the waterways are kept clean for drinking water and recreation. Fish cannot survive when we contaminate the seaways and rivers and when there are no fish to catch, no crops to harvest because the land is no longer fertile and the air is poison, we will all starve. I often wonder at the increase in skin cancer and digestive issues and the reality that our air and water is not the clean water of our grandparents. But John Wesley tells us to give all that we can to the world around us to make it a better place. We are told to love our neighbors and that love is best seen when we assure that no one in hungry, no one is without shelter and warmth. Jesus reminded us in Mark 12:17 to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Matthew 6: 19-20 tells us to not store up treasures here on other that can be taken or will not last but to store up our treasures in heaven where we will receive eternal reward. In fact, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need.

Here is the second part of this message. We are here to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. To some God gives, true evangelism and they take those talents, there are probably five of them and they go out in the world and make five more disciples to share the message of God’s love. For some the work is not natural so they only get two and yet they too, go out into the world and bring two people into relationship with God and neighbor through the love of God. Good and faithful servants are these two. Some of us, fearful of what the world might think of us, fearful of what we might be asked to do and/ or fearful of how it will change our lives, bury that talent God has given us deep. So deep that no one will find it and expose it for fear we might have to do something for God. One day, maybe one day soon, God is coming and will be asking for an accounting of the talents, gifts, or skills, whatever you want to call them, and wanting to know how we furthered God’s Kingdom here on earth. What will you say? Which one of the three servants will we be? How will we answer the question, what kind of steward of God’s gifts, skills and talents have we been. If we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need.