Cheerful Givers Enter the Joy of the Master!
David C. Myers
November 16, 2008
Texts: "Each one must give as he has made up his mind; not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." . . . II Corinthians 9:7
". . .; enter into the joy of your master." . . . Matthew 25:23b
One of my best friends and mentor, Ellis Johnson, describes the annual Stewardship Sermon as "The Sermon on the Amount." And any good stewardship season has to include a sermon on Matthew's "Parable of the Talents." It is, in so many ways, a wonderful teaching on stewardship. And most importantly, like to the three servants who received talents of varying amounts, life comes to us all as a gift.
When I was in late adolescent my good friend Michael Connally kept marveling at what he called the "accident of birth". He would talk first of all about the odds of the millions of sperm meeting one egg and - lo and behold - there is a very unique person - you! Then he would say how he could have been born in several other places where there was not freedom, where wars and famine deprived children and whole countries of meaningful life. Then Michael would marvel at the wonderful accident that he was born in this country, in Portland, Maine to wonderful parents, with the gifts to play basketball, and to root for the Red Sox. And, if given the rest of the evening, Michael would go on and on. But you get the picture. Life, indeed, is a gift of Divine Generosity.
And what better emphasis for today, because today not only do we celebrate that life is a gift; but we need to address the question, "what do you do with such a gift?"
But before I go to far afield, let's look at the parable. Jesus used very common terms and conditions of his own time to paint a picture. Of course, what was very common and well understood in Jesus times is not so common and so well understood in our own. So we do need to do a bit of homework about the images that Jesus uses.
A second thing about the parables is that Biblical scholars will tell us that Jesus never said "this is what this means." Usually Jesus begins a parable by saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like . . ." or, as in the case of this morning's lesson, "It is as if . . ." Hence, parables are kind of like a joke - either you get it or you don't. When you do get it the parable is a very important teaching method - much like a joke is a very important way of communicating a rather poignant point.
The problem for us is that unless we understand the background information and details we will never get the true meaning of the parable or get to laugh at the joke, any more than someone new to the American culture will get a joke about how we live.
So, it is important to know what a talent is. The word talent is a most unfortunate translation of the Greek word "talanta". A "talent" in Jesus' day is a coin that was the largest denomination of currency in his time. It would be more akin to a huge bucket of gold. Each "talanta" was wroth about 6,000 "denarii" (which was a days wage) - or more than we would earn in about 16 years of working.
For the three "slaves" that received the talents, not only was it a most generous gift, but they were now in uncharted territory. They probably would have no clue as how to use or invest 1 - 2 - or 5 "talanta" any more than the person who bags your groceries would know what to do with $80 million Power Ball lottery win. It only helps us understand just how great a gift life is!
This gets us to another point. And that is the word "slave", the ones to whom the master gave these "talents". In this country we have a rather negative association with the word "slave" - and for good historic reasons. But in Jesus' time the word "slave" refers to stewards, or in this case where Jesus is seen as the master, the "slaves" are the disciples.
And now we are Jesus' disciples. And Jesus has gone away, promising to return. In the meantime Jesus has entrusted to us "talents". What will we do with them??
So enough teaching. Let's get to the meat of matter. The "master" in this parable is Jesus. He is going away and before He goes away He gives the talents to his slaves, or in this case to His disciples. After a long time Jesus comes back, and He wants to see what the disciples have done with them. The first two have invested their 5 and 2 talents, respectively - in each case they doubled the value. They have spread the gospel, they have introduced other people to the love and grace of God. Jesus commends each of them by saying, "Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been worthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your Master."
But there is this third slave, or disciple. He had been entrusted with one talent. And all he does is hide it. He buries it in the ground. But he didn't lose it! It was still worth the same as it was when it was given to him. And he returns it. And that's the tragedy of the one-talented slave. He let his fear cause him to miss the joy of taking a chance with his Master's money! And what fear it was. When Jesus - ooops - the Master asks him to give an account he says, "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."
And for this he received a tongue-lashing from the Master? "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 10 talents."
But let's look more closely. For in this slave or disciple's response is the meat of the parable, for it reveals his motivation and why he reacted as he did.
"I was afraid." . . . "You were a harsh man." "Here You have what is yours." The slave lived in fear, and his perceptions of the Master paralyzed his response to take the least risky route. If he hid the talent in the ground, at least it wouldn't be lost; and Lord knows that he lived in fear that the Master would "kill" him if he lost even a part of it. And indeed, he even saw the talent as the Master's - he never realized it as something that had been entrusted to him for his use to help spread the Gospel. The master calls him lazy - but it's really not the laziness that's the problem. It's because he is afraid - and that's why he hides his talent in the ground, or under a bushel, instead of taking responsibility for its growth and development. At its heart, faith is trust and this slave did not trust God for the future enough to risk in the present. He is, essentially, saying to God, "Take back your gift." And he misses the joy! Fear has no place in stewardship - stewardship is about joy!
Such joy is all around us! It is in the Psalm we recited earlier, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, . . . serve the Lord with gladness!" Joy is the lesson from Paul, "Each one must give as he has made up his mind; not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (II Corinthians 9:7)
On the other hand, there are many who don't like this parable - maybe because they would like to be the appeal lawyer for the one talent slave. The punishment seems so harsh. He didn't waste the talent, he didn't lose the talent. He just didn't use it in a way that it could grow.
Now let's look at the Master's response. "You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?"
Did you notice the question mark at the end of the sentence? It's all important! Listen again to the sentence read with and without the question mark.
First without: "You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter." Now with the question mark: "You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?"
The master is essentially saying, "That is your perception that I am wicked and that I am dishonest. But it is not the truth! It is your perception of who I am that motivated your behavior; and your perception is in error."
How many of us view God as a God to be feared? How many of us dread the so-called judgment day? How many of us live our lives afraid to risk, afraid to be spontaneous, because God may never forgive us? How many of us never saw the question mark?
As Jim Scarborough once wrote, "The opposite of faith is not unbelief. The opposite of faith, the very antithesis of faith, is fear." Fear paralyzes us and prevents us from exercising our talents faithfully. Let's be clear about this in the parable, the third servant was not criticized and had his talent taken away because he invested it unwisely; rather, he was punished simply because he did not use the talent - and he did that because he feared God.
In other words, the origin of the slave's punishment was not with the master, it was the slave himself. It was his perception of the Master that put him into a state of fear.
And this is where we learn the greatest lesson from this parable. For it is in the midst of the slave's fear that we discover that the judgment day isn't out there in the future, or after we die; it is right here, now! And likewise, how we act with our friends, our family, at work, with our church family reveals both our faith and the God we believe in.
How do you see God? Is your God a loving and forgiving God? or a God of judgment and wrath. Another way of asking that is did you see the question mark in the parable?
You see, how we perceive God, how we perceive God as revealed in one another in our church and with all the people we interact with greatly determines how we use the gifts and talents with which God has blessed us to be disciples of the Gospel. It is the measure of our faith.
The parable of the talents is about money, but it doesn't stop there - it is about life - and the truth that life cannot be preserved by saving it, but only by investing it in others. And I am thankful today for all of you who have chose to invest your time, your service, your gifts, your prayers and your money in the church and its mission. Over the years you have proved that this church can be a beacon of hope to this community and to the communities we support with our missions. In so many ways our church is kind of a mutual fund of benevolent causes.
And the best news of all is that while the Bible says everything we have we owe to God, the Biblical guide for giving is only the first fruits, only a tithe, which is 10%. I know! I know! I apologize for asking for so little, but the idea is not to be a burden on anyone. Those of you who are tithers know the joy it brings. One tither expressed it by saying, "I have learned that I can live better on 90% of my income than I can on 100% of my income." Knowing that person well, I know she says that because of the great joy she gets from knowing that 10% of her income goes to making the world a better place. And she enters the joy of the Master!
Another says that our pledge is not really about giving to the church and God because giving implies that we own it in the first place. But since all life is a gift our pledge to the church is about returning to God a portion of the gifts we have been given. When we see our pledge to God in this manner, we understand that life is a gift and we enter the joy of the Master!
Another talked about how so often when we give we do not make it a spiritual exercise or discipline. Rather we give out of our abundance, out of our leftovers. And when we do that, he said, we give out of fear.
Making a pledge should be done prayerfully; it should be done with the intention of entering into the Master's joy. And what better way than to invest the gifts we have been given in the programs, missions and ministries of the original giver. When we understand life as a gift; when we invest the gifts we have, we will truly be entering the joy of the Master!