"Living with a Generous God"

by The Rev. William G. Lamont, Pastor

“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”… take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 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. (Matthew 25:22,28,29)

The parable of the talents is part of a series of four parables which Jesus shares prior to the passion narrative.  All of these parables have to do with the delay of the kingdom…a major problem for Matthew’s congregation.  When Jesus announced that he was going away,  he promised that he’d come back and establish the kingdom of God.  Well, for Matthew’s congregation it’s been 50 years since the death and resurrection of Jesus.  When is he going to return?  When is this new kingdom going to be established?  The world is still full of injustice, hatred, deceit, lawlessness…when will things change?  People are beginning to wonder whether he’s going to return at all.  So one of the purposes of Matthew’s gospel is to encourage faithful waiting for the Christ’s return.  What does faithful waiting look like?  Well, these four parables of Jesus help to answer that question.

The parable of the talents begins this way: “a man going on a journey…” (someone is going away for awhile but they are coming back)  he “summons his slaves and entrusted his property to them.  To one he gave five talents, to another two and another one, to each according to his ability.”  Now, a talent was a huge sum of money – “a million dollars” might be a good translation today.  The two slaves who got the most money went out and traded with their money and managed to double it.  The third slave refused to take any risks at all with his money, he went out and buried his talent in the ground. 

Now after a long time the master returns (notice he does come back…eventually!) and he calls his slaves to account for the money he gave them.  The first two give their accounting. They share with excitement how they traded their talents on the open market and managed to double it.  The Master is delighted with them.  Then the third is called to account.  He tells the Master that he dug a hole in the ground and buried the master’s money so he would not lose any of it…and he presents exactly what he was given in the first place – one talent.  The Master is absolutely furious; “You wicked and lazy slave…”  The Master has the one talent taken from him and given to the one fellow with five, and the worthless slave is pitched into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Not a pretty ending!)  And the parable concludes with these harsh words “For to all who have, more will be given, and they will have in abundance; but from those who have nothing,  even what they have will be taken away.”

Traditionally this parable has been interpreted this way: “God has given all of us talents and skills to employ for the good of the kingdom and God expects us to use them wisely and not waste them.”  Tom Long says that interpretation is too tame for this parable.  He says it is a shame that the word for this large sum of money is “talent” because it has been confused with the more common use of the word – namely gifts or skills, and that has led to this rather mild interpretation of the parable.  This is not about using your talents for God, it’s a parable about what Christians should do with the gospel as they wait for the kingdom of heaven to come!  How do we live out the gospel in the meantime?

Two of the slaves are trustworthy of the treasure entrusted to them because they understood this as venture capital and they invested it and multiplied it.  The other slave however simply buried his treasure in the ground…refusing to take any risk at all.  Now why?  Why wouldn’t the third slave also take some risks with his treasure?  He answers the question himself in verse 24, “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.” Now where did the slave get this notion of the Master?  Certainly not from anything we read in the parable!  From what we read the Master is trusting, welcoming, generous, and benevolent. That’s how the first two slaves viewed the Master and that gave them the freedom to take the risks that they did with the treasure. Clearly then, the one slave has badly misjudged the Master…saw him as tough, uncaring, money-conscious, so he acted accordingly. 

This isn’t a parable about investing your gifts but living with the consequences of your own faith. If you trust in God’s goodness, you can boldly venture out into a grace-filled life where God’s providence is everywhere.  But if you think God is oppressive, cruel and vengeful, then it will be very difficult for you to risk your love in this world.  And there is a kind of theological economy at work here…if we think God is generous and faithful, we will act faithfully and generously ourselves.  But if we are running from a scolding, harsh God, we will live unproductive, bankrupt lives. And in fact, that’s the conclusion of the parable:  “To all those who have, more will be given…but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

I remember some years ago hearing Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon fame, talking about rhubarb pie being sold at the Chatterbox Café.  And in that talk he goes on to tell us more about rhubarb than you ever wanted to know.  But in that talk he introduces us to a new word—indehiscent.  It’s an actual word.  He said that rhubarb is defined in the dictionary as a member of the buckwheat family, herbaceous plants characterized by swollen joints and by small leafless flowers and by dry indehiscent fruit.  Dehiscent fruit bursts when it becomes ripe and scatters its seed, but rhubarb has small, dry seeds that do not burst when they become ripe.  He goes on to make an interesting comparison…he says “If you were to characterize Norwegian Lutherans as dehiscent or indehiscent, I believe the word indehiscent is the word that would spring to mind…small dry, holding on to the seeds.  Most Norwegians would consider dehiscents to be indecent and they hang on to their seed pretty tightly.” 

So I ask you, how would you characterize the one-talent slave in today’s parable?  Dehiscent or indehiscent?  I think it’s pretty obvious from his actions—he was holding on rather than risking and letting go. Indehiscent people hang on to what is valuable to them rather than letting go. Indehiscent churches hang on to what is valuable to them rather than letting it go. And I ask you, how would you characterize the Apostle Paul in today’s passage in Corinthians?  He’s giving away his evangelistic secrets here:  “I became all things to all people, so that I might by all means save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.”  Paul is willing to take on take on any shape or form at all – do whatever it takes in order to share the gospel with others.  And he gave up everything, his status as a Pharisee, his security in the law as a Jew, his safety and wellbeing, and ultimately his life in order to proclaim the gospel to others. Clearly he is dehiscent…spreading the seeds of the gospel far and wide in order to win some to Christ.

And it isn’t just individuals who can be described this way – so can congregations.  Some congregations are indehiscent - they hang on to what is valuable rather than risk it for the sake of the gospel.  Fellowship is a wonderful thing, but if we love it too much that we create an exclusive circle that doesn’t make room for new people, or people of a different class, or people who wear different clothes than us, or people with noisy children, then we are indehiscent and preventing the sharing of the gospel.  Or if we love all the great old hymns so much that we won’t sing anything unless it was created by a ancient composer whose last name starts with “B” then we are indehiscent congregation and we fail to share the gospel anew in this age. If we say we love children and want young families to join our church, but the Sunday school department is the oldest, most neglected wing of the church, and the nursery is dark and outdated, then we are indehiscent and fail to share the gospel.

Today’s parable suggests that indehiscent people suffer from bad theology…a mistaken notion about God.  They think that God is harsh and stingy and if we give away what we have, it will be all gone.  Dehiscent people know better – they know that God is generous beyond our imagination, and when we give away what is valuable it isn’t lost, it comes back to us in countless ways.  The richest people are those who are willing to give.  

Remember that as you come forward today with your pledge cards for 2010.  Remember that as you come before God with your offering.   

Let me leave you with this prayer from Ann Weems’ book, “Searching for Shalom”.

O Lord, some of us have mites and some of us have millions,
And most of us fall somewhere in between.
We know it’s our responsibility to give from what we’ve been given,
And Jesus made it very clear that it was not the size of the gift but the size of the giver’s heart that matters.
You, O Lord, know our treasures and our hearts.
May our hearts swell to the occasion!

Amen