Stories of Us: The Tell-Tale Talent

Today we’re going to finish up our series looking at a few of Jesus’ parables to see what kind of lessons they hold for us today.

This morning we’re going to look at a story known as the parable of the talents. The translation I’m using this morning doesn’t use the word “talent”, but that is the traditional name for the parable because the traditional translations refer to talents. A talent, by the way is a weight of measure. When used to discuss money, as it is in Jesus’ parable, it referred to a talent, or a specific weight, of silver coins. A talent equals about 56 kilograms. So today, a talent of silver would be worth around $56,000.

The parable of the talents may be familiar to you. Maybe you’ve heard sermons preached on this passage. Actually, I used this passage for the first sermon I ever preached. And I think I’ve preached on it 2 or 3 times since then. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find those sermons, so I had to write a new one.

Let’s look at the scripture:

Matthew 25:14-30

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁴ “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. ¹⁵ He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

¹⁶ “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more.¹⁷ The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. ¹⁸ But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

¹⁹ “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. ²⁰ The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

²¹ “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

²² “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

²³ “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

²⁴ “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. ²⁵ I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

²⁶ “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, ²⁷ why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

²⁸ “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. ²⁹ To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. ³⁰ Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The problem with Bible passages that are very familiar to us and we’ve heard preached several times is that we tend to think we know the verses and know what they say to us. So we are apt to tune out (after all, I’ve heard this before) but when we do that, we miss things. We assume that we’ve learned what we can from that story, so we just hear the same things we’ve always heard.

I had that problem the first time I preached about this parable. I was taking part in a Lay Speaking class and we had to write and preach a 5 minute sermon based on this scripture. I read it and as I did I read about a man giving money to 3 servants. 2 servants invested it, used it, and it grew. The other buried his, ignored it. I read about 2 servants who used their talents, their gifts, and one who didn’t. Because that’s the way I’d always read that story, or heard it taught and preached. So I sat and tried to figure out some new way to preach about these servants and their talents and the one who wasted his and was punished for it.

Then I decided to read a different interpretation of the passage. I had a copy of The Message, so I read it from that interpretation of the Bible. As I read this familiar story in fresh words, I heard it in a way I’d not heard it before. It took on a new meaning. Let me read the end of the story from The Message.

“The [last] servant… said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’

“The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.

“‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’

Last week, we looked at the parable of the sower, and I talked about God sowing in the risky places. God scatters the Gospel on all the world. Not just in good soil where it is guaranteed to grow and produce fruit, but even in the rocky places and along the well worn path and among the thorns. God sows in the risky places and calls us to do the same. To step out in faith and risk failure in order to reach a lost and hurting world.

Thinking in terms of taking risks in faith makes me think of another story about Jesus. The disciples are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. They were crossing the sea at night, and they see what they think is a ghost and they start to freak out a little. Then they hear Jesus’ voice. “It’s me, don’t worry.” Peter’s still not sure. He tells Jesus, “If it’s you, call me to you.” And Jesus calls him out of the boat. And Peter steps out onto the water. After a while he began to sink, and because of that this story becomes a story of lack of faith. But Peter doesn’t look like the one lacking faith to me, because where are the other 11 disciples? They never moved. They stayed in the boat. Talk about a lack of faith.

Dr. Ernest Campbell was the pastor of Riverside Church in New York City. He once said, “The reason that we lack faith is that we are not doing anything that requires it.” It didn’t require any faith on the part of the disciples to sit in that boat. It doesn’t require any faith to sit in these chairs, to sing songs, to listen to a sermon. Coming to church on a Sunday morning in Alabama, I don’t think we can call that taking a risk.

So, what does that risk look like?

I don’t know if any of you listen to This American Life. A couple of years ago they told a story of someone sowing in risky places. Twenty years ago, Agnes Wilcox began taking acting troupes and performing Shakespeare for prisoners around St. Louis, MO. Eventually that led to having the prisoners themselves perform the plays. It’s not a ministry, per se, in that it is not affiliated with any religious organization. But it has reaped fruit. The inmates interviewed on This American Life talked about how this program has brought them face to face with their own crimes; it has helped them to realize the pain and suffering they have caused others. The program has helped to rehabilitate hardened criminals. That is some risk: teaching Shakespeare to murderers and rapists. But for 20 years, the Prison Performing Arts program has “help[ed] inmates learn the life skills that prepare them to become productive, creative, and law-abiding citizens.”

So what does that have to do with a parable about a master, his servants, and some money? Let’s think about our parable today, not in terms of money, but in terms of the Gospel. Three disciples are given the Gospel message – stories of Jesus, compassion, the bread of life and the cup of salvation. One tells the stories and soon 5 new disciples are telling stories and making new disciples. A second shows compassion to someone and that person became a disciple and went on to show compassion to others and make more disciples. The third with the bread and the cup took them home, and put them in a cabinet.

So how are we to live while we wait for Jesus’ return? We are not called to bury the gospel, to hide it from the world, but to share it. Or maybe we could use another image. Maybe we can think about the image of the church with closed doors. Because if we keep the gospel in this room or in this building, then we are burying it. We’re hiding it from the world instead of taking it out and sharing it. And if we hide it, we’ll never make new disciples.

Instead, we need to open our doors to the world. But just because we open the doors, doesn’t mean that people are going to come and hear the gospel. After all, there’s no risk in opening the doors and just preaching a little louder. Hoping that people will hear and want to come in.

But if we get out of here and take the stories and the compassion and the bread and the cup to the world, that takes risk. In order to do that and do it well, we have to take risks.

The mission statement of the North Alabama Conference of the UMC is “Every church challenged and equipped to grow more disciples of Jesus Christ by taking risks and changing lives.” And that is our calling. We are called to make more disciples, and the truth is, we’re not going to do that by playing it safe. We’re not going to fulfill that mission by sitting back and wait for people to come to us. We’re not going to make more disciples without trying. Without stepping out of the boat and trusting Jesus.

It comes down to the difference between going to church and being the church. If all we do is come here, sing some songs, listen to the bald guy, and go home feeling better about ourselves. Well, then this isn’t a church. It’s simply a social club with a motivational speaker.

So let’s be the church. Let’s take the gospel out of here and into the world. Let’s take the gift we’ve been given and share it and watch it grow!