EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 3 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Nov. 10, 2020. This was the 30th digital service we performed after our church was shuttered because of the COVID pandemic.
So another week and another of Jesus's parables. ... Do you ever wonder just once maybe if Jesus just could lay the message out there for us? ... Wouldn't that be nice?
But, no, that's not the case this week here. So in light of Jesus's parable tonight, I just want to ask you to ponder a question: What does abundance mean to you? ... I invite you to think about that while I tell you a small story about what it means, or what came to mind when I started to think about abundance.
Back more years than I care to admit, when I was graduating from high school, my mother threw me a reception like most parents do. And we had family from all over that came, and as you all know, I benefit from being part of a large family. So when it comes to gifts, that is a huge benefit! ... But I also benefited from the fact that we lived in a small town, and my mom was a waitress at the small town café; she had made many friends over the years. So many people stopped by, I suspect, out of knowing my mom and her kindness. But I benefited, and at the end of that reception, after I had opened all of the cards and all of the nice congratulations, for a 17-year-old kid there lay a pile of cash that was about $900. Now, maybe $900 isn't what it was today what it was back then, but it was still $900 for a 17-year-old kid. ... That was money in my family that was unheard of and at the time.
It seemed like a treasure, but even that kind of wealth to a 17-year-old kid, can't compare to the abundance that we're talking about in Jesus's parable tonight. This is unbelievable abundance!
Jesus, in his parable, uses the term "talent," which was a monetary unit in Greek and Roman times, and in fact at the time it was the largest monetary unit that they had. ... Some estimates equal that one talent was worth about 20 years' wages for a slave. One of our slaves in the parable tonight received five talents from his master. You can start to do that math in your head, and you get an idea of the over abundance about which we're talking about. ... It's almost hyperbole they think that a master would hand over a hundred years' worth of salary as he's leaving home. ... Doing some quick math, using what modern scholars say is an equivalent value, a talent might be $1.4 million. ... So in the case of that slave who received five talents, we're talking about possibly receiving $7 million dollars. ... I think all of us can agree that that is quite the fortune to just be handed over. And it is that unbelievable abundance of God that we are talking about in tonight's parable, given freely just as the master does as he's walking out of town in this parable. And I believe that that is exactly at the heart of this story that Jesus is telling.
Just as importantly, I think, is that we need to stay here for a minute to dispel this notion. ... Historically this parable has been used as a story about financial prudence, and it's not. ... And it's especially not a story about a prosperity gospel. Not in the least!
What this story is about is our loving God, or the master in the case of this story, giving abundantly so that we can enter into his joy. You hear that twice throughout the story tonight. ... After the first two slaves returned their gifts, doubled upon the original gift, the master invites them into his joy. Essentially bringing that kingdom -- that heavenly kingdom that we hear about in all of Jesus's parables leading up to this one -- bringing that heavenly kingdom home now. This master is inviting his slaves to share in his joy so that they may envision the kingdom what it is really like, right here, right now.
I am certain that probably every one of us sitting here in the sanctuary, and every one of you sitting there at home, can also relate with the final slave, the one who was given one talent. After all, we know from the parable that he fears the master and maybe even worse he fears what the master will do if he comes back and he doesn't have that talent. ... In other words, we know that that slave lacks trust in his master. After all, we're told that he knew in his heart that the master was a harsh man. So he does what anyone living in fear, I think, would wisely do: He takes that talent and safely keeps it hidden. He digs a hole and buries it so that it'll be there on the return of that master. I believe many who have been in a situation where that would seem the prudent thing to do.
But this is a very important turn in this story because that slave's actions uphold his unfounded mischaracterization of God. ... And just what is that mischaracterization? That God is to be feared, or that god is to be mistrusted.
Now, does this parable promise us that there will be a judgment when the master returns? Well, of course, there is. ... The master comes back and asks the slave what he did with the gifts he gave him. We can logically conclude that the story is drawing the parallel to God coming back and asking us about the gifts that he's bestowed on us. We can't ignore that fact in this story. There is the abundant gifts but there is, of course, that judgment at the end as well.
But I think more importantly in this story is that it stresses our need to trust in God's abundant gifts, and if we have trust then we have no need to fear that last slave's judgment.
I know that we have all felt the way that that unfortunate slave did. Who knows what worldly things or events or circumstances conditioned him to believe or to fear his master. I know that we have all feared and withheld our very own God-given gifts from someone, whether that be the act of withholding the financial fortunes that we have, the act of hiding away that gift of love that God bestowed upon us, or that gift of kindness that God bestowed upon us. Or whether it's the act of hiding that smile on the street from somebody who desperately needs it, or that neighborly welcome. ... Any of the abundant gifts that God bestows upon
us, and we choose to hide rather than share, we've all buried that gift, that very abundant gift from God.
But tonight's parable is instead an invitation ... it's an invitation into God's abundance! It's an invitation into trusting God! ... It's an invitation into extending God's abundance here and now! ... And when we do, he invites us into that joy with him, Jesus tells us in this parable.
And that is the Good News for this Tuesday, Nov. 10, and this Sunday, Nov. 15, the 24th Sunday after Pentecost. ... Amen.
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