Another week with familiar stories from the Gospel of Mark and Matthew, maybe even more familiar to us than last week’s stories.
I am not sure I have ever preached the Mark passage. I tried to convey the masterful way Jesus handled himself in both stories. It is hard to preach familiar stories, particularly ones where we know the interpretation better than the text! I found my historic assumptions were not always in keeping with what a study of the text suggested about interpreting the text.
when I preached in the church I served in OH, i would sometimes use stories from my time serving a congregation in KY. Now, my sermons are informed by my seventeen years of serving in OH. My thoughts have been shaped by my lived experience in other faith communities. That being said, the danger in telling stories from other places is that the stories are remembered and told through my lens. While I try to be truthful in my recollections, I realize they are my memories, which may not be the same as the memories of others who were witnesses to the same event. The story I told in this sermon was actually played out over a time span that was longer than I can remember, and others may remember the conversations differently. But, some variation of the conversation about risking church money did take place. I also note with sadness that several of the original endowment committee members with whom I met 18+ years ago are new dead.
Matthew 25: 14-30: 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,[f] 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.’
“Whose Money?” SAPC; September 24, 2017; Matthew 25: 14-30; Mark 12: 13-17
Move 1: Jesus can play word games and deal in subtle ways with the best of them.
a. Questioners approach Jesus.
1. the questioners are learned folks, experts on the law, presumable leaders in their religious circles.
2. they greet Jesus with words of flattery - what a smart guy you are, setting the stage of course, that when they best Jesus in the argument, they prove themselves to be even smarter.
3. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?”
4. A carefully, crafted question. no telling how long it took to come up with this question meant to trap Jesus, or as Eugene Peterson says, to “bait” Jesus.
5. The question appears to have no good way for Jesus to answer.
3. If Jesus says “No” to paying taxes because it is God’s money, he is in trouble with Pilate for insurrection against the state.
4. If he says “Yes,” he loses the crowd, who despise Roman rule and the taxes they have to pay.
b. but Jesus knows how to handle those trying to trip him up.
1. First, he asks them for a coin - “Show me the denarius.”
2. A subtle move that we might miss, but those gathering probably did not.
3. According to a strict obedience of the second commandment not to have any graven images, no one should have roman coins, because they have the emperor’s image engraved on them.
4. Mostly that was ignored.
5. but now as these religious authorities try and challenge Jesus, those asking the question, have to reveal they are carrying coins with graven images, right there in the Temple, which points out that they might be better at demanding others follow rules than actually following them. (Douglas Hare, Westminster Bible Companion: Mark, 154)
c. Now Jesus answers their question: render to the emperor what is the emperors and give to God what is God’s.
1. a clever answer.
2. Jesus avoids the trap and ends of giving an answer that seems to make room to pay taxes to the Roman authorities.
3. But as the listeners sit with the answer, it becomes more than just a clever response..
4.Forget what it means to “give to Caesar what is his,” what about “give to God what is God’s.”
5. it strikes deep into the psyche of the those who ask the questions and of those who know what it means to be God’s people.
d. God’s people know that everything is God’s.
1. The God whose very breath brings humanity into being and creates all that is in the world is sovereign over all creation.
2. They have been taught for generations that all creation is God’s.
3. As they try and trick Jesus with a question about taxes, Jesus pushes them back to the language of their faith and the reminder that all they have is from God
4. As we listen in our context, we can connect with the issue of taxes; we can lose ourselves in the rules about giving; we can have elaborate discussions of what counts as giving back to God, and so on.
5. And there in the midst of those conversation is Jesus reminding us — all of creation, all we have is God’s.
Move 2: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells those gathered a story about an owner who goes away and leaves three servants with some money.
a. it is a ridiculous amount of money.
1. A talent is equal to about 6,000 denarii. Since one denarius is a common laborer's daily wage, a talent would be roughly equivalent to 20 years wages for the average worker. Five talents, the largest amount entrusted to any of the servants, is comparable to one hundred years worth of labor, an astronomical amount of money.(http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1018 Carla Works Associate Professor in New Testament, Wesley Theological Seminary Washington, D.C.)
2. Each talent would weigh about 50-75 lbs (James Howell,CHRISTIAN CENTURY November 1, 2005, 19).
3. By using this outlandish amount of money, Jesus Jesus gives a verbal wink to the listeners.
3. this is not a true story, but a fun story that will tell a truth.
4. keep that in mind as we dig deeper.
b. the owner gives gives each of three servants differing amounts of money.
1. One five talents; one two talents; the last one talent.
2. Interestingly, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a similar story, but all of the servants are given the same amount of money when the owner leaves.
3. then the owner goes away.
4. the servants do not know when the owner will return.
5. The context of this story in Matthew suggests that Jesus tells this story in part to remind us that we do not know when Jesus will return, a comment on how we live our lives in this indeterminate amount of time before Jesus comes again.
c. We see three different ways of living.
1. the one given five, puts the five to work. Presumably takes risks.
2. the one given two talents does the same.
3. the third on buries the talent — again, this is a ridiculous image of the servant digging a huge hole to bury the talent.
4. Also, it should be noted that the rules about keeping someone’s money hold that if a person guards the money in the right way, he is not liable. Furthermore, burying money is considered a safe, prudent way to ensure the safekeeping of the money.
5. In other words, the servant given one talent is doing what the status quo requires of him. He plays it safe, and according to the rules. (Bernard Scott, Hear Then the Parable, 227)
d. The owner returns.
2. the servant given five talents has a lot to show for himself, he has doubled the money, and he is commended.
3. so the second one.
4. But the third one has buried his talent and has nothing to show for it. Well, he still has this huge amount of money, but he has done nothing with it, except bury it.
6. The owner is not satisfied.
7. In fact, he takes the talent back and gives it to the first one who had made money.
8. Frankly, that does not sound like what we might expect from the owner who is a reflection of God. We would expect God to be more understanding, particularly since the servant who buried the talent had done what was acceptable by the rules of the day.
9. In fact, if we were the religious authorities, we might expect God to commend the third slave for acting so prudently.
d. So what’s going on
1. We get a clue in the explanation the servant gives — “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.”
2. In other words, his image of the owner made him afraid to take risks, to try and do something; instead, he is going to stick with the old rules; clinging to the safety of patterns of the status quo.
3. Like the Pharisees who are found by their rules, who play it safe.
4. But here comes Jesus, busting out the safety of their approach to God (Scott, 234).
5. Jesus brings the new life to God’s people.
6. Jesus invites them to know the God of grace and extravagant generosity.
7. the ridiculous amount each servant is given in the story Jesus tells is a reminder of the ridiculous good news Jesus brings for us.
8. But the servant cannot bring himself to accept the opportunity before him to shake off the old patterns and embrace the God Jesus is revealing to them.
c. The last few weeks I have asked “how do we self-identify ourselves?”
1. This week, the question we might ask is “how do we identify God?”
2. If we see God as an enforcer of rules, as a God waiting for you to fail, then it makes sense to follow the rule for safely guarding the money and burying it because the issue is about how best to abide by rules.
2. If we see God as a God of new life who desires to reap extravagant grace on us, a God who takes risks, then we become risk takers, who dare to push ourselves to new places in how we respond.
4. When I arrived at the church I served in OH, one of the committee I met with was the Endowment committee.
Before the first meeting, they gave me a document they had prepared during the interim, a document that outlined how the Endowment committee would run, including strict rules about how the money was to be invested how it could be spent.
their policy mandated that the money could only be invested in government bonds with a guaranteed interest rate, albeit a very low interest rate.
At the first meeting, they asked me, “What do you think about our investment policy?”
I played dumb, which wasn’t that hard, and said I hadn’t had much time to look it over, so maybe we could talk more about it the next time they met.
They only met a few times a year, so i had some time to figure out the policy. I learned that not everyone on the committee thought this very conservative investment policy was the best course of action, but i also knew that the secretary/treasurer of the Endowment fund was the driving force, and he was for it.
The policy was on the agenda for the next meeting. Once again, the question, “Richard, what do you think?”
“Well,” I said, “I’m not really an investment person. In fact, most of you know a lot more than I do, but let me ask you a question, ‘why do you have such a conservative investment policy?”
the treasurer quickly replied, “Because we cannot lose this money. People have entrusted it to the church, and we have to invest it in ways that guarantee we never lose it.”
Several heads nodded. Put that way, it seemed to make some sense, even to me.
“Well, let me ask you another a question. Is that how you invest your money.”
“Oh no,” came another quick reply. “I invest across the whole market to try and make as much money as I can. But, that also means that I risk losing some of it. We cannot risk the church’s money.”
5. Imagine that - we follow the God who risks being in relationship with people who God knows who fall short of the image in which they are created.
We follow a God who risks loving and forgiving people who who sin again.
We follow a God who risks sending God’s son to earth, a risk that leads to his death, and then God risks again by resurrecting and calling us to new life.
We follow this God of risks, and the best we can do sometimes is join with the servant who buried the talent in the ground for fear of losing it.
Conclusion: As we live in the abundance of all that is God’s, what is the best we can do?
