Vigilant Guards or Courageous Stewards?

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground." - Matthew 25:25

The one servant in today’s parable, when given a talent to work with fell victim to worry and fear.  So, he buried it rather than taking a chance with it. When the master returned, heads rolled.

The hapless servant was afflicted with toxic worry. Toxic worriers are people who obsess over everything that could possible go wrong - to the point of paralysis. Worry is an expression of fear. 

The master, just before he left on a long journey, entrusts the servants of his household with talents. A talent, in those days, was a denomination of money - a large denomination of money. It has been estimated that in today's dollars one talent would be worth something like $400,000. You do the math.

The first two were spurred to action and made the most of the talents given to them. Whatever they did they obviously took a risk, climbed out on a limb - buying low, selling high. When the master returned after a long time, they presented to him their increase. They were rewarded with even greater responsibility and greater entrustment.

But the third succumbed to fear, anxiety and worry.  He buried his talent in his fear and the paralysis that fear almost always causes.  I find it interesting that this third servant perceived the master as a harsh man, and the result was to take a defensive, I’m-going-maintain-the-status-quo, not take any chances posture.  He surmised that when the master returned he would simply give him back exactly what he was given. 

But that line of thinking didn’t go over very well with the master when he returned.  In the end he was cast into the outer darkness where he really did have something to worry about. 

Notice the first two servants didn’t seem to be controlled by fear and worry, or perceive that the master was harsh and demanding. It seems to me they only did what they perceived the master would have done had he been there himself.  One point of the parable is not that our God is harsh and unfairly demanding, but rather God calls for us to take risks, especially when it comes to the talents and gifts that are given to us.  The master in the parable did not commend the first two, so much because they made a profit, but rather because they did not allow fear to control them to the point of paralysis.  They took risks just as the master would have done. 

Jesus told this parable primarily to his disciples, his best friends, his comrades, his inner circle, his followers just a matter of hours before he was about to be hung on the cross to die as a common criminal. He was getting his disciples ready for his departure from them.  He was telling them just how he desired for them to live their lives as his followers until he returned.

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground."

What a tragic and despairing picture. Worry is a form of fear and fear induces paralysis. That is a picture of exactly the kind of disciples our Lord desires us not to be - frightened, fearful, feeble people who are controlled by fear and live in such a way that we are petrified and paralyzed to take a risk for the sake of the master.

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground."

It is one of the most despairing and tragic verses in the Bible, a sad and pathetic legacy of the disciple controlled by worry and fear. But it is even sadder yet when it becomes your story, my story and our story together. The Master desires for his disciples to be stewards; people who actively manage the master’s possessions; people who act in the same way as the master would act; people who act in the master's place, doing the things that the master would do if he were here!

The point is that the third servant wasn't a steward, he was a sentinel -a guard.  To his credit, he was a very good guard vigilantly protecting the master’s gift; a heroic sentinel of the status quo.

The last few years in this household of faith we have attempted to not maintain the status quo. To mention a few things, four years ago we called Julielu to lead us in youth ministry and we have taken wonderful strides and experienced exciting ministries ranging from mission experiences to confirmation reform; peer ministry to mentoring relationships and so much more.  We’ve cracked a new door open into global mission beginning a few years ago when we provided funds to our brothers and sisters in Ndoombo, Tanzania to build a new church building, and last June sending ten of us to Africa on an exciting mission experience. We look forward to another Africa Mission Trip.  Most recently we have called JulieKay to lead us down a new road of faith formation for children, families and adults, and we are making some sorely needed face-lifts and updates to our physical plant.

But I hear things - conversations and comments fraught with worry.  “We’re trying to do too much!”  “We cannot afford another staff member.”  “So what was so bad about the west end of the building?” “Why do we have to change the Youth Room?”

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground."

You’ve heard the phrase, “You are going to worry yourself to death!”  There’s a ton of truth to that little cliché.  It is something we could very easily do as a congregation.  We could worry ourselves into paralysis and death – quite literally.  We could become so consumed with worry about “doing too much” or “calling new staff” “or updating a 20 – 30 year old building that we could become paralyzed to the point that we ignore or explain away statistics of declining Sunday School enrollment, a decaying building, and the spiritual needs of our youth and families. 

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground."

For the past 6-8 weeks Julielu has been praying and searching for four women who would be willing to risk being mentors to four of our female youth who have asked.  Every week she has had to look these four youth in the face and say, “Sorry, nobody yet, but we are praying.”

"...I was afraid, so I hid my talent in the ground."

So, of what are you afraid?  What are you worried about? What’s holding you back?

Juliekay is working hard to bring shape to a new paradigm of Sunday School and Family Ministry.  It is going to take time - perhaps some of your time.  It is going to take talent - perhaps some of your talent.  It is going to take treasure - perhaps some of your treasure.

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground."

So, of what are you afraid?  What are you worried about?  What’s holding you back?

Your church council struggled this last week looking at next year’s budget anticipating places to cut the 2005 budget if our anticipated income isn’t up to the needed level.  I’ve been a pastor for 28 years and I am still waiting for the blessed year we don’t have to dance that tragic dance!

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground."

The great theologian Helmut Thielicke once said, "We should not become buried by our worries. Jesus did not say: Emulate at the ostrich, how it buries its head in the desert sand and so tries to escape the fear of danger. No, he said: Look at the birds of the air, keep your eyes open, stand up straight and look to the heights where God makes known his grace and care." (Life Can Begin Again, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963, p 143)

What this Parable of the Talents is all about before anything else is attitude.  This story is about whether or not we are going to be vigilant guards or courageous stewards with the talents the Lord has entrusted to us. And don't even attempt to tell me that the Lord has not gifted you in some wonderful way. It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and the supreme condescension of self.

"...I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground."

I read this quote of an 85 year old woman’s response to the question, “What would you do different if you could live your life over again?”   She said, “I'd risk making more mistakes next time. I'd relax.  I would be sillier.  I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and eat less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I'm one of those people who has always lived sensibly, sanely and logically hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had a few moments, but if I had it to do it over again, I'd have a lot more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else: just moments, one after another, instead of living each moment so many years ahead.  I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel a lot lighter than I have this trip.” (Too Perfect, New York: Fawcett, 1992), p.10.)

The one servant was weighted down with fear and worry.  As a result he simply couldn’t act.  He was paralyzed.  I pray we will not echo his pathetic plea, “I was afraid so I hid your talent in the ground.”

Rather, I pray we will emulate our master, who has left us bodily for awhile, but entrusted us with gifts: time, talent, and treasure.  He has entrusted us with a ministry to not guard, but give away.  He left behind a cross to remind us of what our approach is to be.  What he asks is that we see to it that this ministry resembles him and his life of self-emptying love – so that when he does return he will recognize us as his people.  For the sake of our children, our youth, our families, our own faith formation, our brothers and sisters in need close at hand and far away, for the building of the kingdom of God and ministry of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ may we not stop climbing mountains and swimming rivers.  Let’s risk it for the sake of our Lord and leave our thermometers, hot water bottles, raincoats and parachutes behind.