Matthew 25:14-30

“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 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.’ 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.’ 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.’ 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.’

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; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 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? 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. So 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. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

There is a common thread running through Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom of Heaven; we are called to pay attention to the presence and gracious activity of God in every minute and all the minutiae of our lives.

The parables of the leaven, the mustard seed, the lost coin, and so on...they all invite us to bring our attention to the presence and gracious activity of God in every minute and all the minutiae of our lives.

And last week’s Kingdom of Heaven parable about the 10 bridesmaids concluded with the admonition to “stay awake”–or, in other words, “pay attention!”

The parable of the talents begins right after the call to pay attention. This parable paints a picture of the blessing inherent in paying attention and having faith in God’s character and promises. It also presents an image of the dismay and disorder of failing to pay attention and consequently getting God’s character and promises wrong.

Jesus has already informed his disciples about his imminent death and resurrection, so there’s an obvious parallel to consider as Jesus tells a story about a master who is preparing to go away for a time and then return. In his absence, the master leaves talents with his workers. A talent is an incredibly-large sum of money–equal to 15-20 years of wages for labor. Not every worker receives the same amount of talents. One receives five talents, another receives two, and the other receives one. The test tells us the difference in amounts is related to their ability, though that’s still pretty ambiguous. What is clear, however, is that this is just how life works. In life, some receive more than others. The point of this parable is to illustrate what to do with what we receive.

The two who are entrusted with the most go and invest the talents in such a way that they double. This incredible increase hearkens back to Jesus’ insight from earlier in the gospel when he says, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29). Jesus continually teaches and demonstrates that abundance is a foundational characteristic of the divine. Our Kingdom inheritance multiplies exponentially when we freely give the divine gifts of love and resources to others.

The two workers who received such incredibly valuable sums from their master had paid attention. They knew the master. They knew that he was joyful and generous. These workers were motivated by gratitude and love for their master. Their actions were rooted in a belief of the master’s promises and as a result were invited to share in the joy of the master.

The other worker, the one who received one talent, was not as confident about his master’s joy and generosity, likely because he had not been paying attention. This worker failed to pay attention to his master’s joy and generosity and drew inaccurate conclusions about his master. He took him to be a harsh man, reaping where he did not sow, and gathering where he did not scatter seed. In light of the allegorical understanding of the master as Christ, the worker’s insights are clearly shortsighted. After all, it is impossible for Christ to reap where he did not sow because every corner of creation and every seed that is sown belongs to God.

The parable’s conclusion is harsh and might be triggering for anyone who grew up thinking of God as punitive and angry; but try to hear its warning: there are real consequences for those who fail to pay attention and understand God’s character as good, loving, and generous. When we fail to notice these abundant attributes of God, we think they are scarce and are unwilling to share them with the world. If we do not share them with the world we will certainly not receive them double or a hundredfold in return. Instead we will end up in a darkness of our own making–a state of life in which there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

If we hide what God has given us, we are living out of a sense of fear and scarcity. God’s gifts of love and grace are not able to be minimized or stolen. They are only gifts if they are shared with the rest of the world. Love and grace only truly exist if they are given away. Share the good stuff with the world and watch it grow, expand, multiply, and return to you double or even a hundredfold!

Again, the call is to pay attention. Pay attention to the character of God. Meditate on God’s goodness day and night and watch as your eyes are opened to the presence of goodness all around you. Pay attention to people who are suffering or in need so that you can share God’s blessing with them. And watch as everything you give away multiplies and becomes more and more valuable.

I’ll conclude by offering a sneak peak of what is coming because it has to do with paying attention. Throughout the season of Advent I will invite you to a daily ancient prayer practice called The Examen. There’s an adage that if you do something for 30 consecutive days it becomes habitualized. I would like everyone in this church to spend 30 days developing the habit of pausing each day to pay attention to God’s presence and activity in your life. It simply involves looking back at your life experiences and underlying emotions from the past 24 hours. I will explain more later; but just know that it is a prayer of uncovering and savoring the presence and gracious activity of God in every minute and all the minutiae of our lives. As today’s parable makes clear, there is profound joy and blessing available to those who develop the ability to pay attention to the true character of our master.

Amen.

Deuteronomy 8: 7, 11-18a

“[T]he Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills…. Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God….’”

Today, my message is about money. Hopefully that fact isn’t coming out of left field for anyone. We’ve tried to communicate with all the means at our disposal that today is the day we make our financial commitments to Cross of Grace’s building fund, one of the two primary funds this church uses to accomplish its day to day ministry operations.

Even if you knew money would be today’s topic, what you might not have known was WHY money is today’s topic. Maybe you assumed we would talk about money today simply because the church wants your money. Well, the answer is more nuanced than that. The primary reason money is today’s topic is because our relationship with money is a matter of discipleship. How we understand finances and what we do with them lays bear our true hearts and can lead us closer to, or further away from, God’s kingdom.

Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, the topic of ownership is constantly addressed in the words of the Lord, which Moses communicates to God’s chosen people. The Ten Commandments are bookended with warnings against ownership. The first three — prohibitions on worshiping other gods or physical idols, and not misusing the name of God — reinforce the idea that the divine is unable to be constrained, pinned down, boxed in, or manipulated. In other words, God cannot be owned. Rather, God, the creator and redeemer of all things, is the true and only owner of every good gift in our lives.

Also recall the commandment to observe Sabbath, in which God commands a day free from buying or selling. It is a reminder to enjoy God’s good gifts free from the fear of not having enough as well as the desire to accumulate more. The commandments end with prohibitions on stealing and coveting.

Clearly, the human drive to own things, people, or even God’s self, is a spiritual problem rooted in humanity’s fallen nature.

Today’s reading from Deuteronomy also addresses ownership. In it, Moses relays the Lord’s message to the Hebrew people that they are to remember the Lord’s provision when they enter the promised land, and not think they have earned their place there. The promised land was not to be divided up and owned; instead it was a gift from God to be enjoyed and stewarded. It was a lesson the chosen people were instructed in as they wandered the wilderness in anticipation of the promised land. Each day of wandering entailed relying on God’s daily provision of manna and quail. Moses makes it clear that pride in earning or ownership is incompatible with remembering God’s provision. When we say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me,” we forget the Lord. And when we forget the Lord, we begin to worship and form our lives around other things. The final verses of Deuteronomy 8 warn that this culminates in our destruction!

So, give your money to the church, lest you be destroyed! Amen.

Ok, just kidding there. Well, not really...

Our relationship with money is a discipleship issue because there are two opposite forces pulling on how we view and use money. One is sinful — that is avarice or greed; the other is virtuous — that is generosity. All vices or virtues are cultivated by everyday, seemingly insignificant actions that become ingrained as habits over the course of months and years. What we do with a single dollar each day is as important as the occasional “big” financial decisions we face in our lives.

The heart of greed is the fear of not having enough (i.e., not trusting in God’s promise of provision). Also, greed feeds on our tight-fisted grip on money as something that we have earned for ourselves and own with no responsibility for our neighbor.

The heart of generosity, on the other hand, is the ease and enjoyment in giving things away because they have so little to do with who we understand ourselves to be. We give freely of our finances because our identity is not wrapped up in our net worth or the accumulation of more for ourselves, particularly at the expense of others.

Greed results in enslavement to stuff that leads to worry, insecurity, and a desire for more.

Generosity results in freedom from anxiety as well as justice.

The practice of giving away a portion of your income off the top with intention (as opposed to giving away what, if anything, is left over) is called tithing and it is one of the most ancient and powerful tools in our discipleship toolbox.

Today you have the option to write down a number on a commitment card. That number will be some portion of the finances you will receive this year as compensation for your hard work. You might even refer to it as your “earnings.” It’s hard to part with something you earned. But when you understand that everything in your life is a gift rather than something you have earned or own, you are free to give it away as a gift. That number you write down, regardless of its amount, will be gratefully received and recognized by this church as an incredible and generous gift.

The first thing the church does with your gift is to designate a tithe of 10% as a gift for others. We spend 10% to support the work of our friends in Haiti as well as our friends at Roots of Life in Noblesville. It’s an off-the-top tithe that is done with joy and trust that our gift will continue to multiply exponentially. This is a practice that has been a part of the congregation from its beginning, which means it has become a holy habit of generosity.

And then there is the aspect that is most obvious and accessible to us — this building. This building is not the entirety of our ministry, but it is an important place. It is where my children have been raised in the faith...yours too, perhaps. It is where friendships are formed, beautiful music is shared, disputes are resolved, God’s word is wrestled with, and new ideas for humble service are explored. It is a place where laughter reverberates through the halls, tears are shed, and goodbyes are said. It is a place where all are welcome, where God’s grace is pronounced, the saving water of baptism is poured, and where we are aware of the divine presence in bread and wine. All of it made possible by your gifts, freely given, without condition or constraint, because of the faithful generosity of countless people over the last two decades.

I’ll end here with a clarifying comment. Our annual stewardship drives are not an exercise in accumulating more for this church. We do not seek more for this church out of fear that God could fail to deliver on God’s future promises for us and so we need to have money in the bank, just in case. We do not seek more for this church because we need to keep up with the other churches in our community that are constructing new bigger buildings. We do not seek more for this church because we think the next thing we will buy will make the church complete or whole.

The reason we encourage your spiritual practice of tithing because engaging in this practice is the best way to form generous hearts. And also, thinking back to Deuteronomy 8, we don’t want to see you destroyed!

Amen.