i stood there like a block of stone / nnowin' all i had to know

and nothin' more  / man, that's nothin'

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew!

One slave received five talents, another two, and finally the last slave received just one talent… 

Well I don’t know about you, but listening to this parable today, I can’t help but think that it’s be great to just get one talent!
Now, don’t get me wrong, you’re all great. I don’t suppose I’m surprising any of you, though, when I point out that there’s always room in the pews and yet none in the budget…

No, we weren’t the congregation that got those five talents. All we have to do is look over our shoulder to that congregation sitting on the edge of town to see the contrast. Just look at them! Of course they’re going to multiply, adding a satellite location in town even…

It seems, that we’re the congregation just trying to hold onto what little we have, during these dog days of being the church in the twenty-first century - when fewer and fewer folks appear to go to church.

Yeah, it’d be great to just get one talent…

And that’s where scarcity really starts, sisters and brothers; scarcity of heart, scarcity of hope, scarcity of trust. 

After all, if we really don’t even have one talent; well, what did those 40-some folks who dared to start and English-speaking Lutheran church in Burlington have? Less than nothing?!?!

If we really don’t even have a single talent, what did those folks who had to rebuild a congregation at the end of the Great Depression, after a fire destroyed the original building, have?

If we really didn’t get anything, what did those folks who carried on after the tragedy of losing Pastor Chuck dramatically and suddenly have?

For pete’s sake, if we don’t even get one talent, what did those first disciples get???

You see what I’m getting at?

True scarcity doesn’t have to do with how many talents we have, or fear we don’t have. True scarcity starts that moment we get too busy to give thanks, because all we can do it look over our own shoulder to what we don’t have…

That kind of self-obsession, by the way, is original sin - the latin expression is “increvatus in se,’ turned in on yourself…

When we’re there, in that hell of never being able to get over what we don’t have; the truth is, we don’t need anyone to throw us into some outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth, like in today’s parable; no, we’re already there, in our own little self-designed hell…

That’s what Jesus is unmasking in his brutally honest parable today. 

This parable that is, by the way, misnamed…

One of the things I love about Jesus’ parables is that the more we try to figure them out, the more they figure us out. 

The truth is, as we sit here wringing our hands about everything we wish we had, daring to even lament that we didn’t get a single talent, we reveal who we are in this parable: that debtor who got over ten years wages and then buried it all.

Yeah, that’s how much a talent was worth; over ten year’s wages!

This parable unmasks all of our lies we tell ourselves, that we don’t have enough, or we aren’t enough, with the simple act of the master at the very beginning of the parable. This parable begins with a master giving his slaves an outrageous amount of money!

When we let this parable speak for itself; when we let this parable have it’s way with us, tell us about ourselves, it is more honest than we can handle. 

Truth be told, I really think sinners like ourselves, understand, deep down, the shock of Jesus’ Word. We can hardly bear that, though, so we focus instead on some red-herrings - like the differing amounts or that where that one last slave ended up.

But that isn’t what today’s parable is up to…

Yes, this parable may force us to see what our doubt really looks like and where it leads; but that parable wants to say much more. 

This parable is not about the differing amount of talents each slave got. This parable isn’t even about that one poor, miserly slave who went off and buried their talent.

No, this parable is about something -or someone else entirely.

In the ancient world, slavery was different than it was here in the United States. Slavery, in the ancient world didn’t have to do with skin-color, it had to do with debt. In Jesus’ day, you became a slave if you owed someone but you couldn’t pay them back.

So Jesus says, “Let me tell you a parable about my return… Well, it’s like this one master who called his debt-slaves and then gave them five, two and one talents respectively. Then, well then, the master left.”

Now what kind of master would give folks who owed him money, even more money; an shocking amount of money even?!?

No master would do that kind of thing! 

Then, even more incredibly, that master leaves!

If I had been one of those servants, by the time the master was out of sight, I’d be high-taling it out of there!

That’s the shock of this parable. It isn’t that each slave got different amounts and it isn’t that one slave was so foolish as to bury that much money; no this parable is about the master who will not let the debt of these slaves have the last word on them. 

That’s the master, by the way. that Jesus compares himself to.

Earlier I said this parable was misnamed, this parable isn’t about talents; no, this parable is about The Extravagant Landowner.

That’s where true stewardship starts, sisters and brothers. Stewardship doesn’t start with what we should do, and it doesn’t start with who has more or less, either. 

No, stewardship, like this parable, like this life of faith, really; begins with all God has given us. That’s the key to this parable, as well as stewardship.

Sure, this parable may reveal where true scarcity starts - in our hearts; when the only thing we have room in our hearts for is ourselves, when the only thing we have room in our hearts for is the sense that we didn’t get enough, when the only thing we have room in our hearts for is fear; but Jesus’ parable isn’t content to stay there. Just as that master won’t let the slaves’ debt be the last word, so this parable refuses to let our scarcity of faith have the last word, either.

The point of this parable - it’s edge, as we have already said and so we say again, is the incredible generosity of the master.

While we might know what it’s like to sit, staring over our shoulder at all those things we think we didn’t get, and while we also know what it’s like to sit in our own little outer darkness, weeping and gnashing our teeth; ultimately, what every single one of us really knows and is terrified about, is that before anything else, we’re terribly in debt to God, and worst of all, there’s nothing we can do about it. In fact, all of our attempts to do something about it, have only made matters worse…

That’s the real shock of today’s parable, that the master has forgiven the debt. That’s the thrust of this parable that we can barely get ourselves to believe; that the master would just forgive our debt.

Here’s the thing, though, Jesus’ parables, like all of Jesus’ Words, aren’t some idle story. No, Jesus’ Word is Pure Promise - a Word that can keep its promise - a Word that can even make that promise come true, right here and right now.

So hear this word - this Word where Stewardship really begins, where the life of faith begins:

You, you who have known the darkness, where all you can do is weep and grind your teeth; you, you who know deep down that you are in seriously in debt to God, fear no more. Fear no more.

Jesus comes to you, deeply in debt as you are; and just forgives it - your debt is forgiven - right here right now, there’s nothing to do but believe this.

Sisters and brothers, Jesus has wiped your debt away - right now. No longer are you a slave. Now, Jesus calls you friend. 

If you, YOU are now a friend of Jesus; what have you to fear - what more could you ask for?

Like each and every one of the slaves in todays parable, God has wiped your slate clean.

This promise is the only thing that can turn fearful and thankless sinners like us into saints who dare to take what God has given us - and dare I say, double it. You no longer need to fear your master, the master calls you friend, the master has forgiven your debt.

Amen!