Fear. We can be very driven to judgment when we find ourselves in fear. If you don’t believe that, listen to the lyrics that have inspired many of us to be good boys and girls: He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good…. (so be good for goodness’ sake)
Fear creates an eternal pout on our faces, a paralyzing state where there is no chance that our joy can be doubled. No opportunity for our love to be freely given. Fear finds us digging holes and burying gifts.
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear a story about 3 servants. All servants were given a number of talents. Each talent was basically 15 years of wages for the average worker. If someone handed you 15 years of wages, or 75 years, or 30 years…what would be your response?
And what would be our response at St. John’s? Jesus is telling this parable so that we can imagine our lives as a spiritual community, together. The parable isn’t about the first two servants, who double the master’s investment.
It is about the one who feared to lose it. In ancient times, it was a common practice to bury wealth literally in the ground, to keep it safe. The parable is all about examining that behavior in our spiritual lives. Do we trust in the abundance given to us by God, our loving master? Or do we become fearful that it will not be enough?
The third servant receives one talent. I beg to think that if any of us received a check for 15 years worth of wages, we would begin to imagine ways to invest it. Stock market? Real estate? Savings account at 0.01% interest. Bury it in our back yard in a coffee can?
We have the temptation to look at that example and think we’ve earned it. And that’s the dangerous slope for the 3rd servant. He held onto it, hiding it away. Instead of trusting and living into the joy of the talent, the 3rd servant hides it. Fears the wrath of the master, who he has already labeled harsh.
Fear invites many things into our lives. Hatred is a very close relative of fear. For when we fear, we are buried in the darkness of judgment. Judgment leads us to comparison, which leads us to “he knows if you’ve been bad or good.” And out of fear, comes hatred.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King talks a lot about fear in his sermon, “The Mastery of Fear or Antidotes for Fear” (July 1962 – March 1963, Atlanta.) “Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear, only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life, love releases it. Hatred confuses life, love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens Me, love lights it. Hatred has chronic eye trouble – it cannot see very far; love has sound eyes – it can see beneath the surface and beyond the outer masks.”
The talent was a gift to the 3rd servant. Given out of love. But received in fear.
God’s love and blessing, abundantly given. The first two servants receive it in joy, and multiply it twofold. But received in fear, God’s blessing gets buried for safekeeping. Sown sparingly. Not cheerfully given, but cautiously hidden away.
Perhaps the 3rd servant fears failure. What if I lose it all? And on some level, we all can relate to that fear. We want to be just like the first two servants, but there are times in our personal lives when we bury the joy God shares with us. Where we bury the calling that God has on our lives to follow Jesus because we want to play it safe.
I don’t think I need to explain how fear paralyzes us. Invites hatred and loathing and judgment. We’ve all buried a talent or two in our lives. And we’ve seen the negative effects of hatred in our world. When we bury the dignity of the other person. Where we blame the victim for sexual assault, or refuse to admit that in some way, our culture is built on maintaining racism.
We all want to be the first two servants, but Jesus is telling us today about the third servant. In Matthew’s time, there were many false believers, communities who would say they were living into the first two servants examples, but were actually living in fear, in hiding.
In Matthew’s time, people were oppressing others, burying the voice of the other for self gain. Matthew reminds these communities of the gift of the Beatitudes. When God turns our expectations upside down, giving us 75 years of wages. And as we trust, it doubles. And as we fear, we find darkness.
God’s love is the greatest talent, the most abundant gift we receive in our lives. And this parable is about our response to it. When we respond in joy, the abundant love and hope and light never goes away. It multiplies in and through us, to be the light for all people.
Today, we the people of St. John’s are invited to see the talents before us. To look at this story not as individuals, but as a community of people who follow Jesus. Will we take the lead of the first two servants and take a risk? Because that’s what the two servants did. They risked it all, and the return was double.
St. John’s saint and widow Hilde Praweckyj left her earthly treasure – her home – to God, for Christ’s ministry here at St. John’s. A life-changing gift, surely equivalent to 5 talents. How do we respond to God’s generosity through his servant, Hilde?
This summer, you took a risk. You invested in a group of young people. You had your car washed, you ate brownies from bake sales, you gave gifts and talents to them. 6 young people and 2 adults went to Philadelphia, mostly on the generosity of this congregation.
Teenagers might be tempted to bury that generosity. Because it’s a risk to try new things. To talk with people you don’t know. To proclaim your love of Jesus in the midst of strangers. And still feel cool. But 6 of our teenagers most certainly took the risk. They learned about poverty, racism and its support of poverty, hunger in mind, body and spirit. Each one of them opened their hearts and minds and used their voices to take a shovel and dig out the buried talent in their lives. I am so proud of them for this work. It transformed them, and it transformed me, too. God used you to do this work.
We are a blessed community. We also fear. We worry about money, we worry about deficits, we worry about death and loss, we fear for society. We no longer feel innocently safe, like the old days, we notice all that could happen IF….
And if we decide to live out of that anxiety and fear, well, we are choosing the life of the 3rd servant. We bury the talent, and we give up the hope that God can do something with it. With us. And then we blame the Master, labeling him as harsh.
Today is Stewardship Sunday. We are invited to take a holy risk. To look at all the talents God has given to the community of St. John’s Lutheran Church. We are invited together to take a leap of faith into an unknown future. We are encouraged to share the Good News that we know in our hearts. Every time we share God, the love of God is multiplied over and over again. We know that as we give to God’s ministry, our blessings multiply. We know that when we bury the blessings, our darkest days begin. The commitments we make to God and each other matter. Our response to God matters.
Even as we hear the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, wondering if we’ve been bad or good, there we find God…calling us on our fear and doubt. Inviting us once again to be reformed. Reshaped. Renewed by the powerful Word of God, the gift of faith received at baptism, the chance to start anew. Drawing us to enter into the joy our loving master. This is the generosity of God, that we are invited to live into and share with all people.
Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift! Amen.