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The Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 29)
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The Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; Matthew 25:14-30
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; Matthew 25:14-30
✛
No Buried Treasure
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Jesus’ parable of the talents is a story of a master sharing out some of his fortune amongst his servants. For the longest time this parable, to me anyway, suggested an image of three servants receiving a handful of money. To the first: “One, two, three, four, and five for you. And two for you. And here you go, one measly talent for you.” I imagined that first servant taking his few coins off to the marketplace and doing a little haggling and turning his five coins into ten. A sharp trader. And the second fellow doing the same to double his more modest sum. And the last fellow, I imagine tying up his coin in a handkerchief and burying it in the ground. When his master returns, he digs up the rag, unties the knot and places the lone coin back in his master’s hand.
I was wrong.
Have you ever collected spare change in a coffee can? A coffee can filled with coins weighs about seven pounds. The talent that Jesus mentions in his parable is a sum of money calculated by weight. A talent isn’t a single coin, and it’s not even a coffee can full of coins, it’s a weight of measure totaling around seventy-five pounds. A talent is about as heavy a weight as a grown man could carry, and its Greek root, tal means to bear or to carry. It would take over ten coffee cans full of coins to add up to that kind of weight, but instead of pennies, dimes and quarters, the cans would be full of gold, seventy-five pounds of gold. At today’s rate that would be worth over $1.4 million dollars. In Jesus’ day, the average worker would work for twenty years to earn one talent’s worth of money. Considering life expectancy then, one talent represented a lifetime of toil and sweat.
So listen to the parable based on these enriched calculations. The kingdom of heaven is like a man going on a journey. He called his servants and gave them a fortune, dividing it between them according to their ability. To one he gave 375 pounds of gold, about 53 coffee cans full, or about seven million dollars, or about five lifetimes’ worth of wages. To another he gave 150 pounds of gold, or 2.8 million dollars, or two lifetimes’ worth of earnings. To the last he gave 75 pounds of gold, or 1.4 million dollars, a single lifetime’s worth of wages. The master left them, but swore he would return. The one who received seven million dollars traded with it and turned it into 14 million. The one with 2.8 million traded and turned it into 5.6 million. The one who received 1.4 million dollars went into a field, buried that enormous treasure and just walked away.
When the master returns, he asks for an accounting. The first two servants say, “You gave me a fortune, and I’m returning double what you gave.” They are praised by the man. “I trusted you with a few things,” he says, “and you proved yourself trustworthy. Now, I will trust you with many things.” Think: this man must have incalculable wealth. He has given each servant a large fortune by any day’s standards. But even to the servant to whom he gave the vast majority of his treasure, the master reckons that as “a few things.” What would you think if you received seven million dollars being told, here are a few dollars, see what you can do with them? If the master thinks that fourteen million dollars in gold coins are a “few things,” what must he understand as many things?
Jesus impresses upon us the enormity of the wealth and the trust and the responsibility the master invests in his servants. And he impresses upon us the enormity of the accomplishment two of them achieved, and the enormity of the failure of the third who squandered a golden opportunity. Jesus uses an image of the earthly economy and estate in his parable, but he is trying to teach us about God’s economy and his kingdom. God is the master in the parable, the talents are his treasure, and any one of us could be any one of his three servants.
I’ve told you what a talent was in Jesus’ day; a sum of money, a measure of weight. But when we use the word talent now, we don’t think of its archaic meaning, we think of modern usage. It was only in the 15th or perhaps as late as the 17th century that the word talent shook off its old financial sense and began taking on its current meaning. When we say talent, we mean a natural aptitude. An aptitude for drawing, or singing, or making money, or hospitality, or any other thing we might say someone is easily good at.
This change in meaning has led to interpretations of Jesus’ parable that strive at spiritual depth, but only wind up leaving us with an impoverished understanding of his lesson. These interpretations run along these lines: God has given you the gift of ___________ (here, fill in the blank with what you perceive yourself to be talented at). One day you will have to give him an accounting of how you used that talent. For instance, an actor who rehearses well, memorizes their lines and acts on the stage may be said to be faithful in a few things, but will be entrusted with greater things such as fame and a thriving film career. An actor who waits tables, squandering their talent, will live in obscurity. A financial manager who earns a good return for her clients will be made senior vice president and given a corner office and larger accounts. A banker who breaks even will find herself unemployed. These anemic, yet common, interpretations just won’t do.
God has given you something far more precious and weighty than just a facility for treading the boards or beating the market or painting paintings or singing songs or any other thing we think of as our gifts and talents. God has given you your very life. He has put a brain in your head, a heart in your breast, hands, and feet, eyes to see with, ears to hear with, a mouth to speak with. A living body has he given you, and he has set a soul in the midst of it, imprinted his image upon the whole thing, and enlivened it with his holy and life giving spirit. What could you give in exchange for it? Your life is precious, far more precious than silver or gold. You have been given your life to bear and it carries with it the weight of responsibility to use it in your master’s service.
When our Lord comes again, he will call his servants and ask for the accounting for what he entrusted you with. Lord, I used your gift of life and limb and employed it for good. I saw what you wished me to do and I did it. I heard your voice and I hearkened unto it. I studied your word and I obeyed it. I spoke and my speech was creative, it lifted the spirits of those around me, it encouraged my brethren. You told me to love my neighbor and I did it. You told me to love my enemies and I did not harden the heart you gave me. I set my feet on your path. I employed my hands to your service. I loved and did not count the cost. I sowed and tended the good seed you gave to me, and it has produced a harvest that you have the sovereign right to. All things come of thee O Lord and of your very own I return back to you, some tenfold, some a hundredfold.
Or! or we can say, No Fair! God, it’s not fair that you give us the gift of life and expect us to use it. I didn’t ask you for the gift or the trust, but find it thrust upon me. Who can bear such a burden? So I lay it down. I will not bear the responsibility that comes with such a gift that is my life and my all.
The Old Testament lesson from Zephaniah and Jesus’ parable point to a harsh judgment for such indifference and sloth:
Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is at hand…
At that time [He] will search Jerusalem…
and will punish the people
who rest complacently on their dregs,
those who say in their hearts,
“The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do harm.”
Zephaniah and Jesus don’t even bother mentioning the penalty if we prostitute our lives for wickedness. They simply confine themselves to an indifference that neither seeks good nor ill. And in confining his parable thus, Jesus warns that inaction is the way that leads to poverty and damnation. But employing ourselves for his purposes is the way of salvation and inheritance. For right on the heels of the parable of the talents, Jesus sets forth an image of the last judgement when he comes again to reckon with his servants. Those who have done nothing are damned, and they ask, when did we ever do you any harm, Lord? And he tells them, whenever someone was in need and you did nothing for them you did nothing for me. Your life was no better than an unmarked grave men walk over without ever noticing. But to those who employed their bodies and souls for good, Jesus says, you did that to me. Come, ye blessed of my Father. You proved trustworthy with a few things, now I will have you inherit eternal life in the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
