"Where'd I Put That Shovel?"

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; I Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

Today we have come in our reading of the gospel of Matthew to the Parable of the Talents, a story familiar to most of us sitting here, today. Now, one of the things that has interested me about this story is the use of the word "talent". In Palestine the talent was a measure of value. It wasn't a coin, it was a weight; and therefore the value of the talent obviously depended on whether the coinage involved was copper, gold or silver. The commonest metal involved was silver; and the value of a talent of silver was about $500.00.

Now, coincidental to this passage of scripture is the fact that today we use the word "talent" in a very different way. We don't think of money when we think of a person's talents. Rather, when we think of the word "talent" we are reminded of natural abilities and learned skills that people have. And, when we think of "talents" we often feel that God has, in some way, blessed persons with those "talents" and that it is, therefore, the responsibility of persons with those talents to make use of them in such a way so as to serve God.

Now, how the word for a weight of silver came to mean what it does today may be somewhat of a mystery. During Jesus' day the word "talent" didn't mean what it does today. So, the fact that Jesus' parable speaks even more clearly today about our natural God given talents and skills may even be called miraculous.

But, as we look at this Parable of the Talents, there can be little doubt that the whole attention of the story is riveted on the useless servant, who received only the one talent. And we might wonder who Jesus was thinking of when he told this story. Whom in Jesus' society did the useless servant represent? And who is it that Jesus is specially warning and rebuking? There can be little doubt that the useless servant stands for the Scribes and the Pharisees, and for their attitude to the Law and to the truth of God. The useless servant took and buried his talent in the ground, in order that he might hand it back to his master exactly as it was. The whole aim of the Scribes and the Pharisees was to keep the Law exactly as it was. In their own words, they sought "to build a fence around the Law." Any change, any development, any alteration, anything new was to them anathema. Their method involved the paralysis of religious truth, and the hatred of everything that was new. Like the man with the talent, they desired to keep things exactly as they were--and it is for that that they are condemned.

In other words, this parable Jesus tells us that there can be no religion without adventure. It tells us that God can find no use for the closed mind. And certainly this speaks as much to us today as it spoke to the people of Jesus' day. For there are, indeed, those Christians who believe that their understanding of God should be unchanging. They believe that once they have accepted Christ, that once they are members of the church, that once they are into the routine of worship, that nothing should change from then on. But, faith is not stagnant. Christianity is not simply something that comes upon us and remains as it is. Rather, faith is alive. And anything which is alive has got to change and grow.

But there is much more to this parable than even this.

First, the parable tells us that God gives us differing gifts. One servant received five talents, another two, and another only one. It is not a person's talent which matters; what matters is how we use them. God never demands from a person abilities which that person doesn't have. But, God does demand that we should use to the fullest all the abilities which we do possess. Certainly, we're not equal in our talents and abilities; but we can be equal in our effort. The Parable of the Talents tells us that whatever talent we have, little or great, we must lay it at the service of God.

And I really encourage you to do this as you work in the life of our church. And we need to encourage each other, as well. It hurts me to hear one Christian criticizing another Christian's efforts for the church. We may not sing like Paverotti or Beverly Sills, we may not have the administrative talents of Roger Smith, we may not be able to pray like Robert Schuller, we may not be able to give like Charles Stewart Mott. Indeed, we don't have some of the talents we wish we had. But you'll never hear me criticize a person for trying to use the talents they have for the glory of God, especially if they are members of this church. For we need to encourage one another and be patient with one another so that those talents, as great or as small as they may be, will be used.

But, secondly, Jesus' Parable of the Talents tells us that the reward of work well done is still more work to do. The two servants who had done well are not told to lean back and to rest on their oars, because they have done well. They are given greater tasks, and greater responsibilities in the work of the master. The reward of work is not rest, but more work.

Now, I find this to be especially helpful at this time of the year when we are scrambling around trying to find persons to fill positions upon the various boards of our church. I also find it helpful as I have looked in the past for persons to teach Sunday School or help in the nursery or take on the responsibility for Junior Church. For sometimes there have been those of us who have said, "Oh, no! I've done enough. Let somebody else take a turn." And certainly, while there are surely those times in our lives when we deserve to take a rest, those times should only be short breathers in our overall labors for God. Indeed, those persons who have served well, those persons who care, are those God chooses to serve in other ways, sometimes in ways requiring more responsibility.

In fact, I don't believe that God ever wants us to rest from our labors for any length of time. The person who retires, for instance, had better be quickly on the prowl, finding other things to do. For I truly believe that the person who after 35 or 40 years of hard work simply retires and then does nothing is asking for some serious, life-threatening problems as compared to the person who retires and then gets back to work.

And, more than this, I don't even believe that heaven will be a place of rest. I think we've had it all wrong to say that those who have died are now resting in peace. For I believe that God has work for us to do even after our lives upon this earth is finished. So, when I die, don't put on my tombstone the words, "Rest in Peace." Instead, put on the words, "Working in Glory," or "Laboring in Eternity," or something like that.

But, more, the Parable of the Talents tells us that the servant who is punished is simply the servant who will not try. The servant with the one talent did not lose his talent; he simply didn't do anything with it. Even if he had adventured with it and lost it, it would have been better than to do nothing with it at all. It is always a temptation for the person with one talent to say, "I have so small a talent, and I can do so little with it, that it is not worthwhile to try, for the small contribution I can make." But the condemnation is for the person who, having even one talent, will not try to use it, and who will not risk it for the common good.

And, finally, the Parable of the Talents lays down a rule of life which is universally true. It tells us that "to him that has will be given more, and that whoever doesn't have, even that which he/she has will be taken away." The meaning of this saying is this: If a person has a talent, and exercises it, that person will inevitably lose it. If we have some proficiency at a game or an art, if we have some gift for doing something, the more we exercise that proficiency and that gift, the harder the work and the bigger the task we will be able to tackle. Whereas, if we fail to use it, we lose it. That is equally true of playing golf or playing the piano, of singing songs or writing sermons, of carving wood or thinking out ideas. It is the lesson of life that the only way to keep a gift is to use it in the service of God and in the service of those around us. Amen.