It is not my nature to invest totally in things. Most of my life has felt like the rug being pulled out from under my feet. I fully invested in a faith tradition, only to be betrayed. I fully invested in a family that broke apart…. Twice. Yet there is an exception to this. I have invested totally in my relationship with Kate. This is not to say that we haven’t had hard times. But the investment has been total from the start. And it extends to Sam and Eve. If it weren’t from that investment, I would never have found myself back into a church.

Last Sunday’s sermon was about the importance of our involvement and participation in the life of our church. Today’s scriptures continue that theme. More specifically, it’s about investment.

I intentionally use the term investment, as I believe that’s a major theme in today’s parable. Churches have interpreted the term “talent” to be God-given gifts, abilities, or proclivities that we nurture. Like how we see our special music participants week after week. They didn’t wake up with these gifts, they invested in their music, and we get to see that investment pay out. It’s what we see with the amazing talents of Cathy Fafrak and our Gathering band on Sundays.

That’s a great way to understand our parable today. I’ve preached a few sermons with this interpretation. Yet what if Jesus was literally talking about money. Let us focus on the economic aspect of this parable.

A very wealthy man gives money to servants, and then he leaves. And not just a little money, he gives out talents. A talent is a large sum of money. It would be equal, according to scholars, to the wages of a day laborer for 15 years.[1] This is an enormous sum of money to give out. The first two servants double their money. Yet attention turns to the response of the third.

The banking system in the first century was relatively new so there was great distrust of it. Most folks at the time believed you shouldn’t be putting stuff into the bank, so most of the people who heard this story probably rolled their eyes at the first two guys, and affirmed the guy who played it safe. Most folks would have done what the third guy did and buried the money. In fact, most of the coins we see in museums come from such hoards that people buried.[2] But parables are designed to challenge conventional wisdom, to flip the thinking of world on its head.

The master challenges the third guy as to why he didn’t increase the money. The third man responds by saying that the master is a harsh and unjust man who only inspires fear and caution. And the master says, “Is that what you think of me?”

The master takes away the money of the one-talent guy and gives it to the first guy who already has 10 talents. That’s 150 years’ worth of wages already…. This approach makes sense strictly only in an economic sense. If we were talking about talents-as-gifts, it wouldn’t make sense. It’s not like me learning the ukulele is taking talent away from someone else. Or if I quit learning the uke, God will punish me by awarding Cathy or Katherine Johns more skill on the piano. I don’t think life works like that.

Yet it’s not also just about money. Consider the parable’s setting in Matthew’s Gospel: As Jesus nears his death, would he really be encouraging his disciples to invest their money well? We suspect he would not, so the story must be about “something more.” As theologian Marcus Borg always loved to say, “This parable is how to live until the Dream of God comes in its fullness.”[3]

What I really think this is about is investment. Investment in a relationship. The master is generous. He left a lot of money to his servants. Two of the servants knew the nature of the master, and the third did not. Two servants knew that if they invested what they had been given, it might fail, but the relationship could handle it. Better to risk and fail than do nothing. But they didn’t fail, they succeeded. The third person thought the owner a cruel man, not worth investing in. The bare minimum was done. The third person misunderstood the master and didn’t have the relationship with the master. Nor did the third person have a relationship with the other two servants! You know those two were trading stock tips. The third wasn’t in community with the other two.

Theologian Dallas Willard puts it like this, “In many cases, our need to wonder about or be told what God wants in a certain situation is nothing short of a clear indication of how little we are engaged in God’s work.” GEE ZIP! It’s why the last dude hid all his stuff. He didn’t know God’s nature. There was no relationship there. That servant lives in fear, not faith. He doesn’t offer or share what he’s given due to his fear… WOW. It’s why I don’t attend churches that preach an angry god that counts your every sin. That’s not the God I know. Or a God that only has ONE WAY to everything. That’s not the God I know. The God I know didn’t create one type of anything. There’s not just one type of tree, or flower, or type of person. We have an artist God who delights in diversity.

I have divested from such churches and such a theology of God. I am invested and all in on our church life. My time. My talents. My treasure. My money. I invest in things I care about. I give to nonprofits that I have a connection with. I buy brands I trust and have a history with. We give our attention to things we have relationships with. And part of that is money. And we often don’t like to talk about money because it’s impolite. But money is a part of our life of faith.

I want to point out that I know my salary depends on your giving. I have a selfish interest in talking about this subject, so let’s get that out there.  Yet I also have a relationship of trust with you to know that you love me and will take care of me and my family. And I love you and want to steward your giving well, whether it is $5, $500 or $5,000! How you give is up to you. Pray on it, and I trust your answer.

I trust it because I trust you. And I trust our God and our work toward God’s purposes. It’s all about relationship and knowing who we’re in relationship with. God is not a cruel master who just takes and takes and takes. We have been given the generous gift of life and this precious moment. We can let it pass us by, or we can take the time and learn more about ourselves and our abilities. We can take time to learn about our neighbors and their abilities. We can invest in our relationships.

It’s what the third servant missed. The servant did the bare minimum. He did things according to what was common sense then, the way things have always been done. God’s not looking for that. God’s looking for a relationship with us where we invest in our vertical and horizontal relationships: our spirituality and our community. The relationship is the point. How you engage is up to you. You know what relationships aren’t going anywhere and which you can still speak to. It is up to you to figure out whether you need to divest or invest.

I believe, for me and my house, that investment in the life of this church helps me with my relationship with my neighbor and my God. Other churches and other theologies that harm my relationship with God and neighbor? I don’t and won’t invest in those. It’s appropriate to divest there, and invest somewhere else.

My investment with this style of church and with God has returned more than double to me. I’m finding what church member Mark Armstrong put so eloquently, “I frequently act like I think it’s a duty to co-labor with God. It’s really a delightful privilege.” It is a delightful privilege to be your pastor. It is a delightful privilege to be in the UCC and in relationship with others who share a similar view of God as generous and gracious. It’s a delightful privilege to be Kate’s husband, and Papa to Eve and Sam. I take care to consider how I invest in each of these areas. How to bring the maximum return for each. Because I have a relationship which is built of trust and faith. I know I cannot bury my time, talent, and treasure in the same ol’ stuff that everyone else is doing. I will risk. I will offer all that I have been given and entrusted with and look for the good return.

I cannot live in fear. Because I know you, church. And I know whom we serve and who we co-labor with and for. And it is a delight to do so with you.

Works Cited

^[1]  New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII, page 453.

^[2] The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 7, page 559.

^[3] https://www.ucc.org/weekly_seeds_investing_what_is_offered