Thanks

A fellow UCC pastor had the idea of running a UCC theology course at her church. She checked around and found that there weren’t many professors associated with the UCC who could come and teach a theology class at her church. “Where are the people teaching theology?” she asked her fellow clergy online. Names of professors were kicked around until someone, some pesky pastor in Medina wrote, “Don’t you have a master’s degree in this subject? Have you not been a pastor for all these many years? Couldn’t you do this?”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. I don’t know enough. I haven’t been trained. I couldn’t possibly.” Was the response.

That same troublesome writer replied, “I think we could change the motto of our denomination to ‘Someone should do something about this thing I care about!’ to reflect more of where many of our clergy and church folk are.”

Jesus tells a confusing parable. Three servants get a lot of money. A talent is a large sum of money, equal to the wages of a day laborer for 15 years[1]. While we tend to think of talents as a term for God-given abilities, in the parable, this is strictly referring to money.

We also want to read the master as God, but the master is characterized as a harsh and unjust man who inspires only fear and caution. The hearers of the parable, like us today, might not know what to think. The master was generous to the first two, yet the one talent man is condemned for fearful inactivity, and his money is given to the first servant who already has ten talents.

Have you ever noticed how busy people seem to remain busy? One of my mentors, the late Rev. George Barber said, “If you want something done in the church, give it to a busy person. They are busy because they keep busy, and they know how to get things done.”

A man summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them, each according to their ability, and went away. Upon his return he found the slave given 5 talents turned them into 10. The slave given 2, had made 4. He praises them, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave! You have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

Yet the third slave was fearful. This is a large sum of money. So he buried it. And for this, he is thrown to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Sometimes we are faced with a task that feels too big for us, and we freeze. Or we try to manage the risk. So we withdraw and isolate and hide. Yet there are times when we’re confronted with a big task and we step up and take a risk and find that we can do hard things. That we are up for the challenge and we can grow.

It is good to note that the word for “Crisis” in Mandarin is the same word for “opportunity.” I want to have that outlook. When I am entrusted with a task, I want to take a risk and have a good payoff. I don’t want to hide, I want to talk to others, share ideas, and enlist others in the work. I believe that we can do hard things.

In my last congregation, we had many small groups and book clubs. One of my favorite theological writers is Marcus Borg. One day, I saw a magazine advertisement that he would be speaking at a church in Columbus. The idea hit me like a lightning bolt. This author that I have been reading, whose words I know and love, could come and speak with us! Like he’s a real person! He would probably want to talk about these books he’s been writing and we’ve been reading, so let’s invite him over.

And we did! I spent a weekend with Marcus Borg in 2012 before his death in 2015. The congregation loved the weekend, and it inspired them to invite more authors and keep this practice going. It was a big undertaking, but it paid off in spades. We got to meet this author and hear his words of wisdom and get to know the man behind these books. A humble man of faith and a deep thinker and scholar. He blessed us and inspired us to a closer walk with God.

Any church could have done this, but so few do. The idea of “I don’t know enough. I haven’t been trained. I couldn’t possibly” has somehow entered our mind. Yet God has given us everything we need. The tools for our liberation are already in our hands! Alone, I couldn’t have done it, but together, the church was the church. We are not alone in this. The slave who was fearful didn’t even enlist the help of a bank. We are better in community; many hands make light work. The two successful slaves involved others, which is always a risk, but it pays off. So the question isn’t if we’re going to do something, the question is what are we going to do?

Once upon a time, goes the story from Jacob the Baker, there was a man who had a vision and started following it. Two others saw the first man and started following him. In time, the children of those who followed ask their parents what they saw. But what their parents described were only the coattails of the man in front of them. When they heard this, they turned from their parents’ vision, saying it was not worthy of pursuit.[2]

In so many churches today, there is an unofficial motto of “we have always done it this way.” That is coattail talk. If we can’t answer why we do something with the words of Jesus, then we shouldn’t do it. Christ is our vision. Why do you go to church? Because of the hope I find there. Because I’m a disciple learning about the beloved community of God. We read the stats of church decline, and I think it’s because we’ve lost the vision and fallen into lazy ritual. If we wonder why people aren’t joining our club, organization, or institution, instead of blaming them for not joining, we must think “Is our vision worthy of pursuit? Or are we describing the coattails of those who have come before?”

For Christ has a vision. A world at peace. Where we love our neighbor as ourselves, and who is our neighbor? Even the Samaritan. Or put it in modern terms—Even the Muslim, even the hungry, even the people we’d least expect to be hanging out with. That God loves us unconditionally and we cannot earn our way into God’s love, but we respond to God’s love by adjusting our behavior to be more like God’s. And this is GOOD NEWS. It’s so good, Paul wrote that everything that came before this message was complete and total garbage.

Yet it can take a long time to see the results of our work. It can cause us to despair and feel like we’re wicked and lazy and feel like we’re in the outer darkness… Are we really making a difference? We are. By showing up. By training ourselves to follow and be Christ to our world. By investing our time, talent, and treasure to the long work of building the kingdom so that when the Master returns, we have doubled or tripled what he gave us.

I was reminded this past Saturday about our work. I was reminded about how much I believe in the work of the church. Mike Piazza, a church vitality coach, stated about how poorly churches track the true dollar amount of their work. For example, our elementary feeding program here at the church for our families. It’s not part of the budget. We rely totally on volunteers and donated food.

If these donations run about $30 per family (my low estimate) and we have 7 families for 52 weeks out of the year (30x7x52) that’s $10,920 that goes direct to the community and these 7 families. We exist to organize and sustain that, but the church takes nothing out of it. That’s some impressive giving! Ken Zuehlke reminded me that this is just the tip of the iceberg. If we factor in the volunteer’s time, 10 hours times 15.00/ HR times 52 weeks is $7,800.00 on top of the $10,920 for a total gross of $18,720 invested in our small but effective community mission.

Part of Christ’s vision of God’s beloved community is where the hungry are fed. That’s the vision, and we’re living it out. This isn’t coattails of people who have come before us, we believe in this work and we’re doing it! What we think are small actions are actually huge investments! They make a big difference! By showing up here and pledging, you have made possible $18,720 in donations that wouldn’t be in Medina otherwise. Small things add up to large results!  This is good news!

We’re facing some big things in the world. Mass shootings. Crime. The opiate epidemic. Racism and Nazis marching in the streets. We see the division in our country. We can be overwhelmed. Yet around the communion table, we are reminded to get off our soap boxes, get the soap out of the box, and clean up our act. There is a better vision for our world than the one we’re living in. It requires work and investment to bring it about. No one else is going to do this work for you, it requires all of us.

I see this parable as a call to invest in our world. To invest our time, talent, and treasure to help bend the world to blessing. To tell people of the Good News of Jesus Christ which is not that we’re going to heaven but that heaven is coming here. Yes, we mess up, and we can be nasty, but that’s not how God sees us. When God looks at us, God sees Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. As it says in Hebrews 10, “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Perfect. Forever.” Or as Paul writes in Colossians 1, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

It’s like God is saying, “What don’t you understand?! I came and lived for you! I resurrected for you! I will keep coming after you. You bury me, I come out of the tomb. You bury your talent, well that’s on you. I have gifted you with so much, if you put a little out there, much will return.”

We have been given a great treasure of this gift of life, and I don’t know about you but I’m going to risk growing it rather than burying it out of fear. I want others to have life and have it abundantly. Yet I also know that we don’t gain by exploiting others and guilting them to come to church, or by collecting your W-2’s and checking to see if you’re giving 10%, we aren’t playing that game. All I can do is ask and remind you.

Our God is not a God of half-measures. No. Let us work until we hear the words from our master, “Enter into my joy.”

For our God is not fear, but one that offers us so much and is ready to thank us. And we too will respond in thanksgiving. Let us pray, “Thank you, God, for meaningful work! Thank you, God, for connecting me to other people. Thank you, God, for a vision and for this time to decide what to do and how to spend our time, talent, and treasure to further your vision in Christ. A vision of a peaceful, Spirit-led community of love. Thank you for this time and for your investment of love in us. We give you thanks which you in turn give back to us through Jesus our Christ. Amen.”

Works Cited

Ben Shea, Noah. Jacob the Baker; Gentle wisdom for a complicated world

Boring, M. Eugene. The Gospel of Matthew, New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII.

West, Audrey, Reflections on the Lectionary November 19, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Christian Century, October 25, 2017. Page 22

[1] Eugene Boring, NIB, page 453

[2] Noah ben Shea, Jacob the Baker; Gentle wisdom for a complicated world

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