Year A Proper 28 Matthew 25:14-30

The early part of this month was certainly one of stress, of wondering and of waiting. On Tuesday, November 3rd, a goodly number of folks who hadn’t submitted mail-in ballots went to the polls and voted – and then the wait began. We the people were on tenterhooks, waiting to see who would be elected to serve as President of the United States for the next four years. It certainly got to everyone.

In the White House, the current incumbent was obviously exceedingly stressed. Over the long waiting period he did some things that those who were not his supporters wondered about, but the reason he did them was clear. He didn’t want to lose the election. He wanted to be “successful”. And that’s what most of us want when we undertake a project, be it large or small. We want to succeed. Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose – and this election was all about “winning”.

If your candidate “won”, you were probably elated and relieved. If your candidate “lost’ there was a sense of shock and anger and emptiness. We, as human beings, put a lot of emphasis on the importance of being successful, of being “winners” – and when we don’t achieve the goal we set for ourselves, we feel like we have failed.

Jesus said, “It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

Today’s Gospel tells us a story we know as “The Parable of the Talents.” That word “talent” has a double meaning. Its original meaning in the Greek of the New Testament, i.e. as it was used in Jesus’ day, refers to a huge sum of money. In the ancient world, a talent was worth what an ordinary laborer earned over the course of 15 years. Thus, giving each of his servants one or more talents, the master in this story is entrusting them with a fortune.

The second meaning of the word “talent” results from one interpretation of this very parable. As the master entrusts his servants with talents, so God entrusts each of us with abilities. “Talent” has thus come to mean ability or skill. We say that someone has a talent for music or cooking or business.

As the story opens, the master is about to leave town on a journey. He entrusts his wealth to three servants. Each is given a different sum of money. Yet each is given a huge amount – one talent or two or five. It’s clear that the master trusts each of his servants. He even hands over the money without any instructions.

After a long time, the master returns and calls in his three servants. Two of them have doubled their money. The third has made nothing at all; he returns to his master exactly what he received. It turns out that this servant has simply buried the money in the ground, a common security measure in ancient times. He reveals the reason for his action: fear of the master.

His trust in his master was zero, so he reduced his financial risk to zero. Yet he reduced the possibility of profit so that it, too, was zero.

The story as we have it leaves us with an unanswered question. How would the master have responded to the first two servants if they had not brought in a profit? What if they had put the money at risk and come back empty handed?

It is probable that the master would have accepted them. After all, in the parable what he commends is not their profits, but their faithfulness. He does not commend the servant who produced five talents more than the one who produced two. Each receives the same commendation: “Well done, good and trustworthy servant.” Each receives the same invitation: “You have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

And in responding to the third servant, the master makes it clear that he would have accepted anything – even rock-bottom, savings-account interest – that was motivated by faith rather than fear.

When we hear this story we can easily think of the first two servants as having succeeded in doing the right thing – and see their making a profit as a “success story”. They come across as the “winners”. We can look at the third servant and see someone who failed. He loses everything - is, in fact, a real “loser”.

How interesting, though, that the parable is not about money or the ability to make more money. It is not about “winning” or “losing”. It is about trust. The master trusts his servants and acts on this trust. Two of the servants return the favor by acting out of trust rather than fear, and they come back to their master with one fortune stacked on top of another.

The third servant paints an ugly picture of a grasping master who demands success. What this servant gets for his trouble is exactly the rejection he fears. He’s a small-minded man who insists that his master is just as small minded.

The other two servants, however, recognize generosity when they see it. The piles of money thrust their way reveal a man who is generous, who takes a risk, who accepts them, even honours them. Finding themselves at the receiving end of such outrageous trust, they feel empowered, and are willing to take risks of their own. The love their master has shown them overcomes their fear of failure. They realize that any master who treats his money managers in this open-handed way is more interested in them than in turning a profit.

The parable starts off sounding like it is all about winning and losing, all about making money and not doing so. These are worldly standards we all understand. But “The Parable of the Talents” isn’t really about money or ability. It’s about something even more important. “The Parable of the Talents” is about trust, about faith. This brief story turns upside-down the standards of the world. It announces that the worst thing that can happen to us is not failure. The worst thing that can happen to us is that we make God out to be a horrible old grouch who rejects us when we fail.

The story tells us that the worst thing is not losing out. The worst thing is never risking. In the eyes of God, the fear that keeps a treasure in the ground is an act of atheism. The freedom that puts that treasure at risk – and may even result in its loss – that is an act of faith.

When she was still alive, one of Mother Teresa’s critics asked her why she bothered with the work she was doing, since she obviously couldn’t treat every sick person, could not change governments, could not alleviate the world’s suffering. There was no way she could ever be truly successful.

She smiled and replied, “God didn’t call me to be successful. He called me to be faithful.”

We who fear failure will not put ourselves out for Christ. Oh, yes, we’ll do a little bit of this and that, but we don’t want to “risk” too much. Have we forgotten Jesus’ promises – that for all we do and all we sacrifice, all we suffer for Him, great will be our reward in heaven? And while we may never be successful in the eyes of the world, in this life, even if we struggle and suffer, we will have peace in our hearts, our hearts that are always restless until they rest in Jesus.

“The Parable of the Talents” is a story about trust, a story about risk, a story about faith. Life is the same way. What turns out to be important is not money or abilities in themselves, but our decision to use them in ways that show our willingness to risk and to trust. The central question about life is not “What did we accomplish?” but whether we learned to obey, whether we learned to love. God calls us to be faithful, and in the end, God sees only our love.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, in glorifying Christ and sending us Your Spirit, You open the way to eternal life. May our sharing in this gift increase our love and make our faith grow stronger. Grant this, we ask, through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, AMEN