November 23 2014 Thanksgiving for Ability

November 23 2014 Thanksgiving for Ability, *Matthew 25.14-30 Jacqueline Hines

A certain business man chose to invest in three servants. He gave each of them some talents – which is one Greek word for money - [ # 1 Matthew 25.15  to one he gave…..] 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. We can’t be 100% sure about the value of a talent. One source suggests that a talent was about 75 pounds. Today, 75 pounds of silver or gold could be worth as much as $250,000.  No doubt there are some here who have been responsible for thousands of dollars at home or at work – whether it be a business budget, a school loan, or a mortgage.

Money is no small matter. God is serious about money. God makes very large investments in us and expects us to produce profit as well as character.

Money is funny. A mother told me that she bought her teenaged son a very nice designer jacket. She could well afford it. She had a good job and her husband was a state trooper. Unbeknownst to her, her son would walk to school, and hide that jacket in the bushes because it was so uncool to wear a jacket – even if it was an expensive designer jacket.  When he returned home from school, he would retrieve the jacket from the bushes and go home. One day, this mother got a call from the school, saying we are sending your son home with a jacket because he comes to school every day wearing no jacket. It is cold and he needs a jacket. She was so embarrassed to be considered too broke to get her own son a car.

Another mother sent her daughter to school with a shirt that was too short because she had grown so fast and they were on a strict budget. So she put a sweater on her daughter and told her that soon they would go shopping and get new clothes, but in the meantime keep the sweater on so everyone won’t see that the shirt was a bit too small. Well, wouldn’t you know that when she got to school – it was a Catholic School – she was told she had to take off her sweater. The little girl immediately, told the teacher that her mother said she had to keep the sweater on because they were too poor to get new clothes. She was not at all embarrassed about this truth. The mother on the other hand…As humans we have strong opinions about each other and what we do with our money.

Each of the three servants in Jesus’ parable was given a talent – perhaps up to $250,000 according to their ability – that is their ability to care, to be filled with the Spirit of God, their ability to obey God, their ability to complete 100% of their servanthood training without dropping out, their ability to finish spiritual bootcamp without being booted out. Two of the servants had very impressive results. [  #2 Matthew 25. 16-17 - The first one received 5 talents,…] 16The one who had received the five talents – over a million dollars - went off at once and traded with them, and earned five more talents.  17In the same way, the one who had the two talents – about a half million dollars – earned two more talents.

[ # 3  money ]

These two were good financial managers. They were excellent stewards. The money they had was just like a mirror, reflecting the prosperity that was inside their hearts and minds, [# 4 cat in mirror ] reflecting who they were as good people . [ #5  Nelson Mandela in mirror] They were wise investors. This was especially noble because the money they were managing was not their own money.  All money belongs to God and we do well to act accordingly because God is watching like that eye on the dollar bill watches [ #6 eye on dollar bill ]. God knows and God cares.

The servant who received ONE talent about a quarter million dollars buried it in a hole in the back yard or put it under the mattress or stuffed it in a cookie jar. [ # 7 Matthew 25.24-25  Master I knew….] saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.

His master WAS tough, no nonsense, rock solid, and not to be played with, and the servant WAS afraid. Perhaps he was afraid of losing his master’s money because making an investment is definitely risky.  Perhaps he was afraid of the fees that go with investing. Have you ever watched your money go down the drain with the stock market or something. It makes you sick. Investing can be a terrifying experience.

This servant – according to the Greek – was afraid. He was  fob-eh’ – o.

 [  #8  fob-eh'-o   ]   or   phobeo  - it looks like the word “phobia” from which our English word  is derived.  He was phobic, and if you have ever suffered from a phobia, you understand how distressing and debilitating it can be. You understand the feeling of terror. You understand the havoc, the headaches, and the disorientation that fear generates. Nevertheless, the parable focuses on the results of this servant’s  phobia. The phobia started to control his life. The phobia made him wicked and lazy. We know that God is not a God of fear. The servant’s fear was off the charts. It was so intense as to be the work of the enemy, the devil.

This parable is an invitation for God’s servants to eliminate fear’s control and tap into God’ spirit of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1.7.  [ #9   2 Timothy 1.7]

If you have issues around money, you are not alone. I felt guided to read a book called Money Matters. [ #10 Money Matters book cover]  I read a few pages and by the time the second edition came out, I still had not finished reading the book. When I finally did what I was led to do, I received power to make a giant spiritual step in a good direction.

A pastor told me recently that when he served a certain church he had no idea what his members gave. He said his finance secretary asked him every year if he wanted to see the list of members who were tithers, and whether church leaders, were demonstrating faithful financial commitment. The pastor said “no” every year because he thought did not want to know because he did not want to show any bias to anyone. When he left that church, he was handed a sealed envelope with all the member’s names and the amount they gave. A few months later, he did look at it, and he was shocked and surprised that the giving was not at all what he imagined. It is true, we cannot begin to figure or assume what God’s big picture in the church looks like. We just need to do OUR part.

In God’s graciousness, we all have an opportunity to invest the little or great amount of whatever God has given us.

The master said to the servant,  [ #11 Matthew 25.27  you knew…]  “You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.”

What he had been given was taken away. His penalty was to be thrown, not simply into darkness, but outer darkness. When the electricity goes out at night, we are uncomfortable with utter darkness in our homes. When the electricity goes out at night and we are outside in the pitch black darkness, we are not only uncomfortable, but we are exposed to predators and savage beasts.

We have all traveled on a rough road, and it was not always for lack of better models and purer options. Whether we make less than helpful choices intentionally or unintentionally, whether we find ourselves in inner darkness or outer darkness,  if we remember to cry out to God for help, help will come.

The prophets saw it with their own eyes. [ #12 People walking in darkness….] The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; … Isaiah 9.2 [ #13 Isaiah 9.2….]

At a Massachusetts’s revival meeting, a young man stood up to testify about whether God had saved him from his sins.  He said, "I am not quite sure, but I'm going to trust, and I'm going to obey."   The song leader that day was so blessed by his simple and honest testimony that he shared it with his friend John Sammis a Presbyterian minister born in Brooklyn died in California who wrote a song in 1877:

When we walk with the Lord

            in the light of his word,

            what a glory he sheds on our way!

            While we do his good will,

            he abides with us still,

            and with all who will trust and obey.

2.        Not a burden we bear,

            not a sorrow we share,

            but our toil he doth richly repay;

            not a grief or a loss,

            not a frown or a cross,

            but is blest if we trust and obey.

3.        But we never can prove

            the delights of his love

            until all on the altar we lay;

            for the favor he shows,

            for the joy he bestows,

            are for them who will trust and obey.

Refrain:

            Trust and obey, for there's no other way

            to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. 

 As we trust God’s Spirit to work in our hearts and in our Church, the good we produce will be 100%  appreciated and acceptable. When we give our all, all the world will see the greatness that God has put inside of us. [ #14 cat  in mirror] We have done it before. We can do it again. Amen.