Sermon Notes for November 13th
November 13th, 2005
“More will be Given”
Mathew 25:14-30
1. I don’t normally read the New York Times, except when people send me articles on the internet. Of course, for many Americans, the proper paper to read is the Sunday New York Times which currently costs $ 5.00 and weighs about a ton. I discovered that you can buy it in Bemidji at Luekens if you get there early on Sunday morning before they all sell out.
The problem is that the Sunday Times is really meant to be read leisurely at your favorite coffee shop on Sunday morning and I always seem to find myself in church on Sundays! I am not sure if that means the Times is really written for people who don’t go to church or not!
Now, reading the Times out here in the Midwest also kind of implies that you are a snob or sorts … too good to be satisfied with the local Bemidji paper or perhaps the Star-Tribune or the Fargo Forum.
The best example of this happened back in St. Paul. Once or twice a summer we used to go family camping with other couples in our church. One time a new younger couple and their daughter decided to try it out. However, after barely surviving a horrible thunderstorm during the night … when the wife found out that she couldn’t even buy the Sunday New York Times at the St. Croix State Park camp store … well, that was the last straw! They immediately packed up their gear, jumped in their SUV, and took off! It was all the rest of us could do to keep from laughing … at least until they were out of sight.
2. Now, since I can’t read it on Sunday morning over coffee … there is the additional problem that after church I usually go out to eat lunch, then I watch football, after which I go for a walk and then it is time to eat supper, and by then it is just too late in the day to indulge in the Times – so, if I do occasionally buy it, which I do about once a month -- it just sits there for days or weeks until I get enough spare time to pick away at it.
So, this past week I finally picked up the September 19th NY Times magazine and discovered a very interesting article about the recent Billy Graham crusade in New York – written by a professor from the University of Chicago – Mark Lilla.
In the article, the author very insightfully discusses how while growing up in a working class Catholic family in Detroit in the l970’s, he discovered Jesus. It turns out that as a teenager, at age 13, he first decided he was an atheist. Then a year later he attended a Christian rock concert at the high school. On the way out he was given a copy of the New Testament. He immediately went home and stayed up all night to read it. After that, he soon came to believe that he was saved and became involved with several evangelical groups which continued on into college – but eventually, his enthusiasm waned and after belonging to a larg Pentecostal mega church which seemed rather dogmatic and cold …he describes how the feeling of comfort, belonging and the love and power of God left him never to return. Now he is a well read professor of philosophy and social theory at a prestigious University.
3. So, as you might imagine, for Professor Lilla, going to a Billy Graham rally after some thirty years was quite an eventful experience. And, despite the fact that he no longer can go along with the modern evangelical approach to religion, he offered some insightful comments about Graham … which got me thinking … as I read the article.
For, this is what he wrote, in summary: The primary thrust of Billy Graham, he said, is that we must be “born again” … he never dwells on the evils of the world (like the old style preachers) … nor does he present Christianity as a success religion (like many of the younger preachers on TV and in the mega churches who promise wealth and popularity). His approach, Lilla comments, is almost pure existential. Graham’s intended listener is someone whose life hasn’t gone too badly … no bouts with cancer or trips to prison …
Billy simply looks you in the eye and says … “I know what you know … You aren’t happy. You may have a decent job, a loving spouse, healthy children, and a pension plan. But there are moments when you sit out on your lawn and wonder … Why do I feel so empty inside? What does it all mean?”
Well, what is the answer? Billy goes on … “I also know what you need. I’m not asking you to forsake mother and father, wife and children. I not even asking you to forsake your car and vacation home … not because those things are valuable … but because they are irrelevant … All I am asking is that you accept Christ’s invitation to come into your heart … and start your life anew.”
4. At this point … Billy asks people to come forward … and during the three day crusade … more that 8,700 people did come forward hoping, apparently, to be “born again” – like Nicodemus in the famous story in the Gospel of John.
Not a whole lot different, really, from the rallies that were held by the Methodist revivalist, Rev. John Wesley, himself, back in England.
So, what does it mean to be “born again?” Well, looking back over his earlier life as a teenage evangelical Christian … Lilla now thinks it had to do with the desire to be changed … to be somebody new … different from what he was … a short, lonely, near sighted, teenager with pimples who wasn’t very popular with the girls … in other words … as he puts it: A NORMAL TEENAGER!
This desire to escape … to be somebody else than who you are … … can be very attractive … especially in America where the pressure is on always to be good looking, successful, popular … and all the rest.
Get a life …! we hear that so often. Get a life….!
And here Jesus seems to be saying … you can have a new life … be a new person … be born again …
A very appealing message, wouldn’t you say. Or, is it really all that simple? Is this just another way we, in our American culture, want to get rich and be happy – all by finding Jesus?
5. In Lilla’s analysis of Billy Graham’s message, he states that it is almost pure existentialist and this struck me as strange … for I had never thought of existentialism in the same context as Billy Graham. But, maybe it is … in a way …
For most people, existentialism is often associated with atheists like the French writers and philosophers: John Paul Sarte and Albert Camus. But one can also be a Christian with an existentialist outlook as well. In fact, the first modern existentialist was Soren Kierkegaard … who lived in Denmark.
Now, Kierkegaard is not usually thought of as being funny, at least not in the hah-hah way … but he could be ironical and liked to poke fun at people’s pretentiousness … much in the same way Jesus could say that “we should take the stone out of our own eye before taking the speck out of another’s eye.” Do you see the rather subtle humor in that phrase?
Well, Kierkegaard, the philosopher, tried to raise in our minds the ultimate questions of our existence … to a new level … “How did we get here in the first place …?” He asked. “Why were we born at all …? And whose idea was this … anyway?
6. After all, when you come right down to it … none of us chose to be born … did we? It just happened…right? Nobody asked us … if we wanted to be born.
And so, Kierkegaard asks … “If I am compelled to be involved … in other words to go on living … where is the manager? … who is in charge here? … Because, I want to say something … Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?
Well, that does make us chuckle … doesn’t it? And, yet, we are humbled by the reality that by and of ourselves alone, we don’t know the answer, do we? And, yet, here we all are … Amazing!
Now, of course, we have all, at one time or another, had that same sense of wondering … “Why am I here?” And, no doubt, would also like to ask, “And, whose idea was this… after all?” Just like the example of the man in Billy Graham’s sermon sitting out on the lawn … asking “Why do I feel so empty inside? What does it all mean?”
In fact, I would have to say that one of the main reasons we are all here in church this morning … is because we realize that WE DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH OUR BEING BORN … and, if we are really honest with ourselves and each other, --- we DO WANT TO GET TO KNOW THE MANAGER AND FIND OUT WHAT HIS THOUGHTS ARE about life … and most particularly our own life … isn’t that right? Isn’t that one of the main reasons we are here this morning?
Well, we are not alone. For instance, the great play write, Tennessee Williams, said almost the same thing when he was asked why, in later life, he joined the Catholic Church. He said, “Well, if I am eventually going to the Big Hotel in the sky, I thought I’d better get to know the management!”
7. Getting to know the management …well, whatever you think about Billy Graham’s methods and whether or not evangelical religion always works for you or whether it is the only way to find God (which it is not) … one would have to say that 8,700 is still a lot of people … a lot of people who evidently felt disconnected … from the management …(from God).
And the truth is there are a lot of people out there right now who are so absorbed in their every day lives … that they scarcely think about God … until something happens … or something goes wrong in their lives.
Or, maybe they just got turned off to the church somewhere along the way … like Professor Lilla, and they find going to church not all that meaningful … or relevant to their lives …
Incidentally, it is really people like these who are the ones who the Methodist TV advertising campaign (Open hearts, open minds, open doors) is trying to appeal to … people who are disconnected from God – same as Billy Graham.
8. Now, in the scripture reading for today … we encounter the very familiar parable of Jesus …. about the man who entrusted his workers with his property while he went away … and while he was gone two of them invested the money and did very well … and one, out of fear and uncertainty, refused and did nothing … thereby incurring the wrath of the manager when he returned. “To those to whom much is given, more is expected,” Jesus says. “… and more will given in return …”
Now, this passage is supposed to be a great one to use during Stewardship …
In fact, I was reading how recently a little book came out called the Kingdom Assignment and it tells about a certain pastor got the idea to give out $ 10,000 in $ 100 increments … asking each member of his church to invest it in God’s work. He then gave them 90 days … to report back … which they did … and so many remarkable things happened … that it was even reported on NBC Dateline … It would be interesting to try, but I don’t think we have 10 Grand to hand out at the moment!
Well, even it sounds good … but is that really what Jesus was talking about…?
Not quite … I think …
9. Actually, to understand Jesus’ parable, we must first understand what the word “talent” meant back in those days … which is not the same as what we mean by “talent” today.
Imagine, for a moment that a “talent” was not a term for a metal coin … but was actually a heavy measure or weight … and depending on whether it was gold, copper, or silver its value could vary. But, I looked it up, and here is approximately what it a talent would be worth in Jesus’ day:
It turns out that a talent is a weight equal to three thousand shekels. In the New Testament, a talent weight was calculated at 58 to 80 lbs. The value would differ according to the metal, but the buying power was enormous. Five talents would make one a multi-millionaire!
In other words … Jesus is not talking about a small amount of money … Jesus is talking about an amount equal to all the money you might make in your whole lifetime!!
10. So, this is not about the fall Stewardship campaign … this is not about increasing your pledge for next year … by 5 or 10% because we need it to pay for the church heating bills this winter … WHICH WE DO NEED… by the way …
No, Jesus is not talking about your church pledge … He is not talking about the small percentage of your total income which you donate to keep the church running ...
No, Jesus is talking about the whole ball of wax … Jesus is talking about your whole life … everything … all of it …
Jesus is talking about the Stewardship of your whole life … No less … no more …
Now that is getting pretty existential …!!
And once we see what this means existentially … the parable makes a more sense … doesn’t it?
11. This is because, as we noted earlier, we do not chose to be born … right?
However, like the workers in the story… whether we like it or not we are entrusted with a great amount of treasure … are we not?
And what is that treasure? Well, there are two ways of interpreting the meaning of the great value of the talent:
A. One is that the talent is the same as our entire life. For like the master who goes away … it is God who gives us life, right? And how much is that worth? How much is your life worth? How much is any person’s life worth? Well, most of us would say that no amount of money … can equal a life … really.
So, stop and think for a moment …and ask yourself … How much to you value your own life? How do you take care of it? How grateful are you for it? And then ask … who entrusted you with your life … and lastly, what have you done with it? What do you plan to do with it? Good questions for this snowy Sunday morning in November, 2005!
B. Or, one could interpret the idea of the talent as being
the gift of salvation … the grace of God … revealed in Jesus Christ. It is really the power of the God’s love. How much is that worth? And, therefore, we might all ask the question -- how have we, as a church, who have been entrusted with God’s grace … endeavored to use not only our money …(our financial resources)… but also our time, and gifts … and prayers … to further the work of God’s kingdom in our lives and in the lives or others. In short, what kind of servants are we?
12. Now, before we start feeling guilty and get down on ourselves too much, let us remember that as we all know, there are big churches and small churches …Which means that some are given more resources … and some are given less … does it matter? Not really. God only expects each church to do the best with what they have. Interesting, isn’t it? That’s what the parable says …
The same thing may be said to be true with each of us … for some have more talents, more resources … more gifts … and certainly not all of us are alike … not all of us are equal. So, does this matter to God. Not really. God only expects each of us to do our best with our life and not to compare ourselves with others who may have more or less than we do. Now do you understand what the parable means?
Sounds easy enough, right? So, what’s the problem?
Well, the problem is that life is uncertain. Things happen. Life is not always clear and we can’t foretell the future. We want to play it safe. We want to be cautious. We want to look out for ourselves etc. etc.
But, as in so many of Jesus’ stories … there is no such time in this life for extreme caution. No time for playing it safe. Which is because life is short. We don’t live forever. Time is shorter than we think…
13. In other words, it is just like with the warnings about the last judgment which we have been talking about the last several weeks … Jesus really seems to have no time for waiting or being reluctant to use our talents and gifts right in the here and now.
For if you look carefully at Jesus’ parables and stories there is always a sense of urgency in Jesus’ message. “Don’t wait.” He seems to saying. “Don’t hesitate. Don’t be afraid. Don’t put things off. Get on with your life – live it NOW!”
Our time, Jesus seems to be saying … is running out. You should be living your life today … don’t put off things for tomorrow … for you never know when things will happen … you never know when your life could be over … don’t waste it.
On Friday, I visited with a long time friend who is a pastor in Duluth … Mark Johnson. Some of you may remember how his wife was badly injured in a car accident about 5 years ago. She lived, but continues to suffer from serious spinal injuries … and has had to quit teaching. Today and every day she must restrict certain activities. But she is still alive and enjoying life, despite her handicaps.
Well, as you might imagine, Mark and Mary look at life quite differently these days. Things that were important before the accident are no longer important today. And, overall, life itself is much more precious, today, than it ever was before.
14. Now, in conclusion, we don’t necessarily have to go to a Billy Graham rally to get the message which Jesus is expounding in today’s scripture reading. Its plain enough … I think. In fact, just visiting with Mark and Mary, I found myself asking some important questions about my life as well.
And, we don’t necessarily have to be “born again” in exactly the way that some Christian evangelicals view that concept.
But, we do need to endeavor to keep ourselves connected to God and keep always before us the words of Jesus about how our lives are entrusted to us for a purpose …
And we don’t need to spend undue amounts of time worrying about the future -- which is in God’s hands anyway …
But, instead –if we accept this message of the Gospel today, we are freed up from fear … to live … and live abundantly … living in God’s grace every day … doing God’s will as best we are able … and doing what we can to spread the “good news” to those around us who seem empty and disconnected. That ought to be enough to keep us occupied and busy for the rest of our lives, don’t you think?
And yet in the midst of all this … a person might even find a little time to occasionally read the Sunday New York Times!
Let us pray ….
“More will be Given”
Mathew 25:14-30
1. I don’t normally read the New York Times, except when people send me articles on the internet. Of course, for many Americans, the proper paper to read is the Sunday New York Times which currently costs $ 5.00 and weighs about a ton. I discovered that you can buy it in Bemidji at Luekens if you get there early on Sunday morning before they all sell out.
The problem is that the Sunday Times is really meant to be read leisurely at your favorite coffee shop on Sunday morning and I always seem to find myself in church on Sundays! I am not sure if that means the Times is really written for people who don’t go to church or not!
Now, reading the Times out here in the Midwest also kind of implies that you are a snob or sorts … too good to be satisfied with the local Bemidji paper or perhaps the Star-Tribune or the Fargo Forum.
The best example of this happened back in St. Paul. Once or twice a summer we used to go family camping with other couples in our church. One time a new younger couple and their daughter decided to try it out. However, after barely surviving a horrible thunderstorm during the night … when the wife found out that she couldn’t even buy the Sunday New York Times at the St. Croix State Park camp store … well, that was the last straw! They immediately packed up their gear, jumped in their SUV, and took off! It was all the rest of us could do to keep from laughing … at least until they were out of sight.
2. Now, since I can’t read it on Sunday morning over coffee … there is the additional problem that after church I usually go out to eat lunch, then I watch football, after which I go for a walk and then it is time to eat supper, and by then it is just too late in the day to indulge in the Times – so, if I do occasionally buy it, which I do about once a month -- it just sits there for days or weeks until I get enough spare time to pick away at it.
So, this past week I finally picked up the September 19th NY Times magazine and discovered a very interesting article about the recent Billy Graham crusade in New York – written by a professor from the University of Chicago – Mark Lilla.
In the article, the author very insightfully discusses how while growing up in a working class Catholic family in Detroit in the l970’s, he discovered Jesus. It turns out that as a teenager, at age 13, he first decided he was an atheist. Then a year later he attended a Christian rock concert at the high school. On the way out he was given a copy of the New Testament. He immediately went home and stayed up all night to read it. After that, he soon came to believe that he was saved and became involved with several evangelical groups which continued on into college – but eventually, his enthusiasm waned and after belonging to a larg Pentecostal mega church which seemed rather dogmatic and cold …he describes how the feeling of comfort, belonging and the love and power of God left him never to return. Now he is a well read professor of philosophy and social theory at a prestigious University.
3. So, as you might imagine, for Professor Lilla, going to a Billy Graham rally after some thirty years was quite an eventful experience. And, despite the fact that he no longer can go along with the modern evangelical approach to religion, he offered some insightful comments about Graham … which got me thinking … as I read the article.
For, this is what he wrote, in summary: The primary thrust of Billy Graham, he said, is that we must be “born again” … he never dwells on the evils of the world (like the old style preachers) … nor does he present Christianity as a success religion (like many of the younger preachers on TV and in the mega churches who promise wealth and popularity). His approach, Lilla comments, is almost pure existential. Graham’s intended listener is someone whose life hasn’t gone too badly … no bouts with cancer or trips to prison …
Billy simply looks you in the eye and says … “I know what you know … You aren’t happy. You may have a decent job, a loving spouse, healthy children, and a pension plan. But there are moments when you sit out on your lawn and wonder … Why do I feel so empty inside? What does it all mean?”
Well, what is the answer? Billy goes on … “I also know what you need. I’m not asking you to forsake mother and father, wife and children. I not even asking you to forsake your car and vacation home … not because those things are valuable … but because they are irrelevant … All I am asking is that you accept Christ’s invitation to come into your heart … and start your life anew.”
4. At this point … Billy asks people to come forward … and during the three day crusade … more that 8,700 people did come forward hoping, apparently, to be “born again” – like Nicodemus in the famous story in the Gospel of John.
Not a whole lot different, really, from the rallies that were held by the Methodist revivalist, Rev. John Wesley, himself, back in England.
So, what does it mean to be “born again?” Well, looking back over his earlier life as a teenage evangelical Christian … Lilla now thinks it had to do with the desire to be changed … to be somebody new … different from what he was … a short, lonely, near sighted, teenager with pimples who wasn’t very popular with the girls … in other words … as he puts it: A NORMAL TEENAGER!
This desire to escape … to be somebody else than who you are … … can be very attractive … especially in America where the pressure is on always to be good looking, successful, popular … and all the rest.
Get a life …! we hear that so often. Get a life….!
And here Jesus seems to be saying … you can have a new life … be a new person … be born again …
A very appealing message, wouldn’t you say. Or, is it really all that simple? Is this just another way we, in our American culture, want to get rich and be happy – all by finding Jesus?
5. In Lilla’s analysis of Billy Graham’s message, he states that it is almost pure existentialist and this struck me as strange … for I had never thought of existentialism in the same context as Billy Graham. But, maybe it is … in a way …
For most people, existentialism is often associated with atheists like the French writers and philosophers: John Paul Sarte and Albert Camus. But one can also be a Christian with an existentialist outlook as well. In fact, the first modern existentialist was Soren Kierkegaard … who lived in Denmark.
Now, Kierkegaard is not usually thought of as being funny, at least not in the hah-hah way … but he could be ironical and liked to poke fun at people’s pretentiousness … much in the same way Jesus could say that “we should take the stone out of our own eye before taking the speck out of another’s eye.” Do you see the rather subtle humor in that phrase?
Well, Kierkegaard, the philosopher, tried to raise in our minds the ultimate questions of our existence … to a new level … “How did we get here in the first place …?” He asked. “Why were we born at all …? And whose idea was this … anyway?
6. After all, when you come right down to it … none of us chose to be born … did we? It just happened…right? Nobody asked us … if we wanted to be born.
And so, Kierkegaard asks … “If I am compelled to be involved … in other words to go on living … where is the manager? … who is in charge here? … Because, I want to say something … Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?
Well, that does make us chuckle … doesn’t it? And, yet, we are humbled by the reality that by and of ourselves alone, we don’t know the answer, do we? And, yet, here we all are … Amazing!
Now, of course, we have all, at one time or another, had that same sense of wondering … “Why am I here?” And, no doubt, would also like to ask, “And, whose idea was this… after all?” Just like the example of the man in Billy Graham’s sermon sitting out on the lawn … asking “Why do I feel so empty inside? What does it all mean?”
In fact, I would have to say that one of the main reasons we are all here in church this morning … is because we realize that WE DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH OUR BEING BORN … and, if we are really honest with ourselves and each other, --- we DO WANT TO GET TO KNOW THE MANAGER AND FIND OUT WHAT HIS THOUGHTS ARE about life … and most particularly our own life … isn’t that right? Isn’t that one of the main reasons we are here this morning?
Well, we are not alone. For instance, the great play write, Tennessee Williams, said almost the same thing when he was asked why, in later life, he joined the Catholic Church. He said, “Well, if I am eventually going to the Big Hotel in the sky, I thought I’d better get to know the management!”
7. Getting to know the management …well, whatever you think about Billy Graham’s methods and whether or not evangelical religion always works for you or whether it is the only way to find God (which it is not) … one would have to say that 8,700 is still a lot of people … a lot of people who evidently felt disconnected … from the management …(from God).
And the truth is there are a lot of people out there right now who are so absorbed in their every day lives … that they scarcely think about God … until something happens … or something goes wrong in their lives.
Or, maybe they just got turned off to the church somewhere along the way … like Professor Lilla, and they find going to church not all that meaningful … or relevant to their lives …
Incidentally, it is really people like these who are the ones who the Methodist TV advertising campaign (Open hearts, open minds, open doors) is trying to appeal to … people who are disconnected from God – same as Billy Graham.
8. Now, in the scripture reading for today … we encounter the very familiar parable of Jesus …. about the man who entrusted his workers with his property while he went away … and while he was gone two of them invested the money and did very well … and one, out of fear and uncertainty, refused and did nothing … thereby incurring the wrath of the manager when he returned. “To those to whom much is given, more is expected,” Jesus says. “… and more will given in return …”
Now, this passage is supposed to be a great one to use during Stewardship …
In fact, I was reading how recently a little book came out called the Kingdom Assignment and it tells about a certain pastor got the idea to give out $ 10,000 in $ 100 increments … asking each member of his church to invest it in God’s work. He then gave them 90 days … to report back … which they did … and so many remarkable things happened … that it was even reported on NBC Dateline … It would be interesting to try, but I don’t think we have 10 Grand to hand out at the moment!
Well, even it sounds good … but is that really what Jesus was talking about…?
Not quite … I think …
9. Actually, to understand Jesus’ parable, we must first understand what the word “talent” meant back in those days … which is not the same as what we mean by “talent” today.
Imagine, for a moment that a “talent” was not a term for a metal coin … but was actually a heavy measure or weight … and depending on whether it was gold, copper, or silver its value could vary. But, I looked it up, and here is approximately what it a talent would be worth in Jesus’ day:
It turns out that a talent is a weight equal to three thousand shekels. In the New Testament, a talent weight was calculated at 58 to 80 lbs. The value would differ according to the metal, but the buying power was enormous. Five talents would make one a multi-millionaire!
In other words … Jesus is not talking about a small amount of money … Jesus is talking about an amount equal to all the money you might make in your whole lifetime!!
10. So, this is not about the fall Stewardship campaign … this is not about increasing your pledge for next year … by 5 or 10% because we need it to pay for the church heating bills this winter … WHICH WE DO NEED… by the way …
No, Jesus is not talking about your church pledge … He is not talking about the small percentage of your total income which you donate to keep the church running ...
No, Jesus is talking about the whole ball of wax … Jesus is talking about your whole life … everything … all of it …
Jesus is talking about the Stewardship of your whole life … No less … no more …
Now that is getting pretty existential …!!
And once we see what this means existentially … the parable makes a more sense … doesn’t it?
11. This is because, as we noted earlier, we do not chose to be born … right?
However, like the workers in the story… whether we like it or not we are entrusted with a great amount of treasure … are we not?
And what is that treasure? Well, there are two ways of interpreting the meaning of the great value of the talent:
A. One is that the talent is the same as our entire life. For like the master who goes away … it is God who gives us life, right? And how much is that worth? How much is your life worth? How much is any person’s life worth? Well, most of us would say that no amount of money … can equal a life … really.
So, stop and think for a moment …and ask yourself … How much to you value your own life? How do you take care of it? How grateful are you for it? And then ask … who entrusted you with your life … and lastly, what have you done with it? What do you plan to do with it? Good questions for this snowy Sunday morning in November, 2005!
B. Or, one could interpret the idea of the talent as being
the gift of salvation … the grace of God … revealed in Jesus Christ. It is really the power of the God’s love. How much is that worth? And, therefore, we might all ask the question -- how have we, as a church, who have been entrusted with God’s grace … endeavored to use not only our money …(our financial resources)… but also our time, and gifts … and prayers … to further the work of God’s kingdom in our lives and in the lives or others. In short, what kind of servants are we?
12. Now, before we start feeling guilty and get down on ourselves too much, let us remember that as we all know, there are big churches and small churches …Which means that some are given more resources … and some are given less … does it matter? Not really. God only expects each church to do the best with what they have. Interesting, isn’t it? That’s what the parable says …
The same thing may be said to be true with each of us … for some have more talents, more resources … more gifts … and certainly not all of us are alike … not all of us are equal. So, does this matter to God. Not really. God only expects each of us to do our best with our life and not to compare ourselves with others who may have more or less than we do. Now do you understand what the parable means?
Sounds easy enough, right? So, what’s the problem?
Well, the problem is that life is uncertain. Things happen. Life is not always clear and we can’t foretell the future. We want to play it safe. We want to be cautious. We want to look out for ourselves etc. etc.
But, as in so many of Jesus’ stories … there is no such time in this life for extreme caution. No time for playing it safe. Which is because life is short. We don’t live forever. Time is shorter than we think…
13. In other words, it is just like with the warnings about the last judgment which we have been talking about the last several weeks … Jesus really seems to have no time for waiting or being reluctant to use our talents and gifts right in the here and now.
For if you look carefully at Jesus’ parables and stories there is always a sense of urgency in Jesus’ message. “Don’t wait.” He seems to saying. “Don’t hesitate. Don’t be afraid. Don’t put things off. Get on with your life – live it NOW!”
Our time, Jesus seems to be saying … is running out. You should be living your life today … don’t put off things for tomorrow … for you never know when things will happen … you never know when your life could be over … don’t waste it.
On Friday, I visited with a long time friend who is a pastor in Duluth … Mark Johnson. Some of you may remember how his wife was badly injured in a car accident about 5 years ago. She lived, but continues to suffer from serious spinal injuries … and has had to quit teaching. Today and every day she must restrict certain activities. But she is still alive and enjoying life, despite her handicaps.
Well, as you might imagine, Mark and Mary look at life quite differently these days. Things that were important before the accident are no longer important today. And, overall, life itself is much more precious, today, than it ever was before.
14. Now, in conclusion, we don’t necessarily have to go to a Billy Graham rally to get the message which Jesus is expounding in today’s scripture reading. Its plain enough … I think. In fact, just visiting with Mark and Mary, I found myself asking some important questions about my life as well.
And, we don’t necessarily have to be “born again” in exactly the way that some Christian evangelicals view that concept.
But, we do need to endeavor to keep ourselves connected to God and keep always before us the words of Jesus about how our lives are entrusted to us for a purpose …
And we don’t need to spend undue amounts of time worrying about the future -- which is in God’s hands anyway …
But, instead –if we accept this message of the Gospel today, we are freed up from fear … to live … and live abundantly … living in God’s grace every day … doing God’s will as best we are able … and doing what we can to spread the “good news” to those around us who seem empty and disconnected. That ought to be enough to keep us occupied and busy for the rest of our lives, don’t you think?
And yet in the midst of all this … a person might even find a little time to occasionally read the Sunday New York Times!
Let us pray ….
posted by Anonymous at 6:00 PM
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