Readings: Zephaniah 1:7 & 12-18, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Psalm 90:1-8, Matthew 25:14-30
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, November 19th, 2023
Our gospel passage from Matthew this morning gave us a story about a businessman, who goes away for a while. While he is gone, he entrusts to three of his servants a considerable amount of his assets to take care of, assets that are described as ‘talents.’ Two of the servants use their talents in a beneficial way.
The other, who appears to have a very low judgement of his bosses’ character, buries his gifts. When the boss returns, he is extremely angry with the one who has done nothing with what was entrusted to him. While the first two profit from their actions, the third one loses even the little that he had.
Today is our Harvest Sunday when we celebrate all the gifts, all the assets, all the good things God has given us. We are blessed! This little story Jesus told has a lot to say about gifts.
Our gifts are different. Our gifts need growing. Our gifts are an opportunity to serve. Let us think about each of those in turn.
Our gifts are different.
There are things I could do when I was younger that I can’t do anymore. There are things that some of you can do, that I will never be able to do. There are some things I’m good at that you may not be so good at, and likewise, there are things at which you excel and which I will never master. From the moment we arrive on the planet, we are all different.
In our bible story we are told that the three servants all have different levels of ability. The Master recognizes that his servants are different, so he doesn’t entrust them with the same amount of responsibility but gives them assets that correspond to what they can do. He is very careful not to over burden them or to underwhelm them.
If he overburdened them then they would not be able to produce anything. If he underwhelmed them, then they would not have any challenges to face, and they could not grow.
God has created us all as unique, beautiful individuals. Every child of God is different. That’s why we need each other. That’s why God calls people to be in community, to be a church. There are things God has given you to do that somebody else can’t do so well. And there are things that others can do that they do better than you can do.
That can actually create problems. The last of the 10 commandments teaches us not to envy what others have. I have known some people who say things like, “Well, it’s OK for them. If I had what they had or could do what they do then my life would be so much easier.”
That’s not the way it works. I am me and you are you are we get along best when we appreciate what each other can do! We need to discover our own gifts and cherish them for what they are. We don’t need to focus on what we don’t have, or on what others have, but be thankful for the blessings we have been given.
Isn’t that we sing about at Harvest time? “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, then thank the Lord, Oh thank the Lord, for all His love.” We are blessed. We are not all blessed in the same way, at the same time, or in the same places, but we are all blessed with gifts that differ and gifts that create different opportunities for service and worship.
Which moves us on to this second thought…
Our gifts need growing.
Some years ago, I was part of a leadership team that put together a youth retreat that was based upon this passage from Matthew’s gospel about ‘Talents.’ The retreat was given the title “Use it or Lose it.”
The first part of the retreat was about discovering our gifts. We talked about where life had led us up to that point. The families and communities we were from. The opportunities we had been given. The things that we couldn’t do that had created opportunities for us to develop different gifts. The recognition that we are all different, not only in our natural abilities, but in the path that life may have had us walk.
The second part of the retreat was about how best we could develop the gifts that we had been given. A part of that was recognizing that if we didn’t develop the gifts that we had been given, then they had a habit of disappearing. Hence…“Use it or lose it.”
The basis for that observation was the servant in the parable, who is given only one talent, but buries that talent, does nothing with it, and ends up losing it all. The reason that servant gives for not growing his talent is that the servant thinks the master is a hard, unforgiving taskmaster who “gathered where he had not sown.”
Our image of God can affect how we use the gifts God has given us. If we feel that God is some unapproachable, mean spirited, judgmental being before whom we can never do enough to please, then that’s not a great incentive, to try and achieve anything!
But if we see God as the One who is all love, all grace, prepared to forgive, the Gardener who knows how to make beautiful blooms rise from the soil, the Shepherd who really wants his flock to thrive, well… that offers tremendous freedom to explore, to take risks, to make mistakes and think outside of conventional boxes. The first two servants in the parable seemed to understand that. They take the gifts they have been given and use them to create more opportunities for service.
One of the participants at the retreat came to me and asked if we could go somewhere quiet and if I could listen to a song they had written. They were afraid to sing it in front of anybody and had zero confidence in their abilities.
Turned out this particular teenager was coming out of a terrible home situation. A broken home, abuse… just not good in any way. The song that they shared was incredible. Just cut right through to your heart. An emotional intensity that was almost overwhelming. At the end of the week there was an opportunity for folk to share their gifts. They sang their song. And it had the same effect on the whole group. Not a dry eye in the house!
That teenager then went on, not to a career in music, but to pursue a career in social services, helping others who life seemed to have been dealt an impossible hand. The process of articulating their pain, through a song, created a situation where growth could take place. Singer Larry Norman had a lyric in his one of his songs that says, “A song can’t change the world, but it might change you.” Sometimes our gifts release other gifts.
Which brings me to a final observation…
Our gifts are an opportunity to serve
There are many remarkable things that can be said about the life of Jesus. Could anybody who ever walked the earth be considered more gifted than the one we describe as the ‘Son of God’?
There’s a passage in Philippians that reflects on the humility that is revealed through His life. Philippians 2:4-7 “ Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.”
That’s something isn’t it. To have it all and give it all in the service of others. To take all that God has gifted your life with and harness it in the service of those you share your life with.
Now I know, we’re not God and we are not on a mission to save the whole wide world, but here’s the thing. We are all gifted with talents and resources and abilities and opportunities, and we make choices as to what we do with those gifts. Through this passage God challenges us to create a harvest from the seeds, from the gifts God has sown in our lives. A harvest of talents, not just to serve ourselves but to enrich the communities of which we are a part.
We are not all the same. Our gifts are different. We are all unique children of God. God calls us to use our individuality in the service of others.
To do that our gifts need growing. Use them or lose them. Recognize how God can nurture and grow the seeds God’s love has sown. God is the Gardener who grows beautiful blooms, the farmer who creates an overflowing abundance of produce.
Finally, may God help us see how our gifts are an opportunity to serve. One of the areas where God invites us to serve is within our faith communities. We can do a whole lot more together than we can ever accomplish on our own. We have the example of Jesus to follow. We have the strength of God’s Holy Spirit to enable us to rise to the tasks that God will call us to.
In our lives may we take this story Jesus told to heart, that through our lives, both as individuals and as a church, there may truly be a harvest of talents.
And to God be the glory. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
