"Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – November 16, 2014 Centenary United
Proverbs 3:1-10; Matthew 25:14-30 The parable that we are going to review this morning is one of
the more familiar ones. If
we ranked our memory of Jesus' parables, the
Parable of the Talents would
be right up there with the story of
The Good Samaritan.
The word talent is an
excellent choice of words for this story although it has nothing to do
with the display of a person's abilities that might be demonstrated on a
program like When we study what Jesus was teaching, our attention is immediately drawn to the third servant who buried his master's money in the ground. This was a common practice in Jesus' day. Even today excavators often find hoards of coins that were buried by citizens thousands of years ago who had become fearful that they might be stolen. The first two servants invested their talents of gold. When their master returned from his trip, the two had doubled their assets and were praised for doing so. This third servant was not only belittled by his master, but his
one talent of gold was taken away from him.
He was condemned with the same strong language that is found in
other places in the Gospels.
"The useless servant was thrown out where he would cry and gnash
his teeth." We have to remember that Jesus' stories were illustrations of
social issues that were instantly recognized by his listeners. There was
nothing mysterious or abstract about Jesus stories as they might be for
us living in the 21st Century.
In this parable, everyone recognized who Jesus was criticizing
when he used the third servant who buried his master's treasure in the
ground. The third servant represented the Scribes and Pharisees.
These two groups were charged with maintaining
a fence around the Laws of
Moses thus preventing any new interpretation or changes in the wording
of what Moses had written.
This is why the religious
authorities listened very carefully to what Jesus was teaching. In his
parable,
Jesus was teaching that no one can remain faithful to their
religious heritage without taking risks.
Equally, there was no place in the practice of a
person's faith for a mind that was closed to new insights and new
creative ways of expressing that faith.
Jesus once taught this same
message in another way, "No one pours new wine into an old wine skin."
(Mark 2:22) What immediately becomes apparent is that each servant was
treated differently by their master.
So it is with each of us.
We do not all have the same potential for certain skills.
We do not develop the same interests; we do not claim to have the
same values or the same goals for our futures. These are important
distinctions to consider in every person's life.
What is more important than any
of these qualities of life is the spirit in which we use and express
what we have developed. There was a time when I was working with a woman that had no use
for any thoughts or practices related to religion.
She did not recognize the existence of God in her life. She
understood that horrible things can easily happen to wonderful people as
they do for anyone else.
She accepted the fact that death is part of life.
She knew that marriages were not made in heaven because she was
working on number three.
However, she had all the symptoms
of being a committed Christian.
How could this be? She was fun to be around. She loved children and there were
moments when I saw her taking time with a frustrated child that needed a
little coaching on how to accomplish a task that other children were
completing with ease.
She had a wonderful spirit.
She was extremely happy and her smiling eyes were always the first thing
that people noticed when they approached her.
Her radiance communicated volumes, completely overshadowing
everything that she claimed did not matter in her life.
She had succeeded in multiplying over and over again her many
gifts of spirit and personality.
After I had gained her confidence I asked, "What's the matter
with naming God as being a part of your life?
I have to admit that you have no trouble making God's spirit
visible." She laughed and said, You are not the
only person that has told me that.
I guess I don't need God the way you do.
After all, your calling is to introduce people to God.
I am in a good place in my life.
It is natural for me to love others and to be as selfless as I
can be. To me, love is not
gender specific. Spirit is
not gender specific. You
Christians often refer to God as "Father." You see, I had a father . . . She stopped talking as tears formed in her eyes.
Sensing that she had reached an
area in her life that had been off limits to most people, I put my index
finger over her lips and put my arms around her.
She started shaking and suddenly she burst into tears and sobbed
uncontrollably as she held on to me like the grip of a vise.
I said, "You're okay now.
It's okay. You are
in a safe place." Nothing
more was said. She
apologized after she had regained her composure and said, "You have no
idea the mountain I have had to climb."
I said, "I don't need to know.
What I do know is that you have made it to the top." She was the Director of the We Christians have to be careful that we do not put
a fence around our faith
traditions so that we are not open to the ways love is being expressed
by others who have no church affiliation.
Sometimes such spirits are all around us.
They are sowing their own seeds
reflecting what Jesus once taught, "Those who are doing what we are
doing must be allowed to continue.
Do not try to stop them!"
(Luke 9:50)
All of us are far more valuable
than the labels that others have given to us.
Jesus remained faithful to his Hebrew traditions until his death.
Siddhartha Gautama, traditionally known as the first Buddha, never
became a Buddhist. Mahatma
Gandhi never became a Christian because he was prevented from entering
several churches due to the color of his skin.
Jesus was
correct.
Not everyone that can cite chapter and verse in the Bible
or recite all
the salvation statements parroted by
the faithful
are among Jesus' disciples.
(Matthew 7:21-23) Our
discipleship is not defined by what we claim to believe but rather by
the spirit in which we live.
(John 13:35) Due to his inability to do anything with what had been entrusted
to him, the servant's talent was taken away from him.
The Scribes and Pharisees were
an exclusive club of the
faithful. They were sure of
their personal salvation to a fault.
All the rest of the people were viewed by them as
sinners wandering aimlessly
in a confusing world.
Jesus, however, chose to be in the company of
sinners rather than with the
guardians and
keepers of the Hebrew faith.
(Mark 2:13-17). When we really look around today of what has slowly been
happening all over the world, the light of love is breaking away from
the traditional settings where it was once found -- the orthodoxy and
dogma of the Church. Perhaps the movement started with Normal Vincent Peale's book,
The Power of Positive Thinking.
Next, we had The
Be Happy
Attitudes by Robert Schuller.
Joel Osteen wrote a book about the seven steps for living our
full potential. Wayne Dyer
wrote a book entitled, There's a
Spiritual Solution to Every Problem.
On
and on have come new pathways that liberate our spirits from
the fences that once
surrounded them.
Centenary is like all
the churches I have served in this sense -- we are spiritual learning
centers. People come and go
in our midst.
Just think of
the wave our church families
have created in its 175 years of existence that has influenced the
world. In a real sense,
we are like the leaven for
the loaf.
Each of us disappears among the rest of the ingredients that others bring. Miraculously, the entire batch of dough doubles and triples in size. This was at the heart of Jesus' parable. Those of us who sow our seeds with abandon, taking risks of faith without caring one bit about what happens in our futures, our love has vanquished every ounce of fear. We have become free spirits that create alongside the spirit of God. |