Sunday, May 26, 2013

Sermon - Risk-Taking Mission and Service: Use Your Talents Foolishly


Matthew 25:14-30 (Romans 5:1-5)
Risking-Taking Mission and Service: Use Your Talents Foolishly
James Sledge                                                          May 26, 2013 – Trinity Sunday

There’s a TV commercial for a bank where someone with a brief case full of money goes up to strangers and asks them to hold it for a while. The commercial shows a man sitting next to the brief case, nervously touching it and looking around. Imagine someone asked you to take care of his brief case full of money. What would you do? How about if he asked you to watch it for six months, or a year, or five years?
If we eliminate “I’d just keep it for myself”–let’s say the person who gave it to you is a mobster – what are your options? You could take it to the bank and put the cash there, or perhaps put it in a money market account where it would earn a little interest. But I doubt many of you would do any speculative investing with a mobster’s money. No way I would risk losing a big chunk of that money and having to tell him, “I tried to make you some big money, but it didn’t work out, and most of it’s gone.”
If you’re like me and not inclined to speculate with a mobster’s money, then you should have no trouble relating to the third slave in Jesus’ parable. He did just what we would do. In Jesus’ day there were no banks as we know them, no investments that were really safe, and if you wanted to be certain you wouldn’t risk losing it, you hid money, which is exactly what the third slave did.
The first two slaves, on the other hand, managed to double their master’s money. Even today, with regulators and laws to protect investors, you don’t double your money without taking some significant risks. In Jesus’ day, the risks would have been phenomenal. 
In popular thought, and often in sermons, today’s parable gets treated as a fable with a moral that says, “Use your talents wisely.” Trouble is, the third slave does what most folks considered wise and prudent, while the first two slaves do what is risky and foolish.

And this is no random parable. It’s part of Jesus’ final teachings before his betrayal, arrest, and execution. Jesus talks about coming the need for faithfulness until he returns at the end of the age. Jesus tells one parable about always being vigilant and ready for his unexpected return, and then concludes with two final parables.
The last of these is on the judgment of the Gentiles, the nations, where people are divided as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and those who ministered to Jesus by helping the poor, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner, or the least of these are rewarded.
But if that final parable speaks of the judgment of all humanity, the one preceding it, our parable for today, seems to apply only to the church, addressing how those entrusted with the treasure of the gospel and the coming kingdom of God have acted in that time between Easter and Jesus’ return. And as so often happens in this kingdom, things get turned upside down from what we expect. Being prudent, careful, and worrying about self-preservation are condemned as “wicked and lazy” while foolish risk-taking is declared “good and trustworthy.”
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Many of you well know that institutions are often better at self-preservation than they are at risk taking. And as a group, churches seem particularly risk averse, which perhaps explains something Robert Schnase reports in the chapter of his book titled, “The Practice of Risk-Taking Mission and Service.”
A pastor of a medium-sized congregation noticed that despite her avid support of hands-on, risk-taking mission, many of her most passionate and imaginative proponents of such projects were slipping away from church involvement. She gathered a few church leaders, and they tracked how new ministry ideas worked their way through the church organization and administration to become accepted church programs. The usual pattern began with one or two people excited and energized, feeling called to meet a particular need. When they shared their idea with others, they were referred to the Missions Committee, which met three or four times a year. This meant that two months might pass before their idea received consideration. The usual business of the Missions Committee included recommending special financial offerings (hurricane or famine relief, for instance) to the Administrative Board and coordinating the Thanksgiving food basket drive and the Christmas coats appeal. Most of the committee had served for years, had little energy for hands-on projects themselves, and were simply doing what they had been asked to do: helping with the special offerings, food baskets, and coats. When a new idea was presented, they'd discuss it and conclude that they did not have money budgeted for it. They'd look around the room to see if any of the committee members were interested in leading the new effort and find no enthusiasm for the task. Several weeks later, they'd report on their discussion to the Administrative Board, where a similar dynamic took place, with none of the voting members expressing much interest. Four months would go by before projects were finally put to rest, and by that time even those who originally felt inspired had lost interest.[1]
This is a typical, institutional pattern in many congregations. I’ve often heard people complain about church organizations and leadership structures that seem almost designed to frustrate those wanting to start new ministries, even ones that aren’t risky. In many churches, one must appease a gauntlet of people and committees, assuring them that it won’t strain the budget and that nothing could go wrong, in order to receive the needed permissions.
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It may seem totally unrelated to this sermon, but today is Trinity Sunday. Each year, the Sunday after Pentecost celebrates this amazing revelation that the one God of all the cosmos is in fact Father and Son and Holy Spirit. I realize that many Christians think the Trinity some esoteric bit of theology best left to academicians, but I don’t think so. The Trinity insists on a God who is always beyond our full comprehension, thwarting all attempts to manage God for our own purposes. The Trinity insists that our own experiences of God’s presence are always partial and short of the fullness of God. And even more, the Trinity insists that within God’s very self, there is a dynamic, risky, self-giving relationship of love. And when we are “in Christ,” we are drawn into this relationship in ways that transform us.
That is why the Apostle Paul can speak as he does in the words we heard today, boasting in suffering, certain that hope will emerge from his suffering. Filled with the peace and grace he receive through Christ, Paul can undertake his risky missionary journeys, even journey to Jerusalem knowing that, like Jesus, it will lead to his arrest and eventual execution, certain that, he writes, hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
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When non-church folks or the “spiritual but not religious” say they dislike churches or organized religion, I think what they are reacting to is institutional religion that is careful and prudent, focused on self-preservation, and risk averse, with none of the bold, risk-taking character of the first two slaves in Jesus’ parable. But if these folks ever meet the living body of Christ, that dynamic, Spirit breathed community where God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, that is something altogether different. When the Spirit becomes the living breath of Christ’s body, the church is set free to give itself, even to risk itself for the sake of others and the world. No problem is too big; no need is too great, because Jesus promises remarkable abundance when we risk ourselves for him, for the sake of his gospel, and for God’s coming Kingdom. And when we do, the living Christ is made known. Hope is boldly proclaimed. And that Kingdom, God’s new day, is made visible for all to see.
Thanks be to God!




[1] Schnase, Robert (2008-05-01). Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (p. 94). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.

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