Sermon Text: Don’t bury your talent!

Proper 28A: Don’t bury your talent

1. We’re all familiar with people who have immense talent but squander it and make nothing of themselves
   1. Most commonly we hear about it in sports
      1. The athlete who comes out of college full of promise and never makes it
      1. Some just don’t transition from one venue to another despite a valiant effort but others never succeed because they got in their own way
      1. Perhaps it was drugs or partying or lack of drive whatever they just didn’t get it together
      1. But even in our own lives you probably know someone at your job or in your family who could be so much more than they are
   1. We hear of a similar situation in our Gospel lesson this morning
      1. This parable is one of several that Jesus spoke privately to the disciples in the days just before the crucifixion focusing on the Last Day
      1. Last week we heard about the 10 virgins: 5 foolish and 5 wise
      1. That parable emphasized faithful watching, being prepared for the bridegroom’s return
      1. This week’s parable emphasizes faithful use of God’s gift’s while we await His return
2. Our Lord tells of a master who goes away for a long time and entrusts his money to His servants to use
   1. Our Lord begins the parable saying, “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” (Mat 25:14-15)
      1. A talent was a large sum of money
      1. The master knows his servants and gives them nothing more than they can handle, then he went away
      1. The servants were expected to use the talents to conduct the master’s business in His absence
   1. Upon the master’s delayed return he gathers the servants for an account
      1. The first servant who had received 5 talents makes 5 more and the second who received two makes two more
      1. Note what they are commended for, Well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over little I will set you over much.
      1. It didn’t matter what they had made it was that they were faithful in the discharge of the master’s business
   1. But the third servant was not faithful he was slothful and cowardly
      1. He says to the master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground
      1. So, if the master really was a hard man rather than fear his punishment the servant claims that he was afraid of doing anything; he didn’t lose the talent but he did nothing with it
      1. Thus, the master replies, You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?...Take his talent from him and give it to him who has ten. (Mt 25:26-28)
3. This parable is a lesson on Christian stewardship, the use of all of God’s gifts
   1. This parable pictures Jesus entrusting the work of the Kingdom of grace to the Church when He ascended into heaven (going away on a journey).
      1. It pictures the assigning of individual gifts to believers; the talents represent the abilities and possessions that God has given to us.
      1. We know that He has called us to use those talents in His service as Peter tells us, As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace (I Pet 4:10)
      1. Or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12: 11: “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”
   1. I have gifts which others may not, and they have gifts and abilities that I do not.
      1. The types of gifts and the amount gifted differ.
      1. God does not expect us to work beyond our own capabilities. But he does expect us to listen to the words:  “Be faithful until death.” Revelation 2:10
      1.  Salvation does not require goodness of me because Christ is my goodness received by faith, but God does require His children to be faithful to His desires.
4. Just like anything else in our lives, how you live reveals what you believe
   1. You can say, “I love you,” all you want but if you treat your beloved shamefully, abusively, or with complete disregard how true are those words?
      1. We are saved by grace through faith alone in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.
      1. But as Luther himself says, “Faith is a living, restless thing. It cannot be inoperative. We are not saved by works; but if there be no works, there must be something amiss with faith.”
      1. Or again, “It is one thing that faith justifies without works; it is another thing that faith exists without works.”
      1. If we love and believe in our Lord, as we profess, then it would be natural to be about His business, to do the things that we know He wants us to do.
   1. The master in the parable was pleased, not so much at the sum of money gained as at the faithfulness of the servant.
      1. The lazy steward represents the people in church who have received God’s Word but like the foolish virgins last week become complacent
      1. They may spend their lives at church, but no one would know that other than that their name appears on the membership role.
      1. They’ve buried their talent in favor of self-service but they’ll pull it out on the last day and say, “See Lord I was there on Christmas, etc” and the Lord will say, “Depart from me I never knew you”
   1. For others in church the lazy steward presents a fearful image, “Am I the lazy steward…what can I do to avoid his fate?”
      1. They worry, “Lord I’m not a great preacher…don’t have lots of money…don’t have a big sphere of influence…what can I do?”
      1. But the Lord says, “Do you have a job…a family…are you a student…then you have a place to serve me.”
      1. You don’t have to worry about what to do – you lovingly serve them in the capacity that you have been given.
      1. Raise your children in the faith not just by going to church on Sunday but in everyday life, do they, your co-workers, your friends know that your faith forms your life in word and action?
   1. And in the church, you have a place to invite others to receive the gift you already have, a place to serve with your time, talent and treasure
      1. It is here in the church that the Lord continues to feed and nourish your faith so that you don’t become like the faithless steward while waiting
      1. Here He forgives your sins, including the sin of complacency which we can all fall into while we wait for the master’s return
      1. His Holy Spirit works through the Word to strengthen and sharpen you in your daily vocation of putting your talents to work for the kingdom
      1. So that on the Last Day you too will hear, Well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over little I will put you over much.