Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Proper 28 (Pentecost 23), Series A Saturday, November 15 th, 2014 Sunday, November 16 th, 2014 Sermon: The Parable of the Talents Text: Matthew 25:14-30 Focus Statement: God entrusts gifts to us for proper stewardship and use. Function Statement: That they would use their gifts to God s glory. Sermon Structure: Story-Applied Doctrinal Locus: He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him (SC, 1 st Article of Apostles Creed). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! In today s Gospel lesson, Jesus tells his famous Parable of the Talents. And right from the start, I want to be sure that we understand what a talent (Greek: talanton) was. In the ancient world, a talent originally was a measure of weight. With time, a talent came to mean an amount of money (measure of gold or silver). And we re not talking chump change either! A talent was worth about 6,000 denarii, or over 16 years worth of wages. If you figure that the annual median household income of Douglas County is $95,324.00, that means that in today s terms, a talent is worth just over $1.5 million! So the slaves in Jesus parable were entrusted with the stewardship of huge amounts of cash: 82 years of wages for the first slave, 33 years of wages for the second slave, and about 16 years wages for the third slave. All three of them had a huge responsibility for their master s money. Which is why the slave who received 5 talents went at once and traded with them. The Greek literally says, he worked with them, giving us a hint that even though a talent isn t a talent, in the usual sense of gifts and abilities, maybe more than money is meant here. God is looking for us to do good things with the gifts he entrusts to us. And so the slave who received
Matthis 2 the 5 talents worked with them and gained 5 more. So also the slave who received 2 talents put them to proper use and made 2 more. But the slave who received only 1 talent was a fearful and timid, play-it-safe kind of guy. He was unwilling to take a leap of faith and go out on a ledge to put his talent to work. And he was afraid of what the master would do if he lost it altogether. So what did he do? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Rather than putting the talent to use, he just buried it in the ground and hid it. He preserved it, hoping to save his neck from disaster. But, of course, disaster is what he ultimately brought upon himself. As Jesus says elsewhere, For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matt. 16:25). The Christian life is not about playing it safe; it s about taking risks and venturing out in faith even and especially if success is not guaranteed. Remember Abraham from last week s sermon? By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8). No wonder Søren Kirkegaard called Abraham the knight of faith. Following Jesus is an adventure! Just ask Abraham, Moses, David, Mary, Peter, and Paul. So don t take what God gives you and throw it away or hide it under a bushel basket. No! Rather, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16). Now this is probably a good time to point out that the talents in Jesus parable do not represent faith or the Gospel. I know those are the most precious gifts God gives to us, but they re not the only gifts, and they re certainly not the gifts given in the parable. After all, God saves us equally. He sent Christ to die once for all. But in the parable, each slave receives a different amount of money. God doesn t give grace in the same way. He doesn t give five
Matthis 3 talents of faith to me and only two talents of faith to you. No, God gives his mercy and grace without limit and without end. He doesn t count it out like sums of money. But with God s other gifts money, athletic ability, intelligence, musical skill, being good at numbers God gives his gifts in varying amounts to different people. And he expects you to use them. The point is very clear: Use it or lose it! If you don t produce, He ll cut you loose! Better bear fruit, or you ll get the boot! Right use of talents cannot save you, but misuse or disuse of talents apart from faith in Christ will most certainly damn you. If God has blessed you with a gift, then use it! As Paul writes in Romans 12, Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them (Rom. 12:6). If you re good at numbers, use your gift for God s glory. Be the best engineer or accountant you can be. Help others become wise stewards of their money. If you re good at singing or playing an instrument, then practice your skill and play beautiful music for the Lord. If you re a skilled athlete, then don t just sit around on the couch. Hit the gym! Train your body for competition. Offer your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord (Rom. 12:1-2). And while it s true that not everyone is going to end up being a Peyton Manning, J.S. Bach, Isaac Newton, or Michelangelo, that s okay! We all have different talents. If God gives you the ability to sing, it doesn t automatically mean that you should be an opera singer or a rock star, but maybe you should sing in the church choir. Whether you re a genius or prodigy or just one of those above average children from Garrison Keillor s Lake Woebegone, Minnesota use your gifts to God s glory! Hone and sharpen your skills. Study and practice. Work hard. Get better and better not for your sake and your own glory, not so people say, Oh, wow! Look how talented that person is! No! What would be the point of that?! You want to
Matthis 4 shine and show forth the gifts of God so that God looks good and so that your neighbor benefits from your loving service (Matt. 5:16). What matters isn t how much money each slave made. What matters is that they made something with the money the master gave them. When the master of the slaves comes back from his trip and settles accounts, he delights in the good work of the first two slaves. The one who received 5 talents made 5 more. The one who received two talents made two more. And to both of them the master gave the same wonderful response: Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master (Matt. 25:21, 23). What makes the third slave wicked and lazy is his fear: fear of failure, fear of success, and ultimately, fear of the master. He believed the master was a hard man, a cruel man (Greek: sklēros). He didn t love the master. He didn t believe in God. He didn t trust God to do him good and to bless him. And so because he didn t believe, he didn t act in faith. He buried his talent in the ground. Don t throw away the gifts that God gives you. Don t hide them or bury them in the ground. God is looking for a return on his investment in you. And if you do absolutely nothing with the life and gifts he s given you, you re more than a wicked, lazy servant and a poor steward. On Judgment Day, you will find yourself outside the master s grace. The Christian life isn t about playing it safe. It s about being saved by God s grace and then playing your part with the gifts he gives you. But lest we come away from this Parable of the Talents with the misguided notion that our good works are somehow the basis for our salvation and approval before God, I want to make some important points. First of all, the servants do not earn the master s favor by their work and effort. They already have his favor. That s why he trusts them with such astounding sums of money in the first place. You don t
Matthis 5 give millions of dollars to people you don t like! The rest of the New Testament is quite clear that we re saved, we re justified or declared right with God not on the basis of works, but solely and simply because of God s grace through faith in the Gospel, which is itself a gift from God. By right of the gifts themselves, God already shows that he loves and forgives us. Lutherans love to quote Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So you see that while your bad works (or no works) can very well damn you, your good works cannot save you. Faith is what saves you, and faith is a gift. Faith comes from hearing the Good News that God loves you so much he gave his only-begotten Son Jesus to die on the cross to save you from your sins and rise again to give you eternal life (Rom. 10:17; John 3:16). Good works are the fruit of faith, the proof that the Gospel is working in our lives. Which is why Paul adds verse 10: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10). God created you to do good works for his glory and your neighbor s benefit. This is part of Jesus calling as salt of the earth and light of the world (Matt. 5:13-16). Good works are the proof of faith. Someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works (Jas. 2:18). So you see, good works are not necessary for salvation, but good works are necessary. Your neighbor needs them! But God doesn t. In fact, you can t even do good works without the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you through his Word and Sacraments. God s grace is the fuel and fire of your good works engine. And to put it bluntly, as Jesus says in John 15: Apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5). It is God who works in you, both to will
Matthis 6 and to work for his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). Only God s grace can make you abound in good works (2 Cor. 9:8). Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. Apart from our Jesus, all of our supposedly good works and righteous deeds are nothing but filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). What you do in life matters. What you do with God s gifts is terribly important. But what God has done for you in Christ Jesus is infinitely more important. What God does for you is a matter of life and death. If you believe God to be gracious and merciful, then you get a God who loves and blesses you in an abundance of ways. But if you believe God to be a hard man, a cruel man, a capricious and malevolent lord, one who reaps where he does not sow and gathering where he does not scatter, then that is exactly the kind of God you will get. It is one thing to fear, love, and trust in God above all things (SC, 1 st Commandment). It is quite another to resent and be afraid of him. And if that s your attitude towards God, then that s the God you ll get, and on Judgment Day he ll say to his angels, Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30). But that s not the kind of God he wants to be, and that s not the kind of God you have to have. God would much rather save you, forgive you, bless you, and enjoy your presence for eternity. God would much rather give you gifts and grace. He wants you to enter the joy of the master! And what is the joy of the master? Salvation! Your salvation! Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7). God rejoices when sinners repent! Time s not up! Christ hasn t returned yet. There s still time for us wicked sinners to repent, dig up our talents, brush off the dirt, and put them to use. There is still time to turn away from our sin and turn to Christ and the cross for mercy and
Matthis 7 grace. Until the Day of Christ s return, we must work the works of him who sent us, for night is coming, when no one can work (John 9:4). But right now, there s still time. So let s get to it! I hope that by God s grace, on the Last Day, we will all hear these words from Jesus lips: Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master (Matt. 25:21, 23). In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.