RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - November 16, 2008

“Dance As If No One Were Watching”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Matthew 25:14-30

Another Sunday, another parable about the Kingdom of God, and another glance at the apocalyptic leanings of Jesus himself. As we discovered last week, the Gospel writer Matthew portrays Jesus as someone who deeply and passionately believed that a new age unleashing the dawn of God’s Kingdom would come any day now.

And so a portion of the later half of his Gospel is a string of parables describing the coming of God’s realm. Last week we focused on the one about the wise and foolish bridesmaids, and this week we will reflect upon one of the longest and best known of Jesus’ cautionary tales, frequently entitled the parable of the talents.

Lewis Donelson reminds us that, “like several other Jesus parables, the structure of this parable, with its constant repetitions and its pattern of three, echoes classic folk stories.” It is about a rich landowner – a tycoon - who was setting out on a long journey. As he wrapped up his final preparations, he called together three of his most trusted servants to announce that he was leaving his wealth and property to them for safe keeping – and so he divvied up his riches according to their ability.

Now, there was nothing unusual in doing that. Because absentee landlords were common in Jesus’ time, entrusting property and wealth to servants and demanding an accounting would not have been unexpected. Not surprising then that the servant who was the most capable received talents. To one of the others, the landowner gave two talents, and to the third, one talent. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, however, when you and I read this parable, we often interpret it through the filter of our English word, “talent,” that is, an ability or gift or something we do really well – and that meaning is far from Jesus’ intent here because we are relying on a highly inaccurate translation of the Greek word, “talanta,” that Matthew used.

In this parable, Jesus was not talking about the gifts that you or I might offer to the Kingdom. He was talking about cold, hard cash – an image that would undoubtedly have captured the interest of his listeners since none of them had very much of it. Therefore, before we can really look closely at the parable, we must understand what Jesus meant when he spoke of five, two, or one talents – because he was talking about a not inconsiderable amount of real money.

According to James Howell, “Jesus wasn’t saying, ‘Use what is in you, invest what you have for the kingdom.’ He was talking about a coin that was the largest denomination of currency in the first-world system. We should translate talanta as "a huge bucket full of solid gold" or "a bank CEO megabonus (as a result of the bailout perhaps)" or "winning the Ohio Lottery." Only the muscular could even pick up a talanton, which might weigh 50 or 75 pounds.”

Another way to look at it, according to Mickey Anders, is that one talent was equivalent of 15 years of wages for a day laborer. At $10.00 an hour, that would be about $300,000 for the one talent guy, more than half a million for the two talent guy, and a cool million and a half for the five talent one, certainly more than most of us and way more than all the Joe the Plumbers in Jesus’ audience would see at one time and in one place.

And so the wealthy landowner leaves his servants – and his riches – and hightails it out of town. The servants now are in a real pickle – be careful what you wish for. You see the reality is that, as James Howell pointed out, the amount of money that the servants were left with “would stagger any recipient and send him into utterly uncharted territory.

A Mediterranean laborer wouldn’t have a clue about how to invest five talanta…. Jesus (who had never personally seen that kind of money) used an outlandish hyperbole to symbolize the gospel.”

But back to the parable….Somehow, the servant with the five talents – presumably through skillful trading and investing – manages to double his five talents – as does the guy who was given two talents. “Good on ya!” the tycoon exclaims upon his return.

But let’s not forget that the one who was given only one talent actually does the careful thing. He buries it – not making any money, but not risking a heavy loss either. That was the prudent way to handle the situation in Jesus’ day, and the one talent servant surely figured he would be commended for his caution. Louis Donelson writes that “according to rabbinic sources, burying a deposit left in one’s care is not only a sensible way to protect it, but doing so secures one from suit if the deposit is lost.”

So far, the parable has unfolded in exactly the manner Jesus’ listeners would have expected – but then Jesus throws a curve ball with the one talent servant. Remember that upon his return, the tycoon judges the one talent guy severely for not risking and being overly cautious. His fate is being thrown outside into the darkness where he will cry and gnash his teeth – presumably for all eternity.

As the parable winds down, Jesus’ listeners must have sat there in stunned silence. Once again, Jesus has turned the tables and tossed the world upside down. He has led his listeners through a huge paradigm shift and in the process thrown out everything the classical rabbis had been telling them for years.

No longer is the Kingdom for the skittish and the fearful, Jesus seems to be saying. No longer is God’s realm for the cautious and the prudent. Those who will usher in God’s Kingdom and dance into the new age are the risk takers.

They are the ones who have invested their lives in the Gospel. They are the ones who are not reluctant to speak up and speak out when justice is hidden. They are the ones who err on the side of compassion, forgiveness, and peacemaking. Amid the ups and downs of life, they are the ones who have chosen an investment strategy of generosity - and trust that grace will pay dividends over time.

They are the ones who have faith enough to believe that whatever gifts God has given them are worth risking because they trust that God only gives what each of us is capable of risking.

When you come right down to it, as Lewis Donelson wrote, “the timidity of the third slave must lie in a refusal to love with the vulnerability and abandon Jesus demands. He has wasted the lives of others and ignored their needs."

I like those words, “vulnerability and abandon” because I think that is what Matthew is getting at in this parable. We too are called to take risks and make ourselves vulnerable for the sake of the Gospel message. We too are called to love with abandon.

Frederick Buechner puts it this way: “They (meaning the servants in the parable) traded with their lives -- a wonderful phrase. We (too) were made to be life traders, because I have what you need, which is me, and you have what you need, which is you.” That may translate into building community, having the courage of our convictions, or even in coming up with the cold hard cash when that is what it takes to be a persistent and consistent follower of Jesus.

In these recent days when most of us would like to take whatever money in our 401K’s we have left and put it all under our mattress – and at the same time isolate and insulate ourselves from the cold hard and depressive times that keep encroaching, when the last thing we want to do is risk anything – and I’m not talking only about money. I’m talking about the other stuff – like courage, conscience, caring. When being like the one talent guy is what most of us would be most comfortable doing, Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that we are called to risk.

Last week, I read you a poem that I want to repeat. “To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams, before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.”

This parable of the talents is all about risk – and risking all. It is about dancing as if no one were watching, singing as if no one were listening, loving like you have never been hurt, and living every day as if it were your last. When all is said and done, that, says Jesus, is how we will be judged. That is how our lives will be assessed. That is how we will wake up one day in the midst of God’s realm. How much of a risk taker are you? That, says Jesus, is the question.

Sermon - November 16, 2008

“Dance As If No One Were Watching”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Matthew 25:14-30

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Matthew 25:14-30