Encourage One Another

     In preparation for today’s sermon I have been doing a lot of deep thinking, for there are several interesting and yet disturbing aspects of this Parable of the Talents¹. I’m not disturbed by the idea of a slave being entrusted with the property of the master, nor am I disturbed by the idea that the master issued different amounts of "Talents" to different slaves. And while we are talking about the term "Talents," I want to remind some of you that in the time of Jesus a "Talent" was a brick of pure silver worth more than 15 years’ wages of a laborer. And so the "Master" gave one man the wages of 75 years worth of labor, the second man was given the wages of 30 years worth of labor, and the last man received 15 years worth of wages for a laborer. This master must have truly trusted these men.
     Now the trust of the master was well placed in the case of the first 2 men, for both of them returned double what they had been given after a long time. As for the third man; his fear of the Master’s wrath led him to bury what was given to him so that he would not "lose" any of it.
     And here comes what at first troubled me; not that the Master told the slave that he should have at least invested the money with the bankers, nor that the Master gave the "Talents" to the one who was now in possession of ten "Talents", but rather that the Master had the "worthless slave" tossed into the "outer darkness."
     And then it occurred to me that these "Talents" in the parable just might not be bricks of silver. What if the "talents" given to each and every one of the servants were those that are defined by Webster as "a natural gift or ability"? What if those who were listening to this parable of Jesus were being told about what will happen upon The Day of Final Judgment to them if they were to decide to withhold or bury their God given talents rather than sharing or using them with their brothers and sisters … regardless of race, creed, wealth, or behavior?
     These thoughts make more sense to me than those that would focus upon Jesus giving a lesson about being a financially responsible servant to the wealth of this world to his follows, to those within the crowd, or even to the Scribes and the Pharisees. Yes, I do believe – and I do practice – tithing. If we want to give a gift to God, if we want to truly give from the heart, then these gifts should come after we have tithed. And I do not for one minute believe that tithing is restricted to our worldly wealth … I believe that we are also called by God to use our talents not just for our own interests, but also for the interests of our sisters and brothers. 
     Do you remember what was read at the beginning of the 5^th and final chapter of the 1^st of Paul’s two known letters to the believers at Thessalonika²? What a scarey passage about the coming day of judgment. But this reading also has great words of encouragement: "But you, beloved, are not in darkness … for you are children of light …"³ And as children of the light we are called upon to reach out to everyone that we meet. We are called upon to use our talents to answer the challenge that Jesus calls us to and that Paul sent to the Thessalonians as well as to us … "Therefore encourage one another and build up each other …"⁴

  1 - Matthew 25:14-30
  2 - 1^st Thessalonians 5:1-11 NRSV
  3 - 1^st Thessalonians 5:4a & 5a NRSV
  4 - 1^st Thessalonians 5:11a NRSV