Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
November 13, 2005 Stewardship Sunday
Matthew 25: 14-30
You have perhaps heard the old story about the college coach of what will remain an unnamed university in the Midwest. By midseason his team had not won a game. The alumni were in a state of near mutiny. The losing continued into November. One Saturday, after a particularly embarrassing loss to an archrival, the coach received this telegram: THE LAST TRAIN OUT OF TOWN LEAVES SUNDAY AT NOON. BE UNDER IT!! Now that’s being held accountable!
Reminds me of another story about accountability, an old story about a chicken and a pig. They were walking along the road and passed a sign which announced: “ANNUAL CHURCH HAM AND EGGS DINNER.” The chicken said, “Come on, Friend Pig, let’s go in and help out. We can each make a donation to the Ham and Eggs Dinner.” To which the pig replied, ‘Hold on, Chicken. No way I’m going in. You’d only be making a donation, but they would ask me for a total commitment!” Ministers love to tell that story on a Stewardship Sunday. And it would seem that Jesus himself had some thoughts about commitment and accountability.
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, each according to his ability. Then he went away.” A talent was a huge amount of money – about fifteen year’s wages for a typical worker in first century Palestine. So the first impression is that this master was either wonderfully or foolishly generous. Imagine being so generous with one’s servants, so trusting! Giving them all that money and then leaving! When is he coming back? Is he coming back? They don’t know.
Now there are a number of ways to approach this parable and you have probably heard them all over the years. It could be about good business practices. Those first two slaves are to be congratulated because they prove to be shrewd businessmen. It’s all about investments and high yields. They invest wisely and look what happens. They enter into the joy of the master because they are successful. Work hard, make money, invest wisely, and you, too, can know life’s rewards…can even earn the master’s favor. Sort of an old Protestant Work Ethic sermon. Your success is a reflection of God’s favor. You get God’s love the old-fashioned way…you earn it!
Another favorite interpretation is to focus on the word, talent – not as money but quite literally as talent. Jesus is encouraging us to discover whatever gifts or talents God has given us and then to use them for God’s service. Everybody has talent – some have many, others a few, others just one. But all of us have at least one and God wants us to use whatever talents we have, to use them wisely and generously and not waste them. I suspect I have preached that sermon more than once.
But there is a third way to look at this parable. It’s not about success and somehow earning God’s favor. It’s not about using our God-given talents to their fullest. Rather it is about accountability and commitment and faithfulness. Imagine that you work for the owner of the only store in Sebastopol that sells mink stoles and other items made from animal fur. Or imagine you work in Crawford, Texas , working to develop solar power and other non-oil based forms of energy. Not an easy business in either place. Lots of hostility. Then the owner calls you into his office, hands you the keys and says he is leaving for a while. Doesn’t know when he will be back, but wants to you take care of things, pursue the business in his absence. What are you going to do? While he is gone, in the midst of uncertainty and even hostility, what are you going to do? Are you going to declare yourself on his side and continue to actively do business, or are you just going to open the shop for 15 minutes each day, hoping no one discovers that you are now in charge?
That I believe is the issue in this parable. It is not about profits, it is not about using talents, it is about being faithful to the Gospel in Christ’s absence, even in the face of a hostile and misunderstanding world, even if you aren’t sure when, if ever, he will return. Will you remain faithful the Gospel, will you be diligent in discipleship, will you be out there is Christ’s home, or will you hang back in apathy and fear? Who are you going to trust and to whose word are you accountable?
I recall a scene from the classic novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. A group of nuns is singing in the corridor outside the hospital room where a number of the wounded soldiers are confined. Suddenly someone throws a pitcher through the door in order to stop the singing. An inspector is summoned. He goes into the room and coldly eyes each soldier. One soldier quickly confesses even though he was not the one who threw the pitcher. The inspector stares at him for a moment, then turns on his heel and leaves the room without uttering a word. Immediately the other soldiers turn to the one who confessed and ask, “But why did you say you did it when it wasn’t you at all?”
He responds with a laugh. “It really doesn’t make any difference. A few days ago I got a lick on the head and they gave me a certificate saying I am not longer accountable for what I do. Since then I have been having a wonderful time.”
Jesus doesn’t let us off the hook quite so easily. “After a long time the master returned and settled accounts with them.” He wants to know -- have you trusted me, have you been faithful, have you been accountable, have you been out there sharing my word and living it even though I have been gone? How has the Kingdom fared in my absence?”
A former colleague of mine in northern California, Lowell Streiker, once had this to say concerning this parable and indeed the concept of faithful stewardship: “We are thankful for our brothers and sisters who have invested their time, talents and treasure in this church. We are thankful for those who have made commitments of hours and dollars and have honored those commitments year after year. We are thankful for those who do the work of this church, quietly and steadfastly, unheralded and often unacknowledged.
“We are thankful for those who pray and teach us to pray, those who stimulate our minds, those who prod our consciences and those who set an example of faithfulness and piety.
“But most of all, we are thankful for those who have a vision of the future and will risk themselves – their time, their abilities, their financial support here and now.”
Perhaps that is the final point of this parable. Just what is your belief in the future? Are you one of those who insist, “The future ain’t what is used to be,” or with George Bernard Shaw, do you dare to proclaim, “You see things as they are and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream of things that never were, and I say, ‘Why not?’”
That was Jesus…one who was never afraid to dream outlandish dreams – dreams of peace and compassion and radical welcome – and ask, “Why not?” Indeed, he argued in this parable that the way we live today, the commitments we make and the faithfulness we demonstrate – really depend on our view of the future. Do we sincerely believe, do we trust, that the way of the Gospel is the way of the future? If so, we will seek to live out that Gospel today and will allow ourselves to be held accountable to it. Can we allow ourselves to see a future, to believe in a future, to trust a future, that is so overwhelmingly beautiful, compelling, and irresistible, that it forcefully lures us to itself?
That is the question asked by our parable, it is the stewardship question put in concrete form by the pledge card you have received in the mail – and there are extra copies available. It’s not about budgets or salaries or music for the choirs or paying our heating bills. All those things are important to be sure. A church service without music or lights would not be much fun. But this parable reminds us that finally, faithful stewardship is about daring to declare ourselves on the side of the Gospel and then to give generously of ourselves in support of that same Gospel. It is about working faithfully in the world while the master is gone, trusting that his dream of the future, his promise, is true and worthwhile and can be trusted. It is about letting his promised future shape our present.
Newscaster, Paul Harvey, once told about a woman who called the Butterball Turkey Company and said that she had a turkey which had been in her freezer for 23 years. She asked if it was still any good. She was told that if her freezer was kept at least at zero degrees, then the turkey was probably safe enough to eat, but they wouldn’t recommend that she eat it. The flavor would have deteriorated considerably. “That’s what I thought,” she responded, “so I guess I’ll just give it to the church!”
The church doesn’t need our leftovers. And it won’t get our leftovers. Not if we choose to stand for the unseen One in the world, to stand for and share his Gospel, his vision of the future, his hope, his faith his love and acceptance of all God’s children; not if we choose to be thankful for and hold ourselves accountable to that Gospel. Not leftovers, and not obligation or duty or burden. No, then our giving, our stewardship, our service, will come out of the sheer joy of living and being able to give from hearts of gratefulness and thanksgiving to One who can be trusted and whose amazing grace is daily present in our church and in our lives.