12^th December 2011

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley  Sunday 13 November 2011

Lessons -- Psalm 123; Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

The Parable of the Talents is one of the best known of Jesus' parables. It appeals to our sense of responsibility and fits in with what we hold to be central in life: showing initiative, using our abilities and 'maximising our potential' to be productive citizens. How often has it been drummed into us that we must use our 'talents'? Stories abound of those who 'wasted their talents'.

It is usually told to encourage us to have a strong 'work ethic' and use our God-given talents responsibly. Its message is said to justify ideals of individual initiative, self-help, free enterprise and wealth creation -- some even arguing that it is the basis of modern capitalism!

Such views were supported by an earlier generation of scholars. A Julicher, who thought that all of Jesus' parables had a simple generally applicable meaning, said that the point of this parable is that 'reward is
only earned by performance'.

This way of looking at the parable is so ingrained in our collective thinking that we completely miss what Jesus is actually saying. We have become so used to taking individual parables and sayings out of context in the whole Gospel- story that we have come to think of Jesus as a teacher of universal values that agree with our cherished ideals. We overlook the fact that he is the embodiment of God's grace who, at a particular moment in history, challenged behaviour at odds with God's will for humanity.

The Parable of the Talents is a major casualty of such thinking. It is one of a number of parables Jesus tells his disciples who are expecting the fulfilment of history. It is not about our work ethic, but the true nature of Christian discipleship!

* It reminds them of the magnificence of God's grace.

* It summons them to take risks in preaching the Gospel as they await God's future.

* And it warns them of the consequences of cautious and resentful religion.

* The first thing to note is the enormous sum of money given to each worker. One 'talent' was worth more than 15 years' wages of a labourer (NRSV). One man was given the equivalent of 75 years' wages, another 30, another 15. The boss is extravagant beyond measure in what he gives to each man.

Thus, this parable of discipleship begins with the superabundance of God's grace. God is not stinting in the gifts he gives to his Church! Whilst there is a great diversity of gifts in the church, everybody, including the third servant, receives more than they could possibly have imagined.

The parable of the talents begins, not with the rewards due to us by our performance, but with the extravagant grace of God towards us.

* The second thing to note is that God's magnanimous gift comes with great responsibility. There is no grace without a summons to act boldly in passing on the Good News. Much is expected of those who are beneficiaries of God's extravagant love. Grace is not an invitation to take it easy but a calling to spread the word of God's incomparable goodness.

What an incredible responsibility! That the Creator is so gracious is cause for astonishment. That we are invited to share in God's love for the world is a privilege that is beyond our imagination.

The parable of the talents shows us that -- like the first and second servants -- those who have received the gift of extravagant grace are called to take risks in promoting the Gospel as they await the future that God has promised in Christ.

* The third thing to note is that the parable is a warning against religion that is cautious and resentful. This becomes clear with the unexpectedly harsh treatment of the third servant. To us he is not so irresponsible. He does not lose the money or waste it on riotous living.
He is not careless but, as the law requires, buries the valuable talent in order to guard against theft. He is a good, sensible, religious person!

However, as well as being cautious he is resentful. This comes out in a curious exchange (vv 24,26) between him and the Master in which they seem to agree that the boss is in fact harsh and unscrupulous in dealing with people. Certainly, the Master expects a great deal of his servants. That is fine! But harsh and unscrupulous?

The dilemma is solved if we see that the Master's repetition of the servant's complaint is ironic. He ridicules the man's lame excuse for inaction in the form of a question. He does not justify himself but says, in effect, 'Yeah, right! If you really thought that, why did you not do the decent thing?' In view of the Master's extraordinary generosity to him and the trust placed in him with 15 years' wages, it is inconceivable that the third servant's accusation has any foundation. He simply tries to shift the blame for his extreme caution and to justify his resentment at being asked to take risks!

In the parable, Jesus makes it clear that this cautious, resentful man is a useless and dangerous enemy of the Gospel. It is notable that, in a similar parable in the later Gospel of the Nazarenes, such a man is only rebuked, while a servant who wasted money on frivolous, immoral living is thrown into prison.

Why does Jesus only condemn a chap who is cautious and resentful?

Remember: Jesus battled the Pharisees over the correct interpretation of the law. They were scrupulous in religious and moral observance and expected the same from everybody. And they were resentful of Jesus taking risks to show the immeasurable grace of God by mixing with 'tax collectors, sinners and outcasts' to restore them to the community of faith.

In fact, the parable of the talents is an attack on scrupulous, resentful religion and a summons to discipleship in response to the astonishing mercy of God.

The third servant is condemned because he is afraid of making mistakes in God's service. As Eduard Schweizer puts it: 'Jesus is saying that a religion concerned only with not doing anything wrong in order that its practitioner may one day be rewarded, ignores the will of God.' (The Good News according to Matthew, p 473.) A faith that 'plays it safe' is resentful of God's grace to all. God disturbs our religious and moral securities so that we may live in hope (of what awaits us in Christ) by taking risks, as servants of grace, to declare the Gospel in our own day.

The parable teaches that failure to take risks, refusal to be vulnerable and resentment at what we are called to do in serving God can be more damaging to genuine faith than irreligion and immorality. Indeed, it is a case-study of Jesus' statement that 'whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it' (Matthew 16:25).
It calls us to respond to God's 'unexampled grace' in Christ, (as Charles Wesley put it in Australian Hymn Book 145, v3), by abandoning the quest for religious and moral security and being open to God's will and our neighbour's need.

This is a timely word for a Church that, having lost its nerve, has become cautious in declaring the Gospel of God's extravagant grace embodied in Jesus and resentful about the cost of discipleship. We have learned to keep ourselves 'safe' and do not want to be made to look foolish for standing up for the truth as we await God's future.

The parable reminds us that disciples are summoned to use their various 'talents' to ensure that the magnificence of God's grace is made known in the time between Christ's embodiment of grace on earth and the renewal of the whole creation that await us in him.

In a Church that is so often pre-occupied with its own security, has lost its nerve as a community of hope and is resentful about its declining influence, we need to hear Christ's summons. In a society where initiative, potential and productivity are rewarded, we need to encourage 'talents' that are the fruits of grace. We are summoned to be bearers of hope in a Church and society where caution and timidity are widespread and people are anxious or resentful about their own 'performances'.

Therefore, contrary to popular wisdom, the parable does not teach that 'reward is only earned by performance'. To be 'talented' in the sense of the parable is to live by hope. To use our 'talents' is to respond to God's costly grace in Christ by taking risks to seek the restoration of those who are lost, broken or without hope -- and who, like us, stand in daily need of forgiveness and courage.

The 'reward' for those who practise a cautious and resentful religion does not bear thinking about; there 'will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness' (v30). That is not for us to decide! It is enough that we should be open to the astonishing grace of God and take risks in passing on the Good News, knowing that our reward, as verse 28 makes clear, is not a life of ease but greater responsibility.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.