Faith-Based Initiative

I don’t know if the tough decisions our leadership has been wrestling with have trickled all the way down through the congregation yet - though it would surprise me if you haven’t noticed that attendance at worship is down. Well, one of the challenges that goes along with a drop in attendance is a drop in resources. And so when session put the budget together last week we had to cut every single bit of discretionary spending to the bone, and we’re still facing a deficit for 2003. We expected to face a deficit for 2002, but we hoped to pull out of it next year. And we’re not. Why not?

Well, it’s certainly true that our demographics are changing. And people who used to come every Sunday are being replaced by people whose patterns of attendance are more like every other Sunday, or less, and sometimes people forget that the work of the church goes on even when they are not there. But even more important, I think, is the state of the economy. I don’t think that it’s any coincidence that our financial difficulties almost exactly parallel the decline in the stock market over the last two years. There has been a lot of bad news, and it’s lasted a lot longer than most of us expected. The Dow and the Nasdaq are still a long way from where they were, and a number of people probably got caught with their margins down. Even if you weren’t invested in Enron or Worldcom, Global Crossing or Adelphia, tech stocks are still sloshing around in the bilges, while international stocks - which I had been really optimistic about - are evaporating like spilled wine. The joke about our 401K plans turning into 201K’s isn’t much of an exaggeration, and many people are feeling the pinch, even if it’s largely psychological, since jobs are still relatively plentiful and real income has risen.

Many of you have heard me say that if we are doing what God wants us to do, that he will provide the resources we need. Does this potential deficit mean that God is not pleased with our ministry? Are we doing something wrong? I don’t think so. We are still a congregation of generous givers. We are still a congregation who serves the church and one another with commitment and energy and love. We are still a congregation which reaches out to strangers, who feed and clothe the cold and hungry. We are still a congregation committed to the word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So why are we not getting the kind of return on our investment that we - or at least I, perhaps naively, expected?

This parable is one of the best known of Jesus' parables, probably only the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are more familiar. How many of you already know it? It would almost be enough to just read the Scripture, say "This is what the Holy Spirit is saying to us; draw your own conclusions," and sit down.

But while the Holy Spirit doesn't object to being obvious, he is rarely simplistic. I think that there is more here that is worth spending some time on.

What I want to know is, would the master in the parable have had a different response to his servants if he'd waited to settle accounts with them until after the books closed at the end of 2001 than if he'd done his checking at the beginning of the year? One year the investment results showed a profit, and the next they showed a loss. Would the master have praised them in 2000 and fired them in 2001?

What if, instead of returning 10 talents to his master, all the first servant had to show for his work was a promissory note for half shares in the profits of a caravan currently presumed lost somewhere in the Arabian desert? What if the second, who proudly turned over the two talents to his master, had also gained a reputation for shoddy goods and shady deals?

Is the bottom line all that matters to God?

I think we all know the answer to that. As a matter of fact, this parable is commonly used to show that quantity is not the basis for God's assessment of his servants' performance, by showing that the man who showed a profit of two talents received exactly the same reward as the one who made over twice that much.

We know that God does not judge us on how large a check we can write, or the number of people who fill the pews, or even on how many Bible verses we memorize.

So if this parable isn't about being rewarded for performing good works, what is it about?