Today’s lesson finds a man digging a hole in the ground. We learn that a man going on a journey entrusted a portion of his wealth to three of his employees. Two of the three employees invested their wealth and received commendable returns. The third was afraid and hid his in a hole in the ground. When the man returned to settle his accounts with them, all were commended and rewarded except the employee who had hidden his one talent in the hole in the ground — he was, instead, severely criticized and penalized. It was because he was afraid, that the man hid his master’s money in that hole in the ground rather than investing it or putting it to good use.
. . . Now, let’s contrast this man’s hole in the ground prompted by fear, with another man’s hole in the ground prompted by fearlessness – courage.
It goes like this . . . An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard.
His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you
would be happy to dig up the ground for me, like in the old days. Love, Papa
A few days later the father received a letter from his son:
Dear Pop, Don’t dig up that garden.
That’s where the bodies are buried. Love, Vinnie.
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. The same day the man received another letter from his son:
Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now.
That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
I love you, Vinnie.
Now that’s a good hole in the ground story. The story of Vinnie, and more so, the parable of the talents remind us what we can do with a little courage and faith. Courage can happen as we first ask what is my passion?
First, let’s say there is no real evidence that the servants who held five, and two talents -- a talent being a sizable sum of money, had a passion for being industrious. Nor is there evidence that the servant who held one talent was slothful. What does seem to define the unsuccessful servant is a passion for fear. When the master returned and each servant gave an accounting, this servant said, "Master, I knew you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours." The man with one talent cautiously acted to preserve what had been entrusted to him and dug a hole in the ground for it. The other two apparently put the entire sums at risk in the market. The man with the one talent was passionate about fear – quite the opposite of courage. Barbara Brown Taylor writes “Fear is a small cell with no air in it and no light. It is suffocating inside and dark. There is no room to turn around inside it. You can only face in one direction, but it hardly matters since you cannot see anyhow. There is no future in the dark. Everything is over. Everything is past. When you are locked up like that, tomorrow is as far away as the moon.”
How often has our investment in the abundant life been stifled as our relationship with our Lord becomes one based on faith, rather than fear? How stale life becomes! Like this servant, we become resentful of our Lord and life itself. Instead of a relationship based on trust and thankfulness in the atmosphere of the forgiveness of sins, we gravitate towards our own works and the law. So this parable seems to push beyond issues of industriousness and using our talents to a harder truth of letting go our love affair of fear and self interest and replacing it with faith and courage. One recalls Jesus’ words to the disciples, "Those who want to save their lives will lose them and those who lose their lives for my sake will find them." Are not life, love, self and faith lost if we try to hoard them? Is it not in losing for Christ’s sake that we find and are found? No wonder the third servant was afraid. How astonishing that the first two were not - or at least did not allow their fear to govern their actions. One also recalls the exchange between Jesus and the disciples the day the 5,000 were fed. With five loaves and two fishes at hand, Jesus told them, "You feed them; give them what you have." It was very little, but they risked it. These stories and sayings both invite a deep trust and a wild risk, and expose our fears and their true cost. Would you be more courageous with Faith? Confess to Jesus that indeed your primary passion on account of sin and pride is so often fear, and ask him with the help of the Holy Spirit to graciously replace that with a more rich and abundant and courageous faith.
Secondly, we gain courage in the kingdom as we recognize not just our passion, but our position. Here we read that a man goes on a journey and entrusts his slaves, his property. So too we have been entrusted by God, and placed in a good position with Christ. Instead of worrying about our position in the stock market for example which seems only to push the panic button of fear, we look to our position of grace. We have received grace upon grace -- God’s undeserved love. “Thanks be to God,” the apostle Paul writes, “for his unspeakable gift – Christ.” We are the gifted. We are on the receiving end of life, just as these men who were entrusted with something of value. And how valuable Christ’s kingdom is! Elsewhere it is called the treasure hidden in a field that a man sells everything he has and buys it. The Psalmist reminds us: “God opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living creature.” St. Paul reminds us “What hast though that thou has not received?” As we come here to worship we are reminded that in the means of Grace in Word and Sacrament of Baptismal Water, Bread and Wine we are always being gifted and enriched and entrusted with life by the outstretched hand of our Lord. Not only the Eucharist, but life is placed into our hands. Christ became poor that for our sakes, we might become rich. We make courageous investments of time and treasure and talent in God’s kingdom because we know we are on the receiving end of his kindness and grace as maker and owner of all that is. We are so richly blessed. We are so perfectly positioned in life because of Christ. Jesus told us so in the Sermon on the Mount Blessed are those who know their spiritual poverty for they are the children of God. Paul reminds us, in the second lesson: God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
As an example of knowing our true position in life, consider the example of Jesus as servant and slave. Here in this parable, slaves of the master are given the talents and he leaves on a journey. Jesus too, took the position of slave and servant. At the Last supper, shortly before his crucifixion, death and burial, he knelt down and offered himself to his disciples as love personified in the menial task of washing their feet – a slave’s task in those days. For the moment Christ was literally positioned beneath those sinful men he called to be his own. He placed them, just as he has done with us, above himself. The author of the book of Hebrews continues this theme as we hear of Christ, “who though equal with God, didn’t consider it something to boast about but instead took the nature of a servant and humbled himself, even to the point of death, death on the cross.” Do you see the position of grace that Jesus has placed us in on account of his great love for us? Shall we cower in fear or conquer with faith?
Lastly, let us renew ourselves in courageous living as we consider, not just our passion, not just our position, but also our potential. Someone has noted that the last words of Martin Luther before dying were “We are all beggars.” Surely a man like Luther however would have been representative of the slave in our text who received the five talents as compared with the one who received only two or one. Where would we stand? In the book of Acts after hearing the apostles preach on the day of Pentecost, the audience was much surprised for they recognized that these men were but ordinary, uneducated men, whom God has so blessed. Though rather ordinary folk ourselves, shall we not also see our potential in God’s kingdom for good, with a capitol G? See how God took these ordinary fishermen and changed them into fishers for men. See how he took an antagonistic Christ hater like Paul and turned him around completely. Look how Paul and these 12 disciples invested their lives in service, devotion, duty and sacrifice. And look at their courage after Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Now look, we’re not going to be Luthers or Pauls. But we can be someone. Here Jesus rewards the honorable servants for their faithfulness. “Well done good and faithful servant.” Yes, faithfulness seems so ordinary. We don’t like to be known as plain vanilla, rather - to be brilliant, competent. But none of us would want to live under the tyranny of unreasonable expectations either, and Jesus understands this. So he uses the word faithful – it is a relational term – a being word, as opposed to a doing word. Faithfulness is always our potential, not performance and production. Faithfulness! In this we have the master’s reward. Enter into the joy of thy master. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. The promise begins with be, not do. We cannot do, unless we first be. “For what is required of a steward is faithfulness.” Our potential always begins with who we are in Christ.
Some years back, the company with the brown trucks and brown uniforms, UPS went public on the stock market for the first time in its 92 year history. The Chairman and CEO then, Jim Kelly said, “We’ve discussed the benefits of private ownership for a long time, but this is something we had to do to enable us to position ourselves and enhance and improve our global footprint.” We too, as a church have a footprint that needs expanding. We need givers and investors in the abundant life to see that the next generation also receives God’s good gifts.
This is not a time to bury and hide from God. It is a time to be accountable as servants who try to err on the side of courage – instead of fear, who discover each day their position of giftedness as servants of the King who himself became a servant. It is time to see our true potential in living and offering the life abundant to so many others. It is time to look forward to the greatest return on a courageous and faithful investment in LIFE, found in the words of the Owner of Life, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave, enter into the joy of your master.” Amen.
