Wile E Coyote furiously chases Roadrunner. The bird suddenly stops. The coyote tries but he can’t, and he skids past the roadrunner out to the edge of the cliff. The ground gives way and for just a moment we see his saucer eyes. Then down Wile E. Plummets. Poof!
You and I don’t recover so easily. Like Wile E. We fall. But unlike Wile E., we wander in the canyon for a while. Stunned, hurt......and wondering if this ravine has a way out.
Max Lucado up to here.
One thing about Wile E Coyote is that he has no talent for what he is doing - he just keeps beating his head against a wall - or canyon floor because he hasn’t quite worked out that this is not what he is good at.
He firmly believes he has a talent for catching road runners - but I am afraid that that is not it -
Basically he sucks at it!!!!
Unlike Wiley E Coyote the Christian is not on a mission of destruction but on a rescue mission.
That aside, the thing about Wile E. Coyote is he just keeps on trying - He never gives up!
In Matthews gospel we read about the Parable of the talents.
Coyote’s are seemingly meant to chase and catch roadrunners - and the thing about Wile E coyote in his 50 odd years of life as a cartoon character is he has never given up.
Basically he had little talent but the truth is - what he had he used for what coyote’s seemingly are called to do - that is catch roadrunners.
Christians - That is people who are followers of Jesus Christ - have a call on their lives as well.
God has expectations of us but the parable of the Talents tells us his expectation never exceeds his investment in us.
Not all of us are greatly talented. Those of you who have heard me try to sing will agree that I am not a great singer.
God invests different levels of talent in us -
I read a sermon by Charles Spurgeon on this subject and I thought he said it wonderfully:-
EVERY good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." All that men have they must trace to the Great Fountain, the giver of all good. Hast thou talents? They were given thee by the God of talents. Hast thou time? hast thou wealth, influence, power? Hast thou powers of tongue? Hast thou powers of thought? Art thou poet, statesman, or philosopher? Whatever be thy position, and whatever be thy gifts, remember that they are not thine, but they are lent thee from on high. No man hath anything of his own, except his sins. We are but tenants at will. God hath put us into his estates, and he hath said, "Occupy till I come." Though our vineyards bear never so much fruit, yet the vineyard belongs to the King, and though we are to take the hundred for our hire, yet King Solomon must have his thousand. All the honor of our ability and the use of it must be unto God, because he is the Giver. The parable tells us this very pointedly; for it makes every person acknowledge that his talents come from the Lord. Even the man who digged in the earth and hid his Lords money, did not deny that his talent belonged to his Master; for though his reply, "Lo, there thou hast that is shine," was exceedingly impertinent, yet it was not a denial of this fact. So that even this man was ahead of those who deny their obligations to God, who superciliously toss their heads at the very mention of obedience to their Creator, and spend their time and their powers rather in rebellion against him than in his service. Oh, that we were all wise to believe and to act upon this most evident of all truths, that everything we have, we have received from the Most High.
JAS 1:16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
There is no doubt that God has invested in us both good and perfect gifts.
The other night Heather and I heard a man sing - he was a former singer in the great musical Les mis - His voice was unbelievably beautiful - he had great talent.
Then we heard a man - Dick Hubbard and this man had a talent for making money.
I was in Dunedin the other day and spotted a man who used to be a street sweeper in Dunedin.
He had long flexible arms and legs and when he used to sweep up the rubbish it was like an art form. This man was the most talented street sweeper you would ever see. I doubt that Dick Hubbard or the singer could bring the dignity and the style to street sweeping that this man had.
But, none the less the gifts of the street sweeper - the singer and the millionaire have one thing in common -
Every good and perfect gift is from above.
God uniquely bestows on each one of us particular talents and gifts.
A few of us have remarkable talents - some of us average and still others minimal talent.
In the scriptures Jesus tells us that the talents that we have are an investment from God.
God has made an investment of talent in each one of us to different levels.
MT 25:14 "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16
So the picture is that God has invested in each one of us and then he has - left us to it.
16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
We have an obligation to be all we can be and do all that we can do in developing these talents. "A pastor tells of standing by his father’s tombstone and reading the words, "Born 1884 - Died 1970." It suddenly occurred to him how much the little dash between those two dates symbolized
THE INVESTMENT OF THE TALENTS
The talents that are spoken of in this parable are symbolic of more than just money. The talents also seem to be a metaphor for gifts and abilities. The master who was issuing the talents to his servants was giving to each one according to his ability. The master who was giving these talents expected his servants to invest, increase---multiply what they had been entrusted with. The only way that they could succeed was to apply what they had been given. Just as a seed cannot grow unless it is planted, so a talent cannot increase unless it has been invested. Investing the talent meant that work was required.
This morning I would like to suggest to you three ways forward in this talent quest that God has sent us on that will give us great personal satisfaction and also will produce fruit for the Kingdom of God.
My first point is to invest what God has invested in you.
Let me tell you a story - it is a modification of a story I wrote a few years ago and I simply want to draw out that each person invested what God had invested in them.
It is called the Ballerina.
Once upon a time there was an orphan ballerina - how she loved to dance.
She was the most elegant of the dancers in the whole village.
But the sadness was she had no shoes. She had rough leather sandals that whe wore as she did her daily chores. But by night she would tiptoe out on the grass and dance elegantly under the stars in the clearing by the woods where she lived.
One day an old cobbler was making his way home through the woods near where the ballerina lived.
Quite by accident - some would say it was by a higher design - he came upon the clearing at the very time the ballerina was dancing. The Old Cobbler had once lived in Moscow and had been to the ballet and enjoyed some of the worlds best.
But when he came to the clearing he stood entranced. Bathed in the light of the setting sun and unnoticed he stood and watched the ballerina in her peasants clothes dance across the stage of grass and clover. Never in his whole life had the Cobbler seen such natural grace and elegance. His heart lept for joy at the beauty, expression innocence and sheer wonderment of the dance.
When the ballerina at last had finished her dance, to her mind only viewed by the woodland creatures and only accompanied by the symphony of darting, singing birds - she bowed to them expecting only the gentle breese to offer it’s silent applause.
Imagine her surprise when she heard the applause of the calloused wrinkled hands of the old cobbler.
"Bravo - Bravo" he shouted his wrinkled face smiling the warmest most loving smile that the ballerina had ever seen.
She tiptoed over to the cobbler bowed to him and her face smilingly inquired just as to who he was.
"|Why I am the cobbler - I mend shoes - make shoes - fix heels and restore sandels so that they are like new.
That is my art." Said the cobbler. "But you young lady have a far greater art. I have seen the greatest dance, but compared to you, they are like clumsy cobblers plodding through the forest. You must dance in the great ballets of the world. You have a talent far greater that the best the world has seen."
The ballerina blushed "Why thank you kind sir - I was taught what little I know by my Grandmother who even as we talk has soup warming for my dinner. Will you not join us?"
The cobbler agreed and over tea there was much happy talk with the ballerina’s Woodsman Grandfather and her kind old grandmother = they talked mostly though of the ballerina’s great talent.
The cobbler told them of the great ballets he had seen in Moscow and how the Ballerina was better than any he had seen.
He told them how he knew Stazinasky the great Ballet Master in Moscow - he procduced a piece of paper and wrote a lerrer of introduction for the Ballerina to the great master - and then after the family had retired - the old cobbler worked all night by the light of the flickering oil lantern.
As the sun broke into the clearing that morning the old cobbler lay as if asleep sprawled across the kitchen table - at some stage in the night he had sadly slipped from life into death.
But even though he had died there was an expression of contentment on the cobblers face.
For on the table lay the most beautiful pair of dancing shoes you have ever seen.
Were they blue or were they silver? You couldn’t really tell, for as the sunlight streamed through the window, light seemed to dance around the shoes and swirl around in endless displays of beauty. The Ballerina tiptoed into the kitchen - she took in the picture of the cobbler and the shoes and the dancing light - from her pocket she took out the letter to the Cobbler’s Moscow friend and read again the invitation to dance.
As tears began to fall - the Ballerina pressed the shoes and the letter to her heart and only God and the scullery mice could hear her say:-
"The Cobbler shall not have died in vain."
The people in this little story - the cobbler - The Ballerina and the Grandparents all used their God given talents to produce the great dancer -
As a christian you and I need to ask just what is it that God has uniquely invested in you?
For that is the thing you need to use - not for your glory or even the worlds praise but for the glory of God.
16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more.
The second point is summed up in He went at once. So many people are waiting until they know more are more highly skilled - until they get the right break before they do anything for God.
But the truth is God honours those who invest their God given raw talent into building his Kingdom.
Once you start genuinely using your God given talent for the Kingdom of God you are already producing from the investment God has put in you.
MT 25:23 "His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
The third point is don’t start too big - begin investing your talents in little things and let God grant the increase.
