"risk-Taking Discipleship"

“Risk-Taking Discipleship”

Matthew 25:14-30

Today’s parable is about a wealthy man who goes away on a long journey.

Before he leaves, he apportions his wealth to his three servants.

And it’s a lot of gold.

The first servant takes the gold to a wealth management firm and invests in high-risk ventures.

The second servant does the same thing.

And both of them do very well.

When their master returns, he is very happy with them, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” he says and then promises them that they will be given even more responsibility in the future.

The third servant takes a very different approach with his master’s gold.

He digs a hole in the ground and hides it there for safe-keeping.

And for his efforts he is treated as harshly as anyone in the whole Bible.

What do you suppose this is all about?

What did he do wrong?

Of course, this is a parable.

And the parables of Jesus are seemingly simple and memorable stories, often with imagery, that teach a lesson for our daily lives.

And although these parables seem simple, the messages they convey are deep, and central to the teachings of Jesus.

And in this parable the wealthy landowner represents God or Jesus.

We are represented by the servants.

And since Jesus doesn’t appear to be all that concerned about making money…there must be something else to this.

It turns out that the point here isn’t really about doubling your money and getting rich.

It’s about living.

It’s about investing.

It’s about taking risks.

It’s about Jesus Himself and what He has done and what is about to happen to Him.

Mostly it’s about what Jesus hopes and expects of us after He is gone.

It’s about what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ.

And the greatest risk of all, it turns out, is not to risk anything, not to care deeply and profoundly enough to invest deeply, and not to give our heart away in the process.

The greatest risk, it turns out, is to play it safe, to live cautiously and fearfully…maybe even lazily.

It’s normal to identify sin as pride and egotism.

However, there is a whole other lens through which to view the human condition.

It’s called sloth.

Sloth is one of the ancient church’s seven deadly sins.

Sloth means not caring, not loving, not rejoicing, not living up to the full potential of our humanity…

…investing nothing of ourselves…

…digging a hole and burying our time, talents and money—our very lives-- in the ground.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the sin of respectable people is running from responsibility.

Bonhoeffer’s sense of responsibility cost him his life.

I wonder if we treat our personal faith as a “high-risk venture.”

Or do we think of it more as a personal security zone.

Is faith to you and to me no more risky than believing ideas in our heads about God and Jesus, a list of beliefs to which we more or less subscribe to intellectually?

Is it about getting our theology right and then staying out of trouble, living a good life by avoiding bad things?

Is it pretty timid?

Is it like something we are given, and then we dig a hole and bury it in the ground for safe-keeping?

Or is it about doing the right thing even if it is not the popular thing?

Is it about standing up for the down and out, the marginalized, the lowly?

Is it about giving our money and also our time, and most importantly our love for the sake of a lost and broken world?

Is it about taking the chance of being seen with all the wrong people…

…taking the chance of offending the modern day Pharisees and being called a “sinner” just as Jesus was as a result?

Is it about standing up to the establishment if the establishment is not standing up for love, mercy and grace?

That is what Martin Luther King Jr. did.

And it was really, really risky.

And, of course, it cost him his life.

But look at the return on investment.

Look what he achieved for God and for those whom God loves.

Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord [our] God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind.”

And to, “Love our neighbor as [ourself].”

He says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

It’s what the whole shabbang is about.

It’s everything.

And it’s hardcore.

And that is because of the little three letter word Jesus inserts there.

And that three-letter word is “all.”

He doesn’t say “love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself with some of your heart, mind and soul” but rather with “all your heart, mind and soul,”—