Faithfulness
Involves Risk
September 29, 2013
BMC- Matthew 25:14-30
Introduction:
Fear of Failure
The
fear of failure…it’s pretty common isn’t it.
We all fear failure in some way don’t we? We all hate that internal sense of defeat
when we fail to complete a task or we fail to succeed in an assignment. We despise the thought of what other people
are thinking of us and how they may be judging us when we fail to follow
through. We don’t like the feelings that
go along with failure and so we come to fear failure and that fear can paralyze
us.
I’m
sure that we all remember the days of weekly spelling tests. In elementary school, each week would bring
another list of words that we needed to know how to spell by the end of the
week. And each Friday would bring a test
or a quiz in which the teacher would say the words and we each on our own
papers had to write down the correct spelling of the words. It never took very long to do the test and
yet the build up to it was excruciating.
Perhaps
this was not the case for you, but what this meant for me was that every
Thursday night was a night filled with anxiety, a night of anguish, of
frustration and sometimes of tears.
Because every Thursday night was the deadline to learn how to spell
these words, words that often times did not follow the rules very well. Every Thursday night was a time to review and
review and review these words until the correct spelling finally stuck in my
head; because Friday was coming and I did not want to fail on my spelling test. In fact, it was more than not wanting to
fail. For me it was that I did not want
to even make a mistake on my test.
And
I remember several Thursday nights in which I would spend an hour or more
reviewing my words, trying to etch them in stone in my mind before going to
bed. And then when I would go to bed, I
would be so worked up, so consumed with the fear of failure on my test the next
day that I would lie there in bed unable to sleep. I would lie there worried and wound up to the
point that I needed my dad to come upstairs and sit on the side of my bed to
comfort me and to reassure me, to calm me down and to relax me until I became
drowsy and was able to fall asleep. The
fear of failure can be debilitating for us.
The Parable
- Signs of the End of the Age[1]
One
day near the end of his life, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. And as he sat there, the disciples came to
him and they asked him, “When will the end of the age come and what will be the
sign of your coming?”
In
response, Jesus told them to beware of those who would lead them astray, of
those who will come in His name claiming to be the Messiah. He told them that they will hear of wars and
rumors of wars, but that they should not be afraid. He told them that nation will rise against nation
and that there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. These are but the beginning of the birth
pangs of the coming kingdom, he told them.
Jesus
continued to paint a rosy picture of the days to come saying to his disciples
that they will be handed over to torture and put to death. He told them that many will fall away and
many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. But the ones who endure to the end will be
saved, the ones who do not fail to be faithful will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom, the good
news of salvation, will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to
all the nations. And then the end will
come. These are the signs, but what
about the when? When will all this take
place?
All
the tribes of the earth will see the ‘Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. That is what
will happen. Those are the signs like
that of the leaves on a fig tree signaling the coming of summer. But about the day and hour, no one knows; not
the angels, not even the son. Only the
Father knows the timing of this end. We
do not know when it will come and so we need to be ready. Jesus tells us to keep awake for the Son of
Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
- The Faithful or the Unfaithful Slave[2]
And
then Jesus told three parables. “Who
then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his
household, to give the other slaves their allowance of good at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will
find at work when he arrives. Truly I
tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions.
“But
if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and he begins to
beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that
slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he
does not know. He will cut him [off] and
put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.” This was the first parable that
he told.
- The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids[3]
And
then he told a second that was like it.
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to
meet the bridegroom. Five of them were
foolish, and five were wise. When the
foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks
of oil with their lamps.
“As
the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look!
Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some
of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us;
you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’
“And
while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went
with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also saying,
‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied,
‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’
Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” That was the second parable that he told.
- The Parable of the Talents[4]
And
then he told a third parable that was like the first two. “For it is as if a man, going on a journey,
summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five
talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents
went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two
talents made two more talents. But the
one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and
hid his master’s money.
“After
a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with
them. Then the one who had received the
five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you
handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master
said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy
in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of
your master.’ And the one with the two
talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents;
see, I have made two more talents.’ His
master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been
trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter
into the joy of your master.’
“Then
the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I
knew that you were a harsh man, reaping 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.’ But his master
replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did
not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?
Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my
return I would have received what was my own with interest.
“So
take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be
given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even
what they have will be taken away. As
for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Always be Ready
One
day near the end of his life, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. And as he sat there, the disciples came to
him and they asked him, “When will the end of the age come and what will be the
sign of your coming?”
Jesus answered their questions by
giving signs that we see all around us all the time. We see wars and famines, earthquakes and
people leading others astray. We see the
signs all around us, which brings us to the question of when. When will Jesus return? When will the new age begin? We see the signs around us all the time and
have for centuries, but when will Jesus return?
And it is out of this question that Jesus offered these three parables.
“All
three stories have similar casts of characters: a master or lord and one or
more servants or attendants. And the
plots are also similar: the lord assigns tasks (or tasks are clearly defined by
tradition); the master or lord leaves for an indefinite period of time; the
servants or attendants perform their tasks well or badly; suddenly the lord
returns, and the servants are called to account; some are praised and others
are blamed.”[5]
And
the answer to the question of when is clear.
We don’t know the time. We don’t
know when Jesus will return, when the new age will begin. Not even the angels or Jesus, himself, knew
the time. And so rather than giving a
firm answer to the question, Jesus invites us through these parables to shift
our attention from “When will Jesus return?” to “What should we do while we
wait?” To this question, to what we
should do, the answer is clear.
We
have been waiting for centuries and yet the answer to what we do while we wait,
remains consistent and true. We are
always to be ready for the coming of the master, for the arrival of the
bridegroom. We are to remain awake. We are to remain ready, which for some of us
may leave us in a perpetual state of Thursday night fear of failure come Friday
morning. And this perpetual state of
fear may be intensified by these parables in which those who fail are sent to a
place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Faithfulness
Is Success
Yet
it is significant to me that in each of these parables as they answer the
question of when, they also invite us to focus not on failure but on
faithfulness. And that in this third
parable in particular, the Parable of the Talents, that faithfulness isn’t so
much about success as we often define it but about living our daily lives with
intentionality.
As Richard Jensen points out, “In
each of the three stories …the subject is engaged in quite ordinary tasks of
life…Jesus does not imagine our human waiting for the end of the age to be some
kind of spiritual exercise quite separate from daily life. There is not advice about going into
seclusion or retreat. Rather, we are
called to fidelity in the vocations of life.”[6] We are to use what we have been given for the
purposes of God in the lives we are living.
And
though the first two servants were successful in doubling their investment that
is not what they are praised for.
Likewise, though the third servant is condemned, it is not for losing
his money. The master does not say to
the first two servants, well done you have made me a great amount of
money. He says, ‘Well done, good and
trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in
charge of many things.” In a similar
way, the third slave still had the money he had been given, and yet he was
condemned. He was not condemned for
failure to make a fortune but for failure to even try. Success or failure was not about the return
on the investment. Success or failure
was about faithfulness to using what they had.
If
success were about the amount of money made, the master would not have said the
exact same thing to the second servant who also doubled his investment, but
still did not bring in as much money as the first servant had to begin
with. If it was about return on the
investment, the second servant would have been praised but also perhaps
encouraged to make a little more next time, to step up.
Likewise,
the third servant is judged and found lacking in that he did less than the
minimum. Not only did he not try to
invest what he was given, he did not even deposit what he was given. He did not even try. He simply buried his money and “played it
safe;” but in the process, he failed to be faithful. Being faithful is being successful.
Faithfulness Involves Risk
Which brings us to another
interesting aspect about this parable.
The Parable to the Talents was given to answer the question of when
Jesus would return and instead invites us to shift our attention to what we
should be doing while we wait. In the
process, the parable suggests that success is not about return on investment
but rather about faithfulness in using what we have for the kingdom. But along with success as faithfulness not
return on investment, we are invited to view faithfulness as involving risk and
the reward being more work.
In
the Parable of the Talents, it is significant to me that faithfulness involves
risk. The two slaves that were rewarded
were the ones who were good and trustworthy.
They took the money that they were given and they invested it and
doubled the money. But any time that we
invest, there is risk involved. There is
the potential that the stock value will decrease, that the business will fold,
that the market will go into recession.
Even
putting the money into the bank would not be without risk. Banks are robbed and they sometimes
fold. Interest rates vary. Even putting the money into the bank was too
risky for the third servant. Instead, he
played it as safe as he could. He buried
the money. He kept it in a place where
he would not lose it.
And
why did he bury the money? Why did he
play it safe? He tells us himself. He was fearful of the master. He was fearful of failure. He was so fearful of failure; of losing the
money that it paralyzed him and kept him from being faithful, to using what he
had been given. Faithfulness involves
risk. And risk can increase in us a sense of fear of failure.
As
William Barclay notes, the parable “tells us that the man who is punished is
the man who will not try. The man with
the one talent did not lose his talent; he simply did nothing with it. Even if he had adventured with it and lost
it, it would have been better than to do nothing at all.”[7] Yet we are called not to fear, but to
faithfulness. We are called to taking
the risk and using what we have been given.
The
good news of the gospel then is that we need not fear failure as we typically
define it. Rather than fear failure, we
are called to embrace faithfulness and in the process to take risks for the
kingdom. The success or failure of our
endeavors is God’s responsibility not ours.
We are called to faithfulness, to internationally using what God has
given us, and that involves a risk on our part.
As we conclude one budget and program year and prepare to move into
another one, we have a renewed opportunity to be faithful to using what God has
given us. God has richly blessed us and
in the midst of a sometimes uncertain future, we must not lose sight of
that. We may also consider in times such
as these that while things might not be quite the way we would like them that
the servants did not get to choose the talents that they were given. They were simply instructed to use the
talents that God had given them.
God
has given us talents. How is God calling
us to invest the talents that God has given us?
In what ways are we called to set aside fear of failure and to engage in
risk for the kingdom? How can we be
successful for God through being faithful?
Conclusion:
Fear of failure can paralyze us. Like the third servant, it can keep us from
living faithfully in using what God has given us. Yet in Jesus’ instructions for us to always
be ready, he invites us to faithfulness with what we have been given, to use
our talents for the kingdom. And he
invites us to taking risks on behalf of the kingdom, to entrusting the results
to God, not letting fear of failure paralyze us from faithful living.
Which leaves me wondering, what are the talents that you
and I have been given, that we as a congregation possess? What are the ways that God is calling us to
faithfully use those talents for the kingdom?
What are the risks that may be a part of faithful investment? Take a moment to consider this for yourself.
{Pause} {Pray inviting people to faithful and
risky investment of their talents}
Amen.
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