Pastor's Message

Then the one who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that 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.’ Matthew 25:24-25

I have a difficult time with the parable of the talents (you can read it in Matthew 25:14-30), because through it Jesus is reminding me of something I don’t like about this world: the rich get richer. To make matters worse, the parable leaves me with the impression that this is the way God wants the world to work. The rich get richer. What manner of god is this at work in the parable?

The rich get richer. That’s the ugly truth under the current economic crisis. If you have ten talents or five talents to start with, then you probably still have enough left to clean up after the panic. You can afford to be “greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.” Meanwhile, those with a mere one-talent nest egg, knew they just couldn’t risk it. It’s their hope. Their future. They know how unforgiving the whole thing can be. They fled the market in fear and went and buried the treasure in the ground, happy to escape with something and content to defend the little they have from loss. Then comes the reckoning. The richer get their richest reward. The others lose everything, even the little they had. Then, these others are confined to a future of darkness, weeping and regret. A pensioner’s retirement? An unemployment line? A short sale on my house and then back to live with Mom and Dad? The selling of the house and moving in with adult children? The final kick in the pants is that it’s the parable’s god-figure kicking the timid investor to the curb.

“Now, come on,” you may be saying. “That’s not what the parable is about. It’s not about money and investing, really. That’s just figurative language. It’s really about the church’s mission.” Yes. But isn’t it more about money and investing and your part, our part as church in the mission of God in the world. The brilliance of Jesus’ parable is that it works on us both ways.

First, it exposes the utter cruelty and brokenness of a system with money and markets as the god at the center, a system that rewards the rich and punishes all others, a system, which even today, so many of us are devoted to in fear, love and trust. We comfort ourselves and each other with these words: “Don’t be afraid. The market will come back. The money will return. We will be saved.” If that is where we have placed our hope, the parable coldly tells the story of what we can expect from that god who expects us to get out each morning and go about our mission in life: making money, collecting things.

At the same time, Jesus invites us into a life where who we are, what we have, what we do – gifts of God all – are leveraged in the kingdom of God. We exist by God’s grace as God’s people sent into the world. Our life, as community, is in God’s mission. God expects a return as we invest all the gifts that God has given us in God’s mission to love, save and bless the world in Jesus Christ. God expects us to grow the number of people in the world who are glorifying and thanking the God who raised Jesus from the dead.

This means taking risks with our time, with our talent and with our money in order to engage the world and the people around us in a creative conversation about how we can bring hope and life to all God’s creation. This means taking risks with our talent, our money and our time to engage people with a variety of invitations to come and worship the God who gives real hope in times of crisis, true light in the darkness of the world, and eternal life from out of death. This means taking risks with our money, our time and our talent to liberate people from fear with encouragement and examples of how to act and live generously, trusting in God – not money or market -- for our salvation. This means being 100 percent BOLD in Jesus name, as Jesus’ body, given for the sake of the world God loves so much.

We can do this, even in a recession. Or we can take the small number of gifts we have – the diminished store of money, the shrinking slice of time, the hidden bit of our talent – and bury them until Jesus comes again. It’s an option. But to make that choice will cost us everything, our money, our time, our talent. And, the grace of God – the privilege to be God’s people sent into this community to proclaim and enact God’s justice, love and mercy in the name of Jesus – that mission will pass to another. God’s kingdom comes with or without us. We pray that it may come among us in Nutley as well.

Now what? I think I will pray to God for courage, then head to that place where I bury my talent, dig it up, and then, with trembling hands take a risk by making an investment in God’s kingdom. (There are a lot of investment ideas in this newsletter alone.) And pray for 100 percent return. After all, when everyone is fearful, that’s the time to get greedy … for the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What are you going to do?

May God watch over you and give you courage and faith that lasts, so that you will be happy when Jesus returns (Matt. 25:21, 23). Amen