A Talent of Hope

Matthew 25:14-30, Romans 15:1-13

Several weeks ago you would have heard a sermon on the Parable of the Talents.  I don’t know how Timothy preached it over here, but in the past I would have launched out talking about Stewardship from the perspective of what we do with the Time, Talents, and Money that God has entrusted to us.  Do we invest them, put them to work for Christ Jesus and his kingdom work or do we simply in fear bury them in the ground.  This year, over on the other side, I took a different route saying that it is pointless to talk about stewardship of Time, Talent, and Money, without first talking about what we do with that one small talent of God’s own life, the Holy Spirit, that God has placed in us in Christ. 

The Holy Spirit is our personal bond to Jesus in whom we share in Jesus’ own relationship to God the Father and in turn know ourselves to be beloved children of God.  The Stewardship questions that surround this talent are “are we devoting ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and letting the Holy Spirit do his transforming work in us while we commit ourselves to being discipled and discipling others?”  It is in the context of a discipling relationship with others that our identity as beloved children of God begins to blossom and we are changed to be more Jesus-like and the abundance of life that God has to give overflows.

Well, that in a nutshell was the sermon series that I preached over on the other side of the Cooperative.  This morning I wish to come back to the text on the talents and address it not from the perspective of us as individuals but rather of us as a community of faith.  God gives his Spirit to us not simply to fill us individuals but also to fill us as congregations.  So, we must ask how are we, together, stewarding the gift of God’s self to this congregation, the Holy Spirit who shapes us to be a unique body of Christ geared for God’s work in this particularly community.  The Living God of hope has called us each to this particular congregation in order to send us together into this particular community to be his living witnesses.

In our reading from Romans Paul gives us a very general parameter for how the Holy Spirit is at work in us, a parameter that’s true for all churches.  Verses 5 and 6 read: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The Holy Spirit is with us to give this congregation endurance and encouragement to continue running in this difficult race of being the body of Christ in a culture that could either care less about Jesus or can be outright against us.  So, the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus, is with us.

So also, the Holy Spirit works in us to give us unity of attitude, the mindedness of Christ Jesus.  He gives us love for one another that is the same love that Jesus has for us.  This love, his love manifests among us when we bear with each other’s failings rather than judging and ostracising; when we seek the good of each other and our neighbours and to build one another up rather than just seeking to please ourselves.  In Jesus love we accept one another as Jesus has accepted us and we help one another become more like him.  This love, his love, is powerful and when we put it into action real hope begins to overflow from us.  Unity in the wonder-working, powerful love of Christ is the basic parameter of the Holy Spirit’s working in our midst.  It is the one small talent God entrusts to every congregation.

Building from there, in our Appreciative Inquiry work we identified more of our particular giftedness for ministry in Christ that the Holy Spirit has been working in us.  Do you remember our “Thrive Statements”?

St. Andrew’s Thrives when…we get involved in the Southampton community…we work in conjunction with other churches…we are being a vital, family-like Christian fellowship…we have quality worship services with inspiring music and message…we conduct special events that reach beyond ourselves…we show compassion…we are welcoming and show hospitality…we serve according to our giftedness…our leadership is strong…we are teaching and living unconditional acceptance…we are being an example in faith to young families…our men are involved.

In the past two years we have been acting accordingly to these “Thrive Statements” and indeed a spirit of thriving, a spirit of hope overflowing is arising here.  St. Andrew’s feels like a different place than it did three years ago.  We have a Men’s Group now and a Friday Café that reach people that otherwise won’t show up on Sunday morning but who greatly benefit from the friendships they have with us.  We’ve enjoyed mixing with our neighbours across the river of the Saugeen First Nation through our concerts and fundraisers with Wesley United.  We’ve a monthly games night.  We sponsored a community skate last January up at the Arena.  Our Lenten organ meditations and Luncheons are much enjoyed by many in the area who are contemplatively and musically inclined.  These are just drops added to our bucket of hope which is beginning to overflow again to the Southampton community as it has in years past.  And you know what?  We’re having fun!

These are difficult days to be the church in our culture, a culture that can now no longer be called Christian.  The Church is no longer the predominant undergirding social institution in our society.  This means that people aren’t just going to up and come to church anymore.  North America is now a mission field.  We the church must embrace this reality and go outside our walls into our community overflowing in the joy, peace, and hope that are ours in Christ.  We must wear the love of Christ like a church sign with neon letters.

We will have to make some real infrastructure-like changes. It may mean leaving behind buildings to meet in homes, coffee shops, bars or downtown storefronts.  It is likely to mean changing when we have worship services.  Sunday morning really is no longer a viable time option if we want young families.  How we worship is not likely to make much of a difference as long as we are sincere in our praise and authentic in our fellowship.

These days for generating ideas and experimenting with reaching out in creative ways but ways that are in accordance with who the Holy Spirit has shaped us to be.  There are no bad ideas, but we must be aware that if it is outside of the “comfort zone” we’ve identified in our “Thriving Statements” it may be a difficult row to hoe.  These are the days to start having fun again as church but realizing the fun in Christ isn’t just for us.  We’ve got to bring our neighbours along.  Amen.

One Small Talent

Matthew 25:14-30

It’s stewardship time of the year again.  It’s the time we talk about how we use those things that God has entrusted to us; our time, our talents, and…wait for it…our money.  The pulpiteers get up and remind us that everything we are and have comes from and belongs to God and so we can’t talk about how it’s our time, our talent, and…wait for it…our money.  It’s God’s time, God’s talent, and…wait for it…God’s money and therefore, we are only stewards of God’s resources.  Then, in the midst of that stewardship sermon the preacher usually asks the congregation how they are doing with giving to the church of that God entrusted time, talent, and…wait for it…money.  Then, it ends with a challenge to do better.

 Well, that’s not the stewardship sermon you’re going to get from me today.  I’m not going to prod us on how good of a steward we each have been of God’s time, God’s talent, and…wait for it…God’s money.  No, rather I am going to inquire into what we each have done with the new life God has given us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.  You see, before we can talk about what we do with the “stuff” God has entrusted to us, we must first reflect on what we do with the life of Jesus Christ that he has entrusted to us.

One of the most basic teachings of the New Testament on this subject has to do with Baptism: when we were baptised we actually participated in Jesus' death and resurrection.  This means that as followers of Jesus Christ we are DOA for any understanding at all that the life we live is in any kind of way life on “my terms”.  We have to throw Sinatra’s mantra of “I did it my way” into the grave where it belongs and live in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ filled with and led by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said as much when he said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  That means we must daily die to self to live in Christ.

Paul also wrote in his letter to the Galatian churches: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).  The lives we now live as Jesus’ disciples are not our own.  We belong to Jesus who faithfully loves us and out of that love gave his life for us that we may live a new life in him in which we are becoming ever freer from the oppressions of sin as we follow him living life on his terms.  It is a great comfort that God is for us and that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ and that God will work all things to the good for us who love him.  Jesus is our loving Saviour, but he is also our Lord and so we must ask ourselves “How am I doing with the Lordship of Jesus Christ over my life?”

God has given us each who live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ one small talent.  A talent was almost 59 kgs. or 130 lbs. of gold.  Metaphorically, this talent is the personal power of Jesus and his resurrection life.  It is his very self, the Holy Spirit.  And, in accordance with The Parable of the Talents, are we going to invest this talent of Jesus’ living in us and let it grow?  Are we going to abide in Jesus (live in him) and be fruitful (for he will transform us to be more and more as he is and use us to draw others to himself)?  Or, are we simply going to bury it in the ground where we just keep him as a matter of private religious belief as we continue to live our lives on our own terms.

This way of looking at stewardship in terms of what we do with Jesus’ life in us is to think of it in terms of discipleship.  A good way to start doing this is to look at what happened when he called his first disciples.  I like how he called Peter, James, and John to be his disciples in Luke’s Gospel. 

It was the morning of a new day.  They had been fishing all night and caught nothing.  They sat on the beach cleaning their nets.  Jesus comes up and a crowd gathers.  Jesus gets Peter to row him out a little from shore and he teaches for a while.  Then Jesus told Peter, James, and John to go fishing again, but this time fish the deep water. Peter agreed but only because it was Jesus asking.  Peter had had Jesus as a house guest a few nights prior.  Jesus healed his mother-in-law and many others as well as cast out demons from people who screamed out that Jesus was the Son of God as they left.

They go fishing and they have the greatest catch, the greatest business success they had ever had.  The nets were so full that they were near bursting. Peter fell at Jesus’ knees in worship and said “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”   Peter realized that Jesus was somehow God with them there in the boat.  He was amazed and afraid.  Jesus had done things for others.  Now he had done something for Peter that would forever change the circumstances of a poor fisherman.  Jesus looked at Peter, James, and John and said, “Do not be afraid.  From now on you will fish for people.”  When they got to shore they left behind the enormous wealth of their catch.  They left behind their boats and nets, the means of their livelihood.  They left everything and went and followed Jesus.

Reflecting on this experience, it was on the basis of their personal encounter of the living Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, that they left everything they had to rely on in this life to follow him.  The impact Jesus has is powerful.  Then, they spent the next three years wandering about with Jesus getting to know him and working out what it meant for him to be the Messiah and them to be his disciples.  They experienced his arrest, death by crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.  Then, they spent the rest of their lives proclaiming Jesus and his Kingdom and discipling others while awaiting his return.

The personal encounter with the living Lord Jesus Christ leads to the devotion of one’s life to proclaiming Jesus and his Kingdom and discipling others.  To speak of stewardship in terms of Jesus Lordship and discipleship then is to talk about how we each have been brought under Jesus Lordship by personal encounter with him and how our lives are being totally changed and redirected by him in the power of the Holy Spirit with the result that we are reaching out and discipling others. 

So, how are we doing in terms of proclaiming Christ and discipling others?  There have been quite a few studies done in the last twenty years on the giving patterns of church members.  One of the things these studies brought to light is that most Christians do give to the church.  In North America, though the percentage has dropped dramatically, the church is still the biggest receiver of charitable donations.  But, they also found that most Christians don’t give to the church as much as they do to things like universities, disaster relief, disease research, and hospitals because they see these causes as being able to make a bigger difference in the lives of people than the church.  They give to the church because they see it as a requirement of faith rather than as the primary means of bringing about real change and the healing of people in our society.  The end result is that churches struggle financially, have difficulty finding help, and dwindle off in membership. This pattern of giving is evidence that we have buried the one small talent of personal encounter with Jesus Christ our living Lord into the tomb of “my private faith” and me living “my life on my own terms”.

So, how are we each doing with the one small talent of Jesus' life that he has entrusted to us.  Are we living it under his Lordship?  Are we devoting ourselves to letting him change us?  How are we doing with his charge to us to devote ourselves to discipling others?  Pray on these things?  Amen.