Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Twenty-third Sunday
after Pentecost (A—Proper 28)
November 16, 2014
Text: Matt. 25:14-30
Stewardship
is not about money. God doesn’t want
your money. He wants all of you. He wants you whole. He wants you entirely and completely as His
own, all that you are and all that you have.
To be sure, you already belong to Him.
After all, He created you, knit you together in your mother’s womb
(Psalm 139:13). Before He formed you, He
knew you (Jer. 1:5). He redeemed you,
body and soul, by the blood of His own dear Son, Jesus Christ. He has written His Name on you in Holy
Baptism, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
He sanctifies you and keeps you in the one true faith so that you may be
His own, as He says to you, “Behold, I
have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Is. 49:16; ESV). “Fear
not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Is.
43:1). You belong to God already. But He wants you to realize this, that all
that you are and all that you have are gifts from His infinite goodness. And He wants you to trust that He is an
unfailing fountain of good for you, that you can use what He gives you
faithfully, give it away generously to your neighbor and for the work of the
Kingdom of God, and you won’t run out, because He will give you even more. In fact, you can give yourself, as Christ gave Himself into death for you, because Christ
Jesus is risen from the dead, and He will raise you, too.
Stewardship
is actually about faith. In our Lord’s
parable this morning, the Master is God and the servants to whom the Master
entrusts his talents are God’s people.
What the servants do with the talents is a direct reflection of what
they believe about the Master. The
servants who put their talents to work believe in the goodness of their Master. They believe He is gracious. They know that He wants them to be faithful
with His talents. They understand that
He has bestowed His gifts upon them as a trust.
So they put the talents to work.
The servants are not called to be successful. They are simply called to be faithful. If the work fails, if their investments lose,
they know that Master will provide for them anyway. After all, the talents themselves are
evidence of His generosity. A talent is
roughly worth 20 years of labor. 5
talents, 100 years of labor. 2 talents, 50
years of labor. Amazing amounts of
money. And even the servant who only
received one talent, well, that’s still 20 years of labor. And they are given freedom to manage the
talents as they see fit, as if the talents are their own. But they are
to be faithful with them. For the Master
will return, and then they will be called upon to give an account.
But
the servant who received only one talent believes the Master is hard, reaping
where He does not sow and gathering where He has scattered no seed. He believes the Master to be a cold,
loveless, unmerciful, and demanding slave-driver. So this servant despises the gift. He doesn’t want it. He certainly doesn’t want to be accountable
for it. So he buries it, like something
rotten, something dead. He buries it
where it will do no work for the Master.
He buries it so he can return it to the Master, just as it was given. But the Master doesn’t give His gifts to be
buried. He gives them to be used. He gives them for you to demonstrate your
trust in Him.
What
do you believe about God? Stewardship is
a fruit of faith. It is a result of what
you believe about your Master. Do you
believe He is a gracious God who will provide for your every need, who has
graciously poured out His gifts upon you to
be used for His glory and in service and love toward your neighbor, who
will rescue you in time of need, who will reward you in the end for faithful
use of the gifts He gave you in the
first place and bestow upon you even more gifts? Or do you believe He is a hard God, a
loveless, cold, unmerciful, demanding slave-driver? It’s a struggle, isn’t it? “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief” (Cf. Mark 9:24). All-too-often you do think you need to bury
the Lord’s gifts, your time, your abilities, your money, your stuff. You keep it for yourself. You are afraid there won’t be enough. You are afraid the Lord will demand it from
you when you don’t have it to give.
Sure, you believe God is gracious, theoretically, but for all practical
purposes you’re not so sure. And you’re
reluctant, therefore, to put your money, your possessions, your life, where
your mouth is. Repent.
Do
you think your heavenly Father is unaware of your needs? Do you think He carelessly and capriciously leaves
you in the lurch when you’ve trusted Him too much? Do you not remember Jesus’ words: “do not be anxious about your life, what you
will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on… For
the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that
you need them all. But seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”
(Matt. 6:25, 32-33)? Has God not been
faithful to you in the past? Are you not
alive this very moment because He has fed and nourished you, housed and clothed
you, protected you from all harm and danger, surrounded you with people who
care for you, kept your heart beating and your lungs breathing, and added to
you manifold other gifts besides? Do you
think He will suddenly stop doing these things for you?
Or
don’t you know how precious you are to Him, that He would give His Son into
death to purchase you to be His own? Talk
about faithful stewardship. Our Lord
Jesus received the stewardship of the Church from His Father. He is our Steward. And of those whom the Father gave Him He lost
not one (John 18:9). For when a sheep
strays, He goes after it. When a coin is
lost, He scours the house until He finds it.
When a prodigal son wastes the inheritance, the Lord Jesus anxiously awaits
his return, and when the prodigal repents, the Lord runs out to him to embrace
him and welcome him home. He throws a
party, a feast, with great rejoicing, for this sinner was dead, and is alive
again, was lost, and is found. So
precious is the Church, so precious are you to Jesus, that He gave His life on
the cross as the ultimate act of stewardship, that you might not perish eternally
where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, but that you live with Him in His
Kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and
blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns to all
eternity. That is why you belong to Him:
His blood and death. “You are not your own, for you were bought
with a price. So glorify God in your
body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Put your
talents to work. Give yourself for your
neighbor. Work faithfully in your
vocation. Feed the hungry, clothe the
naked, visit the sick. Come to
Church. Serve in Church. Yes, give money to the Church. Fight, work, and pray for the Church, for
your family, for your community. Die for
them. You can. In Christ, you are free to do this very
thing. For Christ is risen, and He will
raise you, too. He will not forsake
you. He will not leave you
destitute. Don’t bury your talent. Trust your Lord who died for you.
He
bestows His gifts, and to each He gives the right amount. To one he gives 5 talents, to another 2, and
to still another, 1. He gives different
gifts, in different quantities, but the gift is always generous, it is always
undeserved, given by grace, given because of Christ, and He always gives it in
wisdom and for the good of those who are His.
He gives you what He wants you to have, what He knows you need, no more,
and no less. Sometimes He bestows a
cross with His gifts, and this also is a gift of His grace, for your good. He gives you what is advantageous to your
salvation. He gives you gifts, and He
desires you to use them. He gives you
what you can use faithfully. And then He
rewards you with even more gifts. He
says to you, “Well done, good and
faithful servant. You have been faithful
over a little; I will set you over much.
Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:23). He invites you into the joy of His Kingdom. He brings you to heaven. He raises you from the grave.
Stewardship
is watchfulness for the Kingdom, watching and waiting for the Master’s return, putting
His gifts to work before He does. Jesus
is coming back. The end is near. Judgment Day is when all are called to
account. Those who believed the goodness
of the Master, who trusted in Christ and therefore put their talents to work,
they will be eternally rewarded. Those
who believed the Master to be hard, unloving and unmerciful, and therefore
buried their talents, will be cast into the outer darkness. Notice that the difference is not work, but
faith in Christ, which produces the works.
On that Day, what you did with God’s gifts will only be evidence of
faith. Faith is your righteousness
before God. Christ is your righteousness
before God. In Christ, you have eternal
salvation and the favor of the Master.
And knowing that, you are not afraid to be a faithful steward over His
gifts. In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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