"A Great Investment Tip"

Pastor Laura Guy

June 25, 2006

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We heard the parable of the talents from Matt. 25:14-30. Although it's clear to us who are the good guys in the story (the industrious ones who doubled their money), it would not have been so clear to Jesus' original audience. They would have assumed that the only way the first two servants could have gained more money was to exploit poor people. To them, the third servant was the only honorable man in the story. What was Jesus trying to say here?
We learned that a talent, as it's used in the parable, is a huge amount of money - equal to 15 years wages. Since most people in Jesus' culture lived day to day, one talent was an enormous amount of money to them. When Jesus begins the story by saying that a master entrusted a servant with 5 talents (75 years worth of salary!), it was so unbelievable that Jesus was signaling us that this story is a fantasy, that the amount of money is a symbol of something else that's going on here.
We saw how the first two servants went out right away to work with what they had been given, and how excited they were (and the master was) with what they had accomplished. The third servant said he was fearful of his master, so he hid the money. He totally missed the point that the master had trusted him with one talent - a huge amount of money. The master trusted the servant, but the servant didn't trust the master; he didn't really know who the master was.
We realized that this story is not just a lesson about using what God has given us (although that is an important part of the story), it is about relationships. The master trusted all the servants and gave them all an extravagant gift. The end of the parable even implies that the master lets the first two servants keep all the original money plus what they have earned! The master is kind and exceedingly trusting. But the third servant doesn't know his master, doesn't appreciate the trust the master has placed in him. His punishment is separation from the master, a place of emptiness.
We acknowledged that God has given all of us talents and gifts, too. God has trusted us with using what we have to bring abundance, to create more good. Do we love God enough to use the gifts we have received? We asked for forgiveness and for help to see and use all the gifts God has given us.
We celebrated communion, the table of extravagance.
In Act(s) II, we spent more time looking at the parable and thinking about what Jesus was trying to teach us.