Westwood Presbyterian Church

October 14th, 2007

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

Stewardship and the Parable of the Talents

When we hear a sermon begin with the words - "Today we are going to talk about stewardship" - we clutch our purses a little tighter or make sure that we still have our wallet. That is because we have connected stewardship with money. Now the truth of the matter is that stewardship is about money - but it is not only about money. Stewardship is about the three "t"s: time, talent, and treasure. Stewardship is about how we use what we have been given by God for God's glory. Stewardship is about how we respond to God's call to live as faithful followers of His with an that we have and are.

This sermon has two parts that I hope fit together - although they may feel disconnected for awhile.

We begin with the Ephesians passage. Christ through the Holy Spirit has given Apostles, and Prophets, and Evangelists, and Pastors, and Teachers to do ministry in the world. Wait!! That is how we hear the text - that is how we think the text is written - but if we look carefully at the text that is not what it says. The next says that the pastors and teachers and evangelists have been appointed "to equip the saints for the work of ministry. "

That demands two questions. The first being - who are the saints? The saints are all of us who have been baptized - who say that we are followers of Jesus Christ - who are committed to living up to his call to follow Him. We are the saints.

So that leads to the second question - Does Jesus really expect all of us to be involved . in the work of ministry? And the answer to that is a resounding "Yes". Each of us has been gifted by God - each of us' who have attended worship - who have heard the word of God preached - who have attended study groups - we have been equipped and called ­we have been empowered to do works of ministry. All of us.

We would all agree that church's purpose and function is to serve in the name of Jesus Christ. That is what the church is to be doing in the world.

We think of the church incorrectly if we think of the church as a pyramid whose point is aimed at doing the ministry. We are incorrect when we think of the point of the pyramid with the pastors and teachers being the edge where the ministry happens and the base of the pyramid being in the supportive role of the top of the pyramid.

First, that way of doing ministry is highly inefficient. The world is in desperate need of hearing the transforming news of Jesus Christ - and if we leave it to the pastors and teachers and even the evangelists to be the ones who bring that good news to bear in people's lives, the job will go very slowly.

Second, leaders in the church are called to be servants - at the bottom of the pyramid ­not the top.

So in fact the pyramid of the church is supposed to be upside down - with the point down - the pastors and teachers on the bottom. Ministry is still the highest goal of the church ­that is still the most important thing that church can do. But the people who do the ministry are the wide end - the top of the flipped pyramid. Notice how much more efficient that is - the chance to touch people with the good news of Jesus Christ is dramatically increased - far more people are reached - far more people have a chance to experience the good news of God in their lives.

On this model of the church we all face out towards the ministry we are being called as the church. Now there is an unexpected side benefit that comes from this way of being the church. When the church starts looking out - when we all take up our calling to do the work of ministry - when we take our eyes off of ourselves and our concerns ­suddenly we find that we and the church are being changed. There is a new unity - a new sense of community built around the sense of purpose of doing ministry. The best way to deal with the things that concern us is to serve somebody else. The best way to feel that our lives have purpose and meaning is to step into the work of ministry. The best way for a church that is dealing with internal struggles to deal with them - is to start looking out at a world desperate to be touched by the ministry and love of Jesus Christ.

We all need to hear the real words of Ephesians 4 - the purpose of pastors and teachers is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We have been given the opportunity to listen to God's word, to experience the blessing of worship, to grow in our faith, to know the love of God in our lives - for one purpose - that we - all of us would engage in the work of ministry.

Now I can hear the objections. Some of them may go like this - "That is fine for you to say, you have been given gifts to preach and teach - you have gifts that show you exactly what you are to do in this work of ministry - but I don't have those gifts - I could never do what you do - in fact I don't think I have any gifts that God would be interested in using."

And that brings us to the parable that Jesus told. The king was going away for a time and he called in his servants and put them in charge of various parts of the kingdom. To one servant he gave 5 talents - to another servant 2 talents - and to a third servant 1 talent. (An aside - due to a wonderful reality of language - a talent in the world of Jesus was a unit of money - and in our world a talent is an ability - and so in this text we can hear Jesus talking about talents in both meanings of that word - Money and Ability. We need to make sure that we hear both meanings as we go through this story.)

The first servant went off and made 5 more talents - the second servant went off and made 2 more talents - they used their talents to expand the king's kingdom. We will get to the third servant shortly. But I want to stay with the first two for awhile longer. The king returns and says exactly the same words to each of the first two servants - "Well done, you good and faithful servant, enter into joy of your master." The same words both times - he did not say to the one who had 5 and made 5 more - "You are so good at what you do - you are my first star - I think that you are the best." The one with 2 that became 4 got exactly the same commendation as the one who had 5 that became 1 O.

God does not evaluate what we do in our ministry by what other people have been given. He does not evaluate my preaching by how well Billy Graham preaches. He looks at my preaching on the basis of the talents God has given to me - not on the basis of the talents he has given to someone else. He does not look at your ability to show love and care to someone in need on the basis of how someone who has extraordinary abilities in that area does it - what God invites you to do is to use what He has given you and use that to the best of your ability.

This is extraordinarily good news - because it means that I don't have to be as good as someone else who has more or different gifts than I have - all I have to do is use the gifts I have been given for God's glory and honour -- to do the work of ministry.

And so that brings us to the third servant - the one who got 1 talent (again notice that he too could have gone out and used that talent - and if it had become 2 - he would have heard exactly what the first two servants heard). But he chose instead to bury the talent. To not risk losing it.

And here the parable gets tough. We need to go on an aside for a moment or two. The third servant accuses the master of harvesting where he did not sow - that looks like theft. But if the master is Jesus - who went away and has been away for a long time, but is coming back some day - then this sowing and reaping takes on a different dimension. Jesus would sow good seed which would produce a good harvest - right? So who else would sow seed - well the forces of evil - Satan - and Satan would hope for a bad crop ­a harvest of destruction. So if the master - Jesus - is harvesting where he did not sow he is turning the places where seeds of destruction were sown into places where a good harvest could be reaped. Yes, Jesus harvests where he has not sown - he harvests hope where despair reigned - he harvests joy where sorrow was sown - he harvests transformed lives where destruction seemed inevitable.

So the third servant was afraid of a master who could bring about such amazing action - transforming harvests of destruction into harvests for the kingdom of God - it was too much for him. And so he hid the talent.

And the master is uncompromising - the servant could have at least invested it in a GIC - he didn't need to bury it. And so the servant loses even the one talent that he had.

The same with our talents - it is a case of use it or lose it. Like our muscles - use them or lose them. Like a second language - use it or lose it. Like being able to understand your kid's math homework - if you haven't done math in a while it is hard to figure out. God gives us talents - abilities and invites us to use them for his kingdom - to do the work of ministry.

When God comes calling -- we need to be very careful to not say - "1 can't do this."

For God will not invite us to a ministry that he has not given us the ability to do.

My grandmother on my father's side was a high school science teacher. When Dad was in his early twenties she asked him to teach her to drive - it was not a fun time. At the end of the process she said to Dad - "Don't ever become a teacher." When my father was 25 he became a Christian - making a decision to follow Jesus Christ. About a year later he was invited to lead a Bible study group - to teach. He was terrified - but he did it. He discovered that God had given him a gift to teach. A gift that my father has used as a lay person to do ministry.

When God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - invites us to a ministry- we can be assured that God will give us the gifts to do that ministry.

What talents have we each been given - that God is inviting us to use in the work of ministry - this is a call to be stewards of what God has given to us.

As we have seen it does not matter how many talents we have been given - we are still called to use them for the work of ministry - be that 1 or 2 or 5 talents - all are called to use their talents for the advancing of God's kingdom.

I am going to invite you right now to take the card that is in your bulletin and taking a pen or pencil to write down the talents that God has given you to use in the work of ministry.

(PAUSE)

Prayer