HOMILY, ST. PAUL’S, FOLEY – PROPER 28, YEAR A
NOVEMBER 15, 2020
TEXT: Matthew 25:14-30
Jesus is in the last week of his earthly life in the Gospel lesson today. He is in Jerusalem and has taught in the Temple. He is beyond Palm Sunday. He sees the storm clouds on the horizon. He knows what is in store for him. There is special urgency in his teachings.
That is precisely why we take the Gospel lessons last week, this week, and next week from the 25th Chapter of Matthew. It will be, for us, the end of Year A in the lectionary, but it represents so much more for Jesus. He is imparting what he can in his final days.
Today is the Parable of the Talents. It is a remarkably rich lesson – one that has been interpreted to a fare-thee-well over years. In reviewing how various preachers have dealt with it over the years, I am struck by the diversity of meanings that preachers have found.
The essence of the lesson is this. A landowner is leaving his country, and he places his slaves in charge of his riches. One slave is entrusted with five talents. Another is entrusted with two. A third is given one. These were monetary amounts – not personal attributes, such as we describe talents today. There is a wide variety of how talents were measured in ancient days, but a Hebrew talent translated into about 67 pounds of some valuable metal. If the talents were made of gold – the more entrusted slave was left with more than $10 million in today’s value. The second slave was left with $4 million. The third slave was entrusted with $2 million.
You know the rest. After a period of time, the landowner returns and wants to settle accounts. The slave entrusted with five talents makes five talents more. The one who was given two talents makes two talents more. But the one who was given one talent earned nothing – returning only what he had been given.
As you know, the landowner is pleased with the first two, but takes the sole talent away from the third slave and casts him into the outer darkness. The two enterprising slaves are rewarded.
Is this a lesson about entrepreneurship? About assuming risk? About grabbing all you can?
No, I don’t think it is. I think it is a message that we hear again and again from Jesus. It has to do with stewardship – not of money or belongings – but of the Kingdom of God. As Jesus tells his detractors in the 21st Chapter of Matthew, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
Jesus knows that the patriarchs, Moses, the prophets had all sought to teach the way of justice, peace, and righteousness down through the millennia. And his point was repeatedly, that the message had not gotten through. And the Kingdom of God would be given to those that produce the fruits of the Kingdom.
We need to be aware of the same warning. Are we producing the fruits of the Kingdom? Are we multiplying the talents – the spiritual treasures – with which we have been entrusted?
Or, out of fear or avoidance, are we hiding our treasure, planning to return only what we have been given?
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