Entrusted With Treasure

PROPERS:          PROPER 28, YEAR A  

TEXT:                MATTHEW 25:14-30                

PREACHED AT ST. AUGUSTINE’S, NAVARRE BEACH, ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        We are entrusted with much; we are called to increase that which we are given.

 

            On Thursday evening, December 3, 1987, I stood before the Bishop of Mississippi at Trinity Church, Pass Christian, Mississippi.  I was taking my vows to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church.

 

            Bishop Duncan Gray, Jr., was an imposing figure to me.  Even though he was not a big man, he was larger than life to me.  His courage over the years had made him iconic to many Mississippians. He was deadly serious as he ordained me.

 

            Midway through the liturgy, after I had taken my vows and he had laid hands on me, he gave me a Bible and said these words:

 

Receive this Bible as a sign of the authority given you to preach the Word of God and to administer his holy Sacraments. Do not forget the trust committed to you as a priest of the Church of God.

 

         For the past 36 years, I have been mindful of those words – especially the trust I had been given. Through my years as curate, as vicar, as rector, and finally, as Canon to the Ordinary, I was mindful of that trust.

 

            How that looks in the rearview mirror of eternity, I do not know.

 

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            In the gospel lesson today, Jesus tells us of a man going on a journey. The man is wealthy, and he decides to entrust his riches to three of his slaves. One gets five talents. One gets two talents. And one gets one talent.

 

            There is some disagreement today about the value of a talent – a measure of wealth in biblical times. Some experts say a talent was equivalent 20 years’ wages.  Others place the value of a single talent between $1,000 and $30,000.  Whatever – those talents were worth a lot.

 

            The three men, entrusted with the man’s riches, did different things.  The first, given five talents, wisely invested them.  The second did likewise.  The third man buried the talent in the ground for safekeeping. 

 

            This parable is not about investment strategy, it is about trust… and what we do with that entrusted to us.

 

            The man in the parable returned home… and asked for those riches he had given to each of the slaves.  The one given five returned 10, and he was rewarded.  The one given two returned four, and he was rewarded.  However, the one entrusted with one talent had literally hidden his under a rock and returned only that single talent. He was castigated and cast out of the household.

 

            Jesus adds a curious teaching: “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” 

            What does this mean?

 

            Personally, I think it has to do with what I call spiritual compound interest.  Each of us has been entrusted with much.  I do not need to detail all those blessings here.  If you cannot discern those blessings, this sermon will not help.

 

            But if you see those blessings, know those blessings, embrace those blessings. And nurture those blessings, you will be like the very wise servants and will know more of the divine trust.

 

            But the message on the other hand, is that if you deny those blessings, ignore those blessings, and hide those blessings, they seem to disappear, as if they are not there at all.  They do not grow and multiply. They seem lost to us.

 

            It is like the issue to trust, the more we nurture and care for it, the more it grows and yields fruit.  The more we deny it, it atrophies and dissipates.