11/16/08                                                                         MATTHEW 25:14-30

"BLESSED ARE THE RISK TAKERS"

Rev. James Singleton

Today Jesus tells us a story. For many of us it is a very familiar story and one that we automatically assume we know what it means. The premise of the story is that a wealthy landowner is going on a trip and so he calls his three servants and divides his wealth, called talents, among them. To one he gives five talents, to another he gives two and to another he gives one talent. He goes away and the three servants begin to go to work, or at least two of them do.

On the Master's return, he discovers that the first two have doubled their talents and he rewards them; but the third he discovers hid his talent in a hole and returns it without adding to it. This servant is punished.

The moral of the story as it is usually preached is that God has given us special gifts or talents, some more than others, and we are to use them to our best abilities and not hide them. If we can sing, we should sing; if we can write, we should write; if we can whatever we should whatever. It all sounds very Ben Franklin. It's good advice. Mildly challenging perhaps, but hardly something that would have gotten Jesus killed. 

But let's update this story a bit and see if it doesn't change how we hear it and the challenge it presents to us.

First let's define what a talent was. A talent in this story has nothing to do with a gift or ability or skill. It has to do with a very large measure of money. It was a seventy five pound bucket of gold. It was the Ohio mega lottery. It represented more money than all of us will make in a lifetime combined. To even be given one talent was no meager gift.  

Secondly, let's understand that the two "good guys" took their unbelievable amount of money and invested it so that it doubled in value in a short period of time. Now, think about that. How do you double your money in a short period of time? Can you double it by putting it in the bank? No.

In order to double your money in a short period of time, you would have to do what with it-either gamble with it and get lucky or invest it in some high risk venture capital. In the world of gambling, most of the time the casino wins and in the world of high risk investments, only about one in five investments make it.

Now, let's think about today's market and update this story. The so called "good guys" took their Master's huge sums of money and let's say they invested it all into the stock market. And then came the crash! They lost billions, if not trillions, of their Master's money. But the so called "bad guy" had taken his money and let's say he hid it under his bed, and as a result he has every cent the Master gave him left. He didn't lose a dime!

When the Master returns and they stand before him to render account of what they did, now who is the good guy and who are the bad guys?

Believe it or not, the point of this story is that the two who lost it all in risky investments would still be considered the good guys and would still be rewarded and the one who played it safe and secure would still be considered the bad guy and punished! Why?

Let's look at motives. Why did the one talent man hide his master's money in a hole? He did it, he says, because "I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground." He hid it because he didn't trust his Master and he was afraid to take a risk. He believed that failure was not an option with this Master and he wasn't about to risk failure, so he did the sure thing. He played it safe.

But the other two servants had a totally opposite motivation. They trusted their Master. They were not afraid of failure, because they knew that their Master would stand by them even in failure. What the Master wanted from them, they believed, was not the safe and secure way, but for them to take what was given to them and risk using it to the fullest-even if that meant losing it.  

To their way of thinking, the Master didn't give the talents to them to simply hold them and give them back. If he wanted his talents stuck in a hole in the ground, or hidden or hoarded so they would be safe, he could have done that himself! He wasn't so much concerned with losing his money as he was with them wasting it by doing nothing with it.

The third servant was motivated by fear. The other two were motivated by courage and faith. They wanted to spread the kingdom of their master and were willing to take risks to do it.

This parable is about our approach to life. Playing life safe is a natural tendency, especially these days. These are the days when everyone is pulling in the reigns because of the economic times. Risk taking is seen as foolish. If only we had dug a hole and buried our money two years ago, we would have so much more money today than we do because we left it in the market!

In his religious column, Terry Pluto recently quoted a minister as saying that now is not the time for churches to be undertaking building projects, but now is the time to be prudent and wise. That's good advice. That's sound economic advice. The only problem is it may not be the advice that Jesus gives.

Think of the time frame in which Jesus told this story. He was just days out from Jerusalem where he knew what awaited him-a cross. The prudent and wise thing to have done would have been to recognize the danger, lay low until the heat blew over, and head in a different direction. The sensible thing for him to do would have been to dig a hole and crawl into it. But instead, he decided to invest himself in high risk stakes because he knew that was where the Master wanted him to be and that was where the great payoff waited.

We undertook our renovation campaign during these risky times not because we were foolish but because we felt called by God to do so. And who would have believed that in the midst of an economic crisis, our church would receive pledges over $533,000 for the future of this church and of God's Kingdom? It was a high risk adventure that was worth taking even if it failed. For if the church does nothing but play it safe, and there's always a reason to play life safe, what will God think of our faith and what does that say about our faith in God?  Following Jesus is a high risk adventure.

Make this personal to you. Where in your life are you feeling called to take a risk, but you are tempted to be content with playing it safe?

• Are you feeling called by God to make a career move because where you are is stifling you and you have more to offer, but it's just so much easier and safer to remain where you are snug in your little cubby hole of an office even though the risk might bring about the change you need and God wants?

• Are you in a relationship that is not what it should be, not what God wants it to be, but you are too frightened to confront your spouse or child or parent or friend because you don't want to upset him or her so you stay in your "grin and bare it" hole even though the risk might enhance the relationship and heal what is strained?

• You know of someone who is unhappy, depressed, struggling spiritually. You want to tell him/her about your faith, about the hope and strength you receive from Christ, but you're afraid you might embarrass yourself or put that person off. So you stay in your quiet hole, sympathize, and watch the suffering in silence even though the risk might result in turning that person's life around.

• You are content with being a visitor to the church. You would like to join, but the risk of both coming forward to make a confession of faith and the unknown of what that commitment might lead to frightens you. So you play it safe and sit in the hole you have dug in the pew and hide there even though the risk of making that commitment would result in the deepening of your relationship with God and the investment of your God given gifts.

We have been given unbelievable talents that are priceless-life, faith, love. But God did not give us these gifts to simply hide, but to share. And we can't share them without taking risks. And we can't risk unless we trust the Master who gave us these gifts to support us in our risk taking, whether we succeed or fail.

            C.S. Lewis wrote in his book The Four Loves, "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

"But in that casket safe, dark, motionless, airless it will change. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell."

Remember what Jesus said to the man who hid his talent in the hole out of fear: "As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Perhaps the weeping and gnashing of teeth are over all of the "what might have beens" that torment those who were too afraid to risk themselves for the sake of doing what God wanted them to do.

The Christian life is not about playing it safe because we are afraid; Christian life is about being entrusted with God's precious gifts of life, faith, and love that God calls upon us to expend at great risk.

We do that not so much by believing in ideas about Jesus as in following him on his risk taking adventure through the world. For Jesus the only failure is the failure to risk new life, new love, and new possibilities.

When we all stand before the final judgment and the Master has us make a reckoning of what we did with what we were given, which kind of servant will we be?

Will we be the kind who says, "I was afraid and so I hid your talents in the ground and did nothing with them. Here, I give them back to you just as you gave them to me"?

Or will we be the servant who says, "I made the most of what you gave me. I took risks in difficult times and situations, I failed some, but I also expanded your kingdom, your love, and your faith among those around me."

Which one do you think will receive that final blessing:

"Well done, good and trustworthy servant"?

AMEN.