Return on Investment
First United
Presbyterian Church
“Return on
Investment”
Rev. Amy Morgan
November 19, 2017
Psalm 90:1-12
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were
brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting
to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn us back to dust, and
say, "Turn back, you mortals."
4 For a thousand years in your
sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away; they are
like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning;
6 in the morning it flourishes
and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are consumed by your
anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
8 You have set our iniquities
before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9 For all our days pass away
under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh.
10 The days of our life are
seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is
only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of
your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
12 So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.
Matthew 25:14-30
"For it is
as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property
to them;
15 to one he gave five talents, to
another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went
away.
16 The one who had received the
five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents.
17 In the same way, the one who had
the two talents made two more talents.
18 But the one who had received the
one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
19 After a long time the master of
those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
20 Then the one who had received
the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you
handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.'
21 His master said to him, 'Well
done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I
will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'
22 And the one with the two talents
also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I
have made two more talents.'
23 His master said to him, 'Well
done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I
will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'
24 Then the one who had received
the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh
man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter
seed;
25 so I was afraid, and I went and
hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'
26 But his master replied, 'You
wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and
gather where I did not scatter?
27 Then you ought to have invested
my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my
own with interest.
28 So take the talent from him, and
give it to the one with the ten talents.
29 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.
30 As for this worthless slave,
throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.'
He was given much. A good education. A lovely wife. Three
children. But when William H. McCreery was ordained to the ministry of Word and
Sacrament in the United Presbyterian Church, he did not bury his talents in the
ground. Rather than settle into a comfortable parish near his family in
Pennsylvania, McCreery headed west, to the frontier land of Colorado. He risked
it all to found a new Presbyterian congregation along the Front Range.
His congregation, this one, began with just 15 members, meeting in
local schoolhouses. By the early 1900’s, this beautiful building was
constructed, and membership swelled to over 400. Pretty good return on
investment.
But that is not to say McCreery’s risk was without cost. His wife,
Martha, left him to return to Pennsylvania, and as a result, McCreery retired
from his duties as pastor after just 4 years in the pulpit.
McCreery went on to become the superintendent of the Larimer
County Schools, and under his 5-year tenure, the district increased more than
100 percent. Again, pretty good return on investment.
But McCreery also risked starting up his own private school, which
quickly failed.
Finally, McCreery turned to literal investing, becoming one of the
early businessmen of the Loveland area. He sold real estate and insurance, invested
in mining and loans.
William McCreery dared greatly, and failed occasionally. But it
could not be said of him that he buried his talents in the ground.
In the first century, a “talent” was a measure of silver or gold equaling,
by some estimates, 15 years’ worth of wages for a day laborer. This was a
rhetorical number, basically meaning millions, billions of dollars, more than
one could ever hope to earn. Five talents equaled something like 75 years of
work, an unrealistic possibility in a time when most people died before their
50th birthday.
The first part of this parable, then, is meant to point out the
extravagant grace of the land owner, who, of course, we are meant to equate
with Jesus, the one going away for a long time, but with every intention of
returning. The talents, whatever their number – 5 or 2 or 1 – express the vast
riches we are given to steward. God has entrusted us with the gift of life.
Perhaps we have additionally been entrusted with loving families, material
wealth, being born into the right place at the right time. We have been
entrusted with the riches of this planet – water, air, minerals, and every form
of life. And we’ve been entrusted with everything that co-inhabits this planet
with us, including and especially other human beings.
But if we let the parable open our imaginative minds a little
further, we see other riches entrusted to us. The wisdom of the scriptures, the
story of God’s love for all creation. The good news of Jesus Christ, who has
shown us the love of God and, in his death and resurrection, destroyed the
power of sin and death. The hope of reconciliation with God and one another
promised in Jesus Christ. The gift of the Holy Spirit, inspiring and guiding us
to welcome the reign of God.
These are things of great value, far exceeding any amount we could
hope to earn by the work of our hands or minds. Their worth is truly
incalculable. And it is so easy to mismanage these assets.
And yet, God has entrusted them to us, and so much more. Unlike
the land owner in the story, God has given us some basic guidelines for
faithfully managing what we’ve been given. But considering the cost of failure,
God has been relatively hands-off, not micro-managing these investments. We are
given the opportunity to try, and fail, to grow and learn, to stretch ourselves
and take risks. In other words, God trusts us. In the time between the
ascension of Jesus and his return, God is trusting us with infinitely valuable
resources.
In the parable, two of the servants respond to this kind of trust
by trusting the land owner in return. Trusting that he is gracious and loving
and will forgive them if they risk and fail. And so they feel confident in
risking his valuable wealth on the stock market of the first century. Over the
years of the master’s delayed return, there were likely ups and downs, gains
and losses. But in the end, they have doubled the master’s money.
The third servant, on the other hand, is fearful, characterizing
the land owner as “a harsh man,” reaping where he did not sow, and gathering
where he did not scatter seed. In his fear and distrust, he takes this
extravagant sum of money and buries it in the ground.
Now, this would have been sound financial advice in the first
century. However, no gain comes from it. It doesn’t grow or produce or do
anyone any good whatsoever.
You see, fear can be a self-fulfilling prophesy, of sorts. The God
we imagine becomes the God we face. If we imagine a God who is harsh and
vengeful, our fear of that God compels us to play it safe. We try to be good,
behave ourselves, follow the rules. God can’t blame us if we don’t change the
world, if we’re no Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King, Jr., so long as we
don’t hurt people on purpose or curse God’s name.
If we think that following Jesus is simply a matter of living a
respectable life, something like the physicians’ oath to “do no harm,” then we
are playing it safe, burying our treasure in the ground. If we think that
following Jesus is simply a matter of refraining from intentional injustice or
active malice, we are playing it safe, burying our treasure in the ground.
Any decent financial manager knows that there are different
investment products that work for different people. It largely depends on your risk
tolerance and the length of your investment. If you’re only investing
short-term, and you can’t handle a great deal of risk, you probably want to
look at money market securities or government bonds. You won’t get rich, but
it’s a safe place to stash your cash and earn a little on it. On the other
hand, if you can stomach some risk and have a long time horizon, you could invest
in stocks and mutual funds and get a better return on your investment.
But if you’re fearful of loss, if you want to know if you can
access your cash at a moment’s notice in an emergency, you stick it in your
sock drawer or under the mattress. Or you bury it in a field, I guess. You lose
nothing, but, of course, you don’t gain anything either.
Fear motivates how we handle what has been entrusted to us. The
less fear we have, the more risk we’re willing to take. The more fearful we
are, the less we’re willing to risk.
The third servant in this parable wasn’t punished for not
producing a good return on investment. He suffered the natural consequences of
mischaracterizing his master. His fear, his assessment of the master as a harsh
man, demonstrated that he did not know his master at all.
Likewise, when we only know God as a harsh, judgmental figure, the
big guy in the sky pointing a big finger at us, daring us to step out of line
so he can zap us, there are consequences. We’re not useful in the economy of
God.
This harsh and vengeful master is not an unbiblical image of God,
as we heard in the Psalm. But if this is all we know of God, we are going to
have a tough time creating any kind of return on investment in God’s kingdom.
We’re going to have a tough time growing closer to God, because who wants to be
close to a harsh tyrant? We’re going to end up suffering and separated from
God, in the outer darkness where there is gnashing of teeth, not as a
punishment but as a natural consequence.
God has entrusted great riches to us. And all we have to do to
produce a good return on investment is trust God enough to take some risks. Invest
our riches of family, wealth, and privilege to improve the lot of the lonely,
destitute, and oppressed. Invest our riches of natural resources to restore the
goodness of creation. Invest our riches of relationships to encourage peace.
And yes, we are called to invest our riches of faith, however much
we have – one talent, or two, or five. We’re called to invest those riches to
gain returns. Not just by inviting our friends and neighbors to join us at
church on Sunday, although that would be lovely, of course. We’re called to
risk sharing what we really feel and know and believe, even if its sometime
incomplete, or uncertain, or sounds strange even to our own ears. Authenticity
is the key here. You can tell somebody all day long what they ought to believe,
but that won’t make them believe it. But if I tell you what I really and truly
trust, and what I honestly wonder, and what I desperately hope, that’s the kind
of thing that makes a person sit up and listen. That’s the kind of risk that
offers return on investment.
William McCreery may have resigned from the ministry, but he
continued to take risks with the riches entrusted to him. And his investments
paid off. His son, Elbert, became a missionary to the Sudan. Elbert’s son,
William, became a minister and an academic and preached in this pulpit for this
church’s 100th anniversary, using the same text preached by his
grandfather at the first worship service of this congregation. Generations of
McCreerys have worshipped here, and their investments have enabled the body of
Christ here at First on Fourth to continue to this day.
And so I invite us today to recognize the riches that have been
entrusted to us. To trust God enough to take risks, to invest those riches to
produce a return on investment in God’s economy. And may all of this be to the
glory of God. Amen.
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