Sunday, November 19th 2023: "Fear Be Gone"

Watch the sermon here

First United Presbyterian Church

“Fear Be Gone”

Rev. Amy Morgan

November 19, 2023

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. At once 16 the one who had received the five talents went off 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, 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.’

Some folks do strange things when they win the lottery. Debbie Mather won $6 million and wanted to relive her childhood by watching the sky fill up with fireworks, so she bought her own fireworks factory, which has turned into a successful business. John And Linda Kutey won $318 million dollars and used their winnings to create the waterpark of their dreams, another entertaining and successful endeavor. 

But not everyone who uses their winnings to follow their dreams ends up doing so well. Keith Gough bought a racehorse that ended up leaving him broke. Roger Griffiths spent his millions trying to get his band to the top of the UK pop charts and ended up losing all his money and his bandmate. And Michael Carroll built a racetrack in his backyard to showcase his luxury cars and ended up in bankruptcy.

And then there’s David Copeland, who spent his winnings buying land on the moon, Mars, and Venus. Copeland led a simple life before he won the lottery, and he didn’t have a desire to change much. He still works and eats tinned beans for dinner. He thought outer space might be the safest place to store some of his cash. His other investments allow him to maintain his simple lifestyle. He doesn’t seem rich, nor is he lacking in resources. He played it safe with his winnings, and he seems to be doing just fine. 

In the story Jesus tells in Matthew’s gospel, an extraordinarily wealthy man goes away on a long trip. But first, he entrusts three of his servants with lottery-size sums of money. In Jesus’s day, “talents,” or Greek talantas, were not coins or small wads of cash.  They were hefty precious metals that weighed somewhere between 80 and 130 pounds.  A single talent was worth approximately twenty years of an ordinary laborer’s wages.  In other words, a talent represented a staggering amount of money to Jesus’s peasant audience.  An unthinkable, lottery-jackpot-sum that only the wealthiest elite might possess.

So the first thing we need to recognize in this story is that the wealthy man is extraordinarily trusting and generous. He gives each servant what he is able to work with – no more, no less. But even the third servant, who received only one talent, is gifted beyond his wildest dreams. The wealthy man knows the abilities of his servants, and is discerning and wise about the distribution of his funds. 

We don’t know exactly what kinds of investments the first two servants made, but the returns were enormous. Even though the wealthy man was gone a long time, doubling an investment is extremely difficult, except for the luckiest or most ruthless investors. But both of these servants manage it. Maybe they bought a fireworks factory or built a waterpark. Maybe they invested in the right hedge fund or real estate. We don’t know if their investments were just or unscrupulous. We just know they did something with the incredible wealth entrusted to them, and it worked out spectacularly. 

And then there is the third servant who buried his talent. It was like buying land on the moon. It didn’t increase in value one penny. It was a totally useless place to put this resource. 

But why the third servant acted in this way is no mystery. He explains himself to his master, sharing his assumptions that the master is a harsh man, reaping where he did not sow and gathering where he did not scatter. He admits to being afraid of his master. And while the master does not contradict the servant, and instead uses his own words to convict him, if we remember the beginning of this story, this description really doesn’t fit at all. This man entrusted his servants with enormous wealth. He was generous and discerning. He doesn’t admonish them or intimidate them or micro manage them. He simply trusts them. 

And the third servant betrays that trust by wallowing in fear of a false image of his master. Instead of recognizing his master as trusting and generous and discerning, the third servant casts him as an evil overlord and treats the master’s resources accordingly. In the first century, burying money in the ground was an acceptable way of protecting it, especially from theft. If you buried money immediately upon receipt, as it seems this servant did, you were absolved of liability if it were stolen. The third servant takes the safest bet because of who he imagines the master to be, not because of who the master actually is. 

Now, it’s important to note that the Christians hearing this story for the first time would not have taken this as a warning to not be like the third servant. It would have, instead, been an affirmation that they, like the first two servants in the story, would be welcomed into the joy of their master when Jesus returns. The third servant was a condemnation of those who did not recognize the grace of Jesus Christ and make good use of the gifts entrusted to them. This could have been any group with whom Matthew’s community was in conflict. But this is, at its core, meant to be a story of assurance, not admonition. 

The challenge for us is to hear it that way today. This story is often used in stewardship season to encourage people to invest their talents – their skills, energy, time, and money – in the work of the church as it serves and follows Jesus. There is always the negative side of this to deal with, however, the if-then of this story. Give to the church, and you’ll be welcomed into the joy of Jesus. Bury your treasure somewhere else, and you’ll be cast into the outer darkness. That doesn’t really work for me, and it’s really not the point of this story. I’m glad we are through with our stewardship season so we can hear this story in its own context, and not try to make it suit our needs. 

This story is ultimately not about money. It’s about fear, and our image of God. The Hebrew wisdom literature tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” but what they mean by “fear” is reverence and awe, not terror. God is not out to terrorize us into good behavior. We’re not called to give anything to anyone out of fear. 

Instead, we are invited to see God for who God really is. God has entrusted us, all of us collectively and each of us individually, with treasure beyond measure. We have hit the lottery of love and grace and justice and peace. The riches showered upon us by God are more than we could ever hope to earn in our lifetime. No matter how hard we tried to be faithful and righteous, compassionate and generous, we could never come close to achieving what God has already done for us in Jesus Christ. 

And if we know how good and gracious God is, we can invest those gifts in endeavors that may seem wild and risky but that pay off because we are passionate about them. We can imagine our spiritual equivalent of buying a fireworks factory or building a waterpark. What big dream might we pursue, trusting in the God who has entrusted so much to us? How might we, as Princeton Seminary professor Kenda Creasy Dean says, “innovate for love?” 

First, we must recognize and appreciate what God has entrusted to us. The life-giving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is of infinite worth, and it has been entrusted to us. The lives of those in our community – here in this church and all our neighbors – have been entrusted to our care. The way we love our neighbor will be the measure of how God’s investments grow in us. The very next story Jesus tells in Matthew’s gospel makes it clear that those who feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, take care of the sick, and visit the prisoner are the ones who are successfully investing God’s gifts. The love, and justice, and grace, and peace of Jesus Christ have been entrusted to our care, and we can increase the impact of those gifts by sharing them. So recognizing God’s gracious generosity, knowing the true character of God as infinitely loving and trusting, is the first step toward innovating for love. 

And the second step is letting go of fear. Especially in the church, we are so fearful about trying something new, taking a risk on love even, that we bury our gifts in the ground, where they are safe and we feel safe. If we do nothing, we risk nothing. The church is one of the most risk-averse institutions in the world. Which is totally incongruous when we follow a savior who risked his very life for love of the world. 

Once we let go of fear, endless possibilities open up to us. Fireworks and waterparks, sure. But who knows what else? Listening to our neighbors, how will they experience love? Where do they find hope and meaning and belonging in the world, and how can we come alongside them and innovate out of love for them?

These are the kinds of questions being explored by the small group working on the Ministry Collaboratory project, specifically looking at how we can innovate for love when it comes to the young adults in our community. But these are questions that really aren’t new to this congregation. We have innovated for love over and over through the years. We took the risk of starting the Art Hub summer camp, and that innovation has shown love to dozens of kids over the past few years. Through the pandemic, we innovated constantly to love each other and continue ministry through new ways of being church online and on-site. We innovated for love by starting a softball team that included folks outside our church community. We innovated for love last Friday by sharing musical gifts with our downtown community, and, thanks to the investments of time and talent from Kellie and Mark, we’ll continue sharing music by collaborating with other churches on the upcoming Christmas concert. Steve and Jeannie and Susan Jackson are innovating for love by bringing Communion to folks in memory care. Debby Morehead has been innovating for love with her ministry of gratitude. Sherry Coffey and her team helped us innovate for love of the earth with our Green Team, and this work continues with the installation of energy efficient LED lighting and a tree planting next spring. Amy and Chad are helping us innovate for love with the Supper Squads that are starting up. 

We are a church that keeps innovating for love, investing the incredible gifts entrusted to us in ways that increase the love and justice of Jesus Christ in the world. And our challenge is simply to continue doing this, in our lives and in the world, as we await the return of Jesus. Instead of operating out of fear and self-preservation, burying our gifts in the ground or buying land on the moon, we can take risks and grow in the love of God. In gratitude for all that God has entrusted to us, for the spiritually lottery we have won, we can invest in dreams beyond our imagination. Glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.