Sermon 11/13 Notes for Mt. 25:14-20, Ps. 123, I Thes. 5:1-11

What do we do with the inestimable gifts of God at our disposal and expectation of stewardship, including the mysteries of God? Do we make use of them or do we tuck them away out of fear, even contempt for the gifts? We have a vast array of gifts at our disposal and we parcel them out as if we are stranded castaways with no idea about our next meal. In other words, we live like the last servant without as much and afraid of losing what he has. Even though it is mcuh, he perceives it as just a little. We have a variety of ways to estimate a talent, but it is big bucks, let’s say a low of 300K to a high of billion. Jesus selects these enormous sums as hyperbole to get attention and to make a point.

The kingdom of heaven point is that no one knows when the master will return, now or in some distant futurity.Don’t rest on the abundance given you, blossom and flourish, grow into the better future that lies before us. The last person catches our attention as his great gift, that looks small only in comparison to what is lavished on the first tow finds that the money is given over to those who used their gift wisely and well. what stopped him cold? Fear, fear of retribution, fear of being judged harshly, fear of failure stopped him and had him bury the gift as if it were dead, even more foolish than hiding it under a mattress in the face of wall Street perfidy. No risk, no change, no possibility for growth. Instead of entering the joy of the manager to do more work in partnership, instead the fearful one loses relationship too, in effect his relationship is buried, but he has placed himself into a coffin of fear Unable to see a world of abundance and grace, he acts out of a consciousness of scarcity and lack. Unable to see grace, he sees only the possibility of retribution. as Charlotte Bronte remarked that is indeed a pity “to try nothing and leave your life a blank.” As Eliot wrote of Prufrock he measured out his life in teaspoons, instead of seeing a world where our cups runneth over, where the tables are sagging under the weight of presents, where there is plenty more where that came from. As Ps 123 demonstrates it is a terrible thing to be a victim of contempt, especially when it is self-imposed.

I Thes. 5 and being sober, alert and ready be prepared the boy scouts say. Instead of saying that the condition of our experience is completely out of our hands, Paul encourages us to use what we have in this interim period between the arrival of Jesus into the world and the final consummation of the plan of God that is not known to us, as Rev. Camping again demonstrated last month. Yes, change is coming, as certain as inevitable as labor pains for the birth of the new. No matter our sophistication at this point, we still cannot say with confidence exactly when they will come upon a woman or even if they are the contractions of an intimation of labor.Notice with some care the military image drawn from Is. 59:17. Paul then uses the trinity of virtues:faith, hope, and love. Yes, it is militant language but for the cause of non-violent action and change.

None of us know the day or hour of the Second Advent or of our entrance into god’s realm upon our deaths. Both readings tell us to live as fully as we can in this world. We can squeeze every bit of life we can out of our days here, maybe especially because their duration is uncertain.