Sermon: November 13, 2011 - Had I not gotten sick

TALENTS AND TYRANTS
Sermon Notes of The Reverend Canon Robert A. Picken
Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 28
November 13, 2011

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A few weeks ago I celebrated my fifth anniversary of ordination. It’s no major milestone, but it gave me the opportunity to reflect upon my experience thus far. One of the things I’ve discovered is that my vantage point sometimes makes mine of the strangest vocations as well as a rewarding one. My breath has been taken away by both joy and shame; I’ve seen the gifts and the weaknesses of people up close; and, I learned more about myself in my first year of ordained ministry than I did in my lifetime before that. But, what has struck me most, in the honored position in which I stand in the Church, is that what I witness is a story of talents and tyrants told again and again.

The classic interpretation of this parable in Matthew’s Gospel focuses on the importance of investing our talents and sharing our gifts. (It’s not a parable about investing our money – though one of our gifts may be money. In Latin and Greek, a ‘talent’ was a specially weighted coin or amount of coins. You may be interested to learn that the English word “talent,” meaning gift or ability, comes from this parable and its interpretation of the centuries.) Read this way, the point of the story is the importance of growing our talents or the gifts God entrusts to us. Our response may involve risk, but fruitfulness is the goal. In this interpretation, the one-talent steward demonstrates a failure of faith as well as a failure of fruit-bearing. He is the fool and the rest are wise.

We focus on the accountability of the one who squanders (or hides) what he was to have used and multiplied. Fear and self-interested righteousness can lead one to bury their gifts. And for this, Jesus regularly rebukes the wealthy and especially the religiously privileged.

The inspiring part of this parable comes (by no means at the end but) at the beginning: the entrusting of talents, the multiplication of resources, and the granting of blessings. That’s how many of us read this parable: as a call to multiply our talents and receive blessings. What’s not to like? It’s what our abundant-life hopes are all about. The interpretation hooks us. Work hard, invest your talents, yield a return, and get blessed! But, if you opt out by taking the talent and burying it, if you live in fear and self-protection, you’ll lose big. You’ll lose not only the growth of your talents but also the appreciation of the blessing bestowed.

A friend and colleague remarked that he sees part of his ministry as being a cheerleader of sorts for this kind faithful sharing. Describing a recent moment in his ministry, he said that what gave him the most joy was to not only witness others faithfully sharing their talents, but more so the joy that they received in sharing their love with others.

(I could leave it right there and sit down. But, in honor of making it five years with being throw out of the Church, I’m feeling a bit rebellious. I’m going to ignore the advice of my homiletics professor, who said, “don’t give them more than one interpretation of Scripture, when one will do.” I always wrestle with this parable. I don’t think Jesus was simply talking about money – or our gifts and abilities. [Kristin has natural talent for painting; Larry is a talented musician.] It’s about something larger than that and requires us to turn the parable on its head a bit.)

The one-talent steward responded, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed.” His illegal game is named for what it is, and his harsh, demanding greed is exposed by the only one who refuses to be co-opted. Maybe the one-talent steward isn’t the fool… but he pays the price for whistle-blowing, for his boldness.



This interpretation asks whose voices matter in a world filled with power abuse. If we focus on the accountability of the master, rather than that of the one-talent steward, we see him exposed in his corruption. Here, living faithfully means naming the reality of abusive power or standing with one who is not cowering in fear but bold and ready to suffer the consequences of being bold.

I’m not speaking politically or socio-economically (though, I’m sure you could), but rather in our daily living. I have not been ordained long but I have witnessed those standing bold in interventions, complicated family situations, friendships, and personal relationships, in the workplace, school and, even, the Church. It takes boldness and it takes faith in God’s grace to respond to harmful selfishness of others.

In this parable, Jesus is talking about vocation and the grace given when we accept and enter into a covenant with God. To a new Christian listening to this gospel in, shall we say, Rome in about the year 85, what would immediately strike home would be the meaning of baptism and the task set before the baptized.

To early Christians at that time, baptism was not merely a church rite, something done to little Stevie or Mary to which friends may be invited who never darken the narthex of the church except when friends are hatched, matched, or dispatched. Far from it.

Those early Christians were giving their lives for God. In times of relative tranquility they probably just lost their jobs, their reputations, and even their families by becoming Christians. During turbulent times they faced arrest and execution. Nowadays in America we may be baptized without exciting much comment at all and the cost of being a Christian and an Episcopalian may seem minimal.

We may bemoan the feuding, fussing, and fighting we witness in our church and wish people would be quiet and pay their tithe; but apart from that, our pew is safe, and we are safe, and perhaps our willingness to sing our hymns and say all those prayers God seems to like may just get us a seat in heaven.

If you are honestly not too uncomfortable about this last thought, this parable is for you.

Both readings of this parable emphasize accountability; both readings are about squandering talent because of a tyrant. In one case the tyrant is the steward’s fear. Burying even one talent squanders opportunity, allowing the tyranny of fear to trump all else. In the other reading, a person who abuses power squanders the potential freedom of another steward.

In our trust that Jesus is Lord, we find strength to confront tyrants (and systems) without ourselves becoming one or falling prey to one. We are invited to a full and fruit-bearing life that is open and expansive and hopeful. This is the vision of humanity flourishing that neither the fearing steward nor the harsh master ever experience.

Each one of us in our baptism was given a wealth of love and an intimate experience of the presence of God. We renew that gift at each Eucharist, as we receive Jesus into our lives and join with the hosts of heaven in worship and thanksgiving.

And, we go into a world where temptations and distractions exist on every side for different reasons. The kingdom of a rightly ordered power that comes near us in Jesus, sets us free from tyranny and directs us to life abundant.

That good news may unbury our talent or give us voice – either way it is a witness to a God who gives good gifts.