"Reluctant Servants" November 19, 2017

Numbers 22: 7-12, 21-35 Matthew 25: 14-30 This morning I entreat you to recall a time when you did wrong. More than a simple mistake, in particular when you wronged someone else. Possibly you gave instruction to another to do wrong, perhaps you chose to not act when you knew and believed it would have helped, or you committed an act by which you caused harm to others. Years ago, I was driving with my Father-in-law, as we approached a Green traffic light, the truck ahead of us was turning left so we passed on the right. But the driver of the Truck, having recognized the driver of a car perpendicular had directed her to cross the intersection against the traffic light. After her car flipped over, the driver was dead, our car totaled and the Truck drove away. On a particular Sunday, someone saw the lights on and came in. Dressed in a white uniform, forlorn and distraught I did not know them, then recognized an Elder on Session who was also an ER nurse who had just gotten off from working all night. I learned that a family had come into the Emergency Room with a very sick young child. The doctor had prescribed Codeine, but going to the pharmacy the nurse had done wrong. Instead of C-O-D-E-I-N-E she had picked up a dose of C-O-C-A-I-N-E. When the child began convulsions she recognized she had done wrong, and the doctor administered NARCAN. Once she told me her story, we prayed and I assured her she was not alone that whatever happened God, her church and pastor would be with her. She left, and about 10 minutes later, the 30 year old son of our Clerk of Session came in with his wife, describing the horrible night they had taking their child to the ER and receiving COCAINE instead of CODEINE. Neither had known or recognized the other as belonging to the same Church, until the Sunday the couple came up the aisle to receive The Sacrament of Communion from the Nurse. There are stories to which we develop a certain kinship, for me it has been Balaam. When I was 8 yrs old, my father began a sermon on Balaam stating that his son’s favorite television show was about a talking horse. I was proud to have a shout-out in his sermon! When I was 23 and he re-used that same story, I was far less pleased. When I was 40 with children of my own, and heard him again naming that my favorite television show was Mr. Ed, I prayed he find a different illustration. Balaam was a Wizard with Great Power and abilities, who knew what was right and wrong, what was moral and ethical; but for what seemed valid reasons at the time, Balaam ignored what he knew to be right, and intentionally went to do wrong. When the Hebrews came through the wilderness into the Promised Land, the Canaanites were filled with fear. The Hebrews were a population so large and so different that the Egyptians had feared them, so also the Elders of Moab and Midian, King Balak sent his sons as messengers to The Wizard Balaam, paying him to Curse Israel. Balaam first went to God, and God told him not to do this thing, as these were a chosen people of God. But the sons of Balak came back with greater reward and incentive. So Balaam set out on his donkey. But the donkey turned and would not go where Balaam prodded. Then, the donkey pinned Balaam’s leg against a rock wall. Finally the Donkey lay down unwilling to rise. Balaam cursed and struck the donkey! When suddenly the donkey spoke, describing the Angel of God with a sword in their path, who would have struck them both dead had the donkey not laid down. Learning that the donkey had greater wisdom than he, Balaam repented, and instead of continuing the wrong by cursing the Hebrews, offered them a Blessing. Reading the Parables, they sometimes seem like “Bible stories” rather than real-life. You know what I mean, like Aesop’s Fables, or Greek Mythology. While there is often a moral, it just does not make sense that half of the Bridesmaids in a wedding party would ever be locked out of a wedding! It makes no sense that laborers would have been laying around all day without laboring, when suddenly at the 11th hour, not only were they hired, but paid a full day’s wage. Like Samson losing his strength because Delila cut his hair, or Jonah being swallowed by a fish, or 80 year olds conceiving, or a virgin giving birth, these seem like miracle-stories that could not really happen, which is why they are miracles. EXCEPT… In April 2005, I went to South Sudan to re-unite families with their lost sons. Reflecting on this now a dozen years later, through donations and grants we were responsible for giving $350,000/year for the first 10 years, and $3,000,000 these last two, so almost $10 Million to give sight to the blind; to Feed 3 million starving people; to assist another 3 million Women and children with life where who would have died. I personally gave $3,000 to a Deacon of the Church to buy Plows and Oxen for food. And I gave $1,000 to a family, set free a man from Prison. And a woman whom I gave $5 buried it in the ground until I came again and she could return it. This Parable really did happen in our lives. What does not make sense is description of the Man as a Harsh Taskmaster, who reaped where he did not sow, and gathered where he had not worked. Because typically in parables a King represents God or Jesus. So this must be about someone other, like us, or at least perceptions about those who give expecting return. I was the man who came from and went to a Foreign Country, returning two years later, and if ever we are able to return to doing Eye Surgeries, or some other task where I could be useful, it would be awesome to visit again. The added surprise for me, was that there was never a question why one received so much more than another. They each received what they needed and desired for their lives. What we think we know from archaeology is that a day’s wage for a laborer was a Denarius, 1 Talent was worth the equivalent of 5 Years Full-Time Employment. 3 or 5 Talents meant an astronomical sum, more than we can imagine, yet they were responsible and this was doubled for each. And when the man returned, doubling of these enormous sums was but an example of what they were given. But the one who had treated the Man wrong, wronged themselves by being cut off.