November, 13, 2011 "The Rule of 72"

Judges 11: 29-32
Matthew 25:14-30
The parable of the Talents is not about Stewardship! Just as the story of Jephthah's Vow is not that it would have been better to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Both are descriptions of HUMAN FEAR, our desire through Knowledge, by the power of Knowing, to Control our Fears, to create Security and Safety, Protectionism.
In ancient Palestine, just as today, burying one's assets in the ground seemed better than leaving our livelihood exposed on the open market. Who among us, would not possess more today, if five years ago, before the Housing Bubble burst, before the Dot Com crash, we had taken out all we had and buried the value in the ground? This is not Biblical guidance about investing, or stewardship of assets, it is about a faithful response to Human FEAR.

If you asked an Investment Banker, one of those engaged on Wall-street in Wealth Management, how to double your investment, they would describe The Rule of 72. Assuming a guaranteed Interest rate of 5%, you divide that rate of interest by the number 72, and you have the number of years it will take to double it, 14-15 years. If you want that to be faster, you take on greater risk, with greater possibility of failure. In the world of Venture Capitalism, the norm used to be that 1 out of 5, some claimed only 1 out of 10 would make it, all the rest would lose everything. The reason why Preachers can describe this from the pulpit, is that today, no one can guarantee an Interest Rate of 5%.

Faith, we have been taught, is not about Venture Capitalism. For most of us, our Personal Faith is just the opposite of Risk. Our belief in God is a description of creating our Personal Comfort Zone in this life and the life to come. Faith is like theoretical acceptance of ideas about God and Jesus, a list of intellectual precepts and morals we accept as foundational. Faith becomes getting our personal theology right, then living a good life by avoiding what we know to be bad. Religion, is a pretty timid non-risky venture, if anything the salve and antithesis of our fears. That is NOT Biblical Faith.

Remember that according to Matthew, Jesus told this Parable in the midst of a string of parables about the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Fig Tree, Noah and the Ark, Daniel and signs of the End of Time. All of which are about the END coming, Christ and Judgement being delayed, and how believers are to act. We are to follow through on RESPONSIBILITY, especially when we do not know, when we are afraid.

A man was going a long journey so divided up what he had among three servants, giving each an enormous sum. To one, he gave 1 Talent = 15 years wages, to another 2 Talents 30 years wages, to a third 5 Talents the equivalent of 75 years of his wages. The one with the least, was the most afraid, claiming “to know” that the Lord was harsh, he hid what he had been given responsibility, so as to be able to give back exactly what he had been given. Does it change the story at all, to put dollar values to what was given? Imagine, the least was given $1,000,000. The second $2,000,000, the third $5,000,000. No longer is this about one being trusted with 5 times as much as the one with only 1, because that one is $1,000,000. Time goes by. When the LORD returns, the one with $5,000,000 risked everything and made $5,000,000 more, the one with $2,000,000 also doubled what she was responsible for, the rule of 72 is not about the dollar value but the risk of doubling. So following this rule, the one who actually risked the most was the one who risked nothing, and had nothing more. You have to wonder, it is not the way Jesus told the parable, but what would have happened if the one with $5,000,000 had lost everything? Given the telling of the parable, I have to believe, the LORD still would have greeted him saying “You risked everything you were responsible for, you tried, well done.”

Fear is a very present reality in our lives, we each know ourselves to be trustworthy, yet we live in a time of fear where everyone doubts the other. The first several days of the Occupy Wall-Street protests, no one seemed able to describe what they were protesting. For some it was a lack of jobs. For others, that they had lost everything. For others, that education had already put them over $100,000 in debt before ever starting out. We live perpetually on Orange Alert, waiting for the next terrorist attack, accepting as norm that we must remove out shoes and belts and be searched before flying. There has arisen a mood of helplessness and anomie. Nothing we do seems to effect our lot in life. There is unending war, that few are able to describe what we are fighting for. Our leaders seem detached concerned only with re-election and blaming the other. We are pre-occupied with entertainment and trivia. Because of all of this, we have become a polarized society of fear, each side blaming the other.

Jephthah is an odd hero. Rarely does the Lectionary have us read from the Book of Judges, yet in many ways this is an apt description of the times in which we live. There is a recurrent phrase throughout the Book of Judges, “The word of God was rare in those days, each person did what they judged to be right, what they knew to be right, in their own heart...” Jephthah was the son of Gilead, but whose mother had been a prostitute. Gilead had taken responsibility for Jephthah, but Jephthah's brothers feared and rejected him. Jephthah went to live with the most worthless kind and became a mercenary. His mother had sold her favors for money, so he sold his ability to kill for a price. And the people of Israel were afraid of the Canaanites, especially among them the tribe of the Amonites. They contracted with Jephthah to kill the Amonites. He went through Town after Village, killing everyone in his path, eleven cities were laid waste. But after all this, on the night before his final battle, Jephthah was afraid. Desperation and fear, do terrible things to us, and Jephthah made a solemn vow. Some of us might make a promise to turn over a new leaf and live life differently. Some before going into battle might make a sacrifice. Some this morning might instead of purchasing more stuff for Christmas, use our gifts for Alternative contributions, providing in a loved one's name a gift to the Food Pantry, or Health care, or Cancer research, or for care of our elders, or for purchase of a heifer to a village without milk. Jephthah makes a vow, that IF he could KNOW he would be victorious he would sacrifice anything, so if he wins, then he will make a sacrifice of the first thing he sees coming from his property... a lamb, a goat, a heifer, a field of grain, even a servant. Jephthah goes into battle and does win, he utterly and completely destroys his enemy, and knowing this, knows he must make a sacrifice, but when he come home his daughter, his only child comes running out to greet him. Fear does terrible things to us, more than anything else, fear makes us want to BIND our fear to something, to blame, to take our fear away.

Today, there is no guarantee of a 5% rate of interest. There is no guarantee of a rule of 72. We live in an eschatological time, an end time, where the world we knew, everything we assumed is changing. There is a great deal of fear all around us, fear of the unknown, fear of uncertainty, fear of a lack of control. This is not reason to sacrifice our what we believe in. Fear is not answered by protectionism, or a faith of abstract moral ideas. Faith is about risking everything for what you are responsible. When meeting with those presenting a child for Baptism, we tell them that you are claiming an identity for this individual, that they belong to God, they are known by God. When preparing couples for marriage, that in the same way, they are claiming a new identity of being responsible for one another, their identity is as wife or husband to the other for richer and poorer, better and worse, in sickness and in health.

I think there is a very creative commercial on television, that shows handing to someone a briefcase filled with $100,000 and describing that each of the persons who were asked to hold this, did not open it, did not take even a single dollar; though in our economy the banks, the investors, the government all take their share. Few of us are going to have someone hand us a $100,000, or $1,000,000 or $5,000,000 but simultaneously, the Social Media has created Facebook and Linked-in, and Tweeting, such that any of could between the people we know and those they know, could have 5,000,000 contacts, people we are responsible for. You possess a treasure, a pearl of great value that nations have gone to war for, a gift which people have given their lives for. Faith is taking responsibility for what has been given us. Will you use the faith given you? Will you pass your compassion, your charity, your ability to make a difference on to others? Or will you protect what yo have, live in fear, and bury your faith in the dirt?