"Sacrifice," November 16, 2014

Judges 11 Matthew 25: 14-30 The world is so pervasive, our culture so much with us, it is difficult to listen in faith rather than seeing and hearing as the world does. The Parable of the Talents has been preached so often as a Stewardship Sermon, conveniently the Man gives each one, two, five Talents instructing them to use them. We each know we possess talents, some One talent, some several different talents, and there is a temptation to hide our gifts. If we hide our talent, much like hiding your light under a basket, it does no good. That sermon usually ended with a fear of judgment, that one day the Rich Man will come back wanting an accounting and you better be able to show you used your talents to double what you were given, if not there was utter darkness where people weep and gnash their teeth. A dozen years ago, a Pastor Denny took this to extremes by withdrawing $10,000 from the church asset and giving 100 people each $100, instructing them 1.This belongs to God. 2.Use it, Money like Manure is intended to make things grow. 3.In 90 days there will be an accounting. Dateline and 60 Minutes each came to film the miracles, as these 100 common parishioners had used what they were given to advance the Kingdom. Each story more fantastic than the one before, people were outdoing themselves and each other, with what they possessed for 3 months. But, while good American television, evidence of a prosperity gospel where the rich get richer, that does not sound much like Matthew, let alone Jesus. The difficulty is envisioning what belongs to God as $100. In fairness that is what Pastor Denny gave each and told them, “This $100 belongs to God.” However the Parable was specific that those to whom the Talents were given were slaves of the Master. All that they had, belonged to the Man. In the Greco-Roman culture compared to all other coins, there was one of greatest value, the “Talenthon” named here, was the equivalent of the wages of a lifetime. Imagine that as slaves who own nothing, we are owned, and you were given $20,000,000 and another $40,000,000 a third was given $100,000,000. Who is to say that the $100 you were given on a Sunday morning belongs to God, but that your life, your marriage and children and grandchildren, your home, the full value of your stock portfolio and IRAs does not belong to God. When you were baptized, when you were confirmed, whenever you changed churches, we asked you: “Who is your Lord and Savior” “Do you trust him” and “Will you give of yourself in every way?” Did we mean it? We have established a construct, in which we work hard and we play hard, and ne'er the two shall meet. We work at our jobs, competing for all we can get. We purchase land and build our homes with sweat of our brow and the talents of our arms. Like Ants instead of Grasshoppers we invest and set aside, building up nest-eggs, in order that we can possess enough to retire, to live in comfort and luxury with everything we desire, before we die. Overtime we have also given offerings of our charity to establish churches and good works. We have titled these as Non-Profits to be clear that they are not businesses. As the CEO and Head of Staff for this Corporation, I would confess to you that is a fallacy. We are held accountable to the best business practices, to the IRS, to the Federal, State and Local governments, to our creditors and you our stock-holders, we attempt to provide the public with the highest quality product in music and the arts, education in ethics and values and faith, opportunities to change the world, and we are in competition not only with the business across the street, but in competition for your time, for your love, for survival. The difficulty is how to succeed without the church becoming only an institution of religion, a business. The third difficulty with Pastor Denny's $100 Parable, is that it was for 90 days. Jesus described he went away with no return date, went on a distant journey for a long time. Implicit in this parable is how life affects us. The Master divided up his possessions for them to care for as their own. Some did, they lived and became like the Rich Man, when the settling occurred he treated them as if equals. In that day and age, it was common practice to bury in the ground things of great value. Like a pirate treasure, generations later, someone could come and dig it up having exactly what was put aside. But doing so, you live unaffected, autonomous to the gift given you. You have been given marriage, a love affair to last a lifetime; you have been gifted children and grandchildren; you have been given the ability to hear and make music, you have been given the gift of changing the lives of other people; can you chose to not do so? The point of the value of the Talent was not that one received 5 times as much and one only received 1, but that one Talent was a gift of value so far out of our imagination, you have no idea how to manage. What if, instead of being worth money, the Talents given represent faith in God? You have been given the ability to relate to God, to care for God's creation as if your own... What will you do with life? Do we treat others with contempt, with fear, do we hide and bury our faith, or do we risk everything making this our own? Jepthah was a soldier, a warrior in battle. This week in celebration of Veteran's Day, it occurred to me this is is a different kind of holiday. Veterans' Day is not based on religion as Christmas or Easter, it is not a day in recognition of Labor or business. Originally, at the end of WWI, months before the signing of the Treaty at Versailles, this was Armistice, the End of War, it came at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, to emphasize just how close to the 11th hour, the end of life as we know it, we came. But also, that our Veterans live with (what many of us name as) an unrealized ideal. We make offerings, like giving our least coin to a charity, like making a bid at an auction, to buy and to own. Sacrifice is precious and painful, sacrifice costs us more than we knew it would. Sacrifice is intended to atone for the shame and debt that is owed to God. So while soldiers take an oath to defend our Nation, what they are sacrificing is years out of their lives. What they are sacrificing is sometimes an arm, sometimes a leg, their hearing or vision, sometimes their psyche and reality, in war we sacrifice our loved ones, as well as our morality and ethics demanding the killing of others, demanding vengeance. Faith is not a philosophical proposition. Faith is not a set of theories and ideals and beliefs or myths. Faith happens in the midst of life, as we struggle to care for a gift that is more than we can ever imagine. Faith is owning the shame of life, the debts and responsibilities, and choosing to sacrifice even/ especially, what is most precious to us. Would that the cost were only our risk, but there is more, more than the fear of losing it all and being cast into the darkness. This is a terrible, horrible story, from a time when each person decided for themselves in their own heart what was right and what was wrong. Time and again, after they suffered, they turned and repented and came together to trust God. Sacrifice is giving to God, in recognition that everything we have, everything we are, so much more abundant than we could ever control, already belongs to God. The point is not “Well done, good and faithful, you have been faithful over a little, now I will set you over much...” Life is not a success story. But rather the simple invitation: “Enter into the joy of your Master.”