God's Last Words

“INVESTMENT LIVING”
MATTHEW 25: 14-30 NRSV

I love the story about the Lutheran pastor who always started each service off with the phrase, "The Lord be with you." The people would then respond, "and also with you.”

However, one Sunday the sound system wasn’t working very well. The pastor stepped up to the pulpit and said, "There’s something wrong with this microphone."  The people responded, "AND ALSO WITH YOU!”

Pastors are known for certain styles of preaching and specific themes they preach over and over. I once heard someone say that most preachers really only preach one sermon but say it in different ways.

I can live with people saying that about me as long as the message I give is consistent and Biblical, and is practical to use in your everyday life.

Some pastors preach peace, some preach prayer, some preach unity in believers, others preach love, self-control, and how good deeds show others how good a Christian is. Some preachers even urge their congregations to donate money so that they too will be given more money by God. (That’s the Prosperity Gospel.)

(BTW – those preachers drive Cadillac’s, Humvee’s, and Lincoln Navigators. My little car may look nice – but I assure you it’s at the cheap end of the dealer’s pricelist!)

I think we pastors need to offer practical advice and practical theology in our weekly messages that help people know God, Jesus, and live better lives. I think Jesus would agree.

What is the most practical parable Jesus ever told? What parable applies more to how we live our lives today, and how God acts and reacts to us, and how we act and react to Him? I think it would have to be the parable that we find in Matthew 25:14-30.

"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them;  to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 

The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 

In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 

But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 

Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.'  His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' 

And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'

Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'

But his master replied, 'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 

So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

The biggest change in the church over the last 400 years is the answer to a question that has troubled humans since the Garden of Eden: What authority does God have over my life, and do I really owe him for the skills, abilities, and talents he has given me?

The New Testament adds Jesus to the equation: What power does the church have over me?

The quick answer is obvious: If you don’t want God to be the ruler of your life  then you don’t have to bow to Him. But God has prefigured a price into all of our lives as the Creator of the Universe: The cost of rejection is ironically this: you set yourself up to be rejected.

Before someone says that’s not fair let me say this: God will allow you to live the life you choose, on the earth He has created for you, subject to the natural laws and limitations humans have. You can reject or accept His laws and rules or not. But when you pass from the physical world into the spiritual world there will be an accounting.

If you acknowledge Jesus while on earth, then you will be acknowledged in Heaven. If you choose to use your talents, abilities, and skills to attempt (hear that word --- attempt) to help and further His commandments and Kingdom then the attempt will be rewarded in Heaven.

God does not set quotas, shift goals, or pay by the hour or activity. God says it is good when/if you try, and even better when you succeed. But it’s not really necessary to meet the criteria for entrance into Heaven. That’s why it’s called Grace.

For clarity’s sake - You just can’t take all the blessings God has given you and then ignore Him and expect to get the same reward someone who has a relationship with God would receive.

I know it’s hard for us to understand – God’s economy is not our economy; His ways are not our ways. God is perfect, we as imperfect humans, could never do anything that could please Him, except to accept His Son into our lives.

The Bible tells us of the rejoicing that will go on in Heaven when one sinner repents and comes to Christ. Even if we work hard to help that person make a decision it is still the Holy Spirit that does the heavy lifting and the hard work.

Sadly, so many people look at God’s claim on His creation as a myth, a child’s fable, and a lie that creates hatred and fear. They see any act of judgment, not as righteous but as a punishment.

I remember hearing a story about a stolen car. Police were conducting an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief.

On the front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers that, unknown to the thief, was laced with poison.

The car owner had intended to use the crackers as rat bait.

Now the police and the owner of the car were more interested in apprehending the thief to save his life than to recover the car.

So often when we run from God, we feel it is to escape his punishment. But what we are actually doing is eluding his rescue.

Combine that with how resistant most Christians are to evangelize and it doesn’t bode well for those who are lost.

We worry so much about offending others if we talk about faith that we risk losing them to the world and sin, and the temptations of evil around us.

I think Jesus is reminding us in these verses that we are being given the gift of grace and that out of gratitude it should be natural for us to try and return an investment on that grace. It should become a way of life rather than attempting to do good works because we want God to notice and reward us.

Sadly, it’s almost like what’s happening with patriotism and our American identity. We receive benefits as Americans not because we deserve them but because Americans have always done what was needed to secure freedom.

In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."

Many of us don’t want to make the sacrifices necessary investing ourselves in our faith to make a difference anymore. Jesus calls us to a life of investment in Him. Amen.