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So today's Gospel reading is known as the parable of the talents.

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Talents just so we're all on the same page here, we're a sum of money, a very, very large

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sum of money.

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One talent equaled about what a worker could expect to make in 15 to 20 years.

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So we're talking about a lot of money here.

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This parable comes as the middle of three teachings that will become the last that Jesus

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will share with his followers before his betrayal, his arrest, and his death.

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We are only hours from the last supper in this scene.

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This parable, like the two stories around it, are called stories or parables of judgment.

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The central focus in this parable is not the two workers who get it right, but the one

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who fails.

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Like most Episcopalians, we probably aren't that comfortable with the idea of judgment,

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and indeed it is not a concept that we spend a lot of time on here in church.

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So if you find yourself uncomfortable with this story, please know that you are not alone.

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This parable is pointed, it is heavy, as we might expect from someone who is acutely anticipating

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his own death.

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Jesus has predicted it several times leading up to this moment, and he knows what the future

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holds even if his disciples do not.

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Through this parable, Jesus is asking us to look at our considerable gifts and resources

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given to us by God, to sincerely look at how we use them to build up the kingdom of heaven

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here on earth.

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The work is immense, but Jesus tells us that giving up or failing to try at all is not

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an option for those who would truly seek to follow him.

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In this parable, a wealthy man calls together a group of servants, and to each he gives

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a sum of talents equivalent to the ability of the workers.

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The wealthy man then leaves and goes on a long journey.

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In the meantime, two of the three workers get to work.

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They are using what they have to create more.

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The third, though, in his fear decides to bury the money, decides it will be better

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to preserve what he has rather than seeking to make something with it.

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Upon the landowner's return, he calls all the workers together, and the first two eagerly

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present their earnings to the master, who celebrates their intrepidness and invites them

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to share in his joy.

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The third, though, is a vastly different story.

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When he comes forward, he attempts to offer the man exactly the sum of money he was gifted,

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the single talent.

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The master is incensed.

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The third worker is called lazy and wicked, and is thrown into the outer darkness with

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weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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In our Bible study on Thursday this week, most of us express some degree of sympathy

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with that third worker.

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And in truth, he doesn't seem like a bad person, like many of the other negative examples

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in the parables of Jesus.

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He doesn't hurt anyone.

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He doesn't lose the money.

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He doesn't spend it on bad things.

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If anything, this is just a man who is afraid, and his fear keeps him from deciding to act.

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Perhaps he's afraid that if he tries, he will fail.

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Perhaps he is afraid, our story tells us of the master, who he calls a harsh, greedy,

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and uncompromising man.

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But our parable does give us reason to doubt his view of the wealthy man.

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If the master is greedy, he still decides to share his wealth with his workers.

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If the master is harsh, he still decides to join the other two men in celebrating in joy.

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So perhaps this third worker's view of the master isn't as accurate as he thinks it is.

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Perhaps he's afraid that if he tries to make more from his gift, he will not have enough.

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Perhaps he's afraid of scarcity.

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Perhaps he's afraid that he will lose even what he does have.

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If he spends it on other people, will there be enough left for himself?

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Perhaps the man is afraid of his own capabilities.

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The master clearly believes that he is capable, but what if he sees himself as too small, his

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abilities too little to take on the world's biggest problems around him?

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Can he really take what he has been given and make more out of it?

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I think this third worker is such a sympathetic character because so many of his fears are

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relatable.

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So many of his fears are our fears.

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Fear that there isn't enough.

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Fear that we will fail.

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Fear that we are just small people with small gifts facing big problems in a hurting world.

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What has kept this man from using his talent to build up the kingdom of God?

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What has kept us from using our talents to build up the kingdom of God?

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There are so many reasons that this third worker may have chosen the best course of

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action as simple in action, but Jesus' use at the parable shows us that there are no

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good excuses left, nothing good enough to reason away not doing the work that is set

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before us.

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To be clear, this parable is not about a return on investment.

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The fact that the other two double what they were given is great, good for them.

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Bravo.

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But that's not what matters.

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What matters is that they tried at all, that they went out into the world and that they

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tried, that they took what they had been given and worked to make it mean more, to matter

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more, to help more.

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The third man's sin is not that he doesn't give back his master more.

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It's that he failed to do anything at all.

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Through this parable, Jesus gives us a glimpse of how God would like for us to use the precious

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gifts that we have been entrusted with in our own lives.

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It is not enough for us to sit on them, to bury them, to sit in our fear of losing or

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fear of failure.

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Our gifts from God are precious.

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They are priceless, and they are so very needed in the world around us.

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And they do come with a great cost.

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The cost is no less than the entirety of our lives, the whole of who we are.

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It is not enough for us to present ourselves back to God at the end of our journey and

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say, here we are.

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That's nice.

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But what God is asking for us to do, the real question is how have we used what we've been

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given to minister to people around us?

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How have we used what we've been given to build up the kingdom of God?

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How have we taken the moments of our lives, the good and the bad and the terrible and

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the mundane, and used them to bless the people around us?

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I do promise you, my friends, that every moment of your life can be used to build up the kingdom

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of God, can be used to minister to other people.

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I remember a time when I was in seminary, and I planned to spend the summer doing a required

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course called Clinical Pastoral Education, or CPE.

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It was required to graduate, and we would hopefully hone our pastoral care skills over

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a summer.

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I was going to work in a hospital.

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And not one week into the program, I was diagnosed with a pretty nasty case of pneumonia.

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And I couldn't take off the time that I needed to recover and still stay in the CPE program.

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So I had to leave it.

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And I cannot tell you how anxious and upset and sad and scared that I was.

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I was so worried this was going to be some red mark on my resume, that it was going to

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throw off my plans for graduation, for ordination, for the classes I wanted to take while I was

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in seminary.

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So I made an appointment to meet with our Dean of Students, Bishop Jim Mathis.

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And I walked into his office that day, I'm sure, crying.

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I spent a lot of time crying over those weeks.

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And I sat down in his office right across from him, and I told him what had happened.

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And he said, let me stop you here.

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He said this to me.

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I also left a CPE program about 30 years ago.

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He to this day is the only other person that I know who left a CPE program.

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He said that memory in his life was also terrible, also unpleasant, also full of anxiety and

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planning and second planning and second chances.

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And he said it wasn't until the moment that I sat down across from him 30 years later

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that that moment in his life became ministry, that he could sit with me 30 years in the

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future because of what he had gone through all those years in the past.

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His own anxiety, his own fears became a place from which he could be with me truly in my

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anxiety.

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God takes all of our moments.

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God takes all of our experiences, all of our gifts, and gives us ample opportunity to

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use them to build up the kingdom of God here on earth.

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So I would ask you, my friends, to take stock of your gifts.

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What are you good at?

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You have them.

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I know you have them because God created you and God gifted you with them.

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How can we use the gifts that we've been given if we can't name what we're good at?

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What are you good at?

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What brings you joy?

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What does the world need you to do?

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No gift is too small.

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No single gift so unimportant.

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No moment in your life so unimportant that it can't be used in building up the

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people around you.

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Nothing is wasted with God.

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Everything we go through will help us walk with others, will help us bless others.

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In this parable, God closes all the loopholes.

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There is no way out anymore.

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Here at the end of Jesus' life, Jesus tells us that if we are really, really serious about

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taking up the cross and following after Jesus, if our lives truly have been transformed, irrevocably

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altered, then there are no more good excuses for us not to get to work, not to set about

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transforming the world around us.

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I don't think God is concerned with what we bring back.

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I don't think God's concerned with quantifying the return in your ministry.

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We plant seeds, we water, we work, but as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians,

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God gives the growth.

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The growth will come.

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The call for us then is just to go and do, to use what we have, to use what we've experienced,

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to use what we've learned in our own journeys and to bless those around us, to be with each

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other truly, to share with each other, and to know that in simply trying and simply having

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the courage to say yes to the work that God has set before you, you are exactly where God

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wants you to be.

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Amen.

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Amen.