In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. This is the time of year
we'd be getting ready for our annual meeting.
We'd be looking at the budget, which we are.
And I have to say, I'm so proud of this parish.
Good stewards of what God has given you to support
your parish, to support the work of the parish
and of the church. Reminds me of a joke which
has nothing to do with me, but so you're clear,
I'm not asking for anything. A church was doing
its annual finances and the pastor saw them,
saw the finances. And he went to the board members
and said, I see that I didn't get a raise. Like
he said, I'm not asking for anything for myself
here. And the board members said, yes, that's
right. And the preacher says, well, I'm just
a poor preacher. And the president of the council
said, we know, we hear you every week. So I will
endeavor to let the words of the Lord speak for
themselves. We listen to an exhortation, a sermon,
a criticism, a judgment from the Lord Jesus Christ.
What you heard comes from chapter 25 of the Gospel
of St. Matthew, and don't you ever forget it.
What's coming next? What explains this particular
gospel? In our Bibles, there's a chapter heading,
and it says, The Parable of the Talents. And
then it says, The Parable of the Sheep and the
Goats. But it doesn't say that in the Bible.
That's added by publishers. This parable you
heard is connected and explained by the next
parable, which is the parable of the sheep and
the goats. We rightly hang on to words that describe
our Savior, words that he himself said, the way,
the truth, and the life. We call him our Savior.
We call him the lover of mankind. This is good,
isn't it? Because this is a true thing. It's
not a description. It's what he is. We call him
the shepherd. We call him the prince of peace.
All wonderful things. But something that's less
popular is that he is the judge. He will judge
everything. And we confess this in the creed.
He will come again to judge the living and the
dead. This parable is about that. It's challenging.
I probably wouldn't want to hear it. But here
it is. The church says, listen to this as you're
getting ready for Lent. This parable is a story
of what the Savior will do at the end. The Gospel
comes, the reading comes from just before he
is arrested. Judgment. Now, we might hear this
parable as only some kind of moral story about
a working hard, good investments return. on capital,
sort of an explanation, a Christian version of
capitalism. If Mark Twain or Ben Franklin had
said these words, that would have been true.
If you win the lottery, how would you invest
this? How would you get a good return? I read
last week, about a week and a half ago, someone
won. the megabucks or whatever lottery it was,
it was a billion dollars. Of course, the government
gets 40 % of that right off the top. And it turns
out that 70 % of people that win a lottery file
for bankruptcy within a few years. It's not good.
So the parable isn't about that. The parable...
It's about the talents that are given to each
servant by the Lord. Talenta, which is a form
of money. And Jesus doesn't say, the master in
the story doesn't say, here's your life. Make
the most of it. Just do it. Be all you can be,
or whatever slogan you want to plug in. Live
your dream. The Lord entrusts the talents. He
doesn't give them. This is not like the lottery.
We are asked at the end to show how we have multiplied
those talents. We belong to God. He isn't here
to enslave us. He doesn't need slaves. He is
here. To make us as great as we can be. Christians
need to be convinced that our lives, everything
in our lives, everything we do, everything we
have, including our finances, it all belongs
to God. Why? Because he entrusts us with it.
We haven't been given these things. The word
in the gospel parable isn't Isn't giving over,
but it's entrusting. Five for this one. Two for
this one. One for another one. Remember, who
says these words? It's he that was crucified
and buried and rose. and ascended, and he shall
come again in glory to judge the living and the
dead. But he is not gone. Not for us. Perhaps
for the rest of the world that does not know
Christ, he is gone. For us, remember, brothers
and sisters, that when he returns, he will return
and every knee shall bow. But what did we just
sing at Christmastime in Theophany? God is with
us. God is with us. And the church is his body
and he is his head. We are members of his body.
At the liturgy we say Christ is in our midst.
And the liturgy is the kingdom of heaven that
we have put on Christ. St. Paul says to put on
kindness and long -suffering and humility, peace.
These are all gifts and talents from the Lord.
This is what we have been given. Yes, he will
come again for all to see in glory. It is his
glorious appearing. But he is here. He is here.
Where two or three are in the midst. And in the
church, he is here. For we are his members. His
life continues in us. Judgment in this gospel
probably inspires fear. We're waiting for the
judgment and we're considering how much time
I relate to the man with one talent. That's me.
And you would think that we should be fearful,
but that was the problem of that man with the
one talent. He was the only one condemned. And
he was condemned. Why? He said, I was afraid
of you. You're a hard man. Is Christ hard? Is
he difficult? Is he demanding? My yoke is easy,
he says. My burden is light. He gives us the
gift that we maybe forget about because we put
it on the back burner because we forget how precious
Time is, and maybe the most important gift we
have, is time. You don't have tomorrow. Father
Patrick Reardon, in a sermon I was listening
to recently, he says, most people think of tomorrow
as a noun. Today, tomorrow. But tomorrow's not
a thing. It's an idea. It's a concept. You can't
grasp it. You can't touch it. We don't have it.
We only have the nanosecond we're living in.
And in that nanosecond, we are expected to do
something as Christians with it and not act out
of fear like that man. What did he spend his
time doing? He spent his time, he says, I buried
the talent because I knew that you wanted it
back and I was afraid I'd lose it. He spent his
time digging a hole in the earth, bearing what
God had entrusted to him. Do you see the connection?
To put something in the earth means that that's
where he invested his life, just down here. He
prepared for his grave, not for the resurrection.
He spent his time digging rather than investing.
How do we know, brothers and sisters, if we are
multiplying the talents God has given us? I suggest
you ask yourself this question. You heard the
epistle today from Colossians. Read it again.
Chapter 3. Colossians only has three chapters.
It's extremely short. You can read it in 15 minutes.
If you take your time and you do it in a meditative,
prayerful way, It'll take you an hour, as it
should. You'll stop. You'll let the word sink
into your heart. What did St. Paul say to us
last week in Colossians? He says, when Christ,
who is our Lord, appears, you will also appear
with him in glory. Therefore, put away these
sins. Fornication, lying, unjust works, and so
on and so on. And today he says, What to put
on. He says to put on meekness, humility, long
-suffering, peace. But above all, he says, put
on love. Now, mercy, long -suffering, humility,
peace, and love. You can't fake it. We can't.
Manufacture it. It comes from God. He has entrusted
us with all these things. Look in yourself. Let
each of us examine ourselves in the little time
we have in this life. We don't have tomorrow.
Today, look at yourself, brothers and sisters.
Let us each examine. Is there mercy? Do we forgive
one another? Is there long suffering? Is there
humility? Do we know what humility is? If you
have it, you'll know it. Do you have the peace
of heart reigning in your body, your soul, your
mind? Have you put on love for all? If you have
done those things, then you and I will hear those
longed -for words. You have been faithful with
a few things. Now you will be master of many
things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Well
done, good and faithful servant.