27th Sunday after Pentecost Date: 11/16/08 Text: Matthew 25:14-30
27 Sunday after Pentecost
Date: 11/16/08
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Title:
Several Sunday’s ago in our Gospel lesson we heard Jesus say, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.” We saw that the kingdom of heaven is not only heaven but the now, that time before the final judgment. We know that because at the end of the parable the king spotting a man not dressed in the wedding garment he had given everyone to wear threw out the man into everlasting darkness. From this we learned that there will be people who consider themselves to be Christians that on Judgment Day will be standing before God with no excuse, because they did not put their trust in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus.
Last week’s Gospel lesson was another parable about the kingdom of God. In this parable, the parable of the ten virgins, we once again learned that the kingdom of heaven is the now and future. Those who were not prepared for Jesus coming, that is those who did not study the Word of God so that their faith was kept strong, in the end had no faith in Jesus and were locked out of heaven.
This morning, our Gospel lesson is another parable. It too is about the kingdom of heaven. Before I go any further, you need to know that when Jesus told a parable it almost always would take what we would agree would be common sense and turn it upside down, or as I prefer to say, turn what we thought the parable was about right side up, for we are living in an upside down world. It is also important as we study these parables, particularly the one today that Jesus is talking to not only his followers, but to the religious leaders of the day, those who wanted him dead. They wanted him dead because he was telling them, the religious people, of his day, that keeping the laws and worshiping in just a certain way was not going to save them. They did not like, because it took away from their doing and left their salvation in God’s hands and that was not comfortable.
All of the parables that I have mentioned and the one that we are looking at this morning are about the end times, that in-between time that we are living in right now; that time in which we wait for Jesus’ return and his ending of the world as we know it. We talk about end times. We think the end times are getting closer. We might even be worrying about the end times. But has anything changed in our lives? Are we living our lives any differently than before we started thinking about the end times? I have often wondered what we would do, as Christians, if we knew that at midnight next Wednesday Christ would return. When Martin Luther was asked the question about what he would do if he knew that the next day Christ would come. He replied, “I would plant a tree.” He said that, not because he did not believe it, but because of his faith in Christ as his Savior. He was prepared, and because he was prepared he would continue to live his normal life.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning is a familiar text because it is preached every fall. I don’t think that it was placed in our reading schedule by accident, for at first glance it appears that it is talking of how we use our money and talents in the church. I am sure that every one of you here today has been told that if you don’t use the talents God gave you that he will give them to someone else. I know that I have. Depending on how strongly this law struck you, you might even have been moved to give more or get more active in the church, at least for awhile.
Now I am not saying that that lesson cannot be taught from this text, but I am saying that there is a much better explanation of this parable than what has been traditionally taught. I would say that, because this text is about the generosity of God in giving his church the wonderful Gospel message of Jesus and his saving work. This is what I mean. I would wager that everyone here thinks, well at least those that did not come to the Wednesday night Bible study believe that a talent refers to money. Well it does not, for a talent is, as it was understood back then was a measurement of weight. A talent was whatever a grown man could carry on his back. The weight could be gold, silver, or bronze, or something else.
You cannot tell it by the English translation, but in the Greek when the slave is telling his master what had transpired with his talent he calls it silver, so we know that the master had given his slaves silver. Now it does not take much imagination to realize that what he had done was very generous. It was beyond generous because at the time a talent of silver represented what an average worker would earn if he worked 365 days for 165 years. That is a lot of silver.
It is unfortunate, that in our way of thinking we have turned this parable into being a story about money, for when we believe that is what the story is about we have lost the meaning of the parable, the generosity of God and our response to that generosity.
Knowing that he is talking to not only his followers, but the religious leaders we can then see that what he is talking about in this parable is not money, but the generosity of God in all his dealings with his chosen people Israel. You see he had picked them and forgave them time after time when they had fallen away from him. And what had they done for him, but buried his saving Word beneath the dirt of the law, that is all the have to do things that hide the wonderful Gospel message of forgiveness.
Why did they bury the message of forgiveness? It was because they saw God, as the slave in the parable that buried his talent as “a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered not seed, so I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground.”
You see the difference between the two slaves who doubled their talents over the one who hid his talent is that the one that hid his talent did not have a right relationship with his master. He believed his master was an unfair and harsh man. He was afraid of his master, the master who had entrusted him with an unbelievable sum of silver, who according to the text never told him to what to do with the talent of silver, for he just trusted him to do what was right.
I would put forth that your view of God colors your behavior also. If you see God as the evil and wicked slave did, that is a God that demands things from you, you will live your life in fear of God, never knowing if you have really gotten right. You will in a sense bury the wonderful, extravagant forgiveness of Jesus under the law.
On the other hand if you see God, as the first two slaves did, a loving God who is unbelievably generous with his forgiveness you will not live your life in fear, but joy knowing that as long as you believe in Jesus as your Savior you are free of God’s punishment now and in the future.
As we look at these texts on end times a natural question comes to mind, “Why will the day of the Lord come un-expectantly? The answer to that question is simply that is what God wants. God wants to sort out those who watch andthose who grow weary. This is the message of the last few Sundays and this week once again. In these last weeks of the Church Year and again in the Advent Season to come, we will hear many words of warning concerning the sudden appearing of the Lord.
He has chosen not to tell any of us the time. And this is right, so that we might remain trusting and focused on the truth and power of His word. But unlike the slave that lived in fear of his master we do not await with fear and trepidation. We await that awe-filled day knowing our Lord and Savior comes to carry home His Bride, the Church to everlasting peace and joy.
May we watch and pray lest we fall into slumber and temptation. May we have thankful hearts that our Lord continually reminds us in the Absolution given to you every Sunday, in the Word of God, and in his Sacrament of the Supper, of His overflowing love and forgiveness shown by the blood of Christ our Savior.
And may our cry be "come quickly Lord!" Amen
Date: 11/16/08
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Title:
Several Sunday’s ago in our Gospel lesson we heard Jesus say, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.” We saw that the kingdom of heaven is not only heaven but the now, that time before the final judgment. We know that because at the end of the parable the king spotting a man not dressed in the wedding garment he had given everyone to wear threw out the man into everlasting darkness. From this we learned that there will be people who consider themselves to be Christians that on Judgment Day will be standing before God with no excuse, because they did not put their trust in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus.
Last week’s Gospel lesson was another parable about the kingdom of God. In this parable, the parable of the ten virgins, we once again learned that the kingdom of heaven is the now and future. Those who were not prepared for Jesus coming, that is those who did not study the Word of God so that their faith was kept strong, in the end had no faith in Jesus and were locked out of heaven.
This morning, our Gospel lesson is another parable. It too is about the kingdom of heaven. Before I go any further, you need to know that when Jesus told a parable it almost always would take what we would agree would be common sense and turn it upside down, or as I prefer to say, turn what we thought the parable was about right side up, for we are living in an upside down world. It is also important as we study these parables, particularly the one today that Jesus is talking to not only his followers, but to the religious leaders of the day, those who wanted him dead. They wanted him dead because he was telling them, the religious people, of his day, that keeping the laws and worshiping in just a certain way was not going to save them. They did not like, because it took away from their doing and left their salvation in God’s hands and that was not comfortable.
All of the parables that I have mentioned and the one that we are looking at this morning are about the end times, that in-between time that we are living in right now; that time in which we wait for Jesus’ return and his ending of the world as we know it. We talk about end times. We think the end times are getting closer. We might even be worrying about the end times. But has anything changed in our lives? Are we living our lives any differently than before we started thinking about the end times? I have often wondered what we would do, as Christians, if we knew that at midnight next Wednesday Christ would return. When Martin Luther was asked the question about what he would do if he knew that the next day Christ would come. He replied, “I would plant a tree.” He said that, not because he did not believe it, but because of his faith in Christ as his Savior. He was prepared, and because he was prepared he would continue to live his normal life.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning is a familiar text because it is preached every fall. I don’t think that it was placed in our reading schedule by accident, for at first glance it appears that it is talking of how we use our money and talents in the church. I am sure that every one of you here today has been told that if you don’t use the talents God gave you that he will give them to someone else. I know that I have. Depending on how strongly this law struck you, you might even have been moved to give more or get more active in the church, at least for awhile.
Now I am not saying that that lesson cannot be taught from this text, but I am saying that there is a much better explanation of this parable than what has been traditionally taught. I would say that, because this text is about the generosity of God in giving his church the wonderful Gospel message of Jesus and his saving work. This is what I mean. I would wager that everyone here thinks, well at least those that did not come to the Wednesday night Bible study believe that a talent refers to money. Well it does not, for a talent is, as it was understood back then was a measurement of weight. A talent was whatever a grown man could carry on his back. The weight could be gold, silver, or bronze, or something else.
You cannot tell it by the English translation, but in the Greek when the slave is telling his master what had transpired with his talent he calls it silver, so we know that the master had given his slaves silver. Now it does not take much imagination to realize that what he had done was very generous. It was beyond generous because at the time a talent of silver represented what an average worker would earn if he worked 365 days for 165 years. That is a lot of silver.
It is unfortunate, that in our way of thinking we have turned this parable into being a story about money, for when we believe that is what the story is about we have lost the meaning of the parable, the generosity of God and our response to that generosity.
Knowing that he is talking to not only his followers, but the religious leaders we can then see that what he is talking about in this parable is not money, but the generosity of God in all his dealings with his chosen people Israel. You see he had picked them and forgave them time after time when they had fallen away from him. And what had they done for him, but buried his saving Word beneath the dirt of the law, that is all the have to do things that hide the wonderful Gospel message of forgiveness.
Why did they bury the message of forgiveness? It was because they saw God, as the slave in the parable that buried his talent as “a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered not seed, so I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground.”
You see the difference between the two slaves who doubled their talents over the one who hid his talent is that the one that hid his talent did not have a right relationship with his master. He believed his master was an unfair and harsh man. He was afraid of his master, the master who had entrusted him with an unbelievable sum of silver, who according to the text never told him to what to do with the talent of silver, for he just trusted him to do what was right.
I would put forth that your view of God colors your behavior also. If you see God as the evil and wicked slave did, that is a God that demands things from you, you will live your life in fear of God, never knowing if you have really gotten right. You will in a sense bury the wonderful, extravagant forgiveness of Jesus under the law.
On the other hand if you see God, as the first two slaves did, a loving God who is unbelievably generous with his forgiveness you will not live your life in fear, but joy knowing that as long as you believe in Jesus as your Savior you are free of God’s punishment now and in the future.
As we look at these texts on end times a natural question comes to mind, “Why will the day of the Lord come un-expectantly? The answer to that question is simply that is what God wants. God wants to sort out those who watch andthose who grow weary. This is the message of the last few Sundays and this week once again. In these last weeks of the Church Year and again in the Advent Season to come, we will hear many words of warning concerning the sudden appearing of the Lord.
He has chosen not to tell any of us the time. And this is right, so that we might remain trusting and focused on the truth and power of His word. But unlike the slave that lived in fear of his master we do not await with fear and trepidation. We await that awe-filled day knowing our Lord and Savior comes to carry home His Bride, the Church to everlasting peace and joy.
May we watch and pray lest we fall into slumber and temptation. May we have thankful hearts that our Lord continually reminds us in the Absolution given to you every Sunday, in the Word of God, and in his Sacrament of the Supper, of His overflowing love and forgiveness shown by the blood of Christ our Savior.
And may our cry be "come quickly Lord!" Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 1:45 PM
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