WAITING TO SEE THE HEADTEACHER - KNOW THE FEELING?
Find a bible. A hotel bedside drawer Gideon if you’re stuck. Then turn to MATTHEW’s GOSPEL and look up CHAPTER 25 verses 14-30. NOW READ THIS PASSAGE SLOWLY . You’re meant to read it slowly. Even better, you’re meant to hear it out loudi slowly so that you can feel the tension building up
It’s the story of three servants given 5 Talents, 2 Talents and 1 Talent (money worth £1,500, £600 and £300 respectively in today’s values) respectively to look after, what happened, and how their master reacted when they reported back.
I’ll never forget reading this passage out loud as the gospel during a little Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in the intimate atmosphere of the Guild of All Souls chapel for my pilgrimage party of 25 or so people.
As we drew nearer and nearer to hearing the fate of the third servant who had hidden his one Talent in the ground, I started giggling and so did everyone else. It was the way the text kept us waiting in suspense. Apparently this is a classic Jewish way of milking a story for maximum effect!
It’s rather like hearing “the one about” (imagining for example) three pupils summoned to the head teacher’s office to be given their reports. They wait outside in the corridor while each one is called in on their own. “How was it?” asks the third nervously as the first, and then the second, emerge from their ordeal. “Actually, it was fine!” they both answer in turn with obvious relief.
At long last the luckless third pupil is sent for and, unlike the other two, gets a real dressing down and is unceremoniously expelled from the school……………..
Well, never mind the skill and the humour in the telling. What this famous parable of the Talents is supposed to be teaching us?
One of my pilgrims was quite excited. “You see, Jesus was actually a capitalist after all! Margaret Thatcher was right! This proves that He wanted people to make money!”
Of course, that is a grotesque misreading. It is true that in New Testament Greek of the time when Matthew was writing, the word “talent” did only literally mean a unit of currency and was not used in any metaphorical senses. But don’t forget, folks, THIS IS A PARABLE we’re looking at.
As with all parables, Jesus wants us to scratch our heads and think hard about what the hidden message is for a disciple, like you or me.
And the answer must be that He is indeed using the idea of a coin called a “talent” and what use is made of it as a lesson in what to do with our native God-given abilities.
Every skill or ability we are each endowed with is pure grace. Life itself is a gift from God and so are all our attributes. Are you good at music? Are you good at writing? Are you good at figures? Are you good at sport? Are you good at organising?
In the context of faith, I cannot possibly improve on the words of St.Paul in his letter to the Romans Chapter 12 verse 6 (which I quote in the Jerusalem bible translation):
Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent , and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.
There you are. But please don’t start worrying about being less talented than someone else. It is very important to notice in the story that the servant who was given two Talents is praised and rewarded just the same as the one with five Talents.
What about the poor old chap with the one Talent? Why did he get it in the neck? Because out of fear of failure, he did nothing. He refused even to try to succeed.
If God has given us abilities He wants us to use them, not waste them. And to use them in His service and not abuse them for sinful purposes. (EX-presidents please note).
“But what if I don’t feel good at anything?” you may cry desperately.
Rubbish. You can always be good at being kind, considerate and generous to others. That is a talent all of us have been given.
If you read the whole of chapters 24 and 25 (they’re not long) of Matthew together, you will see that all the strories collected there are driven by a sense of urgency that Christ’s followers must get up off their backsides and do whatever they can for the Kingdom.
To go back for a moment to my friend who was anxious to brand Jesus as a capitalist, perhaps Jesus can be seen as comparing the spiritual life to the world of business. Nothing is gained in either without risk and effort. If we have “talents” physical or mental, we do God a great disservice by neglecting them and letting them atrophy. “Use it or lose it” as they say.
It’s no good just believing, even if you turn up to church religiously. Faith cannot be a purely passive thing if it is to be any use to God. To bury your talent in the earth is equivalent to what Jesus said about hiding your light under a bushel or being salt which has lost its savour.
We need to roll up our sleeves and get on with it! Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
[a sermon written in lockdown for S.Luke’s Church Queen’s Park Brighton 15th November 2020]