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27 Pentecost: November 16, Melody Rockwell
As we celebrate our Companionship with the Anglican Diocese of Swaziland today, I greet you in Saswati: ‘sanibonani’ & the people say, ‘yebo! Sanibonani. Yebo!’
Our collect today says of the Holy Scriptures: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. This collect serves as an introduction to scripture readings, which include the gospel account by Matthew of the Parable of Talents. Each time this perplexing parable cycles into its place in our liturgy, I recall hearing a slightly different and sometimes radically different explanation from the pulpit about what the ‘talents’ are meant to symbolize in this parable and in our lives today, and what we are to make of the seeming unfairness of the Master taking from the servant who has the least and giving to the one who has the most, and to boot, meting out harsh punishment to this servant who has been so cautious and careful with his more limited allotment.
I’m not so sure I can resolve the riddle of this parable, but I ask you to wonder with me this morning. As I speak to this gospel in the awakening realizations of a recent journey to Swaziland, I ask you to think of the ‘talents’ in the story as representing God’s abundant love given to each of us, and to consider what we are doing in our lives as individuals and as a parish as stewards of that enormous love. And, to consider also that the talents (weights of silver) given by the Master to each of the servants were not mere shekels in value, but represented an unbelievable amount of money. Each talent equaled sixteen years of wages for an ordinary worker. So, sums of enormous value were entrusted to the servants by their Master, just as God’s steadfast love and grace are entrusted to each of us.
As the Master gave the servants differing amounts of talents, each of us is granted differing gifts and opportunities for investing, growing and sharing God’s love. Going to Africa is one way to experience this expanding grace of God, but it is only one of the many ways that we as the body of Christ here at Christ Church can leverage the talents, the love of God in our lives.
My husband, Dan, and I were fortunate this October to go to Swaziland with many gifts from our parish; chlorinators, felt alphabets/slates, a beautiful, blue baptismal bowl, and money for water projects, the Mother’s Union and preschool education. We thank you for your generosity and your prayerful support. We return to you embraced with the warmth of the welcoming hospitality we experienced; from the uplifting six and a half hour choral worship at the 40th anniversary celebration of the Diocese of Swaziland to a simple supper of chicken, rice and vegetables provided in a humble, but well-kept small church made of tree branches mudded together – the widow’s mite magnified as a gift from those who had so little to those of us who have so much… Being included in community council circles, including one resolving a land dispute, under ancient trees, a situation that felt Biblical like our Old Testament reading today of Deborah judging under the palm of Deborah… The singing and smiles of the children in impoverished drought-stricken southern Swaziland and their priest, Father Gregory, speaking of his hope – as the dust swirled around us – of being able to provide water for drip irrigation to grow cassavas to feed the orphans and perhaps provide a small cash crop for this beleaguered cluster of people, and he spoke also, astonishingly, of the many baptisms and growth of the church in this area… And, often, often while listening to the Swazi men and women speak about the dire circumstances of their work and lives, and their extreme concern for the orphans and vulnerable children they care for, I would hear them say, “God is with us. God is with us.” Again and again, I heard them proclaim, “God is with us.” That deep faith in the face of formidable tragedy has given me a renewed perspective of God’s love among us.
It is inexplicable to me, even now, how to describe the heart-enlarging perspective that transforms many of us who have been given the opportunity to be in Swaziland. Four years ago, being in Swaziland completely changed the content of my retirement years. And this fall, I experienced the joy of seeing that transformation occur with my husband Dan and others who were with us on that journey. Those of you have gone before to Swaziland, the Gulf Coast, with our youth on urban immersions in Minneapolis or pilgrimages on a reservation in South Dakota, or mucking out basements in Cedar Rapids and Palo… you know the multiplier effect that occurs with the talents of God’s love in those relational situations.
Dan and I are filled with the vividness of our time in Africa, but we recognize the incredible value of our home base and the transformational experiences that are the expanding gifts and talents of God’s love in the community of Christ Church… choir offerings and bell ringing and horn blowing and drum thumping, Bible study, bread buttering, hospitality of coffee at the ready and friendly, caring conversations, Women of Excellence, hospital and home pastoral calls, the honoring and educating of our children, children and adults mentoring at-risk children, reverent altar tending, Heartland, J2A, YAC, gatherings to share food, conversation, laughter and caring for each other, making prayer shawls and banners, providing rides so more can join our beautiful, vibrant worship and fellowship, healing prayer, outreach, Loaves and Fishes, GEMS, the Men of Whatever, Bodacious Women, Vestry, Search Committee, Buildings and Grounds, the generous and even joyous support of Waters of Hope, UTO, ERD, Relay for Life and MDGs, and on and on… so many of you are expanding the talents, the love of God in your service to others in our church and in the larger community. May we all become increasingly and vitally aware of this mutually rewarding phenomenon among us.
But what of that poor luckless one-talent servant? How does that part of the parable fit into our life together at Christ Church? I can’t speak to the gnashing of teeth, but at times, I have been that third servant, carefully focusing on and clinging to my relationship with God; coming to church, but managing to worship apart from others -- even in a congregant setting. These ‘hibernation’ periods of my faith journey have been important stepping stones in grounding my faith. These times have helped me address the first half of the Great Commandment that Jesus gave us: to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. But, if I were to never move beyond that to the second part of the Great Commandment: to love our neighbors as ourselves, then in a graphic sense, I bury the talent of God’s love. I put a lid on the possibilities of leveraging that love, of multiplying it.
How many times have you heard volunteers exclaim that they gain so much more from the people they serve than they can possibly give? These words are an outward and visible sign of that odd mix of humility and confidence that grows from the vertical beam of Christ’s cross – connected and grounded in God – and has expanded to the horizontal crossbeam of the cross, the divine gesture of open arms in the way we live our lives. How will we know we are Christians? By our love, by our love.
And we don’t have to do it alone. Our scriptures today point the way. In our Old Testament lesson, Barak was summoned by Deborah, and as the story continues, Barak refuses to take all the glory for himself in going to battle – even with God’s reassurance of victory. He asks Deborah to be with him and she eventually consents. Together, they provide a model for us of shared leadership and mutual respect and responsibility. In Eugene Petersen’s The Message translation of the parable, the Master (God) says to the first two servants: ‘Good work. You did your job well. From now on, be my partner.’ God says, ‘Be my partner.’ And Paul writes to the Thessalonians: ‘Therefore, encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.’ No, we are not alone as we partner with God and encourage each other in our ministry.
This concept is right in line with our mission statement at Christ Church ‘to inspire and equip people to daily live in Christ.’ This brings me back a moment to Africa, and how the gifts taken from Christ Church to Swaziland were not all material goods. I thank God that the healing ministries program here helped me stand in prayerful solidarity with a man in Swaziland, who started to tell me about his role as a layperson, his responsibility of making hospital calls, when tears began streaming down his face, and he moaned, “They are all dying. They are all dying.” I didn’t excuse myself and flee, or try to put a brave face on his situation, as I might have done in earlier times. I stood with Tom in healing prayer. And this happened again and again in Swaziland, as with Elsie, who lives in the desolate south and has been unemployed for twelve years and a widow for six years. She said with obvious pain, “It is so stressful.” She asked only for prayers, and we embraced and prayed together.
On a lighter note, let’s move now to the Anamosa State Prison, where the training I received from Lisa Butler’s showing me how to do the Godly Play story of Abraham’s journey of faith played out last Tuesday afternoon with a burlap cloth for desert, blue ribbons for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and other simple props that led to one of the most profound theological reflections that I have experienced with the men in prison. I thank God for the gifts of equipping that Christ Church provides, and I’m certain that each of you could name similar gifts – that armor of faith, hope and love that Paul speaks of in our epistle today. I would enjoy hearing from you what you feel the talents of God’s love are at Christ Church. Perhaps, this is a whole new concept of a ‘talent’ show of God’s love in our midst?
In these end times of our church year, we are called again and again to be alert. In the Book of Judges, Deborah’s song calls to all of us: “Awake, awake, utter a song!” In The Message translation of the letter to the Thessalonians, Jesus points out that God ‘won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. So, let’s not sleepwalk through life.’ Paul continues in Thessalonians (again from The Message) ‘Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.’
And, Ireneus, a theologian of the second century, explains the main point of the Parable of the Talents: ‘The Glory of God is a human being fully alive.’ Let us be fully alive together, children of light, children of the day – inspired, equipped and living into our baptismal covenant. May God’s talents entrusted to us continue to grow abundantly in our daily lives. Amen.
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