Texts: Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30
Our theme today is "Gifts and Talents", and we only have to think about those two simpler words for a moment to realise they are rather slippery. Each has more than one meaning, and the latter has changed its meaning radically from Biblical times to today. Both are timely, relevant words; they are, we might say, in season, or in vogue at the present time. But what do they actually mean?
Today's parable is traditionally called "The Parable of the Talents", and is the second of the three-part mini-series that we have in this 25th chapter of St Matthew's Gospel. And one of the interesting common factors of the three parables is that at least the first two are in need of a change of name these days. Last week's parable has long-since given rise to blushes among us modern clergy who want to be inclusive and PC. For centuries it was called the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Dear me – those really were the Dark Ages! These days no one believes in virgins any more, wise or foolish. So in modern translations of the Scriptures this story became known as the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids. More recently, concern has been expressed about the word "bridesmaid"; is it sexist, and is "maid" really another word for "virgin"? So now we have the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Wedding Attendants. I suspect that soon we will decide that "Foolish" is too negative; and maybe we will end up with the Parable of the Differently Abled Wedding Attendants.
Today's parable needs re-naming for a different reason. The word "talents" has changed its meaning. I'm sure none of you watch "New Zealand Has Talent"; but if you did you would find (I'm told) that it is not about people with money, as it would have been in Jesus' time. More strictly, a "talent" was a particular weight, used for precious metals and other commodities. But in Jesus' parable we can take it to mean money. Today, of course, if we say someone is talented, we don't mean that person has money, but some ability or other; or we might use the words "natural gift". Which gets us to the different meaning the word "gift" may have.
Again, this is quite topical, with the pre-Christmas season in full swing. We have gift catalogues, gift coupons, free gifts, and all the rest of the advertising hype, and will be bombarded with it for the next few weeks. Just when we have escaped from political waste-paper, we get the retail version! But in all this the meaning of the word "gift" is pretty clear: we are urged to spend our money to buy their products to give away free to our special people. That's the true meaning of Christmas for the retail industry. "Gift" is a thing that we give away.
But sometimes we say of someone, he or she has a real gift for languages, or art, or something. He or she is a very gifted violinist or hockey player. Originally that probably reflected the view that our abilities were given to us by God, our Creator. Today, we speak of natural gifts – he or she is "naturally gifted". Presumably this is the secular version: our abilities have not been given to us by God, but by Nature.
And just to complicate today's word-game even more, we call our abilities today, "talents" – he or she is very "talented", or even, he or she is "naturally talented". But in this new modern sense of gifts or talents as abilities, there is one common element. They need to be exercised, and they need to be exercised for two reasons. Firstly, if they're not, they tend to atrophy, or not develop at all. And secondly, we can only recognise them in action. We only know when a child is a gifted artist, or has a real talent for art, when he or she produces artwork. The gift or talent may be there – in the child, as it were – but it has to be exercised by the child in order for it to develop and be recognised.
And here we have at least one link with today's Scriptures, and particularly with today's Gospel passage – this Parable of the Talents. It's another of those "going away" stories, where the owner or master goes away and entrusts his servants with his business. This guy seems to have been in the financial sector; a banker, perhaps, or a money-lender. We don't immediately take to him, therefore, until we realise that he is the Christ-figure in the story, so we should! It is a judgment parable, a story that repeats the clear NT message of a final accounting, which is the motif that runs through the whole of this chapter. The master had at least three servants, and he entrusted these three servants with his business capital, his investment funds.
He gives each of the three responsibility for different amounts, according to their respective abilities. One gets ten talents, one five, and one two. And we are told the result of their work. The first two get a one hundred percent return on the investment capital; but the third guy is what we call today "risk-averse". He is afraid that if he invests the amount in his investment portfolio, it may lose money and he would be in trouble on his master's return. So he looks for the safest place to put the money to ensure that he does not lose it. When the master returns, the first two are applauded, and the third guy is fired.
There is a direct and obvious way in which that parable is directed to each and everyone one of us. As we constantly remind ourselves, everyone has specific gifts and talents. In our funeral liturgy, for example, we pray this: God our Father, we thank you that you have made each one of us in your own image, and given us gifts and talents with which to serve you. (And I usually add, "and one another"). Our gifts and talents are not for our own benefit; they are, according to that prayer, given to us for the service of God. For that reason, we are accountable to God for the use to which we have put our gifts and talents, or failed to put them, during our lives. So that's one clear message for us as individuals this morning.
But as I pondered this parable in preparation for this sermon, it occurred to me that it has an important message for us in this Diocese. As you know, I am working with a group of people to consider the financial difficulties facing the diocese; and at a recent meeting at Hampden, someone suddenly suggested that we should sell Selwyn College because, in his view, it is no longer bringing in a return for the Church. And what was particularly interesting to me about that was that this guy was not talking about a financial return. He meant that Selwyn College as it is presently conducted is not serving the purposes of the Church. Now, there is room for two views on that, and Selwyn College does have its supporters and defenders, but the question is a good one. In terms of this parable, are we as a church using Selwyn College for our Master's purposes, or are we simply holding on to it and, so to speak, keeping it safe?
And, of course, the same applies to all our capital assets, and not just Selwyn College. Are we using the assets entrusted to us – our land, our churches and other buildings, our resthomes, our social agencies – to further God's purposes, or are we simply hanging onto them and trying to keep them safe? And if the latter, then safe from what and for what? That is the sort of question that our diocese has to face as a matter of urgency; and that means our parish has to face it too. What return are we getting on the treasure that has been entrusted to us?
And as we face that question, we need to hear those words from Zephaniah this morning. At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who think "The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad. Their wealth will be plundered, their houses destroyed. Or, as Jesus himself puts it at the end of this parable: Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The Diocese has talent. The question is, are we prepared to take the risk of using it for the furtherance of God's purposes?
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