"The Tragedy of the Unopened Gift"
Based on Matthew 25, Parable of the Talents
Sermon Series: "If You Want To Walk On Water, You've Got To Get Out of the Boat", Part 2
Pastor Mike Anderson
Sunday, September 16, 2007 - GSLC-North
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Matthew 25:14-30 (NLT) - Parable of the Three Servants
14 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last-dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
16 "The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money.
19 "After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, 'Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.'
21 "The master was full of praise. 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!'
22 "The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, 'Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.'
23 "The master said, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!'
24 "Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, 'Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.'
26 "But the master replied, 'You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, 27 why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.'
28 "Then he ordered, 'Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
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John Ortberg in his book "If You Want to Walk On Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat" tells the story of his grandmother, who after she died left behind an exquisite china dish collection. When the grandfather showed his mom these beautiful dishes her mom didn't recognize them even though she had been in the house for 20 years. And come to think of it, her dad didn't recognize them either.
See John's grandmother, Florence, had been given these beautiful antiques over a period of years, when the family was not very wealthy. Being that they were valuable each time at her birthday, confirmation or graduation she would receive a piece she would wrap it carefully in tissue, and put it in a box for a special occasion. No occasion that special came along, so his grandmother went to her grave with this special gift virtually left unopened.
John notes that once his mom was given the dishes she uses them every time she gets. They finally made it out of the box.
Our text for today tells a similar kind of story. The man in our bible story entrusts five bags of silver, typically translated "talents", to one man, three to another, and one to a third servant. First, note that these bags of silver were worth roughly $1,000 so it was no small amount of money. Some have estimated in that day it could equal as much as 15 years' wages. In a small agrarian society, this was no small potatoes. Like Florence, these men were given a valuable gift and the question would they use it.
This is an act of unprecedented trust and generosity. Vocationally, organizationally and financially, the lord of the gift has given them the chance of a lifetime. This their defining moment.
I was at a similar moment my senior year in high school. I had been involved in bible study, where one of the workers from Youth for Christ and one of the Senior baseball players had led a bunch of us juniors through an intense year of bible study and discipleship.
At this point in my life I was beginning to feel that God might have a call in my life. On the summer baseball trip I had led some bible studies in the hotel rooms at various stops, while the other guys were out partying. I got a little flack for that. And now it was the Fall of my senior year and the grand plan was that all of us were going to lead a group of juniors and sophomores through the same study we had been through.
The only problem was it was my senior year and I wanted to be footloose and fancy free. So I said no! I hid the treasure in the ground. Sure I had a good time my senior year, but what would have been if I would have made an investment in the kingdom.
That decision set the trajectory for my years in college and it wasn't until a year after college that I got reconnected to church and my relationship with the Lord. I had taken five years off.
Maybe the third servant felt something similar when he uses the excuse that he thought the owner was a harsh boss so he dug a hole in the ground and hid this enormous gift in the ground to protect it from losing value. But the problem was the owner was not interested in just keeping the gift intact, he wanted it to be spent so that others might to enjoy the gift.
1st Truth The bible teaches us that each one of us have been given a spiritual gift if we are a believer. 1 Peter 4:10 "God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another." He is the Lord of the Gift!
Once we receive a gift there are two ways to respond:
1. The gift is too valuable to be risked.
Once you bring the gift out of the box there is no guarantee that things will go well. Sometimes the gift can be poorly used. Sometimes people might not admire it as much as we do. As Ortberg summarizes, "Taking the gift out of the box is always a risk!"
2. The gift is so valuable it must be risked.
These folks realize that if the gift is not brought out of the box it may never be used at all. To leave the gift in the box could be a huge disappointment to the giver of the gift. And more importantly as we step out of the boat to risk using our gift there is always growth.
Last week our small groups were asked to define "failure". Some might define failure as to not meet your goals, and that might in some sense be true, but I would define failure as not even trying or not even setting goals in the first place.
When we don't even try it leads to stagnation. Stagnation is not a very exciting thing. Not many people plan a vacation to the Dead Sea quips Ortberg. (Well I checked that and I guess some people have tried. I think it was a science experiment proving buoyancy)
Another writer Greg Levoy calls this the common cold of soul and writes,
"To sinful patterns of behavior that never get confronted and changed,
Abilities and gifts that never get cultivated and deployed,
Until weeks become months, and months turn into years, and then one day you're looking back on a life of
Deep intimate gut-wrenchingly honest conversation you never had;
Great bold prayers you never prayed,
Exhilarating risks you never took,
Sacrificial gifts never offered
Lives you never touched,
And you're sitting in a recliner with a shriveled soul
And forgotten dreams
And you realize there was a world in desperate need,
And a great God calling you to be part of something bigger than yourself
You see the person you could have become but did not;
You never followed your calling
You never got out of the boat"
This leads us to our second truth which is a little more sobering. "He is the Lord of the Settled Account"
The third servant may have forgotten that the owner was coming back but true to his word the owner came and demanded an account. Ortberg cites that there is a odd tendency in humans to think we can kind of weasel our way out of things. But usually when the traffic cop pulls us over it is not good. Fortunately that hasn't happened to me in a while.
And the other tendency is for us to come up with excuses for why we haven't had a chance to get out of the boat.