Let us Pray - Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord and help us to respond in faith both now and always. Amen.
Today's texts deal with the coming of the end of time as we know it
- the time when God arrives to judge the world
- the time when the Son of Man gathers the elect from the four corners of the world.
The Rev. William Peake once wondered HOW THE MEDIA WOULD HANDLE THE END OF THE WORLD and he put together a few possible headlines. Here is a sample of what he wrote:
USA Today: WE'RE DEAD.
Wall Street Journal: Dow Jones Plummets as World Ends.
National Enquirer: O.J. and Nicole, Together Again.
Inc. Magazine: 10 Ways You Can Profit From the Apocalypse.
Rolling Stone: The Grateful Dead Reunion Tour.
Sports Illustrated: Game Over.
Playboy: Girls of the Apocalypse.
Ladies' Home Journal: Lose 10 Pounds by Judgment Day with Our New "Armageddon" Diet!
TV Guide: Death and Damnation: Nielsen Ratings Soar!
Discover Magazine: How will the extinction of all life as we know it affect the way we view the cosmos?
Microsoft's Web Site: If you don't experience the rapture, DOWNLOAD Software patch RAPT777.EXE.
America Online: System temporarily down. Try calling back in 15 minutes.
You know my brothers and sisters-in-Christ - as much as most people try to deny it - the end is coming. Science tells us this, experience tells us this, and the scriptures tell us this. And it will not be some temporary system failure. Rather it will be a complete crash - a crash that will bring in its wake a new heaven and new earth - and not merely some patch, some fix it quick continue as usual remedy that allows us to go on as if nothing had happened.
And that should catch our attention. It should make us think.
The end is coming. That is the plain truth of the bible.
It's both its prayer - as in the reading from Isaiah this morning
"O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence" and it's promise
"But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory
The end, my friends is coming - it is coming to each one of us individually - a fact which cannot be denied and which ought to be enough to make us think and it is coming to all of us together to our whole world to the sun and the moon and all beneath them.
It might be sooner - or it might be later. But it is coming.
We now have the technology to darken the skies, and to make the heavens shake and to cause stars to fall from heaven.
We now have the means to bring about what is described in the Book of Revelation: the means to cause 1/3 of all the birds of the air to perish and 1/3 of the fish of the sea to die.
We can assemble with very little problem at all an army of two hundred million men on the fields of Armaggedon - which do not lie all that far away from the nation of Iraq, and we have built already the scorpions that have fire in their tails and the machinery by which the whole world might see the death of two men, two witnesses to God's love, in the city of Jerusalem.
And if we have the means to make it happen - perish the thought we should actually do so then how much more so God?
- the God who through the prophets spoke of it thousands of years ago,
- the God who through his son - promised it - indeed warned us of it, not quite some two thousand years ago.
From the fig tree learn it's lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
The season of Advent is about the coming of the Lord - the coming of the Lord as a babe in a manger in Bethlehem - and the coming of the Lord as a judge in power and might.
And the question of the season, the challenge of the weeks that lie ahead of us is this -are we ready?
Are you ready to meet God?
Are you ready to stand before the judgement seat?
Are you ready to welcome the new world?
Are you ready to see the old world come to an end?
The question for you and me and for the world is not are we ready in the sense that some survivalists are ready for the next big war - but are we ready for Jesus? Are we ready for the time when the world is judged - when we are judged.
The question is not have we saved enough canned food and toilet paper in our basement shelters, incidentally for those of you are visitors to Hong Kong, there are no basement shelters here in Hong Kong - but have we prepared our eternal soul to dwell in heaven.
The question is not whether we taken our resources and converted them into physical assets where neither stock market crashes or computer failures can affect them - but whether we have taken our resources and converted them into spiritual assets - the assets that never pass away even though all other things will cease.
There are some things that we can take with us - and there are other things that we cannot. The question of Advent, is are we ready? Are we awake? Are we prepared?
Our hope is that God will redeem our world.
The question is - are we ready to be redeemed?
Are we allowing the potter to form us - his clay?
Or are we thinking that the day of the Lord will never come?
It is coming my brothers and sisters-in-Christ. For us all - ready or not. May you - may I, be alert and awake. Amen
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Ezekiel 34:11-17,20-24; Psalm 100; Matthew 25:31-46
Let us pray. Creator and maker of us all – bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts – grow in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen.
I do not how many times we have heard the parable of the sheep and the goats – it is a well known story to many of us. It is a church favourite here in Hong Kong. It is also one the passages in the Gospels that underlies what theologians call “The Social Gospel.”
Every nation is gathered before the judge, before the throne of the Son of Man, before the King, and the King separates them. The right from the left, the sheep from the goats, and he judges them. Only those on the right hand side are save, and those on the left are condemned.
Most of us know this parable, and we know therefore the basis upon which the King makes His final judgement about the various nations when they are gathered before Him.
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you took me in..”
How well we know this story, and for some of us – those who measure things by how much they have done – it serves as a warning – and for others, who also measure themselves by what they have done for others – it is a comfort.
Yet, despite all our knowledge of this parable, our being reassured that we know what it means, and that we know the God of whom the story tells us about, we may not have grasped the fullness of the story.
I am going to ask you to think with me on the response of the sheep and of the goats who were standing before the King, and at the same time to consider with me the message that is found in the surprise that were expressed by both the sheep and the goats.
This parable is full of shocking, unexpected, dumbfounded surprises to everyone:
- surprise at the words and the judgements of the King
- surprise that it is not our beliefts that are considered by the King, but our actions
- surprise that it is not which denomination or how long we believe in Jesus that is being taken into consideration but our compassion and our love.
Some theologians will tell us that this is because the judgement of the nations are just that, a judgement on those people who are not joined to Christ, a judgement on those people who do not profess or follow Jesus, on those who, as the Scriptures tells us, are judged by the law that is written in their hearts. Others will say that the judgement of the King applies to all the people. Whether you are a believer or unbeliever, it makes no difference, that Jesus, in telling this story, makes no distinction between those who follow him and those who do not. For all people are expected by God to live by the law that is written in their hearts – that, as the Apostle James puts it in the second chapter of his letter to the church, “faith without works is dead”.
Whatever is the truth of the matter there is a judgement; and in that judgement, there is a great sense of surprise in both those is the “sheep” and those who are the “goats”.
We, of course, might expect the goats to be dumbfounded at the words of the King.
They are supposed to be confused, shocked and surprised when they at last come fact to face with God, are they not? Their unbelief is meant to be condemned, is it not? Their lack of compassion and of mercy for the least amongst us, is worthy of condemnation, is it not?
Yet, what makes the parable amazing is that the sheep were just as surprised.
The sheep, the righteous - those who have given the cup of cold water, who have visited those in prison, and worked for many different causes in society for the poor and needy, and have given so much to charity, and taken in refugees and strangers into their homes. They were just as dumbfounded and shocked by the King’s judgement as the unrighteous.
Both groups, both the sheep and the goats, asked the very same question of the King when he renders His judgement. Both groups asked, “Lord, when did we see you?”
Lord, when did we see you? Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
There was a time in my life when I thought that this surprise was a good thing – a very good thing that is for the sheep.
I felt and believed that their surprise fit in well with the Biblical injunction, not to let your left hand know what your hand is doing – especially when you are doing good.
I felt that the surprise of the sheep was good because it indicated to us that they were not simply doing nice things to the people around them as a way of gaining credit from God; that it meant that their love and compassion for other people was unstained by any selfish thoughts – unstained by the idea that they were somehow working towards their salvation.
The words of surprise of the sheep seemed rather sweet to me: Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And so I let the more hidden message of the parable go by.
After reading and studying this passage once again, I have come to realize that the surprise of the sheep can be seen in a different light, and I do not really know how to characterize what that light reveals, but I do know that it makes me feel a little bit sad.
Why is it that the sheep, the righteous, were surprised? Why is it that they did not see their Lord as they reached out in acts of love and compassion? What did they really miss?
What do we miss?
I think of the great joy I have had when I have been the recipient of other people’s kindness, the recipient of other people’s love.
As a young man, during my first year in England, I joined a church over there.
I was not that well known to the people of the church. I had just joined the congregation. I was not involved in much more than Sunday worship, and my skin colour is not even white. But during my first Christmas there, I and the people I shared the house that I was living in, were showered with boxes and boxes of food, and other good things.
It was an incredible feeling to be so richly and unexpectedly blessed. I felt cared for and understood, and I praised God for those who had reached out to me.
Their act of kindness and others done by that particular congregation changed my life and helped to bring me standing here in front of you today.
Alex Haley, the author of the story ‘Roots’ tells the story of how his father had his life changed by a similar act of kindness.
He was the youngest of eight children, living in a farming family. Everyone in the family was needed to help with the crops. After several years of schooling, the family will pressed each child to work on the farm. Fortunately for the boy, the mother intervened on behalf of this child, and he was allowed to stay on in school.
When he completed secondary school, he chose the Lane Institute for his university education, working as many as four jobs in addition full-time studies. It was all physically and emotionally tiring.
During the summer holidays he worked as a porter on a train, and early one morning when he was working on the train, he met a man who could not sleep and wanted someone to talk with. This man was impressed by a black porter working to earn money for university and tipped him the princely sum of five dollars, which was a lot of money in those days.
When the summer holidays came to an end that year, Mr. Harley had to make a decision as to whether he should use his summer earnings to purchase a mule and began to work on the farm, or to complete his last year of university. He took the risk of completing his university education.
Alex Haley tells us what happened next. When his father arrived on campus, the president called him into his office and showed him a letter he had just received. The letter was from the elderly man whom his father had met on the train, and inside the envelope was a cheque for the sum of $518, enough money to cover his father’s tuition fees and living expenses for one full year.
The kindness of an unknown person made all the difference in the life of Alex Haley’s father, Alex Haley himself, and every succeeding generation of that family.
As a person who has been in need of help in the past, I know what the acts of love and care performed by a stranger can mean to oneself.
Each of you here, I am almost certain, also knows what it can mean.
Each of you, I am almost certain, has a story like mine, or like that of Alex Haley’s father, stored away somewhere in your personal history in your family’s history.
So – what are we really missing, when, as the doers of these deeds of kindness, we are surprised when the Son of Man says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcome me?”
What are we missing when we feel burned out, tired from giving to too many worthy organization, worn out from working on too many worthy causes?
What are we missing when we doing good deeds and yet feel that we have not yet met God?
I think that the answer is simple. We are missing the sense of holy in the ordinary. We are missing the sense of the imminence of God.
It may be stretching the point of the parable of the sheep and the goats a bit far, but I just cannot get away from the feeling that we all to often lead our lives as if Christ did not exist. Our moment and our days, even when filled with doing good deeds, often are not sanctified, blessed, made fully alive by the sense of Christ’s living presence.
My best moments as a human being, are not just the moments when I show care to one of the least of my brothers and sisters. My best moments are when I do so in the awareness that I am ministering to my Lord and Saviour: when I am aware that Christ lives inside the least of my brothers and sisters, whether these brothers and sisters are the less fortunate of those of us who are joined to Christ, or the pagans and gentiles amongst us, the ones in whom no form of blessed can be detected. Those of whom, we do not consider to be our brothers and sisters because of who they are or what they may have done.
Such a sense of awareness serves to keep me humble. Such an awareness serves to keep me alert.
It is an awareness that should all be cultivating. This awareness that Christ may be found and found especially amongst the poor, and the lonely and the sick, amongst those in prison, and those who simply needed nothing more but a drink of cold water.
Let us all think of it, think back 2000 years ago, when the Son of Man, the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords wandered this earth as a poor preacher in a poor land, having no home to call his own, much less a throne of righteousness. Think if when the Son of God was put on trail for blasphemy and flogged 39 times, and then was hung on a cross as a common criminal.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And think of it today, 2000 more years later.
Where is Christ to be found?
Is he not among us, as it was so very long ago?
Is he not, according to His own words, to be found in the least of our brothers and sisters, in those who are most neglected, scorn or despise?
Thinking about where Christ is to be found transforms what I do and helps me to transform into who I am.
It gives a rich meaning to my actions, it lifts up my spirit in hope and in worship. It makes me wanting to praise God, even when I am feeling tired and worn out. It gives me new strength.
What a privilege we have, each and every one of us, when we reach out and touch someone, for in doing so, we may be, no, we are, in fact, reaching out to touch God, reaching out to touch Christ.
I understand the surprise of those on the right side of the Son of Man. I understand the feeling of shock and surprise of the sheep. I understand it because it is so very easy for me to forget the privilege that I have. So easy for me to start living a life as if Christ was not actually here in this building, this town, and this place we call Hong Kong. So easy for me to do what I do as if it were a burden, rather than as a glorious service to my God…
I understand, but at the same time, I do find it a little sad. Sad, not because doing good has no effect, but feeling sad, because seeing Christ in those around us is so enriching, so helpful, as we walk the walk that he calls us to walk, and yet seeing so many losing the way in this walk.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And the King will answer them, “Truly I tell you – just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.
May you be with Christ in your walk, day by day. Amen.
I do not how many times we have heard the parable of the sheep and the goats – it is a well known story to many of us. It is a church favourite here in Hong Kong. It is also one the passages in the Gospels that underlies what theologians call “The Social Gospel.”
Every nation is gathered before the judge, before the throne of the Son of Man, before the King, and the King separates them. The right from the left, the sheep from the goats, and he judges them. Only those on the right hand side are save, and those on the left are condemned.
Most of us know this parable, and we know therefore the basis upon which the King makes His final judgement about the various nations when they are gathered before Him.
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you took me in..”
How well we know this story, and for some of us – those who measure things by how much they have done – it serves as a warning – and for others, who also measure themselves by what they have done for others – it is a comfort.
Yet, despite all our knowledge of this parable, our being reassured that we know what it means, and that we know the God of whom the story tells us about, we may not have grasped the fullness of the story.
I am going to ask you to think with me on the response of the sheep and of the goats who were standing before the King, and at the same time to consider with me the message that is found in the surprise that were expressed by both the sheep and the goats.
This parable is full of shocking, unexpected, dumbfounded surprises to everyone:
- surprise at the words and the judgements of the King
- surprise that it is not our beliefts that are considered by the King, but our actions
- surprise that it is not which denomination or how long we believe in Jesus that is being taken into consideration but our compassion and our love.
Some theologians will tell us that this is because the judgement of the nations are just that, a judgement on those people who are not joined to Christ, a judgement on those people who do not profess or follow Jesus, on those who, as the Scriptures tells us, are judged by the law that is written in their hearts. Others will say that the judgement of the King applies to all the people. Whether you are a believer or unbeliever, it makes no difference, that Jesus, in telling this story, makes no distinction between those who follow him and those who do not. For all people are expected by God to live by the law that is written in their hearts – that, as the Apostle James puts it in the second chapter of his letter to the church, “faith without works is dead”.
Whatever is the truth of the matter there is a judgement; and in that judgement, there is a great sense of surprise in both those is the “sheep” and those who are the “goats”.
We, of course, might expect the goats to be dumbfounded at the words of the King.
They are supposed to be confused, shocked and surprised when they at last come fact to face with God, are they not? Their unbelief is meant to be condemned, is it not? Their lack of compassion and of mercy for the least amongst us, is worthy of condemnation, is it not?
Yet, what makes the parable amazing is that the sheep were just as surprised.
The sheep, the righteous - those who have given the cup of cold water, who have visited those in prison, and worked for many different causes in society for the poor and needy, and have given so much to charity, and taken in refugees and strangers into their homes. They were just as dumbfounded and shocked by the King’s judgement as the unrighteous.
Both groups, both the sheep and the goats, asked the very same question of the King when he renders His judgement. Both groups asked, “Lord, when did we see you?”
Lord, when did we see you? Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
There was a time in my life when I thought that this surprise was a good thing – a very good thing that is for the sheep.
I felt and believed that their surprise fit in well with the Biblical injunction, not to let your left hand know what your hand is doing – especially when you are doing good.
I felt that the surprise of the sheep was good because it indicated to us that they were not simply doing nice things to the people around them as a way of gaining credit from God; that it meant that their love and compassion for other people was unstained by any selfish thoughts – unstained by the idea that they were somehow working towards their salvation.
The words of surprise of the sheep seemed rather sweet to me: Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And so I let the more hidden message of the parable go by.
After reading and studying this passage once again, I have come to realize that the surprise of the sheep can be seen in a different light, and I do not really know how to characterize what that light reveals, but I do know that it makes me feel a little bit sad.
Why is it that the sheep, the righteous, were surprised? Why is it that they did not see their Lord as they reached out in acts of love and compassion? What did they really miss?
What do we miss?
I think of the great joy I have had when I have been the recipient of other people’s kindness, the recipient of other people’s love.
As a young man, during my first year in England, I joined a church over there.
I was not that well known to the people of the church. I had just joined the congregation. I was not involved in much more than Sunday worship, and my skin colour is not even white. But during my first Christmas there, I and the people I shared the house that I was living in, were showered with boxes and boxes of food, and other good things.
It was an incredible feeling to be so richly and unexpectedly blessed. I felt cared for and understood, and I praised God for those who had reached out to me.
Their act of kindness and others done by that particular congregation changed my life and helped to bring me standing here in front of you today.
Alex Haley, the author of the story ‘Roots’ tells the story of how his father had his life changed by a similar act of kindness.
He was the youngest of eight children, living in a farming family. Everyone in the family was needed to help with the crops. After several years of schooling, the family will pressed each child to work on the farm. Fortunately for the boy, the mother intervened on behalf of this child, and he was allowed to stay on in school.
When he completed secondary school, he chose the Lane Institute for his university education, working as many as four jobs in addition full-time studies. It was all physically and emotionally tiring.
During the summer holidays he worked as a porter on a train, and early one morning when he was working on the train, he met a man who could not sleep and wanted someone to talk with. This man was impressed by a black porter working to earn money for university and tipped him the princely sum of five dollars, which was a lot of money in those days.
When the summer holidays came to an end that year, Mr. Harley had to make a decision as to whether he should use his summer earnings to purchase a mule and began to work on the farm, or to complete his last year of university. He took the risk of completing his university education.
Alex Haley tells us what happened next. When his father arrived on campus, the president called him into his office and showed him a letter he had just received. The letter was from the elderly man whom his father had met on the train, and inside the envelope was a cheque for the sum of $518, enough money to cover his father’s tuition fees and living expenses for one full year.
The kindness of an unknown person made all the difference in the life of Alex Haley’s father, Alex Haley himself, and every succeeding generation of that family.
As a person who has been in need of help in the past, I know what the acts of love and care performed by a stranger can mean to oneself.
Each of you here, I am almost certain, also knows what it can mean.
Each of you, I am almost certain, has a story like mine, or like that of Alex Haley’s father, stored away somewhere in your personal history in your family’s history.
So – what are we really missing, when, as the doers of these deeds of kindness, we are surprised when the Son of Man says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcome me?”
What are we missing when we feel burned out, tired from giving to too many worthy organization, worn out from working on too many worthy causes?
What are we missing when we doing good deeds and yet feel that we have not yet met God?
I think that the answer is simple. We are missing the sense of holy in the ordinary. We are missing the sense of the imminence of God.
It may be stretching the point of the parable of the sheep and the goats a bit far, but I just cannot get away from the feeling that we all to often lead our lives as if Christ did not exist. Our moment and our days, even when filled with doing good deeds, often are not sanctified, blessed, made fully alive by the sense of Christ’s living presence.
My best moments as a human being, are not just the moments when I show care to one of the least of my brothers and sisters. My best moments are when I do so in the awareness that I am ministering to my Lord and Saviour: when I am aware that Christ lives inside the least of my brothers and sisters, whether these brothers and sisters are the less fortunate of those of us who are joined to Christ, or the pagans and gentiles amongst us, the ones in whom no form of blessed can be detected. Those of whom, we do not consider to be our brothers and sisters because of who they are or what they may have done.
Such a sense of awareness serves to keep me humble. Such an awareness serves to keep me alert.
It is an awareness that should all be cultivating. This awareness that Christ may be found and found especially amongst the poor, and the lonely and the sick, amongst those in prison, and those who simply needed nothing more but a drink of cold water.
Let us all think of it, think back 2000 years ago, when the Son of Man, the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords wandered this earth as a poor preacher in a poor land, having no home to call his own, much less a throne of righteousness. Think if when the Son of God was put on trail for blasphemy and flogged 39 times, and then was hung on a cross as a common criminal.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And think of it today, 2000 more years later.
Where is Christ to be found?
Is he not among us, as it was so very long ago?
Is he not, according to His own words, to be found in the least of our brothers and sisters, in those who are most neglected, scorn or despise?
Thinking about where Christ is to be found transforms what I do and helps me to transform into who I am.
It gives a rich meaning to my actions, it lifts up my spirit in hope and in worship. It makes me wanting to praise God, even when I am feeling tired and worn out. It gives me new strength.
What a privilege we have, each and every one of us, when we reach out and touch someone, for in doing so, we may be, no, we are, in fact, reaching out to touch God, reaching out to touch Christ.
I understand the surprise of those on the right side of the Son of Man. I understand the feeling of shock and surprise of the sheep. I understand it because it is so very easy for me to forget the privilege that I have. So easy for me to start living a life as if Christ was not actually here in this building, this town, and this place we call Hong Kong. So easy for me to do what I do as if it were a burden, rather than as a glorious service to my God…
I understand, but at the same time, I do find it a little sad. Sad, not because doing good has no effect, but feeling sad, because seeing Christ in those around us is so enriching, so helpful, as we walk the walk that he calls us to walk, and yet seeing so many losing the way in this walk.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And the King will answer them, “Truly I tell you – just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.
May you be with Christ in your walk, day by day. Amen.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Matthew 25:14-30
The parable of the talents is a parable about the manner in which God will judge the world and his people. It is a straightforward account.
A man who is about to leave on a journey entrusts his servants with different portions of his property. They are to look after that property and to ensure that it continues to work for the master, that it continues to make a profit while he is away.
Two of the servants double the investment they are intrusted with, and are richly rewarded for doing so; but the third gains nothing from it for his master, all he does is keep what he is given safe - following the custom of the time he buries the money so that no harm might come to it.
The result for him? What was entrusted to him is taken from him and given to the servant with the 10 talents - and he is cast off the estate of his master and into the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! - forever! - in darkness! - in torment....
Wow! Pretty heavy stuff this!
Right in there with several other stories and teachings about the end of time - stories in the 24th and 25th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew about the coming of the master to his rightful estate - of the groom to his bride - of the king to his throne in the imperial court - cautionary tales - that end with evil servants being cut to pieces and assigned a place with the hypocrites and careless maidens being denied their spots at the wedding feast - stories, like that of today's parable of the talents - which end with the ones who have blown it - the ones who have proven themselves to be goats instead of sheep, being thrown into eternal fire - while those who have heeded their Master - those who have looked for him - those who have fed him and clothed him - those who have invested for him - enjoy great reward.
As I said - it is a straightforward account this parable of the talents, this parable of the three servants who each were entrusted with fabulous wealth by their master, - a straightforward account of how God judges the world.
So what should we make of it?
Well - I think we need to consider ourselves to be one of the servants in the parable. Or perhaps even as a forth servant.
We need to consider ourselves - and our family - and our church as a servant entrusted with fabulous wealth - wealth to look after - wealth to steward - while our master goes on a long trip.
We need to consider ourselves as having been given one or two, or three, or four, or five or maybe even ten talents and being left with this money - this treasure - to do with what we will.
What would we do? What will we do?
I ask that because that is what God has done. God has given each one of us a fabulous a treasure - each in a different but abundant measure, and left what we do with it up to us.
God has endowed you.
God has endowed me.
God has endowed this church.
So where are we at with it?
And we going to play it safe? And it put it in the bank? Like the third servant did? Or are we going to risk it? Like the first and second servants did?
Think about it.
Think about what God has entrusted to you.
Think about who God has entrusted to you.....
Think about it.
Think about what we have been given in this life by our God. What we have been entrusted with for a matter of a few years, and what we have been promised will be ours for an eternity.
Think of the fantastic treasure that has been poured out upon us with the giving of our breath, with each meal we can eat, with each person we come into contact with, with each sight we can see.
I don't think that most of us think about enough. If we did - things would be different wouldn't they? Different for us. Different for our world.
There is a little article I been told has been reprinted in various forms in different church newsletters. It goes like this:
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
- Would our church be empty on Sunday, or full to overflowing, if everyone attended as I do?
- How much Bible Study and prayer would occur if everyone took the time I do?
- How many bruised, hurting, lonely people, would be touched by the church if every member acted exactly as I do?
- Would we need more ushers and offering plates if everyone gave like me?
- How many children would be led to faith through the Sunday School and church if everyone had my priorities?
- Would the church just be an attractive social club? Would it be closed, bankrupt, out of business? Or would it be a dynamic force for Jesus Christ in our community and our world - if everyone were just like me?
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
You know - one of the basic teachings of the bible, of the whole bible, the New Testament as much if not more than the Old, is that if don't use it - we lose it.
Even though Paul writes: "it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved, not by works, lest anyone should boast" there remains a judgement. A judgement grounded in mercy most surely; a judgement given in love - no doubt; but none-the-less, a judgement.
Some once rewrote the Parable of the Talents to try to get at this point. The rewrite goes like this:
Once there was a king who had three sons, each with a special talent. The first had a talent for growing fruit. The second for raising sheep. And the third for playing the violin. Once, the king had to go overseas on important business. Before departing he called his three sons together and told them he was depending on them to keep the people contented in his absence.
Now for a while things went well. But then came the winter, a bitter and cruel winter it was. There was an acute shortage of firewood. Thus the first son was faced with a very difficult decision. Should he allow the people to cut down some of his beloved fruit trees for firewood? When he saw the people shivering with cold, he finally allowed them to do so.
The second son was also faced with a difficult decision. Food became very scarce. Should he allow the people to kill some of his beloved sheep for food? When he saw the children crying from hunger, his heart went out to them and he allowed them to kill some of the sheep.
Thus the people had firewood for their fires, and food for their tables. Nevertheless the harsh winter continued to oppress them. Their spirits began to sag, and there was no one to cheer them up. They turned to the fiddler, but he refused to play for them. In the end things got so bad that in desperation many of them emigrated.
Then one day the king arrived back home. He was terribly sad to find that many of his people had left his kingdom. He called in his three sons to give an account of what had gone wrong. The first said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry at me, but the winter was very cold and so I allowed the people to cut down some of the fruit trees for firewood." And the second son said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry with me because when food got scarce I allowed the people to kill some of my sheep."
On hearing this, far from being angry, the father embraced his two sons, and told them that he was proud of them.
Then the third son came forward carrying his fiddle with him. "Father", he said, "I refused to play because you weren't here to enjoy the music."
"Well then", said the king, "play me a tune now because my heart is full of sorrow." The son raised the violin and bow, but found that his fingers had gone stiff from lack of exercise. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get them to move. Then the father said, "You could have cheered up the people with your music, but you refused. If the kingdom is half-empty, the fault is yours. But now you can no longer play. That will be your punishment."
What would the church be like if every member was like me?
What would the world be like if every believer believed like I do?
You know the problem with the third servant don't you?
His problem was his fear. He either feared too much - or not enough. And so he was very very careful of all that the master gave him.
Like the man who is afraid to love - because he might get hurt. Like the woman who is afraid to reach out - because she might be rejected. Like the child who is afraid to walk - because he might fall down, the third servant was afraid; and as in the case of all most fears, his fear came true - what he had was not enough for his master.
The third servant was afraid. He was afraid even though the constant message of God - the message seen whenever God visits his people - is - "be not afraid".
Be not afraid.
Be not afraid of losing what you have.
Be not afraid of being alone, or of being hated
Be not afraid of suffering or dying.
Trust God.
Trust in the one who said "they who seek to save their lives will lose them, but they who give their lives for me and for the gospel, will save them."
Trust in the one who gave himself on the cross - and who in doing so made an end of death.
The parable of the talents is not a lesson about our degree of ability or productivity.
It is a lesson about our attitude and our responsibility
- about stepping out with God's treasure in our hands and risking it all for the sake of God.
- about really daring to love - really daring to care, even though the conditions do not seem right for it, even though the persons involved do not really seem worthy of it, even though a thousand and one bad things might happen.
The sin of the third servant that could not be forgiven, it is the sin of not daring to risk - the sin of not believing that God will reward all who trust in him, the sin of not trusting the one who gave his life for us to raise us up when we give our lives for him.
The mystery of the Gospel is not entrusted to the Church to be buried in the ground. It is given to the Church in order to be risked in the change and interchange of the spiritual commerce of humanity.
Be not afraid
- if we invested ourselves as well as we are able too in God's work
- if we use the gifts of God for the glory of God, God will be pleased with us - and we will enter into his joy, we will sit down and eat with groom, and we will abide in the blessedness saved up for all who trust and believe, both now - and forevermore. Amen
A man who is about to leave on a journey entrusts his servants with different portions of his property. They are to look after that property and to ensure that it continues to work for the master, that it continues to make a profit while he is away.
Two of the servants double the investment they are intrusted with, and are richly rewarded for doing so; but the third gains nothing from it for his master, all he does is keep what he is given safe - following the custom of the time he buries the money so that no harm might come to it.
The result for him? What was entrusted to him is taken from him and given to the servant with the 10 talents - and he is cast off the estate of his master and into the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! - forever! - in darkness! - in torment....
Wow! Pretty heavy stuff this!
Right in there with several other stories and teachings about the end of time - stories in the 24th and 25th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew about the coming of the master to his rightful estate - of the groom to his bride - of the king to his throne in the imperial court - cautionary tales - that end with evil servants being cut to pieces and assigned a place with the hypocrites and careless maidens being denied their spots at the wedding feast - stories, like that of today's parable of the talents - which end with the ones who have blown it - the ones who have proven themselves to be goats instead of sheep, being thrown into eternal fire - while those who have heeded their Master - those who have looked for him - those who have fed him and clothed him - those who have invested for him - enjoy great reward.
As I said - it is a straightforward account this parable of the talents, this parable of the three servants who each were entrusted with fabulous wealth by their master, - a straightforward account of how God judges the world.
So what should we make of it?
Well - I think we need to consider ourselves to be one of the servants in the parable. Or perhaps even as a forth servant.
We need to consider ourselves - and our family - and our church as a servant entrusted with fabulous wealth - wealth to look after - wealth to steward - while our master goes on a long trip.
We need to consider ourselves as having been given one or two, or three, or four, or five or maybe even ten talents and being left with this money - this treasure - to do with what we will.
What would we do? What will we do?
I ask that because that is what God has done. God has given each one of us a fabulous a treasure - each in a different but abundant measure, and left what we do with it up to us.
God has endowed you.
God has endowed me.
God has endowed this church.
So where are we at with it?
And we going to play it safe? And it put it in the bank? Like the third servant did? Or are we going to risk it? Like the first and second servants did?
Think about it.
Think about what God has entrusted to you.
Think about who God has entrusted to you.....
Think about it.
Think about what we have been given in this life by our God. What we have been entrusted with for a matter of a few years, and what we have been promised will be ours for an eternity.
Think of the fantastic treasure that has been poured out upon us with the giving of our breath, with each meal we can eat, with each person we come into contact with, with each sight we can see.
I don't think that most of us think about enough. If we did - things would be different wouldn't they? Different for us. Different for our world.
There is a little article I been told has been reprinted in various forms in different church newsletters. It goes like this:
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
- Would our church be empty on Sunday, or full to overflowing, if everyone attended as I do?
- How much Bible Study and prayer would occur if everyone took the time I do?
- How many bruised, hurting, lonely people, would be touched by the church if every member acted exactly as I do?
- Would we need more ushers and offering plates if everyone gave like me?
- How many children would be led to faith through the Sunday School and church if everyone had my priorities?
- Would the church just be an attractive social club? Would it be closed, bankrupt, out of business? Or would it be a dynamic force for Jesus Christ in our community and our world - if everyone were just like me?
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
You know - one of the basic teachings of the bible, of the whole bible, the New Testament as much if not more than the Old, is that if don't use it - we lose it.
Even though Paul writes: "it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved, not by works, lest anyone should boast" there remains a judgement. A judgement grounded in mercy most surely; a judgement given in love - no doubt; but none-the-less, a judgement.
Some once rewrote the Parable of the Talents to try to get at this point. The rewrite goes like this:
Once there was a king who had three sons, each with a special talent. The first had a talent for growing fruit. The second for raising sheep. And the third for playing the violin. Once, the king had to go overseas on important business. Before departing he called his three sons together and told them he was depending on them to keep the people contented in his absence.
Now for a while things went well. But then came the winter, a bitter and cruel winter it was. There was an acute shortage of firewood. Thus the first son was faced with a very difficult decision. Should he allow the people to cut down some of his beloved fruit trees for firewood? When he saw the people shivering with cold, he finally allowed them to do so.
The second son was also faced with a difficult decision. Food became very scarce. Should he allow the people to kill some of his beloved sheep for food? When he saw the children crying from hunger, his heart went out to them and he allowed them to kill some of the sheep.
Thus the people had firewood for their fires, and food for their tables. Nevertheless the harsh winter continued to oppress them. Their spirits began to sag, and there was no one to cheer them up. They turned to the fiddler, but he refused to play for them. In the end things got so bad that in desperation many of them emigrated.
Then one day the king arrived back home. He was terribly sad to find that many of his people had left his kingdom. He called in his three sons to give an account of what had gone wrong. The first said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry at me, but the winter was very cold and so I allowed the people to cut down some of the fruit trees for firewood." And the second son said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry with me because when food got scarce I allowed the people to kill some of my sheep."
On hearing this, far from being angry, the father embraced his two sons, and told them that he was proud of them.
Then the third son came forward carrying his fiddle with him. "Father", he said, "I refused to play because you weren't here to enjoy the music."
"Well then", said the king, "play me a tune now because my heart is full of sorrow." The son raised the violin and bow, but found that his fingers had gone stiff from lack of exercise. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get them to move. Then the father said, "You could have cheered up the people with your music, but you refused. If the kingdom is half-empty, the fault is yours. But now you can no longer play. That will be your punishment."
What would the church be like if every member was like me?
What would the world be like if every believer believed like I do?
You know the problem with the third servant don't you?
His problem was his fear. He either feared too much - or not enough. And so he was very very careful of all that the master gave him.
Like the man who is afraid to love - because he might get hurt. Like the woman who is afraid to reach out - because she might be rejected. Like the child who is afraid to walk - because he might fall down, the third servant was afraid; and as in the case of all most fears, his fear came true - what he had was not enough for his master.
The third servant was afraid. He was afraid even though the constant message of God - the message seen whenever God visits his people - is - "be not afraid".
Be not afraid.
Be not afraid of losing what you have.
Be not afraid of being alone, or of being hated
Be not afraid of suffering or dying.
Trust God.
Trust in the one who said "they who seek to save their lives will lose them, but they who give their lives for me and for the gospel, will save them."
Trust in the one who gave himself on the cross - and who in doing so made an end of death.
The parable of the talents is not a lesson about our degree of ability or productivity.
It is a lesson about our attitude and our responsibility
- about stepping out with God's treasure in our hands and risking it all for the sake of God.
- about really daring to love - really daring to care, even though the conditions do not seem right for it, even though the persons involved do not really seem worthy of it, even though a thousand and one bad things might happen.
The sin of the third servant that could not be forgiven, it is the sin of not daring to risk - the sin of not believing that God will reward all who trust in him, the sin of not trusting the one who gave his life for us to raise us up when we give our lives for him.
The mystery of the Gospel is not entrusted to the Church to be buried in the ground. It is given to the Church in order to be risked in the change and interchange of the spiritual commerce of humanity.
Be not afraid
- if we invested ourselves as well as we are able too in God's work
- if we use the gifts of God for the glory of God, God will be pleased with us - and we will enter into his joy, we will sit down and eat with groom, and we will abide in the blessedness saved up for all who trust and believe, both now - and forevermore. Amen
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Joshua 24:1-3a,14-25; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13
Let us Pray: Bless I pray, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - in Jesus name. Amen.
A Time of Remembering - A Time of Decision - this is the focus of today's reading from the Book of Joshua
As Joshua - as an old man - about to die - called the people of Israel together - to remember and to decide - so we are called together here today - to remember - and to decide
We remember today - what for some
- the sacrifice, the pain, the loss
- the comradeship - the closeness - the hopes and fears
- the evil that threatened - the victory that came
We remember too - as we did in the Litany of Reconciliation and Justice - the deeper things of God and of this world - of the things in this world that divide families, groups, peoples, and nations one from the other - and of the need not only forpeace - but for the justice that upon which true peace is built - the justice and the love that shows mercy to those who seek it - and even to those who do not..
Value of remembering
- for some - is strictly in telling the story - in sharing what is important to them - in working out the good and the bad - the happy and the sad - one has encountered.
- for others it is the issues - the lessons - involved in any telling of the past - the education it can provide - for others it is a matter of honouring - of respecting - of evoking the emotions and feelings that are best in a person - laughter, joy, tears, peace, outrage, forgiveness, humility, determination.
Remembering is good - but primarily today, remembering is a call for decision on our part - and without the decision - without the deciding that we are called to do remembering has little power or purpose.
In our scripture reading this morning Joshua told the story of how God had treated the children of Israel - how he had chosen Abraham - and Isaac - and Jacob and promised them a land - how he had remembered Joseph in Egypt and raised up Moses to deliver the people - how he had led his people safely from the clutches of Pharaoh and watched over them in the Wilderness of Sinai - and how finally he had brought the 12 tribes across the Jordan and into the promised land, driving out their enemies before them, and giving them a land that they had not laboured for, grapes and olives that they didn't plant.
He tells the story - he remembers and he then calls the people to understand what has been remembered and to make a decision the decision to choose to follow and be true to the God who gave them life - or to choose to follow in the path of the nations around them and to worship their gods.
The people respond to this challenge by reciting back to Joshua the story as they remember it - of how God worked miracles to set them free and all though other nations were all around them the Lord protected them where-ever they went and they then say to Joshua that like him - they will serve the God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses - the God that has been good to them.
And so we are called today to remember - to remember not only all those who suffered and died - who sweat and sacrificed so much - but to remember the reason for which all honourable men and women have fought through the centuries - namely the good of not only their nation - but of the whole world - AND - most importantly - We are called to choose.
When Joshua reminds the people of their history - of their experience - and then demands that the people choose what God they will serve - he tells them that this is no easy decision that there is a cost involved the cost of total commitment - and that should they falter - should they put their hand to the plow and look back; - should they attempt to live with one foot in the kingdom of God - the God who gives life - and the other in the world of idols that God himself will turn against them and make terrible things to happen to them - and then he will finally wipe them out - even though he has been good to them in the past.
Today we remember - and we are called to choose
We are called to choose this day much the same thing Joshua called the people of Israel to choose.
We are called to choose life or death, to choose God and the things of God - or ourselves alone - and the things of this world
And the message for us is the same as the message to the children of Israel, the same message that every veteran of every battle with this world's evil can tell you - namely they who forgot - they who choose to ignore the call of God and to instead be like everyone else - to be a people who look after only themselves - a people who seek wealth instead of justice - who pursue happiness rather the way of truth - who elevate peace as a value over that of the truth of God - are lost.
Should we follow other gods - should we value our own prosperity while ignoring the poverty of others - should we desire our own comfort more than we desire to help others - should we value the peace of endless compromise to the hard work of speaking truth to those who lie, and in doing justice even though it may cost us our own lives then not only will the sacrifice made by so many others on our behalf be in vain, and their memory dishonoured even as speak their names but we ourselves and our descendants after us - will perish.
The kingdom of God, the kingdom that is distinguished by joyful peace, by freedom from pain and death, by love that knows no hate, by plenty that knows no limit demands our all.
As Jesus gave himself wholly for us on the cross - and in doing so rose to new life on the third day so we are called to give ourselves completely for the sake of what is right. May His name be blessed day by day, Amen!
A Time of Remembering - A Time of Decision - this is the focus of today's reading from the Book of Joshua
As Joshua - as an old man - about to die - called the people of Israel together - to remember and to decide - so we are called together here today - to remember - and to decide
We remember today - what for some
- the sacrifice, the pain, the loss
- the comradeship - the closeness - the hopes and fears
- the evil that threatened - the victory that came
We remember too - as we did in the Litany of Reconciliation and Justice - the deeper things of God and of this world - of the things in this world that divide families, groups, peoples, and nations one from the other - and of the need not only forpeace - but for the justice that upon which true peace is built - the justice and the love that shows mercy to those who seek it - and even to those who do not..
Value of remembering
- for some - is strictly in telling the story - in sharing what is important to them - in working out the good and the bad - the happy and the sad - one has encountered.
- for others it is the issues - the lessons - involved in any telling of the past - the education it can provide - for others it is a matter of honouring - of respecting - of evoking the emotions and feelings that are best in a person - laughter, joy, tears, peace, outrage, forgiveness, humility, determination.
Remembering is good - but primarily today, remembering is a call for decision on our part - and without the decision - without the deciding that we are called to do remembering has little power or purpose.
In our scripture reading this morning Joshua told the story of how God had treated the children of Israel - how he had chosen Abraham - and Isaac - and Jacob and promised them a land - how he had remembered Joseph in Egypt and raised up Moses to deliver the people - how he had led his people safely from the clutches of Pharaoh and watched over them in the Wilderness of Sinai - and how finally he had brought the 12 tribes across the Jordan and into the promised land, driving out their enemies before them, and giving them a land that they had not laboured for, grapes and olives that they didn't plant.
He tells the story - he remembers and he then calls the people to understand what has been remembered and to make a decision the decision to choose to follow and be true to the God who gave them life - or to choose to follow in the path of the nations around them and to worship their gods.
The people respond to this challenge by reciting back to Joshua the story as they remember it - of how God worked miracles to set them free and all though other nations were all around them the Lord protected them where-ever they went and they then say to Joshua that like him - they will serve the God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses - the God that has been good to them.
And so we are called today to remember - to remember not only all those who suffered and died - who sweat and sacrificed so much - but to remember the reason for which all honourable men and women have fought through the centuries - namely the good of not only their nation - but of the whole world - AND - most importantly - We are called to choose.
When Joshua reminds the people of their history - of their experience - and then demands that the people choose what God they will serve - he tells them that this is no easy decision that there is a cost involved the cost of total commitment - and that should they falter - should they put their hand to the plow and look back; - should they attempt to live with one foot in the kingdom of God - the God who gives life - and the other in the world of idols that God himself will turn against them and make terrible things to happen to them - and then he will finally wipe them out - even though he has been good to them in the past.
Today we remember - and we are called to choose
We are called to choose this day much the same thing Joshua called the people of Israel to choose.
We are called to choose life or death, to choose God and the things of God - or ourselves alone - and the things of this world
And the message for us is the same as the message to the children of Israel, the same message that every veteran of every battle with this world's evil can tell you - namely they who forgot - they who choose to ignore the call of God and to instead be like everyone else - to be a people who look after only themselves - a people who seek wealth instead of justice - who pursue happiness rather the way of truth - who elevate peace as a value over that of the truth of God - are lost.
Should we follow other gods - should we value our own prosperity while ignoring the poverty of others - should we desire our own comfort more than we desire to help others - should we value the peace of endless compromise to the hard work of speaking truth to those who lie, and in doing justice even though it may cost us our own lives then not only will the sacrifice made by so many others on our behalf be in vain, and their memory dishonoured even as speak their names but we ourselves and our descendants after us - will perish.
The kingdom of God, the kingdom that is distinguished by joyful peace, by freedom from pain and death, by love that knows no hate, by plenty that knows no limit demands our all.
As Jesus gave himself wholly for us on the cross - and in doing so rose to new life on the third day so we are called to give ourselves completely for the sake of what is right. May His name be blessed day by day, Amen!
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