Investment Strategies
Matthew 25:14-30
You will
hear this at almost every Little League game.
A batter will step up to the plate and a parent in the stands will shout
out, “You can do it! Swing hard! Concentrate and remember everything I taught
you, hands together and shoulder squared.
Keep your eye on the ball. You
can do it!”
That same
sermon will be repeated over the dinner table when report cards are
reviewed. “I know you can do
better. You just need to try
harder. Pay attention to the teacher. You can do it. I know you can. I know you have it in you to
do better.”
It is the
job of all parents to believe in their children, to encourage them, to build up
their self-esteem and help them discover the gifts and abilities that lie
within, and tell them, “You can do it. I
know you can.”
That is
Jesus’ message in his parable of the talents.
He’s behind you, encouraging you, telling you, “You can do it. I know you can.” He knows you have it in you
as surely as he knows the heavenly Father.
He knows God has given each of his children gifts and abilities, talents
and treasure and the blessing of time that can be used to further the kingdom.
Jesus knows you have it in you to be and do more than you ever thought you
could.
That’s the
meaning of this parable. So, I could probably stop right here and send you out
to do it; but you know that’s not going to happen. There’s always a little more to uncover, a
little more to understand. Before we do
that, let us pray:
God, we are
continually amazed at the care and concern you show for a world of flesh and
blood. We think of you so much in a
spiritual realm, but you’ve taught us to pray, “thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.”
Again and
again in story after story you have lifted physical needs and placed them on
par with those that are spiritual. Again
and again in story after story you have shown that the worth of an individual
is measured not in what they have gathered for themselves but in how they have
given of themselves. Help us Lord to
learn to give so that we might learn to live as you have called us. Help us so that we might one day hear the
words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Amen.
Jesus tells
this story of three servants. Their
master is going on a journey and calls them together for the purpose of
distributing the responsibilities of keeping the home fires burning. He entrusts them with varying amount of
wealth so they would have the ability to do that. The first receive five talents, the second –
two, and the third – one. Now, a talent
was a measure of weight and not ability.
It was not something you could do like playing the guitar; it was
something you could own, a talent of silver or gold. By the time of Jesus it
signified great wealth. Today you could
read a “million dollars” for the word talent.
Now you’ll
notice that each one was given a different amount “according”, Jesus said, “to
their ability.”[1] Before you say, “That’s not fair. Why doesn’t everyone get the same?” Remember, Jesus is describing the real world
and not some idealized utopia. We are all born into different life situations.
Clearly, some have more apparent ability than others for reasons only God
understands. What is important to note
is that while one million dollars is not five million dollars - it is still a
lot of money, which in this parable means everyone has been given something of
value. Sometimes we just don’t see what
it is.
For
example, there is a psychologist at Harvard named Howard Garner who
revolutionized the study of intelligence.
He says we have been studying I.Q. all wrong. On our intelligence tests only measure one or
two forms of intelligence. Gardner says that there
are actually seven. Some people are
gifted with linguistic intelligence and write particularly well and others are
gifted with mathematical intelligence.
They make good accountants and scientists. Some people are gifted spatially and these
make good artists and architects. Some
are gifted kinesthetically. Their bodies are unusually graceful and
coordinated. Some are gifted
interpersonally and become counselors or teachers or preachers. Some are gifted musically.
Here is the
important point. Gardner claims that everyone he has ever
tested has scored high on at least one of these seven forms of
intelligence. All of us are gifted in
our own way. There’s more to us than we
think.
After
doling out the talents, the master leaves, and don’t miss the meaning here.
Matthew placed this parable right before the story of the Last Supper and his arrest
in the Garden of Gethsemane
After the
master leaves, these three servants begin their investment strategies. They did it the same way we do it today. Go to a financial adviser today and the first
two questions you will be asked are: “What are you investment goals? What is
your tolerance for risk?” And more
recently, "what do you think the government is going to do?"
Clearly, in
this parable the first two servants answered these questions differently than
the third. Jesus said, “The one who had
five talents went at once and traded with them and made five talents more.”[2] The verb “traded” in its tense and context
indicates an on-going activity. He
didn’t just get lucky with one financial investment. He didn’t play the lotto and win. Rather, investing became part of his
life. He thought about it every day and
worked at it. He was building a
portfolio for the future, and so he was thinking long term. Remember, though,
this first servant was not working for his future. He was investing for his master. His personal goals were not nearly as
important as those of his Lord. This investment strategy kept that it mind
and so he was willing to take some risk.
Great vision requires that.
The second servant did the same thing. He invested his two talents and doubled
them. Of the three, I think it is this
one with whom we most identify. This
middle servant represents the average person. If you glance only at the
scriptures in passing you can’t help but notice it is usually the average
person God most often uses – probably because there are so many of us. Abraham is already an old man when God calls
him and there was nothing about him that really made him stand out. Jeremiah is just a lad. Mary was a peasant girl. Peter was a blue-collar fisherman, yet God
uses these people and more to fulfill his purpose. The Bible is filled with these two-talent
people who use what they have to make a difference.
Now we come
to the third servant who took a far more conservative course. His goal was different from the first
two. While they followed God’s first
command to “be fruitful and multiply”, the third thought it more prudent to
hold tightly to what he had. . While the first two lifted their eyes to the
horizon, the third buried his head and his treasure in the sand.
Where the
first two saw possibilities, he saw pitfalls.
Where the first two saw opportunities he saw intolerable risk. He was afraid of failure, so his investment
strategy was determined by fear and misplaced fear at that, because he had a
distorted view of his master. He said,
“Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and
gathering where you have not winnowed.”[3]
Remember,
the master here is Jesus. This servant
is saying these things about God’s Son.
So, this servant represents, I believe the Christian who has a hard time
singing, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”, because he or she sees God more like
the judge, jury, and executioner.
So, rather
than playing offense and trying to do something positive, this third retreated
into a kind of prevent defense. He
believed God would be pleased if he didn’t make too many mistakes or commit too
many sins. Ask him about his spiritual
life and he’d likely give you a self-satisfied list of sins he never
committed. “As least I never killed
anyone or stole anything really big.”
But, there is no thought about doing anything for anybody. This myopic view restricts any kind of
growth, spiritual or otherwise, and people with this narrow vision will go
through life with fists clenched rather than hands open.
Jesus
clearly offers his evaluation of these two investment strategies. To the first two, the one who had used their
time, talents, and treasure that God had given, he encouraged, “Well done! Well done, good and faithful servant.”[4] This is their R.O.I., the return on their
investment. Those who invest their lives in something positive, who use their
gifts for God’s kingdom will reap something positive. What joy that will bring, to hear Jesus say
to you before the angels and all the saints, “Well done, good and faithful
servant, enter into the joy of your master.”
To that
last servant though, the warning is hard and even harsh. “Cast the worthless servant into the outer
darkness, where men will weep and wail and gnash their teeth.”[5] What
we do or don’t do it seems have consequences immediate and eternal.
“Hell begins,” someone said, “on the
day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of
all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did
not do. Hell is described in the words: “too late.”
The feeling
of having worth or of being worthless is not measured by how much you
have. Some of you may think you’re worth
a lot because of the balance in your bankbook and some of you may feel
worthless for the same reason. Some of
you may think you are a person of worth because of some special talent or
ability and some of you may believe you have no worth because you see no such
talent in yourself. Some of you may
think you are a person of worth because you have a diploma and others worthless because they have no degree. Some of you may think you are a person of
worth because you are in the prime of your life, and others may believe the
passage of time has decreased your value.
These are the ways we measure our selves. This is not how the Lord does it.
One preacher
told the story of the day Mother Teresa spoke at a church in Minneapolis
“You can do the most.
You can do more than any of us
because your suffering is united with
the suffering of Christ on the cross
and it brings strength to all of us.”
As a result,
the woman in a wheelchair joined a group called The Sick and Suffering
Co-Workers of Mother Teresa. She said,
“We are fortunate to have a share in Christ’s cross.” She also prayed:
“Lord, let us suffer without regret,
for in your will
and in our gracious acceptance of that
same holy will
lives our eternal destiny.”
That woman
lived for a year after she met Mother Teresa.
During that year she bore witness to her faith—a witness that few of us
will ever match. This one-talent woman,
who some may have considered a no-talent woman—was able by the grace of God to
give a five-talent witness during that year.
Her witness continues even today, years after her death, in the
re-telling of her story. “What can I
do?” she asked. “You can do the most!”
was the answer—and that was true.[6]
In the
beginning of the story each of the three servants, the five, two, and one
talent servant were all seen by the master as being equal in worth. To be sure they had different abilities, and
so were afforded different degrees of responsibility, but these differences did
not diminish their worth in the sight of God.
They were all seen as being worthwhile and trustworthy. God entrusted each one of them with
something.
It was not
how much time, talent, or treasure, God measures, but rather what we do with
the time, talent, and treasure we’ve been given. All the Lord asks is that we not bury our
heads or hands or hearts in the sand, but that we do what we can and use what
we’ve been given.
The good news is that the results
are not up to us. Success or failure is
not up to us. In Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth he observed, “Though I may plant the
seeds of the gospel and another may water, it is God who gives the increase.”[7] To the church in Philippi
he said, “I am sure that God who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[8]
Let God work in you as you work for
him and so glorify him by serving others in his name. Let us pray:
Lord, grant us the courage of our
convictions and commitment to follow through. Help us to use all that you have
given not for our own comfort but for the needs of a wounded world. When we fear failure instill, by your Holy
Spirit, hope. As you have begun a good
work in us, bring it to completion we pray, so that each one might one day hear
those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your
master.” For it is in his name we pray. Amen.
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