"ROI" - Matthew 25:14-30

Amazing God, when we are perplexed and challenged by scripture, open our hearts and minds to your abundant possibilities. Help us listen for your voice and give us courage to be bold in our response. Amen.

I began this sermon today with a prayer – something I do not ordinarily do. However, as I just confided to God, our quest to understand this Gospel lesson found in both Matthew and Luke deserves a prayer because this parable of the talents is indeed both perplexing and challenging.

Here we have a master, a wealthy landowner, who is on the road, going off – perhaps on an extended vacation, perhaps on a business trip – but anyway vacating his property for a significantly long period of time – so long that he felt compelled to leave his fortune divided unequally among three slaves.

As UCC pastor Hal Chorpenning notes: “Two of them are rabid proto-capitalists and one takes the safe route and takes care of what he’s got. Two are interested in growth and one is interested in security.”

To one of the slaves, the master gives five talents. Now, a talent is a first century unit of money, actually a lot of money. Five talents would be the equivalent of income for about 15 years of labor. In 21st century terms, say that you make $50,000 a year. That would be a cool $750,000.

To another slave, the master gave two talents – worth about what you could earn in 6 years. Using our $50,000 annual income as a guide, the worth of those two talents would be a whopping $300,000. And finally the master gave the third slave one talent, which would be like one year’s earnings – nothing to sneeze at either.

Now in the parable, the guy with five talents invests them handily and ends up with 10 talents (1.5 million bucks, using our equivalent) by the time the master returns.

“Awesome, good and faithful servant,” the master proclaims as he slaps him on the shoulder. “You understand the bottom line. You know how to get a decent ROI, return on investment.”

The two talent slave was equally successful because he also doubled what he had been given, ending up with 4 talents (or about $200,000).

“I am proud of you as well,” exclaimed the master. “You took risks and were not afraid of possible failure. You too understand the bottom line because you brought me a decent ROI, return on investment.”

By this time the one talent slave was a bit uneasy because, though he still had the one talent ($50,000), he did not have a penny more. “But hey,” he reminded himself. “I chose to play it safe, so I would not lose any money. With the economy as shaky as it has been, to me that was undeniably prudent.”

However, as you might have guessed, the master was not pleased. “You lazy you know what! You risk-averse little man! Because of your fear and lack of action, you have nothing to show. Your share goes to the millionaire over here. He deserves it, not you.”

“But wait!” protested the one talent slave. “Is there no place for caution, security, and the status quo in this world?”

When I was riding on the shuttle from the Tampa airport to get set for my breast cancer walk, I ended up talking with another walker from Louisville, Kentucky. She was telling me about her church and a wonderful program that the youth group leaders had initiated. It was called “Homeless for a Night” - and it was a variation on a lock-in, rock-a-thon, or giant slumber party at the church. The purpose of the event was to help these teenagers viscerally understand what being homeless felt like. Consequently, each one who participated was given a large cardboard box to set up in the church parking lot as his or her shelter for the night.

However, those participants who raised $50.00 in contributions (which would be donated to the local homeless shelter) were given a blanket in addition to their cardboard box. Those who raised $75.00 were given a blanket and a pillow. Those who raised $100.00 were given a blanket, a pillow, and a jacket to wear. The more these young Christians invested in the Gospel message and put it into action, the greater their ROI, return on investment.

Father Ernest Ezeogu tells a story about a man who was furious with God. "God," the angry man said, “I have been praying daily for three years that I should win the state lottery. You told us to ask and we shall receive. How come I never received all these three years I have been asking?"

Then he heard the voice of God, loud and clear. "My dear son," said God. "Please do me a favor. Buy a lottery ticket."

"If you wanna win, you got to play."

That is what this parable of the talents is telling us. Father Ezeogu goes on to say that “there are two kinds of people in our churches today: risk-takers and care-takers. The problem with care-takers is that they might show up at the undertaker's with little to show for the lives they have lived.”

There is an element of risk involved in asserting to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a proclaimer and liver of the Gospel. A blogger on this Scriptural text put it this way, “God always asks us to step out of our comfort-zone and act out of faith, not fear.

It’s what God expected of Noah when he told him to build an ark and collect animals. It’s what God expected of Abraham when he told him to leave his home…It’s what God expected of Mary when he sent the Angel Gabriel. It’s what God expected of Paul after knocking him off his horse.

Had any of those figures acted out of their fear (What will happen? Will we be safe? Will we have enough money? Will people still like me? Can I accomplish this?) instead of faith, the Bible would be a very different book.”

You see, the opposite of faith is not doubt, but rather fear. That is what this parable of the talents is also telling us. We are called to be people of action, not succumbing to the temptation to bury ourselves within these four walls and play it safe. The time for prudence and security is gone. We are called to be people of faith, not fear.

Too often we get all tangled up trying to interpret this parable. We focus on how to play the market and end up concluding that somehow it is all so grossly unfair. However, whenever we focus on the complexities of a parable, we are at best missing, and at worst avoiding, its point. The point of a parable is never complicated. It is always simple- maybe not easy, but always simple.

And so, this parable is not about good financial practices. Neither is it a celebration of a capitalist mentality.
Goodness gracious, if that were the case, it would be terribly misconstruing of the concept of the Kingdom, which Jesus makes clear is a world where financial calculations are abolished.

This parable is simply about how we are to live in God’s Kingdom – not prepare for God’s Kingdom which will come at some future point but rather live in God’s Kingdom – here, now, this day.

I went to a wonderful lecture series last weekend. It was the Fall Learning Event, presented by the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ. Martha Morrison was there as well, and the speaker was theologian John Dominic Crosson. He talked a lot about what Jesus really meant by the Kingdom of God.

Though we talk about the Kingdom being among us - in our heart or inside of us, face it, it is far easier to think of the Kingdom of which Jesus spoke as coming somewhere down the line – at some future and glorious point in time when God will finally take the initiative to make all things new.

However, Crosson countered, what if Jesus was not talking about a future kingdom? What if Jesus presented a paradigm shift, a vision that shifted the tradition of first century Judaism?

What if Jesus was offering an alternative to what people believed, an alternative that still has the potential to rock us and shock us even down to the present day? “The Kingdom of God is among us,” he said. It is already here.

Yikes! Imagine that! What if it were true – that all these millennia we have been waiting for God to take some action when in reality God has been waiting for us.

What if the Kingdom is here, but is only visible if and when you and I as Christians collaborate with it. To put it another way, if we do nothing, nothing kingdom-like will happen. However, if we do something Christ-like, then all things are possible.

That is the point at which this parable of the talents dovetails so sweetly. God challenges us with the notion of a bottom line, an ROI, but for us as Christians, that ROI might better be translated “return on the incarnation”.

The coming of Christ is God’s spiritual investment in us – you and me - and it is an investment of immeasurable proportion. In fact, the fate of the world hinges upon that bottom line.

ROI – return on investment: We are called to invest our faith in Christ-like action. That is what the parable tells us. That is what the two favored slaves did in this Gospel story. They took risks. They did not fear failure. They were activists.

ROI – return on investment. I can not put it any better or more succinctly than Desmond Tutu did when he said, “God without you, won’t. You without God, can’t.”

And so I leave you with this question: What is your ROI, return on investment, return on the incarnation?

Rev. Nancy Foran is pastor of the Raymond Village Community Church in Raymond, Maine
www.rvccme.org