23rd Sunday after Pentecost
November 16, 2014
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30
There are some people who are morning people. They’re up at the crack of dawn without
having to set an alarm clock, they wake up cheerful, and they’re just glad to
face the day. My mom is one of those
people. A running joke in our house was
that she and the Army would have a full day’s work done by 10 a.m. Do we have any morning people here this
morning? You’re naturally up early and
ready for the day without having to work too hard at it? That’s great!
Unless, of course, you’re a night owl.
Morning people drive night owls crazy.
Any night owls here? You get your
second wind at 8:30-9:00 at night and you could easily stay up til 11:00 or
midnight without batting an eye? You may
even be your most productive at this time of day. Anyone fall in the middle? You’re not an early morning person but you’re
not a late night person, either? That’s
where I fall. I don’t like to burn the
candle on either end of the day. And
that’s ok, because Paul says that we are people who belong to the day, we are
children of light. We are not in
darkness and we don’t belong to the darkness, symbolized by the night. No, we belong to the light, which is another
way of saying that we belong to Jesus, since he is the light of the world.
Since we are people of the light, and the light is part
of who we are, it means we are free from
the fear, uncertainty, and insecurity of the night and of darkness.[1] We may live in uncertain times, but we don’t
live with uncertainty. We know who we
are and whose we are, and that makes all the difference. We don’t need to worry about the “what if’s”
because God’s got it all covered. He
will never leave you or forsake you. He
will not abandon you. You can rest
secure in that knowledge, that “blessed assurance [that] Jesus is mine,”[2] to
quote the old hymn. We are free from
uncertainty and from insecurity. There
is nothing in this world that can separate you from the love of God in Jesus
Christ.[3] We may not know the day or hour of Christ’s
return, or even the day or hour of our own death, but for Christians, this is
not a bad surprise. We are already
ready. Whenever it is that Christ comes
in final victory, we are ready. Whenever
it is that Christ calls us home, we are already ready. We don’t know the day or the hour, but so
what? It doesn’t matter when it happens
when you’re ready for it.
We
are free from uncertainty and we are also free from fear. This includes not being afraid to use what
God has given you. Our Gospel lesson
this morning was a parable, often called the parable of the talents, a talent
being a unit of money and one talent was worth more than fifteen years’ salary as a worker.[4] So, we’re talking about a lot of money here. And
this man is going on a trip. He gives
one servant five talents, or 75 years’ worth of salary; the second servant gets
30 years’ salary; and the third servant receives 15 years’ worth of pay. This man is entrusting his servants with a significant amount of money. And the first two servants do well, they
invest the money and double it. Pretty
good returns. But the third servant
buries the money in the ground. He hides
what was given to him and is afraid to use it.
Have you ever been given such a nice gift that you don’t want to use
it? Such a nice sweater, you’re afraid
of getting it dirty. Or a nice piece of
jewelry you’re afraid of wearing in case you lose it. Or a collector’s item you don’t want to use
in case you mess it up. Were you given
that item simply to possess it? Or to
use it? If you have an item you are
afraid to use then I would say that item owns you, rather than you owning
it. Beloved, what God has given you, he
does not want you to be afraid to use. We
are not called to bury our time, our abilities, and our treasure in the sand or
under a mattress. What God has given
you, which is everything, he gave to you so that you might use it. If you’re a great singer or love to sing,
please join our choir. If you are a
regular handyman or handywoman, I hope you are on our board of trustees. If you are good with children, please come
see me! God gave you your gifts, God
gave you your passions, so that you might use them and act on them to make this
world a better place, to make it more like the kingdom of heaven. If you’re good at feeding people, we need you
for Streets of Hope. If you love to
read, we need you to join our liturgists.
What you’re good at, and what you love to do, regardless of whether
those overlap, that’s what God’s calling you to do, to share that gift, that
passion, with a hurting world that needs you to use what you’ve been
given. As people of the day, we are free
from fear. Don’t be afraid to use what
God has given you.
Also as people of the day, Paul tells us that we are to “encourage each other and build
each other up.” I’ve been here four
and a half months, on maternity leave for two of those months. I’ve heard some great stories about this
church, about things we have done well over the years, of what it was like to
grow up in this church. I’ve also heard
some stories of church members tearing each other down, acting decidedly not like Christ. Those stories are part of how we got to where
we are today, which is why they were shared with me. It’s important to know our history, and to
understand what has happened. However,
if we are to move forward from here, then we need to make it a point to
encourage each other and build each other up.
No one’s journey is easy, and we’re not always aware of what’s going on
in each other’s lives. If someone’s
having a rough day, make sure to allow them a little more grace. If there’s something you can do to make
someone’s day better, then please show them that kindness. They say “don’t speak ill of the dead,” but
let’s not speak ill of anyone. If you
have a problem with someone, share it with that individual. Just like any family, we’re not all always
going to get along and we’re not always going to like each other. But make sure your words and your actions are
about encouragement and hope and help.
Let’s make each other better as we travel this road together.
It’s
interesting, the commentaries I read about the 1 Thessalonians passage were
quick to point out the military aspect of body armor, where it says to “wear
faithfulness and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a
helmet.” But what I noticed is that
those pieces of military equipment are protective gear, they are not weapons;
they are for defense, not offense. Even
in Ephesians where Paul talks about putting on the full armor of God, the only
weapon is the sword of the Spirit.[5] This isn’t a normal soldier’s uniform. It does not include a gun or a lance or a
spear. With the exception of the sword
of the Spirit, it only includes things to protect you, not things with which to
hurt others. Breastplates and helmets
are meant to keep you safe, they are not weapons. The emphasis on armor and not weapons
suggests that we, as children of God, have little need for weapons. Therefore, let us not use words as a weapon,
either, and instead use them to protect and encourage each other.
As day people, we
live for the day, sober, alert, watchful, ready, and with joyful hope.[6] You know why?
Because the harvest is now. You may remember Pastor Leo Gonzalez, who was
one of the pastors on-call while I was on maternity leave. I’ve only met him twice in person, and both
times that is what he said, “the harvest is now.” We are not called to plant, our task is not
watering, it’s not time to tend the crop.
It is time to reap, it is time to harvest. As Jesus says earlier in the Gospel of
Matthew, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”[7] We live for the day, ready,
and with joyful hope because we are called to help bring in the harvest. The harvest is now.
And what kind of harvest is it? The servant who hid his money said that the
master was “a hard man; reaping harvests where [he] did not plant, and
gathering crops where [he] did not scatter seed.”[8]
And this is true, “This is
why and how Jesus values and is present among the sick, the prisoners, the
hungry, the thirsty, the poor, and the naked. He did not sow sickness,
oppression, hunger, thirst, or poverty.”[9] But that’s where Jesus goes. He goes to the hospital, to the prison, to
the nursing home, to Streets of Hope, to the food pantry. That is where we are called to go as well, to
shine our light, to let Jesus’ light shine through us, that folks who are cold
or lonely or down or sick might see and know God’s love through Christ Jesus,
which is what we can share, as people who walk in the light of Christ.
We are children of the light, we are people who belong to
the day. As we enter Advent in a couple
weeks we will hear the story of the people who walked in darkness who have seen
a great light. We are that people. We have seen the light and we know the light
and we testify to the light. As children
of light, we do not give into the darkness of fear. We are free from fear and free to use the
gifts God has given us. As part of the
body of Christ, we build each other up and encourage one another on our
Christian journey. And we live in joyous
hope of tomorrow, because the harvest is plentiful. Regardless of whether you identify as a
morning person or a night owl, Jesus claims each of us as his own, which makes
us children of the day, children of the light.
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