Using our talents, joyfully!

Stewardship 25.11.07 – 1 Chronicles 29.6-13; 2 Chronicles 9.6-15; Matt 25.14-29: Revd. Canon Dr. Alan Winton

One of the things that Jesus does in an exemplary way according to the Gospels is that he so often manages to be inclusive, in the sense that when he speaks, he seems to be able to address people at different levels and in different ways, depending upon how they see themselves and upon how God might see them. This inclusiveness is a real challenge for the preacher on a Stewardship Sunday because the message that needs to be heard will no doubt vary from person to person. We are at different places in the journey of our lives and faith, and different places in terms of our response to God’s generosity and his call upon us.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus is able to affirm some of us and offer a profound and hopefully life-changing challenge to others. He commends those who respond to the gifts God gives them with faith and a spirit of adventure and confidence. And there are people in this church who are just like the first two servants in the parable, people who have been given gifts and talents and set about using them creatively, generously and with a spirit of adventure. And Stewardship Sunday is in part an opportunity to give thanks for those talents used unselfishly for the work of God’s kingdom. The truth is that they probably don’t think of themselves in these terms, but I think this parable is meant to affirm those good and faithful servants who many of us will recognise, for whom we give thanks.

But there are also people who, if they are honest, would find themselves painfully and embarrassingly addressed much more through the person of the third servant. He responds to the master’s gifts with fear and buries them in the ground. And it seems pretty likely that there are people in church today who have often sought excuses for burying their talents in the ground.
The excuses we make to ourselves are mostly very plausible: temptation to avoid God’s call usually comes in the most plausible terms. So when challenged to use our gifts for the work of God, what do we find ourselves saying?

“Surely there must be someone else who will do it.”

This is a big church, there are lots of people around younger than me; with more time; with more talent; with more faith; lots of people better suited to the task. This can seem like a very plausible argument, but when it starts to be used by the majority of people it really looses its force. Because there comes a point where there really isn’t someone else who will do it, it is you whom God is challenging to respond with faith and generosity.

Then there’s the “not really my cup of tea” response: those people who have found their niche and want to stay safely tucked away within it. But maybe God wants to teach you something new about yourself, maybe God wants to introduce a bit of adventure into your life, to take you in a new direction. But most important of all, maybe it is the needs around that should direct how we use our time and our talents, rather than simply what we find most comfortable, what we find most easy. If we listen to the words of Jesus in the Gospel, one of the things we will know is that the life of a disciple is not likely to remain safe and comfortable for long: God has ambitions and plans for us that will stretch us and help us grow – the call to take up our cross to follow Jesus doesn’t sound like an invitation to a life of comfort, sometimes God’s call will be demanding..

And then there’s the excuse for burying talents that is most symptomatic of our generation: I don’t want to commit myself, I don’t want to be tied down. I hear this one quite a lot, even if it isn’t always expressed so clearly, and I’ve also thought a lot about what it betrays. And I can’t quite find a way to argue that there isn’t often at its core something that is the opposite of faith and generosity. Faith is about commitment; it is about being tied down to serving God and serving others; it is a limit on our personal freedom in the belief that in God’s service we will find our perfect freedom. But too many in this generation jealously want to keep hold of their freedom and the work of God and his church duly suffers.

As a person, part of whose job is often to go around seeking volunteers to take on responsibilities in the church and for the community, I can tell you that these are lines I often hear. And one of the most depressing parts on my ministry is the amount of time I sometimes have to spend waiting for someone to say ‘yes’. No-one to take on the book-keeping role to help ease the burden on the treasurer; no one to ease the burden on Junior Church leaders or those who go out each Sunday evening to help with 14+; not enough people to volunteer for a holiday activity day for children; no one to organise the Children’s Society door-to-door collection. These are not optional extras, these are core activities of the church, nurturing our children is one of the most important tasks undertaken in a church. And I can’t quite believe that God has created a church this size, has given us a wonderful new building with all the opportunities it offers, and yet hasn’t provided the people to come forward with their talents, to take on these roles. And I can’t quite believe that my time is best spent going over the same needs, searching for people to fill the same gaps, searching for someone to say yes.

I hope that today we can listen to this parable of Jesus and honestly ask where we are among those servants whose story Jesus tells so expertly: are we responding with faith and adventure and confidence to God’s call upon us, upon our time, or are we fearfully hiding away our talent, burying it in the ground, making excuses that won’t really cut much ice when the master asks us what we have made of our lives? It’s up to each of us to make that judgment when confronted by Jesus in this powerful parable.
And as you make that judgment and think about your response to this service today, I want you also to focus on two verses in our other readings. In Chronicles we read: “the people rejoiced because they had given willingly”, and in second Corinthians, St. Paul reminds us that “God loves a cheerful giver”. I wonder how many of us came to church today, and looking at the notice sheet to discover it is Stewardship Sunday, found a happy smile spread across our lips.
 
This is not about cultivating the inane smile sometimes associated with Christians – or the forced smile that seems to appear painfully on the lips of a certain leading politician these days – it is about recognising that stewardship is a matter of responding with joy to the goodness and generosity of God. It begins with a desire to recognise God’s goodness to us, in the love we receive from God, the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ, the blessings of our individual lives and the gifts we have received from God in this church. In the light of all this we should give joyfully, freely, willingly, and with a smile on our face.  Of course there will be times when sadness and sorrow take over how we are feeling, but more often than not, when we are engaged in making our offering to God, in helping with some church activity – from handing out the notice sheet to serving the coffee; from helping in Junior Church to singing in the choir - there should be a deep measure of joy and cheerfulness that marks our times together, the time and talents we offer to God.

Stewardship is not about offering to God what is left over when he have had our fill; it’s not about filling our lives simply with all the things we enjoy, so that there is no time left for God’s work; it’s not about offering to God the crumbs that fall from our table. It is about recognising that everything we have comes from God, our time, our talents, our money is his gift, and we should always give of our best to God in gratitude and thanksgiving, and for the good of his work in the world. God should be the first call upon our time our talents and our money, not the last.

Christians are not called upon to give sacrificially but joyfully: how much more attractive such a church will be - a place where people give freely and happily and enjoy what they are doing will be a place that others will want to join.
So there is a threefold message to this part of the service: don’t be glum because its Stewardship Sunday, go out of this service joyfully, determined to give to God because of his great generosity to you; and go out of the church today, determined not simply to think about what’s been said but also to act; and go out of the church today determined not to be like the third servant who just buried the good thing God had given him, use what you have been given in the service of God’s kingdom and see it grow.
Amen.