My Little Pony!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 25th Chapter

“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me

five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

(For blog readers, a little background might help this week…This sermon is for a combined worship of 5 area Episcopal churches and Prince of Peace Lutheran church.  All six have changed over the years and today, none support full time clergy.  Together they are known as the K-6, or Kennebec Valley Six.  These congregations have been in conversation for two years, discerning what ministry might look like in the future and how we might do ministry together.  This fall the six joined together to start a combined, Sunday afternoon, Christian Ed program called Mustard Seeds.)

There’s an old story with a bunch of versions.  No one knows where it started but it goes something like this:  There once were two boys, one a hopeless pessimist and the other, an over the top optimist.  The parents consulted a psychiatrist and he suggested they fill one room with beautiful toys and put the pessimist in there and fill the other room with horse manure and put the optimist in there.  Then the parents checked on the kids.  The mother found the pessimist weeping, “Why are you crying?” she asked.  He said, “I just know that as soon as I touch one of these toys it'll break and I’ll be in trouble.”  They then looked in on the optimist.  With a giant grin on his face he was happily shoveling the mound of manure.  “Why are you so happy” asked the mother.  He replied, “With all this manure, there’s gotta be a pony in here somewhere!”

A wealthy man gathered three slaves and entrusted them with his property.  This wasn’t like asking them to hold his popcorn at the movies.  The text makes it clear that they were to MANAGE the master’s property like financial advisors manage a trust fund... and what he entrusted them with wasn’t chump change either.  A talent in today’s money would be about half a million dollars!  So these three were ENTRUSTED with half a million, a million and 2.5 million dollars as the master walked out the door.  When he returned, two of the slaves had doubled his money, but the one slave had dug a hole and buried it, making sure he didn’t loose one, thin, dime.  The master, though, was furious!  

The really important question, is WHY... why was the Master furious?  He didn’t loose money... he actually made 53%!  So, why was he so angry?  The answer, I think, would make Wall Street cringe.  The answer is... the money didn’t matter!  What this Master cared about, more than all those millions of dollars, was whether his slaves trusted him at his Word or not.  When he left town, he gave them something infinitely more important to him than his money... he gave them his TRUST.  He TRUSTED them to DO THE WORK that he had done himself while he was around.  He knew the risks!  He understood that, “past performance is no guarantee of future returns.”  What REALLY pleased him wasn’t the money but that those two slaves had TRUSTED him at his Word!  They took what they had been given and risked it as the master had entrusted them to do.  Yeah, it turns out they doubled his money and I’m sure he didn’t poo-poo the profits, but for THIS master, making money wasn’t the MOST important thing!  What this master REALLY valued was that when he told them he TRUSTED them... they BELIEVED him and got out there and DID what he had asked them to DO.  

The slave with the one talent… he got in trouble because when the Master told him “I trust you” that slave simply didn’t believe him at his Word.  The slave thought, “He’s lying.  He SAYS he wants me to risk it all, but I just don’t believe him!  He’s harsh, unfair and cruel and I know I’ll be punished if I loose even a dime!”  So that slave chose to act, not out of the TRUST he had been given, but out of FEAR.  In FEAR he buried that talent to protect what he had been given against the slightest chance that it might one day, for whatever reason, slip away.  

You know, of course, WE are those slaves and our Master has ENTRUSTED us with his work.  He said right before he left, “GO therefore and MAKE disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and TEACHING them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”  We slaves have the same choice to make that the slaves in this parable had to make.  Will we take the overwhelming gifts we have been given by our Master... our heritage, our liturgy, our buildings, our windows, organs and art, our place in the community, our sacred memories... will we take it all and put it all on the line with the same boldness our Master showed throughout his life AND in his death?  OR, will we dig a hole and crawl inside with what we have been given, pull the dirt in on top of ourselves and in the end, simply mark the resting place with granite marker?

Which of those two brothers will we choose to be like?  Will we choose to weep over the seemingly inevitable loss of an amazingly wonderful pile of toys that fill such beautiful rooms, OR will we have the audacity to put a grin on our faces, pick up shovels and dig together into a world that, I'll be the first to admit, looks all too often like a giant pile of manure?  Will we decide to be buried in that pile, or will we decide to dig through it DETERMINED and CONFIDENT that we will find a pony?

This past week I was with 160 Lutheran pastors from seven states.  My bishop asked me tell the gathering what we’ve been up to here with the K-6.  I told them how we've begun doing Christian Ed together... how it started, with six separate congregations each with just a couple of kids in Sunday school... if that!  Then I told them that other week, now that we’ve come together, we had 84 adults and children, filled with joy, singing the Hippo Song, hearing the story of Moses as a baby, carving pumpkins and sharing a meal.  I’ve got to tell you, in that moment, there were 159 Lutheran pastors who would have gladly sacrificed a significant body part to be able to say that THEY were a part of what we are doing here in the Kennebec Valley!  

It turns out, we are more amazingly blessed than we know!  Most of the Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational world… what they call Mainline Christianity... is right now standing paralyzed in shock, looking at a future that looks to them like an overwhelming pile of manure.  They see an aging population, buildings in disrepair and a surrounding culture that doesn’t seem to even know they exist.  That’s where THEY are today, but that’s where we were TWO YEARS AGO!  THEY’RE in shock but WE’VE been digging and what’s better still, is that we’ve already found a PONY and her name is MUSTARD SEEDS!

Unlike SO MUCH of the Mainline Christian world WE have already been at work and we have already begun to see our work start to pay off!  Unlike the vast majority of churches out there we’ve already found a pony!  But here’s the thing... I am CONVINCED... truly and unshakably CONVINCED... that buried in that same pile of manure that looks to the rest of the world like closing congregations, failure and irrelevance, wasn’t buried just that one pony...  I am CONVINCED that if we continue to come TOGETHER... if we TOGETHER TRUST that our Master is as Good as his Word... if TOGETHER we go ALL IN and refuse to bury even a little bit of we’ve been given out of FEAR and INSTEAD decide to boldly dig with all that we have, even DEEPER into that pile... I am CONVINCED we will find that God has placed a HERD of ponies in that pile just waiting for us to find them and ride them into a future filled with new, vibrant and abundant life!  AMEN!