Return on Investment

Matthew 25:14-30

“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.’

They were asked to MANAGE the money.  Not hold it.  Manage it.  A Talent in today’s money is half a million dollars!  This wasn’t lunch money.  This was investment portfolio money and they were asked to manage it when the Master was gone, the same way the Master did when he was there.  When he returned, two had doubled their portfolios.  The other one had dug a hole and buried it and the master was furious!

  

But why?  Why was the Master furious?  He didn’t lose money.  He actually made 3.5 million!  So, why?  The answer, is that to THIS Master, the money didn’t matter!  What THIS Master cared about, more than the money, was the relationships.  Did the people he entrusted really KNOW him and trust him at his word?  Two of them did.  They took what they had been given and managed it the way the master had when he was home.  Yeah, they doubled his money and I’m sure he didn’t poo-poo the profits, but for THIS master, the money wasn’t the MOST important thing!  What this master REALLY valued was that when he entrusted them with his wealth... they BELIEVED him and followed in his investing footsteps.  The other slave, though, acted out of FEAR and buried his portfolio.  

Like those slaves, our Master Jesus has entrusted us with God’s portfolio of riches… love, justice, compassion and grace.  And what does the Lord require we do with those riches?  The prophet Micah summed it up nicely: do justice, love kindness, and humbly follow along in God’s footsteps.  So what will we do with this portfolio of God’s immeasurable wealth?  A portfolio of riches filled to overflowing with love, justice, compassion and grace.  It’s a question for us as individuals.  It’s a question for us as Christ Trinity Church and really, particularly at this moment in history, it’s also a question for our nation.  

Some will respond to this challenge out of fear.  Dig a hole and attempt to convince themselves that God is just fine with the way things were… fine with the injustice, immorality, racism, the oppression of the poor and marginalized and that religion and politics shouldn’t mix.  Out of the fear of the hard work required to invest God’s portfolio in the world, some will say that we should just bury the past pains in a hole in the ground along with God’s investment mandate and just move on.  

As tempting as that approach may be, particularly as exhausted and anxious as we all are in this moment of history, that's not what our Master has tasked us to do!  You and I both know that if we just bury the racism, hatred, division, selfishness, and greed it will inevitably come back to the surface again.  Maybe it would take a year or two.  Maybe four or eight.  But in the past it has always come back to the surface when we’ve chosen to bury the hard truths and the pain, instead of investing God’s portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace into that brokenness.  We all know that if we bury it again, we’ll be right back where we started in no time flat, without having grown God’s riches by even the paltry percentage you get from a savings account!  

But we can chose another way.  We could choose the path that 2 out of 3 parable slaves recommend!  We could instead, courageously accept the portfolio God has given us to manage… the immeasurable wealth of love, justice, compassion, and grace… and we could AGGRESSIVELY invest that into our own lives, the life of our church and community, and into the world.  And if we did THAT… perhaps… just maybe… in one, or two, or four or maybe eight years down the road, we might find that our aggressive investing of God’s portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace into our world might just have given, not only us, but the whole world a powerful return on investment. 

There are many ways to invest God’s portfolio in the world but here are three hot investment tips for our time.  For those who have been harmed by another, you could choose to invest God’s portfolio in forgiveness.  Forgiveness doesn’t ask you to forget, or pretend the harm done to you never happened.  Nor does forgiveness ask you to put yourself at risk of being hurt in the same way or by the same people again.  But the potential return on investment with forgiveness is tremendous.  For those of you who have been harmed, it will not undo the past, but investing here has the power to set YOU free from the heavy burden of resentment and anger that you have carried since that pain was first inflicted upon you.   

For those who have harmed another, I would recommend investing God’s portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace in repentance.  Repentance doesn’t ask the ones you harmed to forget, pretend it never happened, or even offer their forgiveness to you!  This is your investment, not theirs!  But the potential return on investment in repentance is enormous for you as well.  Repentance will guide you onto a new path that you may have never known even existed before!  A path that winds through confession, making amends, and then leads you to a new and infinitely more abundant life for yourself!  A life lived on a path of building people up rather than tearing people down. 

And finally, there is atonement… AT-ONE-MENT.  This is advanced investing for those who have previously invested in forgiveness and those who have previously invested in repentance.  Having done the investing that each needed to do on their own, they can now together begin to invest God’s rich portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace into creating a shared new beginning, a shared a new future… a shared new life.  The return on investment for Atonement is literally limitless.  It can change the world. 

May each of us with courage and boldness, stop burying the portfolio we've been entrusted with! Instead may we each invest the riches of God into ourselves, our neighbors and the entire world around us… and perhaps, if we can do that, when our Master returns we too will be called Good and Faithful.  Amen.