In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Joan, widowed at 49, at first felt totally inadequate to handle her own affairs. Her beloved husband Bill had always taken such good care of everything. Now she was faced with the enormous task of managing finances. taxes, home maintenance, car repairs and decisions about the children. All without the support of her husband.

Hearing today’s Gospel lesson in the midst of this crisis, Joan wept. She felt anything but “good and faithful”. In her ignorance about finances she had already made some costly mistakes with the family’s money. Also, faced with the responsibility of once again having to enter the workforce after a 25 year absence, she felt that she had nothing to offer. The words about the “burying of the talents” took her breath away. It seemed to her that this was exactly what she had done.

Use it or lose it! This phrase seems to sum up the parable of the talents in a nutshell. And yet Jesus is talking about something far more vast and encompassing than simply our family finances or even our offerings to the church. The parable is about how we are or are not investing ourselves in the gospel. It is about more than money. It is about more than time, talent, money and other resources. It is about the total stewardship of our lives for the sake of gospel.

Now the parable of the talents at first glance perhaps seems a little bewildering but it is really not that complex. However, it does contain some wonderful surprises. First, I was surprised to see that Jesus is a capitalist, at least as far as this parable is concerned. Second, the master going away on the journey places a great deal of trust in his servants.

One “talent” was equal to 15 years wages. One was given five talents, another two and another one each according to servant’s ability. Nothing unfair for the property belongs to the master to do with as sees fit. Each is given an opportunity for stewardship, but each according to their ability.

So the first two servants get to work. They do their research in the market, avoiding Jerry White the investment guru. They steer clear of the Fulcrum Financial Group. Making a series of trades they double their investment-a 100% profit. Not too shabby at all. But the third servant afraid of his master, perhaps afraid of losing his shirt, buries his talent in the ground.

The master then returns, the day of reckoning has arrived, and the servants give their report on how they have done with the money he entrusted to them. The first two are praised and the third is given the boot. This may strike as somewhat harsh. But really deep down who of us here would not have done the same?

Having spread our financial portfolio over three advisers- two have done really well. The third is a dog. This guy has us in low yield ethical funds that aren’t even keeping up with inflation. Are we going to stick with the third adviser because he is a nice guy and has a family to support? No, we are going to take his share and give it to the other two. Why then are we so shocked when the master does the same thing?

Now this parable seems pretty clear when “talent” is understood in a monetary sense. But what about when we shift the meaning. For the “talent” in question is not fifteen years wages, nor does it mean, painting, singing, preaching, or teaching. The talent here is the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God has given us the gift of the gospel to steward, to manage on God’s behalf. Use it or lose it. Invest the talent, take risks with it, trade with it so that it grows in our lives.

Certainly as individuals and as a community of faith, we have made some investments. Allowing ourselves to make a trade here and there. And we have seen some reward from our investments maybe not 100% like in our parable but modest gain, respectable. But there is hesitancy, cautiousness.

Of course, It is natural for us to be cautious, we are Presbyterians after all. Perhaps, like the servant in our parable we avoid risking the Gospel out of fear. Fear of what the family might think, or the neighbors if we took this Christianity thing way too serious.

Perhaps, our cautiousness arises out of a sense of confusion. For there was a time when the church knew what it meant to invest in the Gospel at least here in Canada. The country was at least nominally Christian and the governments of the day supported us in our investment endeavors. It was pretty cut and dry. But so much has changed. We are now living in a secular society, a religiously pluralistic society, where religion is seen to be a private affair.

There is a great deal of confusion in these old denominations of ours. We are reluctant to take on a mission of hope in our despairing world because we are uncertain how the gospel of Jesus Christ can speak to it. And in our confusion we have buried our talent in the ground where at least we can hang on to it and not lose it.
So what will it take for us to unearth our talent? to invest it? to risk it all for the kingdom of God?

In exploring these questions, I would like to return to Joan’s story at this point. The first impact of the parable on Joan was not a pleasant. Fortunately, Joan took more time with the parable. She pondered the image of the burying of the talents. She began to gain confidence and started to believe that if she had talents to bury, she had talents to unearth. After some discerning and theological reflection, Joan made her way back to school to study theology and pastoral counseling so that she could minister to others in times of loss and crisis. There was a powerful transformation in Joan’s understanding of what this parable meant.

Like Joan, God has given us the extraordinary gifts of life, love and Jesus Christ, with the promise that as we invest ourselves in Christ, Christ will invest himself even further in us. We will grow, mature and become like him. Over the last few months we have made some mission moves as a congregation. We have opened our doors and ourselves to the old South community through the community breakfast program, co-operative kitchen, the Friends of the Coves who work in the area of environmental stewardship,
 the earlychildhood group who meets on Tuesday mornings and now the L’Arche London day program. The stewardship of children and mentally handicapped adults.

Each of these moves have been made with theological reflection upon Christ who was the man for others, the one who emptied himself for the sake of the world. They also involve risk for the sake of the gospel. Risk to our property with more use, risk in welcoming the stranger, and God’s little ones into our midst, risk in allowing ourselves to be vulnerable in an effort to offer hospitality and love our neighbor who incarnates the poor and humble Christ. For faith employed and invested grows because it is rooted in the one who has invested his life in us. Let us see then what the risen Christ can do through us.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.