Don't be afraid. Be a good and faithful servant

 

Reflection Sunday 15^th November 2020

 

One of the challenges for any preacher when faced with the well-known parables of Jesus is trying to find something fresh to say. Or, even if not fresh, at least not overly familiar.

I’m sure many of us know the Parable of the Talents. The rich man who gave his three servants money (“talents” were money in Jesus’ day) and told them to use the talents. There are several ways to think about this parable.

Traditionally sermons on this parable encourage followers of Jesus to discover and use their gifts and abilities for God’s glory.

Sometimes a sermon on this parable can include thoughts of God’s generosity. Reminding us how God is like the wealthy man in giving to us with great generosity, not least the most precious gift of his son.

A third way is in thinking of the greatest treasure we’ve been given to steward by God. And that I would suggest is the responsibility for being custodians of the Good News of Jesus Christ and of sharing that treasure with others.

(There you are. If during lockdown you’ve felt called to be a local preacher, I’ve just given you three ideas for sermons!)

But I’d like us to think about the parable in a fourth way. And that is to think of the parable as showing us that God does not want us to be ruled by fear.

The parable as we know tells us about three servants or slaves. When the master gives them these vast sums of money two of the three aren’t concerned or frightened at all. They take their talents and make a profit for their master.

Let’s just stop and think about that for a moment. One talent was worth 15 times a year’s salary of a day labourer. Therefore, one servant had 5 x 15 times a salary, another 2 x 15 a salary and the third 1 x 15. I don’t know about you, if I was given responsibility for such sums of money, I’d be frightened. What if I physically lose it? What if the investment choice I make goes wrong? Won’t my Master be angry if I do the wrong thing?

Clearly the Master trusts his servants entirely. He doesn’t tell them what to do with the money. And the first two seem to know their Master well enough that they make their own decisions and as we know get a good return for him. And the Master is pleased with them both:

 ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:21 and 23

But as we know the third servant does not fare so well. He buries the money and the Master punishes the third servant for his inactivity.

You wicked, lazy servant! So, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Matthew 25: 26 and

³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Matthew 25:30

Why did the servant react in this way? And why is the servant treated in this way?

I feel we have to assume that the third servant sat back and did nothing not so much as out of laziness as out of being afraid to do the wrong thing. Therefore, he sits back and does nothing rather than get it wrong.

For me, Jesus wants his good and faithful servants to be active. And by that I don’t mean in “doing” lots of things. Often we can busy in the wrong ways! We can be active through showing Christ’s love to those we meet. We can be active by praying for others. We are not expected to be faithful servants by sitting back and letting it happen around us. We are not just to sit in the pew on Sunday, or in our armchairs in front of Songs of Praise! We are not to be apathetic.

Of course, I can’t help wondering what would have happened if the first two servants had lost their Master money. Would he have been angry? If this was a story about human relationships he might have been. But this story is a parable of how things are with Jesus. And I feel he forgives us those times when we get it wrong when we have been trying to do the right thing for him. We only have to see the stories of the disciples. On many occasions they get things wrong. But Jesus is not so much angry as exasperated with them. But he understands that they were trying to be good and faithful servants.

That is all Jesus wants from us. To be good and faithful servants. To trust him; not to be afraid of him.  To accept that he will not be angry when we get things wrong as long as we have been serving him to the best of our abilities.

When I was aged around 5 or 6, I had to learn a recitation for a Sunday School anniversary. It’s one of the few bits of poetry I have ever memorised:

A simpleton went into a bank and said with the greatest of ease

“I’d like to draw out fifty pounds in ten shilling notes if you please”

The cashier replied “Ah well, well, well. You must pardon me sir if I grin.

You cannot take anything out, if you haven’t put anything in”

The moral is easy to see. You’ve seen it already no doubt

If you put little into each day, I’m afraid you won’t get a lot out!

It’s hardly Wordsworth or Dylan Thomas! Nevertheless, that piece of doggerel is the perfect illustration for the point I’m making. Not to sit back. Not to be afraid. To take the investment Jesus makes in us and give him the return he desires - Our souls, our lives, our all.