I have a question for you this morning: “What if the first two servants had lots all the master’s money?”
When I had read this parable in the past, I assumed that the servants who invested the master’s money did so without any risk. In other words, doubling the money the master had given them was guaranteed. It is this assumption that helps us make sense of why the master dealt so harshly with the third servant. He didn’t bother to invest the money given to him, and he was cast into the outer darkness, deemed to be worthless. However, I wonder, would the master have been so generous with the other two slaves if they had invested his money and lost all of it, or at least a substantial portion of it? Or, would he have punished them, just like he had the third servant?
This parable tells us that the master is a harsh man, and one that is primarily concerned with building wealth. So if the two servants had lost his money, I think the answer to my question would be that the master would have punished them for such a foolish and poor economic practice. Instead, perhaps, he would have dealt with the third servant more favorably. His choice, to “play it safe” rather than take a chance by investing in a volatile market would seem to be a more sensible and responsible one. A good economic practice to preserve the master’s money and perhaps more to our liking, one that would result in a more favorable and gracious response.
But this parable isn’t about economic practices. It’s about faith. Jesus tells this parable as a response to the question, “How do we live faithfully as we wait for Jesus’ return? Or if you’re a bit skeptical of that since people have been waiting for over 2,000 years, how do we live faithfully in our present age?”
I love sports. I loved playing them growing up, I loved competing in them when I was in university, and now finished as a competitor, I love coaching them. There is something exhilarating watching the strategy, the tactics, and also the dedication that goes into playing sports at a high level, whether it is an individual sport like wrestling or running, or a team sport like hockey or futball (soccer, for us American types). Winning is not an accident, nor is it luck. Those who tend to work the hardest at their craft, and who invest the most time into it, tend to be most successful. But there is another element to sports that many of us don’t understand. In fact, it’s something that I only learned through the failures of my own athletic endeavors and by watching more successful athletes. I’ve learned that no matter how skilled a team or athlete is or how much time and effort they’ve invested in developing their skills or physical conditioning, the best teams and athletes take risks. Big ones, in fact. The outcomes don’t always turn out the way the athlete or team hopes. For every risky play that turns out in triumph, there is an equal amount that results in heartbreak. Yet while the outcome is uncertain, the best athletes and teams continue to take risks in pursuit of something greater. You could even say…..those risks are an act of faith.
What is faith? And what type of faith are we to have as we wait for Jesus’ return, in this present age? The parable today tells us that to have faith is to take risks. That is why the first two servants are commended and the third is punished. We are to take risks – but not in hopes of receiving some great success or reward. We take risks in our faith because it reflects the risk of faith Jesus Christ took in his life, death, and resurrection – to embrace and love a world in hopes that it would love him back. Jesus took this risk, not so much out of obedience to God the Father, but instead because that is exactly what love is – to take a risk. Love is an act of faith. To love as Jesus has loved us….perhaps that is the most daring risk and purist example of faith we can ever encounter.
As followers of Jesus, what would it mean to have such a faith? Is Christ simply something that stays within the confines of this church, or the confines of our personal beliefs and opinions? Or, do we risk our very security, comfort, and at times our very selves in the name of Christ and Christ’s love? What would such faith look like, and what would such faith mean to a world that seems to only invest in what’s economically, politically, or personally profitable? I cannot answer those questions for you – and it would be irresponsible of me as a pastor to impose an answer on you. However, I can say this: let us give thanks for the risk of faith God took for each and every one of us and all people, in Jesus Christ, our savior and our lord. Amen.