Rector's Sermon - Sunday, 13 November 2005

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Judges 4:1–4	Psalm 123	1 Thessalonians 5:1–11	Matthew 25:14–30

       Last spring I put stabilizer in the gas tank, checked the belts and rotor blades, and wiped all the winter's accumulated salt and mud off my snow blower. I did everything the operator's manual suggested, with the exception of the most important thing. For small gasoline engines to remain in top shape, you must regularly run them at full operating speed and temperature. Needless to say, I haven't used my snow blower at all for these past six months. I did start it the other week, but not to give it a good hard workout. That is why when the first serious snow hits Ithaca, repair shops are swamped. Even though people have stored their machines correctly, snow blowers break down from disuse more than any other cause. Once I use my machine weekly during a good Ithaca winter, it will be running like a dream.

      At one level, that seems to be a meaning of today's parable. Like muscles, gifts that are exercised and used to their fullest are able to grow stronger and perform even greater tasks, while gifts that are ignored, rejected, or unexercised become weak, if not useless. It is not that those who have the most deserve to get more, and those who have the least will get less, but rather those who accept and share their gifts will discover they can do more. Those who never do anything with their gifts will discover their confidence shrinking and ability deteriorating.

      The parable, however, also yields a deeper lesson. Jesus told this parable during his last days in Jerusalem. He knew that he and his followers would be severely tested. The temptation to escape confrontation, to slip out of Jerusalem and go back and blend into their previous non-controversial lives as fishermen and farmers around the Sea of Galilee would grow very strong for all of them.

      In the parable, two of the servants trusted so much in the confidence that their master had in them, that they were willing to stretch their abilities to the utmost. Even in today's financial markets, you don't quickly double your money unless you are willing to take considerable risk. Perhaps the servants were bordering on recklessness, but the point the parable makes is that these two servants were openly willing to take a big chance with a lot of money. They did not hold back. Two of the servants realized that their master had made them not servants, but important stewards. In contrast, the third servant was afraid, afraid of the gift; afraid and distrustful of the confidence the master had shown him. That servant was afraid to consider a new life, to venture forth, to take responsibility, to hope and to go beyond the boundaries of an ordinary servant.

      Jesus taught that discipleship involved reaching out, inviting, caring, perceiving, and hoping far beyond the ordinary limits of one's culture. Disciples are like those two servants who were emboldened by the confidence of their master and the gifts he entrusted to them, to go far beyond playing it safe.   This parable was telling the early disciples, as well as us, that fear, distrust and timidity will ultimately kill discipleship. Indeed if those of Jesus' fellowship would have acted as scared as that third servant, the new church would have simply decayed and crumbled. The witness of the Gospel would have lost all its muscle.

      I sometimes get annoyed when it appears I am being taken advantage of or being put upon. I get upset when I notice the abuse this building takes. A few people are careless, don't put things away, or are untidy and make unnecessary work for others, or treat the tables and chairs as if they were cast iron. Yet, like my snow blower, the resources of St. John's are meant to be used. For my personal health, I am meant to be stretched and challenged, too. Church communities are much more likely to perish because of atrophy than to wear out because they extend themselves.

        For over 180 years this parish at its best has understood that we won't wear out the Gospel by sharing it, or wear out the church by offering hospitality and refuge. Indeed, it is those very acts that produce an endowment of strength and vitality. The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to venture outside of comfortable boundaries, and to trust that God has glorious plans for us. Jesus calls us as disciples, not to hide or to hoard, but to keep hope alive in this world. In the life task of discipleship, we discover the abundant joy that comes from giving and sharing. In his time, Jesus used the image of large sums of money and servants to communicate this truth. However, if Jesus and the disciples had lived in Ithaca, I suspect Jesus would have taught them using a parable about the care and operation of snow blowers.

    And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.