Jesus’ parable of the talents was not meant as an allegory, that is, the individual details that made up the story did not stand for something else. The master who gave out the talents was not God; the talent was just a sum of money, not a specific skill or individual gift. The story was about a shrewd investor who was willing to take risks and who went after making the big buck, taking large risks for the potential of large rewards. Like many characters in Jesus’ stories, this guy was not made out to be a model citizen or someone you would hire to manage your great grandmother’s finances.
This shrewd investor called in three of his underlings and entrusted them each with a sum of money and told them to go out and use it to make more. Two of the servants were willing to attempt to do that. The third underling, however, was not and even though he knew what the boss expected, he was afraid to do anything at all with the money and went and buried it in a hole. When the master returned, he commended the two who exhibited initiative and ventured forth into the world, even at the risk of losing every penny. “That’s the spirit, guys,” he said, “you were willing to try. Now if I give you some more, I know you will go out into the world and put my money to work again.”
Jesus was saying that the first two approached the task given them full of hope that they would be able to increase their master’s assets. They acknowledged the confidence their master had in them, and knew that he expected them to take some risk.
The third guy was ruled by fear. He had no trust in himself, no trust in others; he refused to risk anything as all and buried any possibility for a gain in his master’s assets. He was like those who always choose the nightmares of failure over any dreams of success and thereby live in a dark hole of their own choosing. To put it succinctly, this third guy was a cowardly and total wimp.
Jesus was saying that life couldn’t be fully lived without taking a risk on trust, on hope, and on love. Otherwise, it is like hiding your light under a bushel basket. If all that motivates you is fear of failure and rejection you will never truly live and flourish as God intended for every single one of us. I suspect many of you read Ask Amy in the newspaper. I read it, and many times I am tempted to send in my reply to some of the letters, “Oh please, stop feeling sorry for yourself and go out and get a life!” I think I would be quickly fired as an advice columnist. Yet one piece of advice I suspect Amy would agree with and I would like to offer it especially to our teenagers. You would like to ask your teacher if you could do a special project of real interest to you, but are afraid to ask. What would Jesus do? I think Jesus would say, “Remember the story about the talents. If you are afraid to ask, you have guaranteed that you will be told no because you’ve told yourself no.” What if you were afraid to ask a friend to a movie knowing there was a fifty-fifty chance the friend might turn you down? What would Jesus do? I think he would say, “Well, there is a complete zero chance if you never ask.” This applies to adults, too.
Remember the story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. In the Bible a miracle is always a special sign of something very significant, rather than a suspension of the laws of physics. The people were hungry and there was quite a crowd, but a small boy offered to share his basket of a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread. As other people saw that a small boy was willing to share his food, they began to do the same. It was as if someone from admissions at the local university pulled out of his pocket a foot-long sandwich from Subway, cut it in thirds and passed it out. Another pulled out a container of giant fries from Burger King and passed them around. Another opened up her basket and unwrapped a big Mac and put half of that on a plate and offered that and then someone took out a kosher hot dog, covered with grilled onions, mushrooms, green peppers and light on the mustard from 2 Guys, sliced that up and added that to the buffet. You see, the real miracle occurred when people began thinking that if this little kid can share, so can I. Everyone was willing to risk sharing, risk giving up a part of their own food, and thereby assuring that everybody enjoyed a big picnic. That’s how the life of faith works. If you are afraid, it aint going to happen, and it doesn’t matter what the it is. If the kid had never been willing to lose his fish and bread, the miracle would never have occurred.
Jesus told his parables as he was forming the nucleus that would become the church. It was a very small community at first. Jesus never concentrated on what they didn’t have. The constant message of Jesus and the example Jesus modeled for all his disciples was that of risking again and again, risking to trust, risking to hope, risking sowing seeds to produce the future fruit of faith. That’s the Good news that helps us through the tragedy, the setbacks, the disappointments and delays of life. It is the message for any community of faith, be it St. John’s, St. Paul’s Methodist, or any other body called to live as part of the community of saints.
