You Were Given Something Worth Sharing

SERMON

Oct 18

Scripture: Matthew 25:14–30

When Trust Is Broken

There are few things more painful than having your trust betrayed, especially when the person who betrays you is someone you trusted with your future.

We have seen versions of this story repeatedly in the news: financial advisers entrusted with someone's savings who instead use the money for themselves. Different names. Different amounts. Different schemes.

But the fundamental problem is the same.

Someone was entrusted with something that did not belong to them, and they forgot whose it was.

That brings us to one of Jesus' best-known parables.

More Than Money

Jesus tells of a wealthy master preparing to leave on a journey. Before departing, he entrusts his property to three servants.

One receives five talents. Another receives two. The third receives one. Importantly, Scripture tells us that each receives according to their ability.

Today, the word talent usually means an ability or gift. In Jesus' time, however, a talent represented a significant amount of money. His audience would have immediately understood the enormous responsibility being placed in these servants' hands.

The first servant puts what he receives to work and doubles it. So does the second.

The third digs a hole and buries what he has been given.

When the master returns, the first two hear exactly the same words: "Well done, good and trustworthy servant."

Notice what the master does not do. He doesn't compare the servant with five talents to the servant with two.

God isn't asking why you don't sing like someone else. Lead like someone else. Teach like someone else. Serve like someone else.

The question is much more personal:

What are you doing with what God gave you?

When Fear Buries Our Gifts

This parable isn't a divine investment strategy. Jesus isn't telling us that God expects us to double our bank accounts.

What has been entrusted to us is much broader: our time, abilities, relationships, resources, experiences, voices, and opportunities to serve.

So why does the third servant bury what he receives?

He tells us himself: "I was afraid."

His fear shaped how he saw his master and what he believed was possible. Rather than risk using what had been entrusted to him, he protected it, hid it, and ultimately did nothing with it.

The other two respond differently. Their relationship with the master allows them to act freely rather than fearfully.

That distinction matters.

Fear tells us to hold tightly to what we have. Love gives us a reason to put it to work.

From Scarcity to Abundance

Theologian Walter Brueggemann describes what he calls the "myth of scarcity," the belief that there isn't enough, that we must protect what we have, and that someone else receiving something somehow leaves less for us.

The biblical story continually points us toward another possibility: God's abundance.

Or, as Jim Wallis has put it, "There is enough, if we share it."

That changes how we understand stewardship. God's gifts were never intended simply to sit safely on a shelf.

Our time can strengthen relationships. Our skills can solve problems. Our experiences can help someone who is walking a road we've traveled before. Our voices can bring healing. Our resources can relieve suffering.

None of us has exactly the same things to offer.

We aren't supposed to.

What Will We Do With It?

Every day gives us another opportunity to decide what we will do with what has been entrusted to us.

We can risk kindness.

We can practice hospitality.

We can teach, encourage, give, listen, create, lead, repair, welcome, and serve. We can use what we have to support human dignity and contribute to the common good.

Or we can bury it.

Free will means the choice remains ours. We can allow fear to convince us that what we have isn't enough, that someone else is better equipped, or that keeping everything safely to ourselves is easier.

But love offers another way.

Love of God moves us toward love of neighbor. It turns gifts into service and resources into generosity. It asks us not to become somebody else, but to become faithful with what is already in our hands.

Someday, the question won't be whether we had as much as someone else.

It will be much simpler.

What did we do with what we were given?