Sermon 11/16/08 (Matthew 25:14-30)

“First Century Wall Street”
Matthew 25:14-30
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 16 November, 2008
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
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 I recently read a news story about a contractor who found more than $100,000 cash inside the walls of a house he was remodeling. During the Great Depression, a previous owner of the home had stashed the money inside the walls to keep it safe -- investing it was obviously too risky in those days.

The contractor told the current owner of the house, a friend for whom he was doing a favor, about the money, and they agreed to split it. Then somehow the story hit the news, and descendants of the home’s original owners stepped in and said that the cash was rightfully theirs. A legal battle ensued, and everyone got a little cut of the money -- the contractor, the current homeowner, the family of the original owner -- but nobody won. Perhaps most poignantly, the man who had put the money in the wall in the first place never got to use a penny of it, since he had died many years before.

I don’t have a mind for economics, but I do know that some risk is involved. If you hide your money in the wall or bury it in the ground -- like the third slave in this morning’s scripture did -- it will do nobody any good. The stock market is all about risk -- risking enough to get a return on your investment but not risking so much that you lose all your money. There is a complex science to it, which is why people hire financial advisers to figure out how to go about investing.

I also understand that during difficult economic times, like the Great Depression and like our current economic climate, people want to take as little risk as possible. As banks fail, people become more prone to hiding their money under the mattress -- or in the wall. They hoard it and don’t want to spend it anywhere, much less the stock market. Like the slave who hid his talent in the ground, they wind up with the same amount that they began with -- no less, but no more either.

The master in this morning’s gospel lesson entrusted his slaves with an enormous amount of money. It should be noted that “talents” do not refer to personal abilities. In this culture a “talent” represented an enormous amount of money, something like twenty years worth of the slaves’ normal wages. When the first two slaves doubled the talents given them by trading, we can think of this like a first century stock market. It is not known exactly how they would have doubled the money, but it is understood that they invested it, taking risks in order to improve on the initial investment. They apparently took the right risks, because they doubled their money.

The third slave, on the other hand, opted to avoid the risk. It was not unusual for people to bury money for safekeeping -- but the slave indicates that he did so not because he was afraid of the risk but because his master “was harsh and reaped what he did not sow.” There is no indication in the text that the master was harsh -- he did, after all, entrust his slaves with large sums of money -- so perhaps the third slave’s complaint was just an excuse. He may, in fact, have expected the master to be pleased with the fact that he returned the entire capital of the investment, rather than losing it on some “first century Wall Street.” But once he saw that his master was so pleased with his two risk-taking compatriots, he had to think of a quick excuse. ...The truth is, we don’t know why he really buried the money -- whether he did so out of spite, out of fear, or what. All we have is the conclusion: those who take risks may be rewarded handsomely, while those who do nothing will lose out.

In difficult economic times, the language of this scripture is difficult to hear. Even those of us who don’t do a whole lot of investing in the stock market take fewer risks when we have less money with which to take them. We are more careful with our money, and we are less trusting of banks. The illustration of taking risks when investing our money is hard to hear right now. However, we should remember that this is Jesus speaking here. He used the illustration of a master giving money to his slaves because his listeners would have understood that, but he was not saying that God won’t love us if we don’t invest in the stock market. He was telling a story to make a larger point...and what was that point? If we are not willing to take risks -- in whatever, but especially in our faith lives -- we will lose out.

Being a Christian means putting your heart on the line. It means taking all sorts of risks, from the financial to the emotional to the spiritual...even the physical. We take risks when we give our money away -- in the offering plate, to organizations, to a person on the street. Will our money truly get used to the glory of God? We take risks when we invite people to come to our church. Will we like them? (not that that is what being the church is about) Will they benefit the church? We take risks when we commit ourselves to a cause. Will our hearts be broken if it doesn’t go the way we want? We take risks when we engage in any kind of mission. What if I am physically hurt while I’m building this Habitat for Humanity house? Should I really be traveling to that part of the city or this part of the world? We take spiritual risks whenever we do anything in the service of God. Will I still feel the same way about God if this doesn’t go as planned?

First century followers of Christ took special risks. They risked being persecuted for following this countercultural rabbi. They risked their livelihoods by dropping what they were doing and following this strange man, Jesus. But their willingness to take risks meant that they would reap a tremendous reward: eternal life.

Our willingness to take risks for our faith yields that great reward too -- we are promised eternal life. This, of course, is the ultimate goal. But there are more tangible rewards as well. The money we put in the offering plate will help to make a better church. When we give money to Earl’s Place or other organizations we may be changing lives -- yes, even the pennies we put in add up. It’s true that not every single person who goes into Earl’s Place or other organizations succeeds. So, was our money wasted? No. That person had shelter and regular meals for a time.

When we ask people to come to our church, we reap the benefits of meeting wonderful children of God. Of course we “risk” inviting people who are not like us...but isn’t that the point? They, too, are children of God, and their presence among us will be a Godly thing.

When we commit ourselves to a cause, yes, we risk having our hearts broken. My sister, along with thousands of people across the country, was disillusioned when Proposition 8 passed in California. But she, along with many others, is reaping the benefits of joining together with other people who believe as she does. Even when our hearts are broken, good can arise when we join together.

I vaguely remember hitting my thumb with a hammer when I was building a Habitat for Humanity house in college. But that house now shelters a family. I’ve gone into some bad neighborhoods...but I’ve been reminded of God’s presence there in the process.

The spiritual risks are always there, whenever we put our heart on the line in the service of Christ. But the benefits follow. So I ask you, even in these difficult times -- especially in these difficult times -- to continue to take risks for your faith. The rewards will be heavenly...and earthly too.

Now let us pray.