MANAGING MONEY
Matthew 25: 14-30
Our Westminster Institute classes,
which have produced groups such as the Handbells
Choir we heard today, a radio controlled airplane class for a parent and a
child, the prayer beads seminar, and the knitting class among others, already has a man who has volunteered to share his
talent and training to help couples and individuals manage their money. Lowell Winn’s class will be held in the first
semester of 2009. Our treasurer, Dave Hughes, has also offered his training to help
people with their personal finances. Our Parish Associate,
Money, and what to do with money
entrusted to us by God, has been on people’s minds since the invention of
currency. We think about getting kids through college, paying for weddings,
supporting organizations in which we believe, and paying our bills. Those who don’t have it are desperate to get
it, with measures from begging, to stealing to lottery tickets. Those who do
have it have, in many cases, seen to have less of it this year. What a perfect
time to be in the crowd, a crowd that spans the ages of time, as Jesus tells
the parable of the talents. Perfect, because, you see: a talent was a measure
of money, worth about 15 years of a laborer’s wages in those days. So, like
many of you, we are talking about retirement investments, long term
investments, planned giving, and the like in this parable. As much as we think
about talents as a gift or skill, in Jesus’ description it is about what to do
with your saved money.
In this story, if Jesus were to be
the master, and we were to be his servants, in a sense we have been asked to take Jesus’ money and use it in a way
that best pleases our master, Jesus. So whether we like it or not, our role
in the story is to be a financial investor for Jesus: in fact, we could think
about the one who made 5 more talents as being an investor in stocks in a good
year, or an investor in a fledgling new company, or a person who purchased
autographed items from a sports star the day before he or she died. Such
investments could double in value in short order. But let’s face it: that
investor might not have been exceptional; he or she might have just been
fortunate! Even the best financiers don’t double their money in short order
every day.
The servant with two talents might
have been like the slightly more cautious investors among us. Those who
invested in CDs in the early 1980s, for as few as 2 years, received from 16 to
21% interest in that period of time when the stock market did not keep up. But
in the 1990s the cautious CD investor would have been passed 10 fold by the
more aggressive stock investor as everyone who could, boarded the prosperity
train.
The servant given one talent, it is
usually assumed, was known to be cautious by his master; the master gave him
less because his experience with the
others taught him that he would likely make more money with them. Sure
enough: this servant was paralyzed when asked to take care of his master’s
money. He wanted no part in taking a chance at losing it. So he took the money
and put it in a cookie jar, or in a hole, or under a mattress. He just kept it
so it could be returned intact.
Now if the master were just
interested in protecting his investment, he would have given the last servant
the highest praise. In the days before FDIC insured banks, the first two
servants would certainly have been seen as risking their master’s money; and as
we know, risk means, if circumstances aren’t exactly in their favor, they could
lose their master’s money. The story would have had very different consequences
if that had happened. But instead, the master, (who we might even think of as
Jesus) perhaps gave the first one the greatest amount because of his track
record of investing; likewise the second and the third. But notice, in giving
more money to the first one, even the master
assumed the risk of losing his money; likewise with the second one he gave him
less but the master certainly could have lost it. The third one had almost no
chance of losing his master’s money, yet he is not only reprimanded, the master
took his original investment and gave it to the first servant. The one who carefully
guarded what he was given got nothing.
You have probably heard of churches
that, at the end of the service, gave out fifty dollar bills to those in
attendance, challenging them to invest it and bring back the principle and the
profits. This is not such a church! But
in a way we are one of those servants of Jesus, just as you are individually
his servants. Jesus entrusts Kingdom money to us. “How will they use it?” he
wonders. The church uses it to bring others in, to lift others up, and even to
invest so that the Master can have more. If you are a fortunate investor of
money that Jesus entrusted to you, then he hopes you will return with more than
he gave you. If you are a cautious investor, then Jesus gives you permission
to, with a measure of risk, try to make more for yourself, which, in the life
of a faithful Christian, means more is tithed to Jesus too. See, when the
client makes money, in this case the money manager makes it too. You and I are
money managers for Jesus. And if we are faithful to him and plan to tithe, we
will return the first 10% back to him and get to keep the rest for ourselves:
it is win/win when we win; it is lose/lose when we lose. But Jesus, according
to this parable, not only is willing to accept those odds, he encourages our
wise risks to receive blessings and to give them. The one who only held the
master’s money got no blessing, nor commendation, and built no relationship
with the master.
So, which person are you with the
master’s money? Do you risk it with daring action, knowing that losses could be
big, but so could the gains? Nowhere in this parable does Jesus encourage his
servants to be brash or careless, just to be bold and careful! It seems that
the master blesses those who work to earn for the Master, since he lets us have
a 90% commission with his money! What a deal! Do you take some risks but not
big ones? Then the master will give you less of his money, as he agrees to rise
or fall a little bit, with your moderate risk comfort level. And if all you do
is take what your master gives you and put it under a bushel, then the master
actually wants it back: you get nothing, and he gets nothing. So where will you invest the 90% of your
master’s money that you can keep? And how faithfully will you give your master
his 10% due? He is watching you, and he
is watching me, to see which one of us he will trust with more of his estate
than the others. Will it be you? Or your neighbor? Or a child? Or a young person? Your
actions direct the choices of the master.
So let us, today and always, give of our best to the master.
That’s the name of a hymn, you know!
I only know that since the choir at my first church chose to sing it for my
ordination to ministry service. It turns out that in the book of Malachi,
people were bringing substandard sacrifices to the
I’ll close with the way songwriter
Howard Benjamin Gross put it in my ordination hymn:
Give of your best to the Master, give Him first
place in your heart.
Give Him first place in your service, consecrate every part.
Give and to you shall be given—God His beloved Son gave;
Gratefully seeking to serve Him, give Him the best that you havei.”
Jeffrey A. Sumner