Matthew 25:14-30

Most of us are familiar with this parable – there is a wealthy influential man who gives varying amounts of money to his servants to manage while he is away, and then comes back to judge their efforts. Someone had 5 talents and made 5 more.  Another had 2 talents and made 2 more. Good for them! And then there is the other, the one who got one talent and buried it for safekeeping. And who gets badly criticized for that.  But how, we say, is that fair when that person was just being careful? At least they didn’t waste it or lose it. At least they took it seriously. Doesn’t that count?

It’s easy for me to get caught up in the math and the comparisons here. Would it have been okay if the one with 5 only made 3 more? What if the one with 2 made 4 - is that better? How come the first one got 5 whereas the last one only got one?  It’s complicated, confusing. Or is it? I don’t think comparison is the point – that is dangerous and quite distracting. Yet as changemakers we do it all the time. “I’m not as skilled as she is.”  “I don’t have as much time as they do.”  “He is so far ahead of us.”

I like to imagine what these people did after they were handed their “assets”. I’m pretty sure they didn’t go make more money all by themselves. Maybe the first two found others, listened, collaborated, and it resulted in something very good. But these things didn’t just happen overnight; they took time and effort and trust. There were undoubtedly failures along the way that we never hear about.

Then there is the third person who was probably terrified and went and buried those assets. Didn’t seek out others, just acted alone, in isolation, and was done. Just stopped. And that’s where the real challenge comes. The wealthy man seems to care more about the intentionality, the trust, the collaboration, the risk-taking, and the overcoming fear than the actual measured outcome of 2 or 5 more talents. One thing leads to another but if you never start, even with a very tiny step, you won’t be able to do the next thing or the next.  

Everyone has “assets” - passions, resources, abilities. What are we going to do with them, and whom are we going to collaborate with? Let’s not get distracted by what others do or don’t have or accomplish. There will always be people who have more of something or less of something than we do. We are all in this work with God together. And it turns out that even one talent back in that day was worth about 16 years of wages! So no matter what you have, it is plenty. We just have to believe that.  

PRAYER: God, thank you for the resources I have. Help me go forward with an attitude of abundance, not scarcity. Courage, not fear. Gratitude, not comparison. Remind me that you are with me. Amen.

PROMPT:  What assets do you have that you have been “burying”?  Are there others who might help you turn these assets into something good?