November 14, 1999

Pastor David G. Mullen

Matthew 25:14-30

Planted in his powerful narrative just before Jesus faces his trial, suffering, and death on the cross, Matthew wants his church to hear the Lord’s strong parable as marching orders. Do not hide the powerful, saving message of Jesus. Please don’t try to keep it a secret out of fear of ridicule or simply and sinfully try to keep it all to yourselves! Make the church multiply by reaching out to others! In other words, fire up, church! Go out and be good news for the world!

This view of the parable seems very much in line with Matthew’s overall intent to show that Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of heaven is for everyone everywhere and his church is the way God’s word of welcome gets out. For example, only Matthew’s gospel captures Jesus’ metaphor of the mission of the church as being light for the world: You are like light for the whole world. A city built on top of a hill cannot be hidden and no one would light a lamp and put it under a clay pot. …Make your light so shine that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven.

The Church is supposed to be clearly visible in both its existence and in its good works! I sometimes tease us Lutherans about where, for whatever reasons, we’ve so often built the buildings we call churches. For example, our Rio Linda church. Everytime there’s a funeral, people have to call up and plead, "Say, how do I find your church, anyway?" And if it’s a big funeral, why Vi cannot get any work done the morning of the service other than answer the phone, every call, the same question, "How do I find your church?" Well, as they say in real estate, a good sale depends on three things, "location, location, and location."

Please understand, I’m not arguing that where a church is located automatically guarantees growth. But why is it that so many of our churches (and I am quite aware of this serving as conference dean) are buried away in neighborhoods where most people never travel? Well, sometimes we just went for the cheap or donated property. But most of our Lutheran churches were planted to serve the needs of people who were already Lutherans, moving into California and congregating in certain newer neighborhoods. We had a mission, all right, but it was mainly a mission to "our own." Never until recently did the Lutheran Church in California catch a real vision of outreach to all the people!

Matthew’s gospel ends with the powerful scene that’s been called "The Great Commission": the risen Christ commands his followers, Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. We don’t even have to go to foreign mission fields anymore to fulfill that great commission. God is has brought the world to California. "All peoples" are now our neighbors. I go out for my walks, I see kids of all colors. I see adult in colorful robes and turbans. I go to the malls I hear languages from all over the world. And in such a setting, are we just going to hide the gospel treasure away, afraid of what might happen if we really meant business about opening our doors to the peoples of all nations in trying to make disciples of them?

Back to the parable. How is God’s investment in our churches paying off? People in the know about how congregations thrive or die say that once congregations sink to or get stuck at worshipping about 60 people or fewer, they are at risk of dying. In fact, for most at that level, it’s only a matter of time until they close their doors. Here then is a Lutheran reality check: 40% of the congregations of the Sierra-Pacific Synod of our Lutheran Church are currently at that 60 or fewer level. And many of those dying congregations, including some in the Sacramento area are located in places of dramatic population growth. What are we doing with the wealth, spiritual and otherwise God’s given us? How is God’s investment in Lutherans paying off?

But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground.

The servant who failed to invest and incurred his master’s wrath had in fact been given a huge amount of money! The one thousand silver coins really was a denomination called a talent and a talent represented 6,000 denarii and each of which was the equivalent of about one day’s wage for a common laborer. That was no small change, but a rather enormous amount, equal to about fifteen to 20 years of wages for one person. And those who heard Jesus tell the story knew that. They would have quickly calculated that the servant given the smallest amount still had been given more than enough money to outlast him, given the short life-spans back then.

And Matthew surely hopes his church will understand what this means. For perhaps that poor little start-up church looked at the wealth, grandeur, and power of Rome and thought, what can we do in the face of such might? Or maybe they looked to the glorious liturgies of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (many of Matthew’s church were Jews, after all) and thought, our little worship assemblies don’t amount to much. What can we, a poor little bunch of unknowns do to make a difference?

And what about us? Do we sometimes just bury our enthusiasm for the church because we decide we cannot compete with say the televised spectacle of profession sports? Or what are we compared to the mighty Capital Christian Center and their glitzy productions? Or to those megachurches who count members by the tens of thousands?

But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground.

Think again. God has still given us vast wealth to invest! With over five hundred members on our roster, what enormous wealth in people years and faithful lives we represent! We are a rich church, gifted with eager children, with years of enduring friendships, with committed leaders and creative ministries, with generosity in giving, and above all else, with the holy and precious treasure of the ministry of Word and Sacrament celebrated with wonderful liturgies. Our church right now is a wonderfully exciting place to be. I love it, because it reminds me of a household blessed with bright and rambunctious kids! Should we just keep all this secret?

But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground. Why? Because he was afraid. He didn’t trust his own talents, and he was worried about his master’s reaction. Let’s not be like that. Jesus urges us on. The gospel that saves us is meant to be invested in others. For our real mission is the joy of welcoming others into the wonderful life of Christ!

And he promises: Of those who dare to invest the gospel treasure in others, to those shall be given even more. Thus thrives Church of Christ in every age. I for one believe our turn is now. Amen.