27 Pentecost


“Grant us so to hear the Scriptures, read them, mark them,

learn and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace

and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.”

Well I’ve been doing that all week with this parable of the talents,

and it’s given me indigestion.

If the man going on the journey is God, his actions toward that last slave

live up to all my old-school Catholic expectations of Attila the Avenger-God.

That poor guy.

He buries the talent to avoid his master’s wrath.

And doesn’t the master live up to all his expectations.

I wonder, as he wanders around out there in the outer darkness,

if the slave runs into his counterparts from the other parables,

the guy without the wedding robe or the virgins who ran out of lamp oil.


Recently I heard a similar story about cash flow

that even tops the slave who buried the talent.

There was this sixteen-year-old teenager who came home with a new Chevvie Avalanche. His parents are shocked and asked him about it. He told them that he’d just bought it.“With what money?” they demanded.

They knew the impossible divide between what their son had and what the truck cost.

He explained that he’d gotten it for $15.

“$15… Who would sell you a $36,000 truck for $15?”

“The lady up the street”, the boy said. “I don’t know her name, she just moved in. She saw me ride by on my bike and asked me if I wanted to buy the truck for $15, so I did.”

Well, the kid’s father is beside himself, so he takes the keys and drives the truck back up the street, and sure enough there is the woman, moving boxes into the house. He introduced himself, and told her what his son had said when he came home with the new truck. He apologizes for any misunderstanding and hands her the keys.

“Oh no, she said. You see, I thought my husband was on a business trip. But I found out that he’s really in Hawaii with his girl friend, and he isn’t coming back. He called this morning with some story, saying that he was stranded and needed cash. He told me to sell the truck and send him the money. So I did.”


Responsibility and expectation.

Free grace, and our response.

The parable of the talents pushes the limits.

Is God really that harsh master?

What happened to the generous God of the other parables?

The one who gave the 11th hour worker a full day’s pay?

What about the reckless father of the prodigal son

who kills the fatted calf for his party-loving wayward son?


Psalm 123 sets us up.

We lift up our eyes to God, enthroned in heaven.

We look as servants to our master or mistress, asking for mercy.

We already know too well what contempt and scorn feel like.

Mercy, that’s what we want.


And than, bam-throw the guy out.

While the rich get richer and the poor gnash their teeth.

Sounds too much like life in this world to be life in the kingdom of God.


One of the troubles with parables is that we weren’t there then.

It’s like trying to get a joke or a saying that’s been translated from another language.

My mother used to say “Starosz nie radosz.”

Starosz nie radosz. “What’s that mean, ma?”

She couldn’t say exactly. Well, what?

She’d say, “It’s not the same, but it’s like ‘Old age is no joy.’”

I could hear that it wasn’t the same. The Polish one just sounded better.

Starosz nie radosz.

I say that a lot now.


The people that heard Jesus’ parables got them.

And supposedly the parables were even funny.

While we try to figure them out. They don’t seem funny to us.

We don’t get the joke. We try.

And believe me there are endless explanations.

Is the slave who got one talent the Pharisee-?

the guy who buries his religious belief, protects it from change and growth,

ready to give it back, safe and sound, exactly as he got it?


Is the guy with one talent the kid who has no hope of getting into the top math group

at school being encouraged to make the most of what he has?

Is the man who goes on a journey Jesus? Is he God?


The one thing that rings true is that like the story

of the maidens who ran out of oil last week,

this parable has a loser, and has winners.


For me, the one to keep your eye on is the master,

the man who doles out the talents.

If I have to be a slave, I want to be his slave.

He just hands out his fortune, and then leaves for a long time.

He gives away all his property. He trusts his slaves with all he has.


If this man in the story is standing in for God,

then God is recklessly trusting and generous.

The man gave out to each what he thought he could handle, and it was a lot,

for each of them it was a lot.

A talent is a very large sum of money, equal to several years salary.

The man put enormous trust and confidence in these slaves.


In the parables of the 11th hour workers and the prodigal son,

the generosity goes to the under-the-wire guys.

Today the generosity goes to the dealers, the entrepreneurs, the full-day guys

who phenagled and figured out ways to work the master’s money up to peak.

So what’s the point?

Are we getting a lesson that now is the time to be buying stock

so we can double our pledge to the church in a few years?


Maybe the story is about how we use what we are given.

Yes, we should be prepared; we should wear out, not rust out. .

But for sure the story is about a God who is generous with grace.

Recklessly generous, really.

God gives all His graces away, in each and every parable.

God never holds back.


Paul gives it to us good in today’s letter.

We are not in darkness, where day can surprise us like a thief.

We are children of the light, children of the day.

God hasn’t destined us for wrath,

but for obtaining salvation through Jesus, who died for us.


God is not a master who is trying to trip us up. To set us up for failure.

God stepped in to the big picture of the human story

with His son Jesus to do just the opposite.

Not to lose us. But to save us.

To give us a way through. A crucified hand to hold.

To show us how to live, how to give back. To be-us so that we can be-he.

And His grace just never runs out.

He gives it all away; just take it and use it.


Paul tells us to encourage one another and build each other up.

Maybe that’s the missing piece in the story today. The slaves each acted on their own.

Maybe the two could have encouraged the fearful slave,

helped him to overcome his fear; shown him what to do with grace.


We need eyes of grace to respond to such a generous God.

God’s giving wasn’t done until He spent Himself, all of Himself, on us.

Jesus invested his whole self in us, he paid the full sticker price.

Jesus gives himself away, totally, today, to each of us.

Each of us gets it all.


What are we going to do with it?

--The Rev. Terry Suruda