The Rev. Jimmy Abbott
The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
November 19, 2023
Matthew 25:14-30

The full video of this worship service is available on the Trinity Episcopal Church YouTube channel. The audio of the sermon is available on the podcast page.

My grandparents’ didn’t believe in having a “kids’ table” at Thanksgiving, so the seating was elbow to elbow at the big, dining room table. My grandfather would put in the extra leaves to expand the table. My grandmother would pull up every chair in the house. Me, my sister, my aunts and uncles, my parents, both sets of grandparents, would all sit around that one, big table. And so the feast began.

The first course at the Abbott Thanksgiving dinner, was…shrimp cocktail. A bold move. After that, we would move right on to a cube of green jello on a bed of lettuce. It’s a thing. Then, we’d hit our stride. Turkey, my mom’s stuffing, mashed potatoes, lots of gravy made with real butter. Rolls. Those little creamed pearl onions. And just when you thought you couldn’t take another bite, out came the pie. Elbow to elbow at one table with more than enough to eat.

More than enough. It’s what Jesus is trying to get across in the parable of the talents. With God, there is always more room at the table, there is always more than enough. So a man gives his three servants five talents, two talents, and one talent. A talent in the ancient world was an amount of money. And the first two servants, with five talents and two talents, they make more talents. They put the leaves in the middle of the table, they pull up the extra chairs. They bake the pumpkin pie and the pecan pie. And what they get in return? They get more! Of course, in the parable Jesus is using money as a symbol. But think about this as God’s love, God’s grace. God gives us this measure of grace and love, we give it away. And when we give it away, it’s not that we lose it. It’s that we get more in return. The five talents become ten talents. The four talents become four talents. It’s about the love and grace of Jesus. It is freely given to us. And paradoxically, we get more love and grace when we use it. 

Though we don’t function this way. Our brains, our hearts, so formed by the miserly ways of the world, have come to believe that there is only so much, and no more. We spend our whole lives as if it is all a zero-sum game. If you get that scoop of mashed potatoes, then there won’t be any for me. If you get a seat at the table, then there won’t be a place for me. This warped view of the world is what Jesus is criticizing.

The only way to lose it, is to keep it to ourselves. That’s the other half of the paradox. That one servant who takes his talent and buries it, ends up losing it. It’s a failure of imagination. It’s like he can’t dream of anything more, he can’t imagine anything better. It’s like he sat down at the Abbott family Thanksgiving dinner, and thinking that the whole meal was comprised of just the shrimp cocktail and green jello, he grabbed all of that and wouldn’t share. And so he loses out. He doesn’t get to experience the turkey leg and the buttery gravy. He loses out, because he can’t envision anything more than what he already has. Again, it’s not about money. It’s about grace and love and joy. 

So that weeping and gnashing of teeth; I don’t think that’s a threat, that’s not what God wants to do to us. The weeping and the gnashing of teeth is not a threat about what might happen to us after we die. No. The weeping and the gnashing of teeth is a description of what our lives are like when play that zero-sum game. You know this is true. When you hunker down, and close your heart. When you start thinking that you must be right, and they must be wrong. Or, even worse, when you must be good and they must be bad. That’s when the grace of God that has been given to us goes right out the window. That’s when you find yourself hoarding the green jello instead of seeing the great feast that is before you. That’s what that one servant is doing. And so we weep in our own self-created loneliness; we will gnash at our teeth at our own failure to dream of a better, holier life, a life that could be shared.

So yes, we can go ahead and say it. This is a parable of judgment. Jesus is giving this parable right before the people betray him, arrest him, and crucify him. In a way, the people are about the live out this parable. They received this incredible grace, the gift of God, walking in their midst. Teaching and healing and feeding them. And what did they do with it, what did they do with such marvelous grace? They put it on a cross and buried it in a tomb. 

And it’s not like we get off any easier. This parable of judgment, is a parable against us. For we, too, have failed to see the grace of God in our midst. We have failed to see God’s dignity in every other human being. We have played the zero-sum game, accumulating for ourselves, elbowing out anyone else who wants to sit at the table. We have feasted all right. We’ve piled our plates high with greed, and with distrust, and with animosity. We’ve gorged on finger pointing and blaming. We’ve been so worried that things might get worse we’ve failed to imagine that things could get better. It’s so funny to me. We can’t stand these parables of judgment and yet we are so judgmental. And this world that we live in – this world that we all know is so desperately broken. Well, isn’t it obvious? We are weeping and gnashing our teeth, this is the outer darkness. These grudges that we hold, these resentments that we cherish. We have done this to ourselves. 

So what I have this morning is good news, is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Notice, in this parable, every servant gets something. God trusts everyone with the talents. The Holy Spirit has been poured into your heart. And when we make more room in our hearts, when we decide to bake the second pie, when we put that second stick of butter in the gravy, when we chose to open our life to this God; we will get it all back and more. Jesus said it best, “the measure you give is the measure you get back” (Luke 6:38). 

So there is an opportunity this week. Not to just physically make room at the Thanksgiving table, but to make more room in your heart. To let go of the jealousies, to let go of those memories that are holding you back. To take this gift that is God’s grace without any regrets.

One last thing. Those first two servants, when they give all their talents back to the master, notice what the master says to them. “Enter into the joy of your master.” Joy. This is the mark of God. Joy. If you need a quick check up on your spiritual life, if you want to know how your relationship with God is going, this will tell you all you need to know. Is there any joy, or are you always gnashing your teeth? Remember, this is a parable of judgment, and we are learning, in fact, that we judge ourselves. So one refused the grace of God, and weeps and gnashes his teeth. The other servants enter into the joy of their master, because they gave away the grace of God. The options before us, are obvious. All we have to do is the set table, pull an extra chair, and make room for Jesus.

References

Hauerwas, Stanley. Matthew. Paperback edition published 2015. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich: Brazos Press, 2015.