Today's Sermon

Just Do Your Job:
Proper A28: I Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30
Kristen R. Richardson-Frick
November 15, 2008
St. Paul’s UMC

We’re in the “Between Times.” That’s what the people who talk about these things for a living call it….the In-Between Times. That is, we live, move, and exist in the time BETWEEN Jesus’ first coming and his last, BETWEEN the initiation of the kingdom of God on earth and its completion, BETWEEN the giving of the gift of the Spirit and the full pouring out of it on all creation. We live in between. And if you ask any middle child, you know that living in between can be tough.

Jesus knew it would be tough to live in between. The Apostle Paul knew it was tough. And both of them wanted us to have some words of comfort and instruction to get us by, to keep us focused, as we live there. Jesus was talking to his disciples, who had just asked him about the end-times. Paul was writing to the believers in Thessolonika, who obviously had some questions about Jesus’ return at the end of time, and what would happen to those who died before that time and at it. And both Jesus and Paul seem to turn attention away from the question itself in order to say something that goes much more important.

The disciples have asked Jesus, after he prophesied that the great Temple would be destroyed, how they will know when the end of time is (they obviously think that the destruction of the Temple will mean the end-times have arrived). And that question has prompted Jesus to say many things about what the end will look like. We’ll look at Jesus’ words more in-depth on Wednesday night after our meal (there’s a plug for the study), but for now be content to hear that Jesus used the familiar images of wars and rumors of wars, false messiahs, earthquakes, and amines. He tells the disciples they will be persecuted and mistreated, but that the good news will spread through all the nations. He talks about a “desolating sacrilege” in the holy place in the temple and cries woe for women who are pregnant or nursing in those days. He says the Son of Man will come like lightning and that there will be signs in the heavens, and that the elect will be gathered to him.

But then he says, “But as for WHEN all this will happen, not even I know that. It will be unexpected, like when people were going about their business in Noah’s day, and suddenly the flood washed them away…like all of a sudden while two women were grinding meal, one disappears…like a man goes away on a trip and has no idea that a burglar is coming to steal his stuff in the night.

Then Jesus proceeds to give the “sooooo….” to the disciples. He says, “So, since you don’t know when the end is coming, but you know that it is coming, be like the faithful servant who was faithfully keeping the household running when the master of the house returned unexpectedly. Don’t be like the wicked servant who thought his master would be gone a while, so proceeded to get drunk and beat up on the other servants, only to find the master return as the household spiraled out of control on account of him. The master will punish that servant.

“Or think about this: the kingdom of heaven coming that day will be like this: there were ten bridesmaids anxiously awaiting the bridegrooms arrival. Some, assuming he was coming shortly, bought a little bit of oil to keep their lamps lit. Others didn’t know how long he would take, so they bought an extra supply. So when the bridegroom took a while, the anxious bridesmaids fell asleep and their lamps went out. When the cry came out in the middle of the night that the groom was coming, the ones with extra oil were in good shape, but the ones without had to run into town to buy more. They missed the groom’s arrival and were shut out of the party.

“Or think about it this way: There was a man who was going on a journey. So he called together his servants and entrusted all his assets, his property and their tasks to them. To one servant he entrusted $ 5 million, to another $ 2 million, to another $ 1 million. Now the servants had worked for the master for a long time. They had had the opportunity to watch him, to see how he operated, what was important to him. Two perceived him in one way, and the third saw him differently. The first two servants went out and immediately began taking risks with the money, spending and investing it in such a way as to grow it, to get a good ‘return on investment.’ The third took the $ 1 million and buried in the ground.

“When the master of the estate returned, he called back the servants to take back control of his property and wealth. The first was happy to report that he had taken the $ 5 million and made $ 5 million more for the master. The second had a similar report. And they both heard those words we all so long to hear: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will entrust much more to you now. Enter into the joy of your master!” But it was not so with the third servant, who came before the master saying: ‘I knew you were a hard man, punishing, and so I was afraid. I hid your $ 1 million in the ground, and here it is back for you.’ For this servant, the master had only words of condemnation.”

And this last story of Jesus makes me wonder: did that third servant really KNOW his master? What made him see only a harsh tyrant in a master who entrusted a fortune and an estate to his servants, who obviously only wanted to see them invest it well and make it bear fruit? Or rather, what had the other two servants seen in the master that let them know that if he were there, he would be investing the small fortune so it would grow? What had given them the confidence to take risks with what they had been given so they could do what the master did? How did they know that this was the job they’d been entrusted to do?

So often, I think, we take our Lord for a harsh tyrant. We, like the third servant, cower in fear and bury the amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit with which we’ve been entrusted. We forget that we are living as stewards of God’s estate, to care for it as Christ would, in between the time that the generous and risk-taking master has been here, and the time he returns. We neglect the gifts we’ve been asked to make grow into something beautifully abundant for God’s kingdom. We become like the bridesmaids who let the lamps go out, like the servant who decides he’s got enough time before the master of the house returns that he can get drunk and mistreat his peers. And Jesus and Paul have warnings about that: if we fail to be faithful servants of the master, to bear good fruit for him, to keep the light burning for him, to stay self-controlled and loving for him, then there will be a reckoning. We will face that judgment at a time we least expect.

This is why Paul writes with a plea in his words: “Let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us stay alert and sober. We belong to the day, to the light. Defend yourself against the night, the dark. Put on faith and love like a breastplate. Put on the hope of your salvation like a helmet, for we are not destined for God’s wrath, but for salvation and joy in Jesus Christ, who died for us so that we may live always with him. Encourage each other, build each other up, in this, as you already are.”

You may wonder why we’re engaging in the Natural Church Development process, why we’re shifting the structure and operation of the church around, why we celebrate Communion once a month, why I do the things I do or say the things I say the way I say and do them, in worship and teaching and preaching. It’s because I know the Master. I know the abundance of the gifts he’s entrusted to us, as individuals and as a church. I know the way he has worked and the tasks he’s entrusted to us in this in between time.

And I so desperately do NOT want to see us be the unfaithful servant. I so do NOT want to see us consciously or unconsciously become drunk, lazy, or abusive of God’s other children. I so do NOT want us to let the lamp go out, or bury the master’s treasure in the ground.

But I so DO want to see us, as individuals and as a church, remain faithful and care-ful as we tend the Master’s house and engage in his work with God’s fellow children. I so DO want us to keep the lamp-light of Christ burning so a dark world will be drawn to its light. I so DO want to see us take the gifts we’ve been given, the very treasure of Jesus: the good news of God’s salvation, the assurance of forgiveness, the promise of healing, the touch of grace, the love of Christ, the gifts of the Spirit, and make them grow so that everyone in Orangeburg knows how we’re investing God’s goodness, so that everyone around us is brought into the goodness of salvation with us.

I so DO want to see us be the faithful servants God has made and entrusted us to be, because I know the joys that come with faithfulness, and the consequences of unfaithfulness. All we have to do is just do our job while we live in between. We don’t have to know when the Master is returning, just that he is, and that he wants to find us faithfully at work when he does. It’s simple if we want to be ready, Jesus tells us: Just do your job.

Jesus will talk more about what faithfulness and unfaithfulness look like next week, what doing the job he’s given us looks like, and so will I, but for now, let us pray:

Loving master, you have entrusted us with a great fortune and asked us to use it to grow your kingdom. You have asked us to keep the light burning as we await the bridegroom’s arrival. Forgive us when we fall asleep, when we forget our role, when we fail to do the job you’ve asked us to do. Cleanse us now, make us faithful again. Send your Spirit to empower us again with your gifts, and to help us be the faithful servants you need in this time in between. Amen.