Year B
Zephaniah 1:7,12-18
Psalm 90:1-8,12
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

May the words of my mouth… O God… speak your Truth…

It’s Advent… and we wait… we wait for the long list of issues which continue to… stress… us… out… to end… the pandemic… rising infection rates and death tolls… when a vaccine will be available… and whether enough people will accept the science which went into it… concerns about our health care workers… our school teachers… and first responders… concerns about our families… and our parents… and grandparents… about those who are unemployed or underemployed… about racism and the divisions in our country… about the disputed results of the presidential election… and the stunning abdication of national leadership… and the lies about voter fraud that are being promoted… and the resistance to the peaceful transfer of power… and we wait for the rhythms of life… and the patterns of activity that are familiar to us… to return to normal…

It’s no wonder so many of us feel as though we have post-traumatic stress disorder… because… in fact… some of us do…

In the June newsletter… I quoted Sonya Renee Taylor… who wrote… that we will not go back to normal… and neither should we… because what we made normal… and what was revealed in the laws and the ethos of this country… were attitudes… like prejudice… greed… fear… doubt… and suspicion… that are antithetical to those of the Gospel… but we are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment… one that fits all of humanity and nature…

But for some… it may not feel like an opportunity… it may feel more like divine retribution… like we’re being punished for something that someone else did… but God is not vindictive… and God does not punish us… God is incapable of that… all that God is eternally capable of… is love and forgiveness… asking us over and over and over and over again… giving us opportunity after opportunity after opportunity… to choose life… and it is we the people… who choose less… than what God has ordained for us…

But there is only so much we can do individually… if only one person votes in favor of background checks for gun purchases… and ninety-nine vote against it… there’ll be no background checks… if only one person votes to protect the environment… and ninety-nine vote against it… it’s not going to be protected… if only one person votes to protect voting rights… and ninety-nine vote against it… our democracy is in trouble… it is our corporate… collective… communal behavior that makes a difference… we can’t have a national community without accountability… but sometimes… I just want God to swoop down… and save us from ourselves… but wait… Jesus has already done that…

We need to begin to realize just how limited our human vision is… and as the Psalmist reveals… attempt to see things through God’s boundless vision… since before the mountains were brought forth… or the land and the earth were born… from age to age God is God… who turns us… and says… go back to dust… O child of earth… for we consume away in God’s displeasure… and are afraid because of God’s indignation… and we ask God to teach us to number our days… so we may apply our hearts to wisdom… God’s wisdom…

Jonathan Bratt-Carle… a United Methodist pastor I know… a colleague and a friend… wrote one week ago… regardless of the outcome of the election]… or how any one of us feels about it… neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden has the right to claim our highest allegiance… for anyone who is baptized… our highest allegiance belongs to Christ… and to him alone… and the President of the United States is not God’s direct instrument… any more than you are… or I am… and this truth is one we all must accept for a simple reason… [because] if the omniscient Divine Being gets it wrong every eight years or so… He is disqualified from being God… it is “we the people” who put presidents into the Oval Office… not the Divine Creator… the Creator of the Universe does not deal in half-way measures… yearning for the “long arc of justice” to go Her way… the Creator of the Universe deals in life and death… and the billions of years told by the story of light… are not [too] long for the Ancient of Days… you cannot hope for God’s will to be done by the President of the United States… you can’t outsource your discipleship to another human being… you can only pray for God’s will to be done in your own unique life… to be sure… our faith is active in our politics… but if our faith is not active in our daily life… our politics will not be faithful…

Today’s Gospel… is the Parable of the Talents… in Jesus’ time… one talent was equal to about fifteen years of income… so the first slave received seventy-years’ worth of income… a lifetime of wages… in our time… at a modest annual income of $30,000.00… five talents would be equivalent to about $2,500,000.00…

And during stewardship time… our leadership talks about giving of our time… talent… and treasure… and in Matthew 13:44-47… Jesus had already told the disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven was like a treasure hidden in a field… like a merchant in search of fine pearls… and like a net cast into the sea catching fish of every kind… mysteries of the kingdom which are given to us to share… so we don’t lose them..

But what if the talents in today’s Gospel aren’t money… what if they are the seeds of God-given gifts… of… talent… that we could choose to nourish and develop… then we could understand… that the first and second servants developed their gifts… their talents… and doubled them… but the third servant was afraid of stepping out of his comfort zone… didn’t want to take any chances… decided to play it safe with what he had been given… hid that talent… let it stagnate… and gained nothing… didn’t further the Kingdom at all… and if we go through life doing no more than what’s expected… that’s not going to build the Kingdom very much… that’s why… if someone’s speech and actions are against the message of Jesus and the Gospel… we need to call them out… if they’re not doing enough… we need to encourage and invite them to do more…

Pastor Martin Billmeier writes… this psalmist shows us how God looks on as generations rise and pass away… perhaps he compares the brevity of human life with the eternity of God… and goes on to see… how even the concept of time cannot be the same for the Ancient of Days… it’s a passage that invites us to look at our creature-hood…

There’s so much we don’t know… there’s so much we can’t see… we’re so limited by time and space… and Jesus is fond of pointing out how our priorities… are not God’s priorities… how God’s view of things… is much different than our view of things…

In our short lifespan… we make hard and fast rules [and laws] for ourselves and for others… rules that change as generations pass… we equate success with dying wealthy… old… and surrounded by family and friends… yet the Son of God died neither wealthy… nor old… and family and friends had largely deserted him…

Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus died alone on the cross… everyone deserted him… but God never deserts us… all that God is ever eternally capable of… is love and forgiveness… God cares little for the litmus tests… or the labels… that we create and impose on each other… beaus the only litmus test that matters… is the Gospel…