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November 13, 2005
The Rev. Robert Phillippi
Proper 28 - Year A

To read the lessons for the day click here

Risk or Custom

"Enter into the joy of your master..." (23) Matthew 25: 14 - 30

I was fascinated in my study of the gospel lesson that neither the master nor the one-talent servant recognized the other for who they were. The servant calls the master harsh, when he has been the recipient of a talent of wealth and had witnessed two other servants receiving talents as well - for no apparent reason. The master does not appear harsh. And in his giving the master "gave ... to each according to his ability" (15); so what's up with the master not knowing this lazy wicked fellow can't handle the treasure?

In addition the audience, to whom Jesus speaks, might hear a disconnect as well. In that day when entrusted with another's wealth, it was common practice to hide that wealth in the ground and to retrieve it for the trustor upon his return. The one-talent slave did what many of the listeners would have expected of him. It was the safest way to return the talent to its owner. It is just as likely the gathered group thought the five and two talent slaves risky fellows - not to be copied.

The master rewards risky behavior and doesn't allow for the fear of one he already knows has limited ability. It is as if the one is faulted for following a norm, doing the best he can, doing the traditional, while rewarding the risky and ignoring custom as the community knew it.

Personally I am not a huge risk taker. I guess I would likely hold company with the one-talent guy; except I would not bury the wealth only to receive dirt for my effort. I would have opted for a saving account with the bankers.

I hope you hear the disconnect in the gospel. No one is on the same page. The principals do not agree on what to do. They don't speak to each other with insight to the other's personality. But we hear these various people stretching one another some heeding the norm and others taking risks.

It is, dare I say, not in our nature to take huge risks without knowing the cost, without knowing the outcome, without having resource to accomplish what we intend. Most of us are trained in caution, educated with restraint. On the one hand risk taking is dangerous, on the other when we are given such a huge gift as the gospel and are confronted with such an enormous treasure what is the hazard?

"A man going on a journey summoned his slaves and (handed over) his property to them. (14) After a long time that master came and settled accounts with those slaves. (19) For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance...." (29)

The property is in the slaves hands. They may succeed. They may fail. They may hold status quo. Their success may result from a will to communicate and take risks. Their failure may be on account they are afraid possibly lazy, but the master gone on a journey has no oversight having handed over his property to the slaves; and upon his return the only servant acting like the property is the masters is the one-talent slave. "Here, you have what is yours." (25)

We are often confronted with custom and risk on our journey to "grow up in Christ". (Ephesians 5) The thing is we have been entrusted with the gospel, not the future, I like our chances with the gospel over the long haul. If we take custom over risk or risk over the norm it may well be on account we have reasoned out what is best in the moment. None of us knows for sure what the future holds. None of us knows much for sure, but it is sure that God knows us.

We have been entrusted with the good news of Jesus Christ: new life, shaken down, packed full, brimming over able to carry us through these days - with our mistakes, failures and accomplishments - for all who are in need.

The church of Christ, as a living entity is always challenged to transform and reform itself by virtue of the treasure of the gospel. The Episcopal Church is seeking a new presiding bishop. This diocese is searching out a new bishop. The cathedral seeks a new dean. It will require our collective wisdom and involvement to take some risks and value tradition. It is part of the change and challenge to the treasure with which we have been entrusted.

Years ago, the people of Athens were facing a major challenge to their city. William Bridges in an article on managing transition, quotes the historian Arnold J. Toynbee who demonstrated in his book, A Study of History, that great civilizations have risen to power not because of their advantages but because they treated their disadvantages as challenges to which they discovered creative responses.

Toynbee writes that Athens rose to dominance in the Classical world AFTER its soil had been depleted. The Athenians treated the setback as a challenge to find a new way to participate in the economy of their day. They turned to cultivating olive orchards, which would draw on much deeper water than field crops.

The Athenians rebuilt their economy around the export of olive oil, which further challenged them to build a merchant marine to transport the oil, a mining industry to create the coin to pay for goods and a pottery industry to build amphoras to contain the oil.

In competing the Athenians had success, but Bridges continues, when a business or industry (and I add the church) is going through a profound transformation - competition blinds people to the real challenge, which is capitalizing on the change.

Bridges concludes, in a world undergoing nonstop change, an organization must see its situation as a challenge ... for creative purpose; when that happens people are no longer victims waiting to act unquestioningly. Challenge and response restores a sense of control and purpose to people, just as it did more than 2000 years ago in Athens. (Managing Transition, Chapter 6, page 81 ff)

It is so for the body of Christ as well! Do new things - capture the challenge - do the old things, too, and do them all well, good servants of Christ. (21)