Fear buries hope Eds message for Sunday, November 16, 2014 23Pentecost-a14 The Toronto kids were at our house last weekend. They hadn’t met our new puppy, Cinder, before. They were all quite eager to befriend him, but Cinder was cautious. Cautious to the point of being afraid of them. He seemed especially afraid of the one, who wanted the most to love him. Our young grandson did all the right things. Approached Cinder very gently, but Cinder was afraid of him. It took persistent gentleness and calmness by our grandson to overcome Cinder’s fears. No amount of explanation would change Cinder’s mind. You couldn’t tell him that he had nothing to fear from the little boy. The master in our gospel parable this morning has more in common with our little grandson than the image one fellow has of him as a harsh master of whom one would reasonably be afraid. The master is God for whom Jesus has offered the image of a loving parent. A loving parent is in charge, like a master, but not one you’d have to fear. Look at the father in the parable of the prodigal son and you see how our young grandson is more as Jesus describes God. The father there isn’t someone to be feared even after having been greatly disappointed/rebuffed. So, how did God get such a bad reputation? We have to look no further than today’s first reading for hints. There we find reason to fear God, whom the prophet says will make a terrible end of us all. As Luther discovered, the first testament does have gospel in it. But it is, as I see it, often the story of humanity trying to figure God out. The gospel is in it in the persistent gentle, loving approach of God that humanity keeps failing to notice. We keep seeing God as angry because we know how bad we’ve been. And we know we’d be mad if we were God. The good news is that God isn’t us. God’s more patient, more forgiving and, as Christ shows us, more willing to sacrifice self. The fellow, who saw God, the master, as harsh and not wanting to do the work himself, buried the riches he was given. That was a smart thing to do if you didn’t want to lose what you had because you feared being punished for losing it. But it wasn’t then and still isn’t how you make more. I googled “letting others do the work for you” and got “You want to be a good boss let others do your work.” 1 This page advocates letting others do the work for you if, as they say, you want to be productive, to have things run smoothly, to change things and to be forward thinking. 2 That’s God’s intention for us, too, isn’t it, as Christ set it out for us in our mission statement: love God and our neighbours as ourselves. For us to be productive in mission for others, to have us work together as one, and to change whatever we’re doing that isn’t loving, so that we can bring the kingdom even closer into our sight and that of those close to us. Now, the page does suggest you keep this quiet and don’t say out loud that you want others to do your work because people will think that you are lazy. 3 Apparently our thinking hasn’t changed since the first century a.d. That’s perhaps why so many prefer to imagine God as this caricature of a nasty, self-serving master. So many in both secular and religious circles. So many willing to read part of scripture, but only the parts that serve their vision of a nasty, angry God out to get somebody, preferably somebody else. The secular fear God wants their freedom. They fear God won’t let them have fun anymore. No more cards or beer. Boring friends. The religious fear God wants their power. So some won’t let go of their liturgies, fancy outfits and titles. Others bury faith, covering it up with pious talk. Praying loudly on the street corners so folks will praise them. Now, a talent was a lot of money. Each of the two good and trustworthy slaves doubled the money they were given. They doubled it, we see, because they were willing to risk it. The other fellow was fearful and wouldn’t take a chance with it. He didn’t have a god he could address as Father, but one he cowered from, awaiting punishment. When we, as Zephaniah puts it, “rest complacently on (our) dregs,” or say along with the worthless slave of the gospel lesson “The Lord will not do good, “ we, too, end up losing it all. When wine stays too long with the dregs or sediment, it becomes unfit to drink. The prophet gives us an image somewhat like the buried talent. Something good being wasted because it wasn’t used or risked. God doesn’t want that to be us. Like a loving parent, God hates to see us waste our gifts. To bury the hope we’ve been given. Our second lesson, as well, is full of metaphors. The one, which may be used with the least confusion, is probably that of putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. In other words, get ready for action. The apostle’s clear guidance comes in our final verse, “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” 1Thess. 5.11 It is all about being in mission for others. Not treating our riches in Christ as coming from an unloving God, who seems to be someone to dread. And for whom, we must bury our gifts. Better to not use them than to lose them can be our own self-serving plan. But Jesus testimony in words and acts was that of risk. He urged us to risk love when it would be safer to keep love buried. Over and over, Jesus challenged those who retreated from love out of fear. He even urged us to love our enemies, which is a lot of risk. We can’t have a relationship without taking a chance. God wants us to use our many God given talents for love’s gain, which is what God sees as profit. Almost every time I visit, I come home with a story for Elina about how someone I visited encouraged me. Once it was when someone took my hand and let me know they were present with me. Another time someone said my visit ended her day wonderfully. When we are looking for encouragement and expecting to receive it, it is much, much easier to find. Rather like folks, remembering my message earlier, said at the cemetery on Monday, mimicking Tinker, when the rain had moved out and the sun shone thru, “Look, there’s summer.” When we invest love, we get back much more than we gave. What Jesus taught, we put into practice ourselves as we follow Him. Not sit on God’s love out of fear. But be out there, taking love’s chances to gain another. This is an incredibly relevant message as we see around us what happens when our riches in Christ are buried by us in buildings, pride and other nonsense. Our gospel lesson today comes near the end of the church year. Like the other texts this time of the year, it comes with some urgency, as well as relevance. God knows that not everyone is waiting for Christ. Too many have the wrong idea about God. That’s why this call for us to invest the love God’s given us is here. Now, among ourselves and with some others, we do invest God’s love. We thank God for this beginning. Jesus calls on us to see if we’ve not buried any opportunities to love out of fear. Fear that sharing Christ will be taken the wrong way. Fear that we’ll look a little strange for doing so. When I was a student, others commented to me that I sat on my energy. That I had lots to offer, but was afraid to do so. Afraid as an older ministerial student of seeming to be pushy or harsh. They urged me not to be afraid. To use what I have to offer. We’ll not always get such affirmation. That I know. But if we trust in a God who loves us no matter what and in fellow followers of Christ, who’ll do their best to love us no matter what, we can risk more than we do. We have here a wonderful communion, a treasure. I think we all agree on that. Christ invites us this last Sunday before our church year ends to invest the love, our treasure, that we’ve found here in others: family, neighbours, even strangers we meet as we walk or shop. To make perhaps the riskiest of all investments because of love’s huge potential return for God and truthfully for ourselves, too. To draw others into God’s love and to find ourselves blessed by them. 1 principalspage/theblog/archives/you-want-to-be-a-good-boss-let-others-do-your-work 2 Ibid 3 Ibid
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 22:59:58 +0000
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