The Rev Kimberly Reinholz - November 16, 2014

November 16, 2014

The Rev. Kimberly Reinholz
Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Proper 28
Matthew 25:14-30

I have good news and I have bad news.  Which do you want first?

• The bad news is, I’m not Rick Cluett.  He hurt his back and had to stay home today, he is healing but he regrettably isn’t here with us this morning.  We keep him in our prayers for a quick and complete recovery.

• The good news is, this is the LAST parable that we are going to talk about for the never-ending season of Pentecost!  And boy is it as doozy.  I know why Tony went on vacation and left Rick with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But let’s get down to this parable.  These servants and their talents, what are we to make of them?  The kingdom of heaven is like this?   Really, if we don’t make money in the market place, if we don’t invest wisely, then we will be beaten and thrown out into the darkness.  This doesn't sound like the kingdom of heaven that I was taught about in Sunday School.  This doesn’t sound like the heavenly kingdom where all dogs go to, it doesn’t sound like the kind of God that I want to be judging me. 

I don’t want a Lord who will judge me based on my bank balance- because – I’ve done the same thing that Tony talked about last week.  I’ve borrowed against that 401k to invest in my marriage- to pay for my wedding, to invest in my education- to pay for part of seminary, to invest in my living expenses- when I was in school to pay for some unexpected expenses.

But then I remember that all of these parables, are metaphorical, and maybe (God I hope so) this parable of the talents is as well.  So what could Jesus be trying to teach us in this parable what are the talents that God has given each of us equally?  I believe the talent which God has given each of us for our investment – for our greatest “earning potential” is the gift of Love.  Now we all know that the greatest commandment according to Jesus is the Shema- You should love the Lord your God, with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength, and the second is like it you should love your neighbor as yourself.  

Consider for a moment if God, your neighbor and yourself, were investment opportunities like those offered to the servants in the parable.  And love was the currency.

Could we imagine that loving God, loving your neighbor and loving yourself would yield the greatest return?  Could this be the kind of wise investing that the first slave who was given five talents, and doubled his investment was capable of?  Could this slave be the ideal follower of Jesus- one who is not only capable of loving God, loving their neighbor, and loving themselves, but able to love God, their neighbor and their self.  

Could we also imagine that the second slave, the one whose two talents yield two talents is a person who is capable of only loving others, and loving himself, but not loving God?  How many of our friends and neighbors fall into this category- the spiritual but not religious, the humanists, the “nones” who proclaim love for one another and profess love for themselves, but there is no love of God.  They do have worthwhile relationships in this world, but they live in a world without the hope of eternal life (as we heard in Paul’s letter to Thessalonian’s last week) a world without God, a world without the Body of Christ, a world without the Kingdom of heaven.   

Could we finally imagine that last slave, the slave who is afraid of the master, the slave who is afraid of harsh judgment, the slave who buries the talents, as the person who is so paralyzed by fear that they cannot love anyone perhaps not even themselves?

We have all been given this gift of Love which can only increase if it is shared.  This gift that grows in power when we love ourselves, when we love one another and when we love God. 

But sometimes we cannot love. 

Sometimes we cannot love ourselves, sometimes we feel unworthy of love, sometimes we feel worthless and talentless and lacking in some capacity. 

Sometimes we cannot love God, there are times when we cannot understand God’s motives and we get angry, frustrated, and confused. 

Sometimes we can’t love our neighbor.  People can be crazy.  People can be mean and vindictive and hateful.  And it’s not always easy to love them. 

But it is not supposed to be easy to make investments in ourselves, in others or in God.  We have to have faith that our investments will produce good returns even when we have doubts about them. Sometimes it just takes the opportunity to care for someone else to shake us out of our fear, our doubt or our uncertainty about the validity of loving ourselves, our neighbors or God. 

How many of you have seen the movie the Wizard of Oz, or read the books by Frank L. Baum? 

You know the premise Dorothy Gale of Kansas travels to the Land of Oz, somewhere over the rainbow.  She spends the entire length of the movie/book trying to make her way back home with the help of the tin man, the scarecrow and the lion.   Each of them deem themselves defective in some way.  The scarecrow is without a brain, the tin man a heart and the lion courage. 

I hope this isn’t a spoiler for any of you, but the companion’s journey to the Emerald City in hopes of meeting the Wizard who tells them that they had had these particular talents all along – and they had used their brains, their heart and their courage to bring Dorothy safely to the Emerald city.  All they needed was to have faith and the love they had for Dorothy and one another, allowed them to increase their gifts and talents.  But it was the love that was the currency and the investment brought about the fulfillment of their desires. 

Let me tell you about one of my Dorothy’s.  Someone who I cared about very deeply in a time when I wasn’t sure what God wanted from me, if I was worthy of being loved, and if anyone was worth my time, never the less my love. 

I was 25 years old and heart broken.  My boyfriend of 6.5 years had broken up with me and I was devastated.  I had been attending church at a small parish.  I started volunteering with a group of refugees and asylum seekers on Wednesday afternoons in order to get out of my head for a while every week while I was writing my masters thesis.  While I was there I met a lot of people, I helped babysit little kids while their parents met with lawyers, sat with siblings or spouses while meetings were happening, and did dishes after other meetings.  I was just there to keep myself busy.

One day I met Teresa.  Teresa had come to the UK from Chile to Pinochet.  She had lived illegally in the country for nearly 35 years at that point.  Because she was in the UK illegally she couldn’t get health care, she couldn’t get housing, she couldn’t get any of the basic needs that the government provided.  She came to the program seeking some legal counsel about how to find help, she had been cast out of her native land and was effectively a non-person in her new home.  Talk about being in the darkness weeping and gnashing your teeth. 

Teresa and I started to talk, before and after her appointments with the lawyers, counselors, and ot  her officials.Not because I had anything to offer her, but only because I was the only one in the volunteer corps with even a basic understanding of Spanish.  When we first met we talked about the weather, about the coffee we were drinking, about her sons and daughters in law, about her grandchildren.  But eventually when she felt more comfortable we spoke about her journey, about how she came to live as she did, about her husband who had been killed in the coups, about the life she had lived. 

Through these hours of conversation, I came to love Teresa.  I came to invest in her, I came to work for her and use my gifts and talents to help her, even when I couldn’t invest I myself, or invest in God.  It was through this love that I was able to begin to love myself again, and eventually to love God. 

However the rest of that is a story I will have to tell you another time.  For now I invite you to spend a few moments thinking about your Dorothy’s – those people who show up in your life.  Those people who seem to need help, those who need love, and support and you think you can provide it.  Those who are hungry, lost and alone.  Those who we are called to as Christians to love – and our love takes the shape of feeding, clothing, visiting, praying for, providing a drink to.  Think about those whom you have invested in, those whom you have loved. 

Give thanks for them, and give thanks to God who gave you the love to begin with.   Amen