Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Today’s Reading: Matthew 25:14-30
“The landowner said, ‘Well done, you good and trustworthy worker; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; come, share my joy!’” Matthew 25:21
The Parable of the Talents, the lectionary text for Sunday, may be a familiar one to you. Perfect for Commitment Sunday, with its praise of the first two servants for their stewardship and investment acumen. And it’s a popular passage for funerals as well; I imagine my passage to the next life would be considerably eased by the hearing a heavenly voice whisper, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant….’
This week, though, I’m drawn to the third servant, the one who takes the talent (a unit of silver) and, rather than investing it, buries it in the ground. Out of ‘an abundance of caution’, as we say these days. I can relate to the idea of just finding a way to get through everything–without losing everything.
We think of this third servant as timid, but that doesn’t ring true when you consider this reply to the landowner: ‘I knew you were a ruthless person, reaping where you did not plant, and harvesting where you did not scatter seed!’ Timidity plays no part in the response of this brave truth-teller.
These times are no time for timidity. These times are truth times. And for moving forward into the coming year with a sort of holy boldness.
Happy Commitment Sunday!
K
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