You can’t really blame the third slave, can you?  He was afraid.  He knows what kind of master he is dealing with--one who reaps where he hasn’t sown and who is prone to throwing people into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  This is not the kind of investment you want to mess up.

A talent is a huge sum of money.  Scholars explain that it’s about twenty times the average yearly wage.  So in our terms, we might imagine a talent to be about a million dollars.  Imagine being trusted with a million dollars and knowing that the person asking you to care for it is ruthlessly harsh.  You’d be afraid, too.

So the slave does a reasonable thing.  He buries the fortune and keeps it safe for the master.  He keeps track of what was entrusted to him, and makes sure he can return it to the one who asked him to hold it.  We know what it means to work out of fear.

While it’s easy to interpret this story as telling us that the rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer…and God is perfectly cool with that… I doubt sincerely that it’s meant to convey that message.  This is not a day to tell the 1% that they are the good and trustworthy servants.

And while it’s a little strange that the word talent is used in a way we never use it in our culture,  I’m not sure that this story is primarily about using the gifts God has given us responsibly rather than burying our talents in self-consciousness or self-centeredness.  Although I do suspect God would be cool with that message.

I believe this story is primarily reminding us of Christ’s imminent return, and God’s overwhelming interest in how we’re living our lives while we wait. 

Talking about Christ’s second coming is a bit counter-cultural in our current environment.  Harold Camping’s first, second, and now third specific and unqualified predictions about the end of time didn’t actually make too many of us very nervous.  Those dates came and went just about as we expected them to, and if there was a rapture, we missed it.  Camping, at age 90, finally announced his retirement last week, admitting that the end of the earth can’t be predicted. 

But just because we can’t predict when it will happen, doesn’t change the fact that scripture does regularly tell us to live in anticipation of God’s arrival in our midst.  And just because we trust in God’s gracious dealing with us at the end of time, also doesn’t mean that we believe God doesn’t notice or care how we live.

We hear today from the prophet Zephaniah complaining of people who might say, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.”  It’s the same kind of view that many people have of God today, maybe that we ourselves think sometimes.  God doesn’t care about anything in our lives, whether good or bad.  But scripture is extraordinarily convincing in declaring that God notices everything we’re doing, and cares deeply about our choices.

In fact, Stewardship Season is upon us.  We take seriously the gifts we promise to use in support of the ministries of this congregation.  Our purpose for stewardship is not primarily meant to help the church financial officers set a clear and accurate budget for the new year.  Our ultimate purpose is to be honest with ourselves about the nature of our God, and to be intentional in our own planning regarding our response to God’s gifts to us.

We pledge our financial offerings because we live in a culture which takes money seriously.  And while most of us don’t have a million dollars buried in our yards, we pledge because we believe in a God who takes our use of this money seriously, too.

Scripture describes the day of God’s coming as a Day of Wrath.  Destruction, pain, anguish, loss are all part of the prediction. Wars, rumors of war, storms, floods, grief, famine, they’re not just described once or twice in the Bible, but over and over again.  But I’m not sure that God’s wrath waits for that Day to come.  I suspect God can get mighty angry already, angry about child abuse that goes unreported, angry about a few people benefiting from windfalls while others lose jobs, angry about economies that invest more in weapons than in education, angry about individuals who don’t care about how they treat their neighbor, angry about any of us ever allowing fear to direct our lives, our commitments, our investments, and our choices.

In fact, God is angry because God knows that when we choose to ignore the needs around us, or when we bury our treasures, our talents, or any of the good God has entrusted to us, we miss out on what God intends for us.  We miss out on living a life that recognizes and celebrates God’s bounty.  We miss out on building real and sustainable community with all God’s children.  We miss out on knowing the love of God in Christ Jesus and sharing its joy with our neighbor.

The writer of 1^st Thessalonians invites us to live not in fear of the night of destruction, but in the joy of the day.  We are called to live as if we have received this very day a million dollars, or two, or even five million dollars, and have been allowed to risk all of it for the good of the world around us.  We are called to live as if we recognized that everything we have is a gift from God, and to open ourselves to sharing what we have with the world God around us.

Risky?  Sure.  Scary?  You bet.  But so scary that we should avoid it all together?  Not on your life.  In fact, not risking all that we have puts us at a much greater disadvantage.  It means we’ve missed the chance to live as God calls us to live, and to know the love and joy of recognizing the goodness of God’s life for all.

This story is primarily about God taking a deep interest in us choosing to live right now as if divine love and providence are the most important thing in the world.  This story is primarily about our anticipating God’s arrival in our lives any moment, and our desire, our chance to live as if that arrival will be incredibly good news for us. 

The third slave in our story was frightened of his master’s response, but we do not need to live in fear.  We are invited to live in the joy of knowing God’s gifts to us are magnificent, and we are freed to magnificently invest them in the world around us. 

In the next few minutes, we’re going to do something very risky and very counter-cultural.  I’m going to ask you to take a moment to fill out a pledge card.  Some of you brought one with you to church, but if you didn’t, you can find one in the pew rack in front of you.  If you’ve never filled out a pledge card before, this might feel especially scary, so I’m going to walk you through it.

What is being asked of you is this:  think about what you expect to receive next year in income.  Some of you have a very good idea about that, while some of you can only guess.  Either way, take a risk and guess what that number will be.  If looking at the entire year is too hard, then consider any given month and base your calculation per month.  Guess what your income will be.

Then decide what percent of what you will receive you want to give back to God, investing in the mission of this congregation.  Think about how your gift will encourage others, how it will build up your brothers and sisters through ministries here and through all kinds of ministries we can support as a community of faith. 

But at a deeper level, think about how freely God has poured opportunities and resources into your life, and imagine the freedom you’d like to have in responding to those gifts.

With grateful hearts, think about taking the million, or two million, or five million blessings you have received, and blessing the world around you through your willingness to risk what you have to share with others.

Fill out the card as best you are able, indicating your planned gift for next year.  If you are unable to write down any number at all, I’d still ask for your prayers during this time.  Pray for the goodness of God’s love to be richly invested through the ministries of the congregation.

Let us pray:  God of abundance, Open our hearts to offer what you have first given us, our lives, our time, and gifts, and our possessions.  Use all that we bring to you so that your will may be done, through the one who gave himself for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Living in response to God’s amazingly gracious gifts to us, let us risk being gracious and open to the new things God will do in our lives.  Thanks be to God.  Amen