Scripture reading from the Old Testament:
Amos 5:18-24 (reading 21-24)
"The Lord says I hate, I despise your feasts and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fatted beasts I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
II Timothy 2:1-13
"You then my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me before many witnesses, and trusted faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Take your share of suffering as a good soldier in Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in all things. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my gospel. The gospel for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal. But the word of God is not fettered. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation which in Christ goes with eternal glory. The saying is sure, if we have died with him we shall also live with him. If we endure we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself."
Matthew 25:14-30
The Story of the talents: "For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one. To each according to his ability. Then he went away and he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. So also he who had two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled the accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying, “Master, you delivered to me five. Here I’ve made five talents more.” His master said to him, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” He also who had the two talents came forward saying, “Master, you have delivered to me two talents but I have made two talents more.” His master said, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” And he who received the one talent came forward saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not winnow. So I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what’s yours.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.” So take the talent from him and give it to those who have ten talents. For to everyone who has, will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness where men will weep and gnash their teeth."
Last week I was talking to a student who is in the Marshall High School musical. We were walking down the hall and I just said “How’s it goin’?” I guess she was thinking of me as the former director, because she assumed I meant the play, I’d just meant life in general. And she answered, “Oh, I can’t believe it. The people who have the smallest parts are the last ones to get their lines memorized.” And I recalled, “That’s the way it’s always been for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact, your sister did that to me too. Even though she’d been a lead character and always had whined about the people with the small parts being the last ones to be prepared.” When she had a small part her senior year she was the last one to get memorized even though she’d had leads before. That’s been my experience. That oftentimes those with the smallest parts are the least responsible. Less likely to memorize their lines. Less likely to make entrances on time. Less dedicated to rehearsal.
Often I’ve thought of the scripture, that Jesus just gave us, in Matthew 25: "You’ve been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. But from him who has not, even what little he has will be taken away." Each one, Jesus said, was given to according to their ability. That’s what coach’s and director’s try to do. Select people according to their ability. Those best suited to the part. Not more than you can handle, not less. Whether you’re a football player or a member of the cast in a play. Shakespeare said, “there are no little parts, only little actors.” Sometimes you think that just because the number of your lines is small that you’re not important. But every person is important in that play or he or she wouldn’t have been written in by that author. Every person on the football team is important or there wouldn’t be that position. Today a lot of us are probably going to be feasting up on the Denver and Kansas City game. We might want to blame this quarter-back or this person for not being able to do this or that, but the fact of the matter is that everybody else has to do their job. Any team or any play cast is only as good as the worst person on it.
That’s what it comes down to; the weakest link is just how strong that chain will be. Nobody is unimportant. What’s important is not what we’ve been given, whether we’re a lineman or a quarterback, whether we’re the star in the play or have a small part, it’s what we do with what we’ve been given that’s so important.
There’s an old cliché that says “Use it or loose it.” I think that seems to apply to what happened to the young man with one talent. He didn’t use it, so he lost it. He says, “I knew you to be a hard man.” I wonder to myself, does he really know this man? Does he really know his master? I suspect that he really didn’t know him. I think that’s why the answer was repeated back to him “You knew me to be a hard man?” Okaaayyyy… Well, even if I was that way, then you should have done this instead…
You don’t know me at all, I think was the reply he was getting. And as we are looking at the third man, sometimes maybe we are hard on him, but the fact of the matter is we need to ask ourselves how much like that third man are we? Don’t we often violate the very principals given in our scriptures this morning? Amos, for example, tells us that God is sick and tired of people who only give him lip service and pretend to believe in him. He says, “I’m tired of your long prayers and impressive worship services. They don’t impress me at all. All your hymns of praise are meaningless because you say you love me and then you go out and do the very things I hate.” What kind of love is that? If your wife did that to you would you be happy? If she said, “Oh, I love you, I love you” and then went out and did all the things you hated. I think we would agree with what scripture was saying here, that true love will show itself in the things we do not just what we say. “Show me your love by how you live,” he said in Amos. He said, “let justice be done, let righteousness flow from your actions, like an ever-rolling stream.” Not just from your lips but from what you do. Let’s see your actions fulfill what you say.
In short, I’m reminded of the old poker phrase, I believe it originated in the game of poker, and as you know poker is a game of bluffing. You pretend you have cards that you may or may not have. Eventually somebody might say, “Well, put up or shut up.” They call your hand.
I think that’s what God is telling us in all three of our scriptures today. Amos is saying, “I hate your feasts and festivals where you act like you love me.” Put up or shut up. Prove you love me by living like it.
In II Timothy, Paul says to Timothy, Christians have responsibilities just like a soldier, or an athlete, or a farmer. It’s the ones who do their jobs best who will get rewarded. So put up or shut up.
In Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus says it’s the ones that have who will be given more, the ones who don’t use what they’ve been given will loose what they have even. It’s what you do with it. Its not what you’ve been given, it’s what you do with what you’ve been given. The man who was given the one talent may try to sweet talk his way out of it, but it won’t go away. His actions showed his real attitude toward his master. What do our actions show about our attitude toward our master? Empty prayers and solemn ceremonies won’t cut it. From one end of the Bible to the other God’s message is clear. In Micah chapter 6 verse 6-8 he says, “What shall I come before the Lord with and bow myself before God on high. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old, would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil. Shall I give my first born for my transgressions? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.” Micah answers this question by saying, “He showed you, old man, what is good. What does the lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”
In Revelation 3:14 the Bible says that the Lord spoke to a church and said, “I know your works, they are neither hot or cold, you’re lukewarm. So I will spew you out of my mouth. You’re not really fired up; you don’t really live what you are talking.”
Psalm 51:16-17 says, “thou has no delight in sacrifice, were I to give a burnt offering thou would not be pleased.” The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, oh God, thou will not despise.
Sometimes it’s hard for us to remember we go through the motions. That’s what I’m warning us about here, because all of us do it. All of us find ourselves three-fourths of the way through the Lord’s prayer, sometimes, realizing we haven’t thought about a word we’ve said. We’re going through motions. What does God really want from us? Not all of our words, he wants the same thing that you want from a wife or husband or friend. He wants love. He says that a broken heart God won’t despise. That sounds kind of sad. Is God wanting my heart to be broken? I heard it best explained, I think, in the terms of breaking horses. A horse that’s “been broken” means the horse has learned to respond to the commands of the rider, and I think that’s what God’s saying in that Psalm. What I really want is someone who has learned to respond to me. That’s what being broken before the Lord means; someone who has put themselves aside, their selfishness and their pride, and learned to respond to God’s commands.
In I John 3:17 John writes, little children let’s not just love in word or speech but in deed, and in truth.
I think another way to put it is to use a couple clichés: talk is cheap, but actions speak louder than words. So put up or shut up. Which I’ll do right now.
Father, I think all of us need to be reminded sometimes that you call for us to really listen to you, to really talk to you, not just fire up meaningless empty phrases like we do so often. Help us, father, to really seek your heart. Really listen to you. Your call. Help us to learn to respond, providing the answers you have called us to give. Help us to learn to respond by giving a life that seeks to do justice, to love kindness, to walk with you. You don’t want our church buildings, you don’t want our songs, you don’t want our prayer, you just want us to walk with you, listen to you and live for you. We talk about you, we say the right words, help us Lord to live what we say. We pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen
