Good morning. My name is Tommy. I'm a pastor here at Church of the Advent. We are in the
middle of a season now called the Home Campaign, which we're very excited about. This is our
endeavor to secure a permanent home here in Washington, D.C., so that we can make good on
the commitment that we made when we started this church, which is to love the city long-term,
meaning for multiple generations, to be the presence and the ministry, the hands and feet
of Christ here until he comes again. And so that's what the Home Campaign is all about. This is
something that we have prayed a lot about, something that we feel called to, something that a number of
us, including me and my wife, have already made a commitment to support. It's something that we're
very excited about, but make no mistake, it's a risk. It's hands down the biggest financial risk
I think we've ever taken as a church community. And we need to be honest about that. We need to
be honest about the risk that we're taking together, even if it's one that we've prayed a lot about.
And so that's what I want to talk about this morning. I want to talk about risk in the Christian
life. We're looking at Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 through 30. It's a very well-known parable,
and it falls within a section of teaching where Jesus is talking about the characteristics of
faithful disciples. When we think about discipleship, I think it's easy to think about things like,
well, faithful disciples have a good, solid prayer life. They regularly study Scripture. They
regularly worship in a local church with a church community. These are things that most people
would think of, but I'm not sure how many of us would think that another characteristic of faithful
discipleship is that faithful disciples take risks, that faithful disciples are willing to take risks.
So that's what we're going to look at this morning as we look at this parable. We're going to look at
first the calling to be risk-takers, and then we'll see the reasons that we are not risk-takers.
Why this is so hard for us, and then finally, the way to become risk-takers. So let me pray,
and then we will dive in together. Lord, I thank you and just praise you for the joy of being
together here in person. And I praise you, and for those who are joining us online or watching this,
Lord, I thank you that in all these ways we can gather together around your Word.
And we pray that it wouldn't be our agenda or even the wisdom or insights of human beings that we put
our hope in this morning, but that we would be hopeful because you're the kind of God who is
living and active and present with us, and that you can do your work in us through your Word.
And that's really what we need, Lord. So we pray that you would do that. We pray that you would bless
our time of turning our hearts and eyes and ears to your Word. And we pray this in your Son's holy name.
Amen. So first of all, let me just unpack this parable. It's somewhat familiar to many of us,
but I just want to make sure that we understand what's happening here. Jesus is telling a story
about a rich master who goes away on a long journey. He's going to be gone for a while,
and before he leaves, he entrusts eight talents of his wealth to three of his servants. Now,
a talent is a unit of monetary value. It's a unit of weight originally, and it's hard to know exactly
how much a talent would be worth, but it's probably worth upwards of 20 years worth of earnings for a
laborer. It's about 20 years worth of earnings for a laborer, so it's a lot of money. So this rich
master entrusts five talents to the first servant, two talents to the next servant, and then one talent
to the third servant, and then he goes away. And while the master is gone, we are told that the
first two servants invest the money that they've been given, and they make a return on that investment.
And then we're told that the third servant buries his talent to keep it safe. Now, when the master
returns, the first servant comes and says, look what I've done. I've doubled the investment. Second
servant comes and says, look what I've done. I've doubled the investment. And in both cases,
the master responds in exactly the same way. He says, well done, good and faithful servant.
You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.
Identical responses. Doesn't matter the amount of money returned. Identical responses in both cases.
But when he finds out what the third servant has done, he calls him a, quote, wicked and slothful
servant. And then he casts him into the outer darkness. And then he takes the talent away from
that servant, and he gives it to the first servant. And he says, to everyone who has, will more be given.
And he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
Now, what's happening? Well, first we begin to see the calling to be risk takers. This parable,
first of all, I want you to notice a couple of things here. First of all, this parable is about
much more than money. It's actually where we get our modern understanding of talent. That actually
comes from this parable. The idea being that God really entrusts all kinds of resources to us
as his people. We often hear this referred to as our time, talent, and treasure. The time and energy
that we have, our natural abilities, as well as our gifts of the Spirit, and then all of our resources,
including our wealth, that all of that is entrusted to us by God. So it's parables about much more
than just money. The second thing to notice is this. The master commends the first two servants
who took a risk by investing the money that they were given. And we just need to understand,
they could have very easily lost the money. Right? It's very possible that the master comes back and
they say, you know, I went to trade this to try to invest it, and I ended up losing it. I made a bad deal.
Anytime you invest in anything, it's a risk. There are no guarantees when it comes to investments.
But the master doesn't call them reckless. He doesn't say, how dare you risk losing my money?
He commends them, and he commends both of them in the same way. And then thirdly, and I think most
importantly for our focus, look what the master says to the third servant. He calls him wicked.
Wicked. Now that's strong language. As strong then as it would have been today. You know, most of the
time, if you're anything like me, we think of wickedness as doing a bad thing. You did a wicked thing.
But this man didn't do anything wrong. Right? He didn't try to steal the money. He didn't go blow it
all in Vegas. He kept it safe. He returned every penny safe and sound. The master comes back and says,
hey, I kept this safe. I protected it. And now that you're back, here's every penny that you gave me.
There it all is. All accounted for. And Jesus, via this parable, pronounces that this man is wicked.
So clearly, we learn something about wickedness here. Wickedness doesn't just apply to things that we
do. It can also apply equally to things that we don't do. If you're familiar with Anglican worship
and the Anglican prayer book, you know that very often when we come to our confession of sin,
we not only confess things that we have done, but we also confess things that we have left undone.
Jesus condemns this man as wicked because he has left something undone. He refused to take a risk.
He refused to invest his talent. In other words, he condemns this man as wicked for playing it safe.
Now, that should wake us up. It certainly woke me up when I realized this. And what we really begin
to see here is the point of the parable, the reason Jesus is telling us this story in the first place.
The point is not simply that we should be reckless, right? Jesus isn't saying, you know, faithful
disciples go base jumping. He's not saying faithful disciples take risks for the sake of risk-taking.
They live on the edge. They love adrenaline. That's not what he's saying. The point of the parable is
that God has given us all kinds of resources. He's given us all kinds of resources. And the point
is that God gives us the thing that he gives us for a reason. For a reason. Think of it all as God's capital
investment. God has taken his capital and he has given it to you and I. And he's entrusted us with this
capital for a reason. And the point of this parable is that faithful disciples are willing to take risks
in order to invest God's capital into God's kingdom. Faithful disciples take risks
in order to invest God's capital, all that we've been given, into God's kingdom. And when you're
investing your time and your talent and your treasure in God's kingdom, what that means is you're not just
trying to maximize your financial return. You're not just using your time and your talents and your
treasure to get the most financial return you can back. And in many cases, it means that you might
actually be willing to take a hit. Because you have another bottom line that you're thinking about.
You're trying to have kingdom impact, which means maybe you're investing in making disciples.
Maybe you're investing in doing the work of justice and mercy in a place like Washington, D.C.
Maybe you're investing in the common good. You're investing in things that are going to lead to
greater flourishing for all people in that community. Maybe you're investing in things that
bring glory to God. But in all of these ways, you're measuring the return on investment
not just based on whether or not you get the maximum financial return. You're thinking about a
completely different set of metrics. What we need to understand, though, is that just like any
investment, those investments are all risks. Every investment is a risk. There is no guarantee.
But according to this parable, the worst thing that we can do is not to invest and lose out.
The worst thing that we can do is nothing. The worst thing that we can do is to play it safe.
So what we want to ask now is what's the difference between people who are willing to take risks and
invest and people who are not? What's the difference between the first two servants and the third
servant? Reasons we're not risk takers. Notice first the excuse that the third servant gives.
Master comes, says, what'd you do? He says, well, I buried your money and here's why. He says,
Master, I knew you to be a hard man. I knew you to be a hard man. You ever known somebody who kind of
wrongs you or hurts you and then tells you it's your fault? Well, I only did this because of what
you did to me, right? I knew you to be a hard man. It's actually your fault. I was afraid of you and I
went and I hid your talent in the ground. Now, let's just sort of give this servant a little bit of
grace here and assume maybe he's being totally honest. And let's just think about what that
might mean for us. There is a legitimate concern here for some of us. And that is, in other words,
maybe one of the reasons some of us refuse to take risks and invest what we have for the sake of the
kingdom is ultimately that is rooted in our view of God, right? Maybe that's rooted in our view of God.
If you've ever read Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing, in The Crossing, there is a father who has lost his
son in a terrible earthquake. And it's a tragic, awful thing. And it says that despite the father
losing his son in this earthquake, he never actually stopped believing in God. And it says, you know,
it's actually a lot harder to do that than you might think. But here's what it says.
It was never that this man ceased to believe in God. It was rather that he came to believe
terrible things about him. Right? For some of us, we've had experiences in our lives that lead us to
believe terrible things about God. It's not that we gave up our faith. It's that we came to believe
terrible things. We came to doubt God's goodness. We came to see God as harsh or capricious,
unpredictable. If that is your view of God, then it makes sense why you wouldn't invest what God has
entrusted to you in God's kingdom and take real risks with it. Why? Because God is capricious. I can't
trust God. I don't know what God might do to me tomorrow. And so the things that I have, I'm going to
hold on to them because this might be all I get. I have no way of knowing and I can't trust God.
All right? So maybe that is the reason why some of us, and I think I can say safely that there are
some of us in this room for whom that is the main reason we don't take risks. We look at God and we
say, I believe you to be a hard man. But when it comes to this servant, there's another reason
lurking under the surface that I don't want us to miss here that may apply to others of us in this
room. Look at what the master says to the servant in verses 26 and 27. He says basically this, you
know, there's nothing to indicate here whether or not this servant or this master is actually a hard
man. We don't really know what this master is like. Based on the behavior of the first two servants,
we might actually think that this master is a much more gracious man than the way he's portrayed
by the third servant. Nevertheless, here's what he says to the servant. He says essentially this,
if you were truly afraid of me, if you truly were concerned that I was such a hard man, as you say,
you would have at least taken my money to the bank where I could earn some interest. So essentially,
he's calling BS on the servant. He's saying, you're blaming it on me. You're saying that I'm a hard
man. I don't actually think that's the reason that you didn't make any investment. And then he goes
on, and if we look at his language, he not only accuses the servant of being wicked, but he says
what? Wicked and slothful. Now there's a key right there. Most people think of slothfulness as mere
laziness. And he's saying you're lazy because you didn't do anything. And you know, that is one way that
sloth manifests itself, laziness. But there's a lot more to sloth than simple laziness. Here's what
Frederick Buechner says about sloth. He says, sloth is not to be confused with laziness.
A slothful man may be a very busy man. He's a man who goes through the motions, who flies on automatic
pilot. He knows something's wrong with him, but not wrong enough to do anything about. He's letting
things run their course. He's getting through his life. He's getting through his life on autopilot.
So sloth can look like laziness, or at the other end of the continuum of sloth, if laziness is over
here, then you have unnecessary busyness over here. But it's the same continuum and the same
underlying issue, which is this. Sloth at its core is avoidance, escape, disengagement. Sloth is a refusal
to fully inhabit our lives. It's living on autopilot. It's path of least resistance.
Here's another quote about sloth.
Evenings without number, obliterated by television, evenings neither of entertainment nor of education,
but a narcotic defense against time and duty. And when he wrote those words, the iPhone didn't exist yet.
All right, we can fill up our time with unnecessary, meaningless, busy work. Maybe it looks like we're
doing kingdom work, but there's no real investment. There's no real risk. You know, we can spend several
hours a day. Does anybody else on Sunday mornings every week, I get my screen time report for the week?
And I don't know why Apple makes that happen on Sunday morning, but it's perfect for me.
Because I, every single week, have very specific things to confess when we come to the confession.
In our liturgy, I was up an average of two hours and 30 minutes. Help me, Jesus.
Jesus. And so we can fill up our lives and we can spend several hours a day scrolling through posts
from people we don't even know. Right? I can attend to those kinds of people, but we are too busy to
take 10 minutes to walk out of our door, across the street, knock on the door, and introduce ourselves
to our neighbors. So imagine if I took all of that screen time reading posts from people I don't even
know or honestly even really care about. And instead, I invested 10 minutes of that time
in getting to know the person who literally lives across the street from me. Right? But I'm too busy
to do that. Am I really too busy? No. That involves real risk. That involves being awkward. I hate social
awkwardness. That involves, you know, thinking we might get rejected. They might give you a funny look
and be like, get off my property before I call the police. Who does that anymore? Right?
It's real risk.
We spend hundreds of dollars a month
on television streaming services
and alcohol
and unnecessary Amazon purchases
or, I would say,
our narcotic defenses
against reality.
But when it comes to giving money away for the sake of the kingdom,
we say,
I'm not sure if I can afford that.
Because it's risky.
You know?
It involves an investment in something where there's no guarantee.
For some of us, I think,
it is true that we don't
risk because we don't ultimately trust
and believe in God's
goodness.
For some of us, that's the issue.
But I think for some of us,
we don't take risks
because we don't believe God is worth it.
Maybe He's good.
Maybe I can trust Him.
But He's just not worth it.
There's nothing of value
that is worth giving up
my narcotic defenses
against reality.
Because I think ultimately,
and maybe I'm just speaking for myself here,
I think many of us just want an easy Christianity.
I've never really been tempted
to give up Christianity.
I've just been tempted
to embrace an easy Christianity.
That's the thing that I struggle with.
In other words,
a Christianity that doesn't ask
anything real of us.
Because I think really deep down,
we don't want a faith
that calls us to risk.
We don't want a faith
that calls us to risk
being open about our Christian faith
around non-Christian
friends and coworkers.
We don't want a faith
that calls us to risk
investing in friendships
with people who may move away
in a few years.
We don't want to risk
speaking truth in love
to someone who might reject us,
where the friendship might be in peril.
We don't want to risk
loving someone
who may not ever love us back
or appreciate what we're doing.
We don't want to risk
setting work boundaries
around the Sabbath
knowing that it's probably
going to cost us advancement.
We don't want to risk
giving so much money away
that it impacts
our financial security
on a real level.
I don't think really
in many of our hearts
we want that.
What we want
is an easy Christianity.
We want a God
who says,
I just want you to be happy.
I just want you to live
as you please.
Put your feet up.
We want Christianity
as a spiritual sedative.
Our narcotic defense
against reality.
If any of this sounds
familiar to you
as it does to me,
the question then becomes
how do we become risk takers?
How do we become people
who are like
these first two servants?
What does that require?
And I would say
that the way to become
a risk taker in your life
is to realize this,
that even as Jesus
is telling this parable,
even as he is telling
this story,
even as he is challenging
his disciples
to give up personal safety,
to take risks,
to risk everything
they've been given
for the sake of the kingdom,
even as he's saying this,
he knows what's about
to happen.
And if you move down
a little bit in the passage,
at the end of this section
of teaching,
it says this
in chapter 26 verse 1.
When Jesus had finished
all of these sayings,
he said to his disciples,
you know that after two days
the Passover is coming
and the Son of Man
will be delivered up
to be crucified.
Not just a possible outcome,
an absolutely certain outcome,
an event that had been laid down
for thousands upon thousands
of years ordained to happen
was about to take place.
And what we realize is
that no matter how much
we risk,
no matter how much
we put out there,
and no matter how certain
the proposition might be,
no matter how much
we think that we are risking,
there is no loss
that we can ever suffer
that is greater
than what Jesus experienced
on the cross for our sake.
You will never lose more
than what he was willing
to give up for you.
You will never suffer
a loss like that.
And what this means,
and this is very important,
even though we may suffer
some loss in this life,
we will never suffer
ultimate loss.
We will never suffer
the kind of loss
of being cut off
from the Father,
the kind of loss
of taking all of the sin
of the world onto yourself
and suffering to atone for it.
We will never experience
that kind of loss
because it happened
to Jesus already
instead of us.
And what this means
is that for those of us
who are tempted
to doubt God's goodness,
we see God
as a hard master,
as a capricious master.
Look at the cross.
you cannot reconcile
that view of God
with the cross.
Now, it's not always easy
to get from A to B.
In other words,
it's not always easy
to understand why
in this moment of your life
you are facing such
catastrophic hardship
and suffering.
But the one thing
that you do know,
even when you don't understand
God's actions,
we can always know
God's motives
and we can always
trust God's heart
because that's what
we see on the cross.
I don't understand
why this is happening to me
but I know
that God is good
and I know
that God loves me
because that's what I see
when I look at the cross.
A God who is willing
to do that out of love
is the kind of God
that we can trust
even when our lives
don't make sense.
And then for those of us
who don't think
that God is worth it
or don't think
the kingdom is worth it,
it's not worth
having to fully
inhabit our lives.
We would prefer
the narcotic defenses
against reality.
The fact is
that God has put you here
for a reason.
God has given you
your gifts
and your talents
and your resources
for a reason.
And Jesus Christ
has come
to restore God's purposes
in and through you
and there are things
that God is desiring
to do through you
in this world.
And until you understand
that,
your life is never
going to make sense.
And I suspect
that deep down
I'm not going to have
to convince you
of that
because I think
on a deep level
we all know that.
even behind
our desire
to check out,
our desire
to numb out
and live on autopilot,
there's a little voice
in your head
that says,
but there has to be
more to life.
There has to be more.
There has to be meaning
to my existence.
And the gospel
says there is.
But you're only
going to find that
in Jesus.
And you're going to
only find that
when you recognize
that all that you
have been given
is God's capital
and it's meant
to be invested
in what God
is doing in the world
right around you.
And then for all of us
who fear
what we may lose
if we start to take
real risks
for the sake
of the kingdom,
we can know
that because of
Jesus' resurrection
and because of
Jesus' promise
to come again
and restore
all of creation,
here's the point,
every investment
we make
in God's kingdom
will yield a return.
Now I said,
you know,
a few times
this morning
that every investment
involves risk.
Absolutely,
every investment
does involve risk.
And the return
may not be a return
that you ever see
in your lifetime.
But because of
the resurrection
and because of
the promise
of new creation,
every investment
we make
in God's kingdom
will yield
a return.
All of what
we're talking about
here this morning
can be summed up
in the words
of one of my
great heroes,
Lilius Trotter.
And this is a quote
that I come back
to again
and again
and again.
She says,
holiness,
not safety,
is the end
of our calling.
Now just sit
with that for a minute.
Holiness,
not safety,
is the end
of our calling.
Lilius was born
into a life
of privilege
in England.
She was an extremely
gifted painter.
painter.
And she was lucky
enough to be
mentored by
the great
John Ruskin
who was sort
of a local
celebrity.
And he was
a cultural elite
who told her
that she had
the potential
to be one
of England's
greatest
living painters.
And he had
the cachet,
the credibility,
the access
to open
all the right
doors
to give
that life
to Lilius.
But Lilius
also felt
called to
invest time
and energy
not into
painting
but in
serving the
poor women
and the
poor children
in London.
And Ruskin
recognized the
competition there
for her time
and energy
and so he
demanded that
she give up
all of that
other work
and focus
exclusively
to her art.
And that was
his challenge
to her.
I can open
all these doors
for you.
I can make
you famous
but you
have to
invest
everything
in your
art.
And so
Lilius had
to choose.
Do I
play it
safe
which meant
for her
get married
follow
Ruskin's
advice
focus
exclusively
on her
career
and
eventually
enter into
fame
and fortune
and celebrity
status?
Or
do I
take the
massive
risk
of saying
no
because
I
believe
that
God
is
calling
me
somewhere
else?
And
ultimately
that's
what
she
did.
She
chose
risk.
She
gave up
the safety
of marriage
and the
safety
of fame
and instead
she took
this massive
risk
of going
as an
unmarried
woman
to spend
the rest
of her
life
as an
obscure
missionary
in Algeria
in a time
where that
simply did
not happen.
Now I
want to be
clear she
never stopped
painting.
God gave
her a
gift and
a vocation
as a
painter and
she painted
to the end
of her
days.
But she
didn't paint
for the elite
art critics
of London.
She
painted in
the margins
of her
journals.
A few
years ago
my wife
and I
heard from
a missionary
who said
that there
is a
whole
underground
network
of
Christians
in
Algeria
who owe
their faith
to the
legacy
of Lilius
Trotter
even
though
she
never
saw
a single
convert
in her
entire
life
in
ministry
in
Algeria.
Faithful
disciples
take risks
because we
know that
every
investment
in God's
kingdom
will one
day
yield
a
return.
Let's
pray.
Lord we
thank you
for your
word.
We thank
you for
people like
Lilius
who show
us what
real
kingdom
risk
looks like
and who
show us
that we're
a part
of something
so much
bigger
so much
deeper
than we
can possibly
imagine.
Show us
that even
when our
lives don't
make sense
even when
we're tempted
to doubt
your goodness
even when
none of
this seems
worth it
even
when we
strive
and strive
and never
see a
return
that Lord
our hope
is not
in our
own
strength
or wisdom
to make
good
investments
our hope
is in
you
and your
Holy Spirit
and the
unfolding
plan
enacted
through
Jesus
Christ
that one
day
your
kingdom
would come
fully
and your
will
would be
done
here on
earth
as it is
in heaven
and that's
what we're
investing
in
that's
what we're
hoping
for
and that
Lord we pray
would one day
bring you
the great
glory
that only
you deserve
we pray
that we
would be a
community
marked by
that hope
and that
willingness
to take
risks
believing
in what
you're doing
in your
kingdom
Lord
we pray
this in
your
son's
holy
name
amen
oh