Living a Fearless Faith
This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran churches on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017. The text is Matthew 25:14-30. Last week when the church council met, one of the topics we discussed was stewardship, since it is that time of year. Upon reading today ’ s gospel, my reaction was, “ Oh good! This is about stewardship! ” Well, the more I studied, the more I realized that stewardship, as we envision it, is not the thrust of what Matthew is saying to us. Looking at the cultural context, let ’ s see if we can get a handle on what this parable is about. First of all, what is a talent? Doesn ’ t talent mean that someone can sing or dance or do stand - up comedy well? Isn ’ t that why we have shows like “ America ’ s Got Talent? ” In Jesus ’ time, a talent was not an ability, but rather a very large sum of money — between 75-96 pounds of silver. One talent was equal to 15 years of a laborer ’ s wages. Five talents would be more ...