A. Leonard Griffith - "On Loan from God" (April 21, 1974)
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| (harmonious choir music) | 0:04 | |
| - | (indistinct words)...of Divine Christ are the | 0:17 |
| nearest thing you will hear in your lifetime | 0:19 | |
| to the way this is sung in a church | 0:22 | |
| like my grandmother and all those people belted it out! | 0:24 | |
| These tunes, magical sound settings, | 0:27 | |
| they are not lyric pieces. | 0:32 | |
| They are strumming, stomping music, you understand? | 0:34 | |
| (speaker begins vocalizing) | 0:38 | |
| (heavy organ music: "The King of Love My Shepherd") | 0:43 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 1:21 | |
| (music ends) | 4:43 | |
| - | As we come together this morning, | 4:49 |
| we know that our transgressions as individuals and groups | 4:52 | |
| have been frequent, | 4:55 | |
| we choose this time and place in our worship | 4:57 | |
| to make our public confession to God | 5:00 | |
| and our neighbors of our corporate | 5:02 | |
| and individual transgressions. | 5:05 | |
| Let us pray: | 5:07 | |
| "We confess our offenses, oh God, | 5:09 | |
| against you, against our neighbors and against ourselves. | 5:12 | |
| We have talked boldly of being your people in the world, | 5:18 | |
| yet we have used our freedom to forget you. | 5:23 | |
| We have bemoaned our little faith. | 5:27 | |
| Yet we have been too busy to explore our common. | 5:30 | |
| We have celebrated the wonder of your enfleshment | 5:34 | |
| in our calm life; | 5:38 | |
| yet we have shut you back in a sanctuary, | 5:40 | |
| have loved our religion instead of you. | 5:43 | |
| We have gazed at this Christ who dared to be fully human, | 5:47 | |
| yet we have evaded his call to be fully involved | 5:52 | |
| in the lives of our brothers. | 5:56 | |
| We have watched your image violently destroyed | 5:59 | |
| in the famine in Africa, in a slum tenement, | 6:02 | |
| in a suburban split level home, | 6:07 | |
| yet we have pretended to be ignorant or helpless. | 6:10 | |
| We have offered the chance to help the suffer, | 6:14 | |
| yet we have turned our backs and mumbled excuses. | 6:18 | |
| We have talked boldly of being your stewards, | 6:23 | |
| yet we have been tight-fisted with our money, | 6:27 | |
| careless with our time, | 6:30 | |
| and grudging with our words and presence. | 6:32 | |
| We have talked about our studies as a calling, | 6:36 | |
| yet we have made them empty contests. | 6:39 | |
| We have acknowledged ourselves | 6:43 | |
| as your ministers and mediators, | 6:45 | |
| yet we have trusted too little in the power | 6:48 | |
| of your church at work in us. | 6:51 | |
| We have heard ourselves called to be the church, | 6:54 | |
| yet we have begged to remain | 6:57 | |
| wayward children a little longer. | 6:59 | |
| Oh God, forgive us all that is past | 7:02 | |
| and enable us to live in newness of life | 7:06 | |
| through our Lord Jesus Christ, amen." | 7:10 | |
| Let us continue our prayers with our personal confessions. | 7:14 | |
| (organ music begins) | 7:45 | |
| (choir vocalizing: "Jesus, Joy of Our Desiring") | 7:55 | |
| Here are the words of assurance from 1 John: | 9:08 | |
| "This is the message we have heard from Him | 9:12 | |
| and proclaim to you, | 9:15 | |
| that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. | 9:17 | |
| If we walk in the light as He is in the light, | 9:22 | |
| we have fellowship one with another | 9:25 | |
| and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us of all sin. | 9:27 | |
| Amen. | 9:32 | |
| (somber organ music begins) | 9:38 | |
| (loud choir vocalizing) | 10:20 | |
| (choir quiets) | 11:00 | |
| (choir vocalizing gets louder) | 11:27 | |
| (choir finishes) | 14:06 | |
| - | Let the congregation stand for the reading of the gospel. | 14:21 |
| The gospel this morning is taken from the Book of Matthew: | 14:30 | |
| "For it will be as when a man, going on a journey, | 14:35 | |
| called his servants and entrusted to them, his property. | 14:40 | |
| To one, he gave five talents; | 14:44 | |
| to another, two; to another, one. | 14:47 | |
| To each, according to his ability. | 14:51 | |
| Then he went away. | 14:54 | |
| He who had received the five talents | 14:57 | |
| went at once and traded with them | 14:59 | |
| and he made five talents more. | 15:02 | |
| So also he who had the two talents, | 15:06 | |
| made two talents more, | 15:09 | |
| but he who had received the one talent, | 15:12 | |
| went and dug in the ground and hid his Master's money. | 15:15 | |
| Now, after a long time, | 15:20 | |
| the Master of those servants came | 15:22 | |
| and settled accounts with them. | 15:24 | |
| And he who had received the five talents came forward, | 15:27 | |
| bringing five talents more, saying, | 15:30 | |
| 'Master you delivered to me five talents, | 15:34 | |
| here I have made five talents more.' | 15:38 | |
| His Master said to him, | 15:41 | |
| 'well done, good and faithful servant. | 15:43 | |
| You have been faithful over a little. | 15:47 | |
| I will set you over much, | 15:49 | |
| enter into the joy of your Master.' | 15:52 | |
| And he also, who had the two talents came forward, | 15:56 | |
| saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents. | 15:59 | |
| Here I have made two talents more.' | 16:03 | |
| His Master said to his servant, | 16:07 | |
| 'Well done, good and faithful servant. | 16:10 | |
| You have been faithful over a little. | 16:12 | |
| I will set you over much. | 16:15 | |
| Enter into the joy of your Master.' | 16:17 | |
| He also, who had received the one talent | 16:21 | |
| came forward saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, | 16:24 | |
| reaping where you did not sow | 16:29 | |
| and gathering where you did not winnow. | 16:31 | |
| So I was afraid, and I went | 16:35 | |
| and hid your talent in the ground. | 16:37 | |
| Here you have what is yours.' | 16:40 | |
| But his Master answered him, | 16:43 | |
| 'You wicked and slothful servant. | 16:45 | |
| You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, | 16:48 | |
| and gather where I have not winnowed? | 16:52 | |
| Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. | 16:55 | |
| And at my coming, I should have received | 16:59 | |
| what was my own, with interest. | 17:01 | |
| So take the talent from him | 17:05 | |
| and give it to him who has the 10 talents, | 17:07 | |
| for to everyone who has, more will be given. | 17:11 | |
| And he will have abundance, | 17:15 | |
| but from him who has not, | 17:18 | |
| even what he has will be taken away.'" | 17:20 | |
| Thus ends the reading of the Holy Scriptures, | 17:24 | |
| May God add his blessing to the reading | 17:27 | |
| and the hearing of His word. | 17:29 | |
| (organ music begins: "Great Amen") | 17:32 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 17:41 | |
| - | Let us affirm our faith. | 18:13 |
| We are not alone. We live in God's world. | 18:16 | |
| We believe in God who has created and is creating. | 18:20 | |
| Who has come in the true man, Jesus, | 18:25 | |
| to reconcile and make new. | 18:28 | |
| Who works in us, and others by his spirit. | 18:32 | |
| We trust Him. | 18:35 | |
| He calls us to be in His church, | 18:38 | |
| to celebrate His presence, | 18:41 | |
| to love and serve others, | 18:43 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil, | 18:46 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 18:49 | |
| our judge and our hope, | 18:53 | |
| in life, in death and life beyond death. | 18:56 | |
| God is with us. | 19:00 | |
| We are not alone. | 19:02 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 19:05 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 19:07 | |
| Congregation | And with you. | 19:09 |
| - | Let us pray. | 19:10 |
| Almighty and most glorious God, | 19:20 | |
| we your most unworthy people | 19:23 | |
| give you the most humble and hardy thanks: | 19:25 | |
| for all your goodness and loving kindness to us | 19:28 | |
| and all other people. | 19:32 | |
| Our blessings go forth to you for | 19:34 | |
| our creation preservation and all the wonders of life. | 19:36 | |
| The means of grace and the glory of hope, | 19:40 | |
| but above all for your incredible and overwhelming | 19:44 | |
| love for each of us. | 19:47 | |
| We know not how to react to it, | 19:49 | |
| but we know that it is present, | 19:52 | |
| and we thank you that love is so ever-flowing from you. | 19:55 | |
| We are also grateful that peace and justice are | 19:59 | |
| ever-flowing from you, our God. | 20:02 | |
| And we pray that they may be ever-flowing from us as well. | 20:05 | |
| Oh God, we know there are so many unloving | 20:11 | |
| unpeaceful and unjust situations here among us, | 20:14 | |
| that we must include them in our prayers. | 20:19 | |
| We pray for all those who hate and must hurt others, | 20:23 | |
| enable those around them to help them meet their needs, | 20:28 | |
| without inflicting the pain | 20:32 | |
| they know themselves, on others. | 20:35 | |
| We pray for all the unpeacefulness in our world. | 20:39 | |
| Oh God, hold all those peoples | 20:45 | |
| in the near east close to your peace; | 20:47 | |
| so that they will not have to endure | 20:51 | |
| another destructive war. | 20:53 | |
| And give the United States and Russia | 20:56 | |
| the good sense to quit making weapons, | 20:58 | |
| with which the world can kill off its population. | 21:02 | |
| And dear God, we pray most earnestly | 21:06 | |
| for all the injustice that abounds in our world. | 21:10 | |
| Impart in us all, the knowledge of your justice, | 21:15 | |
| so that our justice may be just to all involved. | 21:20 | |
| Enable all justice to be so engulfed | 21:25 | |
| in your love and peace | 21:28 | |
| that it cannot be oppressive, | 21:31 | |
| and especially that it cannot be racist. | 21:33 | |
| Bind us so close to you, dear God, | 21:38 | |
| that love peace and justice | 21:41 | |
| will mingle inseparably in our lives. | 21:44 | |
| Enable us to be loving, peaceful, and just, | 21:49 | |
| not only with others, but with ourselves as well. | 21:53 | |
| All this we ask in the name of Jesus the Christ, | 21:59 | |
| who taught us to pray. | 22:02 | |
| Our Father who art in heaven, | 22:05 | |
| hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 22:08 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 22:13 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread | 22:18 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses. | 22:21 | |
| As we forgive those who trespass against us. | 22:24 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, | 22:28 | |
| but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom | 22:32 | |
| and the power and the glory, forever and ever. | 22:36 | |
| Amen. | 22:40 | |
| We are sorry that the Black Mass choir | 22:44 | |
| was unable to be with us this morning, | 22:46 | |
| but we're very grateful to the chapel choir | 22:50 | |
| for providing us with special music for this service. | 22:52 | |
| We're also very pleased to be on the air | 22:57 | |
| on WDBS this morning; | 22:59 | |
| we welcome all our old listeners | 23:02 | |
| and any new ones to our broadcast service of worship. | 23:04 | |
| Please note in your bulletin that this afternoon, | 23:10 | |
| at 4:00 PM in the chapel, | 23:13 | |
| there will be a special service of worship, | 23:15 | |
| which will honor the ministry of Dr. James T. Clellan. | 23:18 | |
| Everyone is invited to attend this special service. | 23:23 | |
| We welcome to the pulpit this morning, | 23:29 | |
| the Reverend Dr. A. Leonard Griffith. | 23:31 | |
| Dr. Griffith is a preacher, a lecturer, and an author. | 23:35 | |
| He currently serves as the minister to Deer Park church | 23:41 | |
| in Toronto, Canada. | 23:44 | |
| Dr. Griffith, we welcome you to Duke chapel. | 23:47 | |
| - | Good morning. | 24:00 |
| I would like you to think today | 24:02 | |
| about a difficult saying of Jesus, | 24:04 | |
| in Matthew's gospel 25:29: | 24:09 | |
| "For, to everyone who has, will be given more, | 24:14 | |
| and he will have more than enough. | 24:19 | |
| But from the man who has not, | 24:22 | |
| even what he has will be taken away." | 24:25 | |
| But that seems unfair, doesn't it? | 24:30 | |
| Isn't that exactly what we're trying to change, | 24:34 | |
| with our welfare programs and our systems of taxation. | 24:38 | |
| Already, we live in a society where some people | 24:43 | |
| have more than enough and others don't have enough. | 24:48 | |
| And we don't want to widen the gap | 24:53 | |
| between the haves and the have nots, | 24:54 | |
| we want to narrow it. | 24:57 | |
| We want to distribute the world's wealth, more equitably. | 25:00 | |
| We feel impelled to do so by | 25:04 | |
| the teaching and spirit of Jesus. | 25:06 | |
| And yet here is Jesus, Himself, saying | 25:10 | |
| that those who have will be given more, | 25:14 | |
| and those who have not will lose what little they have. | 25:17 | |
| It's all very confusing and seems grossly unfair, | 25:24 | |
| until we think about it for awhile. | 25:28 | |
| Then we realize that we are dealing with | 25:32 | |
| an inexorable law of life, | 25:35 | |
| that applies not only to material wealth, | 25:38 | |
| but to the treasures of mind and spirit. | 25:41 | |
| For example, a well educated man can | 25:44 | |
| always acquire more knowledge. | 25:48 | |
| A man with next to no education, | 25:52 | |
| may lose what little knowledge he has. | 25:55 | |
| A person who prays a lot, can always pray more. | 26:00 | |
| A person who prays little, | 26:05 | |
| may eventually stop praying all together. | 26:07 | |
| Nothing succeeds like success, | 26:11 | |
| and nothing fails like failure. | 26:14 | |
| We mustn't isolate that difficult saying of Jesus. | 26:19 | |
| It comes at the close of his parable of the talents, | 26:24 | |
| which is a lesson not about economics, but about life. | 26:28 | |
| The story concerns a provincial ruler, traveling abroad, | 26:34 | |
| who left three servants in charge of his affairs. | 26:39 | |
| The first servant received five talents, | 26:44 | |
| let's say $5,000, with which to trade; | 26:47 | |
| and being an astute businessman, | 26:52 | |
| he invested them shrewdly | 26:54 | |
| and realized a hundred percent profit. | 26:56 | |
| The second servant, a less gifted man | 27:01 | |
| was entrusted with two talents, | 27:05 | |
| which he probably plowed back into the farm or the business; | 27:07 | |
| and by working hard from sunrise to sundown, | 27:12 | |
| he made the two talents yield four. | 27:16 | |
| The third servant thinking he read | 27:21 | |
| his Masters' character correctly, | 27:22 | |
| did not want to risk losing his one talent. | 27:25 | |
| So he buried it in the ground, | 27:29 | |
| the traditional way of saving money. | 27:31 | |
| When the Master returned, | 27:36 | |
| he praised the first two servants | 27:37 | |
| and rebuked the third, saying to him, | 27:40 | |
| "At least you could have put my money in the bank, | 27:42 | |
| where it would have earned some simple interest." | 27:45 | |
| Angrily, he took the man's one talent away from him | 27:49 | |
| and gave it to the man with five talents, | 27:53 | |
| and that provokes the punchline: | 27:55 | |
| for to everyone who has, will be given more, | 27:59 | |
| and he shall have more than enough. | 28:03 | |
| But from the man who has not, | 28:05 | |
| even what he has, will be taken away. | 28:08 | |
| Now, there are several ways of interpreting this parable, | 28:13 | |
| but I want to suggest that | 28:17 | |
| certain general truths emerge from it, | 28:20 | |
| if we can go beyond economics and eschatology, | 28:24 | |
| and regard it as a parable of life. | 28:30 | |
| It tells us first, that life is a trust from God. | 28:34 | |
| I read a novel in which one of the characters, | 28:40 | |
| a young woman suffering from a defective heart | 28:43 | |
| gives thanks that she is allowed to live at all. | 28:46 | |
| She says that life however long or short | 28:50 | |
| must always be accepted as a gift. | 28:53 | |
| Few enough people hold that high minded view. | 28:58 | |
| Although the parable goes even higher, | 29:01 | |
| the servants were not given their talents | 29:05 | |
| to use as they pleased. | 29:08 | |
| They were entrusted with them | 29:10 | |
| to use on their owner's behalf, | 29:13 | |
| and after a period of time, | 29:16 | |
| they must give them back again | 29:18 | |
| and account for their use. | 29:20 | |
| You'd be surprised how many intelligent people | 29:24 | |
| regard their money in that light. | 29:28 | |
| Few summers ago, when I was preaching | 29:33 | |
| down at Lake Junaluska, | 29:35 | |
| I listened to a Saturday evening address | 29:38 | |
| by the retired president of the University of Tennessee, | 29:41 | |
| Dr. Andrew Holt, on the fascinating subject: | 29:46 | |
| how to spend $1 000 000. | 29:51 | |
| I thought he wasn't talking to me, until he made it clear | 29:55 | |
| that his guidelines applied to the spending of | 29:57 | |
| $100 or $1 or whatever sum constitutes your total wealth. | 30:00 | |
| Taking the prior view that your money, | 30:07 | |
| whatever it is, represents your life. | 30:09 | |
| In the course of the address, he said, | 30:13 | |
| that he and his wife had established a little trust fund, | 30:15 | |
| which they replenished from every paycheck | 30:20 | |
| and from which come their charitable donations | 30:23 | |
| and their contributions to the church, | 30:27 | |
| and other worthwhile causes. | 30:29 | |
| The Bible calls that tithing. | 30:32 | |
| But you could see that his view went far beyond the tie, | 30:36 | |
| and he regarded not only his charitable gifts, | 30:40 | |
| but his entire gross income, everything he earned, | 30:44 | |
| as a trust from God to be administered responsibly | 30:48 | |
| on God's behalf. | 30:53 | |
| Some people have the same attitude toward their children, | 30:57 | |
| and that's why they bring them to church to be baptized. | 31:01 | |
| Basic to every doctrine of baptism, | 31:06 | |
| is the belief that we receive our children | 31:09 | |
| by birth or adoption, as a trust from God. | 31:13 | |
| A parent who takes baptismal vows before the congregation, | 31:20 | |
| is saying in effect, "My child belonged to God | 31:24 | |
| before he belonged to me. | 31:29 | |
| He is God's child first, and God will love him | 31:32 | |
| more than I can ever possibly love him. | 31:36 | |
| Therefore, I cannot bring up my child exactly as I please, | 31:40 | |
| or exactly as some psychologist pleases. | 31:45 | |
| I must bring him up in a way that pleases God. | 31:50 | |
| And in the end, I must account to God for his upbringing." | 31:53 | |
| It was through our Lord's parable that the word 'talent' | 32:00 | |
| entered the English language. | 32:04 | |
| In our idiom, it generally denotes | 32:07 | |
| some kind of special ability: | 32:10 | |
| artistic talent, athletic talent, musical talent, | 32:13 | |
| which we may cultivate and develop, | 32:19 | |
| but which we did not create because it was in us, | 32:22 | |
| right from our birth. | 32:26 | |
| In her autobiography, Marian Anderson, | 32:28 | |
| the great negro contralto, says, | 32:31 | |
| "The singer starts by having his instrument | 32:34 | |
| as a gift of God." | 32:39 | |
| But you could see that Ms. Anderson herself | 32:42 | |
| held an even higher view during her brilliant career, | 32:45 | |
| regarding her voice not as a gift of God, | 32:49 | |
| but as a trust from God to be used for God's glory, | 32:53 | |
| and the service of all mankind. | 32:58 | |
| Life itself is the talent | 33:02 | |
| that God has entrusted to all of us, | 33:05 | |
| that which we have received | 33:08 | |
| and that which we must give back. | 33:10 | |
| We belong to God. | 33:13 | |
| We are God's treasure, | 33:15 | |
| God's investment in the great economy of nature. | 33:17 | |
| And God expects a return for his investment. | 33:22 | |
| We have already anticipated the second truth, | 33:33 | |
| which is: that life is meant to be used. | 33:35 | |
| We could say that life is meant to be spent, | 33:45 | |
| a nice sounding phrase. | 33:48 | |
| Then we remember, that there are different ways | 33:51 | |
| of spending life just as there are different ways | 33:53 | |
| of spending money. | 33:56 | |
| Some people squander their money, | 33:59 | |
| as did the prodigal son in another New Testament story. | 34:02 | |
| And others can be just as prodigal with their lives, | 34:07 | |
| as was the young man who committed suicide | 34:11 | |
| in a New York hotel room; | 34:14 | |
| having written his last will and Testament | 34:17 | |
| on a sheet of hotel paper. | 34:19 | |
| "I leave to society a bad example. | 34:22 | |
| I leave to my friends, the memory of a misspent life. | 34:26 | |
| I leave to my father and mother, | 34:30 | |
| all the sorrow they can bear in their old age. | 34:32 | |
| I leave to my wife, a broken heart | 34:36 | |
| and to my children, the name of a drunkard and a suicide. | 34:38 | |
| I leave to God, a lost soul who has insulted His mercy." | 34:42 | |
| And yet our Lord's parable never considers that alternative. | 34:49 | |
| The sin of the one talent man, | 34:54 | |
| and he's the central character in the story, | 34:57 | |
| the sin of the one talent man | 35:00 | |
| was not that he used his talent wastefully, | 35:02 | |
| but that he didn't use it at all. | 35:06 | |
| He buried it, he hoarded it in the ground. | 35:09 | |
| Recently, a lady in my congregation | 35:15 | |
| told me that she inherited a house from an elderly aunt, | 35:17 | |
| who had lived alone for many years | 35:23 | |
| and never threw anything away. | 35:26 | |
| Cleaning it out would ordinarily have been a tedious task, | 35:29 | |
| but there was one compensation: | 35:33 | |
| she kept finding $10 and $20 bills, | 35:36 | |
| stuffed away in the back of drawers and old coat pockets, | 35:41 | |
| and between the pages of books and in newspapers | 35:46 | |
| thrust behind the heating radiators. | 35:51 | |
| Her treasure hunt yielded about $400. | 35:55 | |
| That's not a large sum until you realize | 36:00 | |
| the interest that it could have earned, | 36:03 | |
| or its uninflated buying power 25 years ago. | 36:06 | |
| But there it stayed diminishing in value, | 36:12 | |
| and getting gradually worthless. | 36:15 | |
| The same thing can happen to life. | 36:20 | |
| People who hoard their lives: | 36:23 | |
| who wrap up their bodies and souls in cotton wool, | 36:26 | |
| conserving their energy, saving their strength, | 36:31 | |
| protecting their personalities | 36:34 | |
| and never giving anything of themselves away; | 36:36 | |
| make one serious mistake: | 36:42 | |
| they forget that you can't stash life away in an old sock. | 36:45 | |
| You can save today's money for next week and next year, | 36:51 | |
| but each day's life has to be spent before midnight. | 36:56 | |
| When it is gone, it is gone forever. | 37:00 | |
| Leslie Weatherhead told me about a wealthy Englishman | 37:05 | |
| who retired at age 50, | 37:09 | |
| and settled down to a selfish routine of | 37:11 | |
| golf and gardening and afternoon tea. | 37:14 | |
| He refused to do anything useful or energetic. | 37:18 | |
| His great slogan was one must keep fit, fit for what? | 37:23 | |
| At age 55, he died while undergoing surgery | 37:31 | |
| for a supposed trouble, | 37:35 | |
| which a post-mortem showed to be non-existent. | 37:37 | |
| The surgeon said that he died of fright. | 37:41 | |
| Life is meant to be used, not hoarded. | 37:46 | |
| And the more we use it and spend it | 37:50 | |
| and invest it in the great economy of God's world, | 37:53 | |
| the more happiness it will yield in return. | 37:59 | |
| Norman Cousins, when he came away from visiting | 38:04 | |
| Albert Schweitzer, said that he brought with him | 38:07 | |
| the impression of a man who had | 38:10 | |
| learned to use himself fully. | 38:13 | |
| That is surely a fair appraisal of Schweitzer, | 38:17 | |
| who successfully combined so many careers. | 38:20 | |
| It occurred to Cousins that much of the | 38:25 | |
| ache and brooding unhappiness of modern life, | 38:28 | |
| is the result of man's inability use himself fully. | 38:32 | |
| Now not many of us realize that, | 38:39 | |
| we blame our unhappiness on all sorts of other things, | 38:43 | |
| like not having enough money, | 38:47 | |
| enough love, enough leisure time, enough prestige. | 38:50 | |
| Whereas the truth is that none of those things, | 38:55 | |
| not all of them put together can make us happy | 38:58 | |
| unless we realize our God-given potential | 39:02 | |
| and use ourselves fully. | 39:06 | |
| Unless we released the yearnings | 39:09 | |
| and powers of our personalities, | 39:11 | |
| unless we achieve a sense of fulfillment | 39:14 | |
| through total contact with total challenge. | 39:17 | |
| Well, that leads to another truth, | 39:25 | |
| which is that life contains the element of risk. | 39:29 | |
| One of my friends who used to run a hatchery | 39:34 | |
| told me that a few years ago, | 39:39 | |
| a young man came to him and bought 50 chickens. | 39:40 | |
| Today, He has 300,000 laying hens | 39:46 | |
| and he supplies eggs to some of | 39:50 | |
| the largest stores in Eastern Canada. | 39:52 | |
| When he showed my friend over his farm, | 39:56 | |
| he laughed and said, "See what you started?" | 39:58 | |
| Well, that's the parable of the talents, isn't it? | 40:02 | |
| Now my friend doesn't have his hatchery anymore, | 40:06 | |
| and he ruefully admits the reason; | 40:09 | |
| in that business, as in any other business, | 40:13 | |
| you've got to be willing to run risks | 40:16 | |
| or you'll go out of business. | 40:18 | |
| Your talent is taken from you and given to someone else. | 40:21 | |
| Here's a bit of ancient wisdom from the Book of Proverbs: | 40:28 | |
| "Be timid in business and come to beggary. | 40:33 | |
| Be bold and make a fortune." | 40:37 | |
| Well, the first two servants in the parable | 40:41 | |
| must've been bold and the third must have been timid, | 40:43 | |
| that was his sin, his only sin. | 40:48 | |
| He was not a bad man, | 40:51 | |
| not drunken, wasteful or irresponsible | 40:53 | |
| else he might've dissipated his Master's money | 40:58 | |
| and showed 100% loss. | 41:01 | |
| Now it's just possible that if he had shown loss, | 41:05 | |
| his Master would have treated him more leniently | 41:09 | |
| if the loss had been honestly incurred, | 41:13 | |
| but what the Master couldn't stand | 41:17 | |
| was his servant's smugness and self-righteousness, | 41:19 | |
| his lack of courage and imagination. | 41:23 | |
| The man had no vision, no sense of adventure, | 41:27 | |
| no readiness to risk. | 41:30 | |
| Therefore his talent was taken from him | 41:33 | |
| and given to someone else. | 41:37 | |
| That can happen even in the affairs of the heart, | 41:41 | |
| as it did to Mr. Juggins. | 41:45 | |
| Well, he was a fictitious character | 41:49 | |
| in one of Stephen Leacock's humorous stories | 41:52 | |
| entitled 'The Retroactive Existence of Mr. Juggins'. | 41:55 | |
| That worthy gentleman fell in love with a charming girl | 42:01 | |
| and intended to propose marriage, | 42:05 | |
| but he didn't feel quite ready | 42:08 | |
| for such a lifelong commitment. | 42:10 | |
| It seemed like a risk. | 42:14 | |
| So first he went into moral training by teaching | 42:16 | |
| a Sunday school class that led him to a serious study | 42:19 | |
| of the history of Israel, | 42:24 | |
| and subsequently to a tour of the Middle East, | 42:27 | |
| where he stayed for two years until he felt fit to propose. | 42:30 | |
| By that time his girl had married someone else, | 42:37 | |
| another man who didn't know Moses from Ahab. | 42:41 | |
| A generation ago, we took a poll | 42:47 | |
| of Canadian university students asking the | 42:50 | |
| question: "What, as a result of your higher education, | 42:53 | |
| do you expect most out of life?" | 42:57 | |
| The majority replied that they wanted security, | 43:02 | |
| which they defined in terms of the right to work, | 43:07 | |
| a guaranteed annual wage, unemployment benefits, | 43:11 | |
| pension schemes, insurance policies, | 43:15 | |
| the freedom to enjoy life knowing that they need not | 43:18 | |
| worry or be anxious about the future. | 43:22 | |
| Now I may be wrong, but I get the impression | 43:27 | |
| that the picture has changed radically. | 43:29 | |
| And that a new generation of students has emerged | 43:33 | |
| with a new idealism, a new discontent, | 43:36 | |
| a new readiness to risk. | 43:40 | |
| Like all middle-aged people, | 43:44 | |
| I criticize the younger generation, | 43:46 | |
| but I'm also aware that young people are rebelling against | 43:48 | |
| my standards, the standards of their elders. | 43:52 | |
| They can see that the tragedy of many lives, | 43:57 | |
| even useful lives, | 44:01 | |
| is the illusion that you can have courage without adventure; | 44:03 | |
| freedom, without initiative; | 44:08 | |
| strength, without suffering; | 44:11 | |
| achievement, without failure. | 44:14 | |
| They take seriously the dictum of Paul Tillich: | 44:18 | |
| "He who risks and fails can be forgiven. | 44:21 | |
| He who never risks and never fails | 44:24 | |
| is a failure in his whole being." | 44:28 | |
| One more truth, | 44:33 | |
| we are accountable according to our ability. | 44:37 | |
| Now it's well to remind ourselves that we are accountable | 44:41 | |
| because it reverses the situation, | 44:44 | |
| as we commonly understand it. | 44:47 | |
| Encouraged by some selfish social philosophies, | 44:51 | |
| we normally think in terms of what life owes to us. | 44:55 | |
| Whereas the parable suggests that we owe something to life. | 45:01 | |
| Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist who spent the war years, | 45:09 | |
| in one of Hitler's concentration camps, | 45:12 | |
| repeatedly says in his books | 45:16 | |
| that a man should not think in terms | 45:18 | |
| of what he may expect of life, | 45:22 | |
| but should rather try to understand | 45:26 | |
| that life expects something of him. | 45:29 | |
| Life, says Dr. Frankl, is a task, a mission, | 45:35 | |
| and there is a task master, | 45:39 | |
| a source of the mission. | 45:40 | |
| For thousands of years, that source has been called God. | 45:43 | |
| That we are accountable, according to our ability, | 45:49 | |
| presupposes, as the parable makes clear, | 45:52 | |
| that all men do not have equal ability; | 45:55 | |
| that doesn't go down very well in our egalitarian society, | 46:00 | |
| where politics, the labor unions and the media, | 46:04 | |
| treat all men as one-talent men, | 46:07 | |
| because it's simpler that way. | 46:11 | |
| But I believe that our Lord's parable comes closer | 46:14 | |
| to the truth about life as it really is: | 46:17 | |
| insisting that all men should have equal opportunity, | 46:21 | |
| it insists also that | 46:25 | |
| Shakespeare has five talents in literature, | 46:26 | |
| Michelangelo five in art, | 46:31 | |
| the majority of people have two talents | 46:34 | |
| and no one is left empty handed. | 46:37 | |
| We all have at least one talent, | 46:40 | |
| at least some measure of life and ability | 46:43 | |
| to use and invest and risk in the economy of God's world. | 46:46 | |
| But you see the one-talent man, resented that situation. | 46:54 | |
| He resented it so much that he depreciated his talent, | 46:59 | |
| refused to use it at all and buried it in the ground. | 47:02 | |
| You can imagine him saying "The boss is being unreasonable. | 47:07 | |
| If he expects so much of me, | 47:12 | |
| why did he give me only one miserable talent?" | 47:14 | |
| But the point is that the boss didn't expect that much. | 47:19 | |
| He judged each servant on the basis of his ability, | 47:23 | |
| not someone else's. | 47:28 | |
| He commended the two-talent man in identical language | 47:30 | |
| with that spoken to the five-talent man, | 47:35 | |
| not a word is changed, | 47:38 | |
| not an accent in the voice is different. | 47:40 | |
| "Well done, good and faithful servant!" | 47:42 | |
| Notice, he does not say successful servant. | 47:46 | |
| God rewards not success, but fidelity, | 47:50 | |
| so we can stop resenting what | 47:54 | |
| God has entrusted to other people, | 47:57 | |
| and try to use faithfully the measure of life and ability, | 48:00 | |
| which he has entrusted to us. | 48:05 | |
| On that basis alone, we shall be held accountable. | 48:08 | |
| You know, the five-talent man could have shown | 48:13 | |
| a similar resentment. | 48:16 | |
| He could have said "The boss is being unreasonable. | 48:18 | |
| Why did he have to give me all this money? | 48:21 | |
| Any fool can double one talent, but five? | 48:25 | |
| That means I've got to work like a dog." | 48:29 | |
| Exactly. | 48:32 | |
| The more life gives, the more life expects. | 48:34 | |
| Unto whomsoever much is given, | 48:39 | |
| of him so much be required. | 48:42 | |
| Oh, I believe it's a lot more difficult | 48:46 | |
| to start from everything than to start from nothing. | 48:48 | |
| That's why I have always admired a man | 48:53 | |
| like Sir William Osler, | 48:56 | |
| the great teacher and practitioner of medicine | 48:59 | |
| of whom it was written that he was | 49:03 | |
| 'tested in the furnace of good fortune' | 49:05 | |
| after Osler's death, his biographer wrote: | 49:10 | |
| "When we pass and review the great physicians, | 49:13 | |
| those who by their teachings, their writing, | 49:17 | |
| their practice and their example, | 49:20 | |
| have exercised the greatest influence | 49:23 | |
| on the greatest number of their fellows. | 49:25 | |
| Putting together the qualities that make | 49:28 | |
| the complete physician, Osler must be awarded first place." | 49:30 | |
| That were surely but a faint echo | 49:37 | |
| of God's verdict on his greatly gifted, | 49:39 | |
| highly privileged, five-talent servant. | 49:42 | |
| Well done, good and faithful servant. | 49:45 | |
| You have been faithful over a little, | 49:48 | |
| I will set you over much. | 49:50 | |
| Enter into the joy of your Master. | 49:52 | |
| Who says so? | 49:58 | |
| Why should we believe this parable? | 50:01 | |
| How do we know that it's true? | 50:05 | |
| We don't know, except that Jesus told it, | 50:08 | |
| and it's a parable of life, and he was a master of life. | 50:14 | |
| He was not a master of politics or engineering or music. | 50:21 | |
| He never constructed a government, a bridge or a symphony. | 50:27 | |
| But he did construct a life. | 50:33 | |
| He made of our life, | 50:37 | |
| the most splendid thing ever to appear in this world. | 50:38 | |
| He accepted it as a trust from God. | 50:44 | |
| He used it more fully than it has ever been used. | 50:47 | |
| He flung it down on a cross for the world's salvation. | 50:52 | |
| He carried it unhurt through death. | 50:56 | |
| Jesus is the master of life. | 51:01 | |
| He teaches us how to live. | 51:04 | |
| Let us learn from Him. | 51:07 | |
| Let us pray, | 51:12 | |
| Now unto Him, who is able to do exceeding, | 51:15 | |
| abundantly above all that we ask | 51:17 | |
| or think according to the power that works within us, | 51:19 | |
| unto Him, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus | 51:22 | |
| throughout all ages, world without end. | 51:25 | |
| Amen. | 51:29 | |
| (organ music begins) | 51:33 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 52:00 | |
| (choir and organ music ends) | 55:25 | |
| (organ begins new song: "Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley") | 55:36 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 55:56 | |
| (music ends) | 1:01:00 | |
| - | Oh, God, of whose gifts we have all received, | 1:01:02 |
| accept this offering of your people. | 1:01:07 | |
| Remember in your love, | 1:01:10 | |
| those who have brought it | 1:01:11 | |
| and those for whom it is given. | 1:01:13 | |
| And so follow it with your blessing, | 1:01:16 | |
| that it may promote peace and justice and love | 1:01:19 | |
| among all your people. | 1:01:23 | |
| Amen. | 1:01:25 | |
| (organ music begins: "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee") | 1:01:27 | |
| (choir vocalizing) | 1:02:08 | |
| (music ends) | 1:05:01 | |
| Please be seated. | 1:05:03 | |
| Go out in peace to serve God and your neighbor | 1:05:10 | |
| in all that you do. | 1:05:15 | |
| The blessing of the Almighty God, Father, Son, | 1:05:17 | |
| and Holy Spirit is with you always. | 1:05:22 | |
| (choir vocalizes quietly) | 1:05:29 | |
| (bell tolls) | 1:06:43 | |
| (organ music abruptly starts) | 1:06:54 |
