Sunday Worship
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the 2nd Sunday before Advent. Today we will be celebrating St Hugh's Day with a special family service at St Hugh's School. The service will be at 11 am, and there will be no service at either St Agnes' or St Thomas' today.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find a Bible reading, reflection and prayers below.
The Collect for St Hugh of Lincoln
O God,
who endowed your servant Hugh
with a wise and cheerful boldness
and taught him to commend to earthly rulers
the discipline of a holy life:
give us grace like him to be bold in the service of the gospel,
putting our confidence in Christ alone,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Our first hymn this morning is "Morning has Broken"
Today's Gospel
Matthew 25: 14-30 The Parable of the Talents
Jesus said, “It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’
But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
Reflection
I’ll start this reflection by asking the question - what was a talent in biblical terms? The answer is, a unit of currency similar to a denarii. It was worth a significant amount in value and some suggest it was equivalent value to 75 pounds in weight of gold.
But to some extent that is irrelevant, because the underlying message here is about how the slaves used the money the that the rich man had given them. We are told that the rich men divided his wealth between the slave according to their talent. The first two slaves worked actively and traded the money successfully thereby doubling their master’s investment. Presumably, there was an element of skill involved and had they not been experienced they could potentially have made a loss. Interestingly, the second slave was just as successful as the first, and made the same rate of return on the amount he was entrusted with.
The third slave however, chose to play it safe and just put the rich man’s money where it would be secure and he could guarantee being able to return it in full. At first it might seem like this was reasonable. We have been told that this slave had the least ability or experience yet he had still been entrusted with a relatively huge sum of money, (probably worth over 15 years wages). So, keeping it safe might seem like a satisfactory option. As the slave freely admitted, ‘he was afraid’ of the master and presumably of the consequences of losing some or all of the money.
Nonetheless, instead of being praised, he is severely admonished and cast out. Does that seem harsh? After all, there is no suggestion that he was a bad or dishonest man.
However, we are given two other pieces of information to consider. Firstly, the rich man was away ‘for a long time’. Secondly, just as we have in our time, there was the option to put the money into a bank where it would have accrued interest over the long period while the master was away. This would not have required any great experience from the slave and would have made a return on the investment, even if modest by comparison with the other two.
So, how does this apply to us in our everyday lives? We need to consider what God has entrusted us with. We are blessed with ‘talents’, that is in a skill sense rather than monetary sense. Just like the slaves, some of other may have more or less skills or abilities than others, but what we have is given to each of us by God.
They are our talents to use and nurture both in our human and spiritual development. They are talents given for us to use, not only for ourselves but for the good of others and for the glory of God who gave them to us.
We all have something to offer, none of us is useless despite how hard a deal we think we may have been given from time to time. It is not for us to worry about or be jealous that someone else appears more talented or more able to help. It is for us to develop whatever we have; be that an ability to develop lifesaving medicines, sort out international conflicts or simply care for those in our community as best we can.
At the end of the day, God does not expect us all achieve the same level of contribution. The return God expects from us is commensurate with the level of talent we have been given.
The third slave was not condemned because he didn’t double the money that the rich man had given him, he was cast out because he did nothing at all with what he had been given.
We all have a choice about how we use what we have been blessed with. It is up to us to decide of we want to enter into the joy of the master or be thrown into the darkness. Paul
Our Prayers
Loving and generous Father,
We thank you for blessing us with a variety of skills and talents.
Help us to use what we have to your glory
and to support others where we can.
We pray for guidance and wisdom to use what we have,
to make the world a better place and bring your kingdom closer.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "How Great Thou Art"
