Pentecost 27 A; Matt 25:14-30

I heard a story this week about Robert Louis Stevenson, the man who wrote Treasure Island. While living in France, before he was much of a writer, he set eyes on a woman once, one time, and knew he was in love with her. She lived in California. When she returned home he dropped everything and made the exhausting trip to find her just to try for a chance at winning her love. When he got to her he collapsed on her doorstep. They later got married and lived happily ever after, more or less. The details of the story are not all great examples for us but you have to admit that was a pretty bold move and a big risk.

So with that warm up today we're going to begin with a question for you to reflect on. What is the biggest risk that you have ever taken? It might have been a relationship risk like Mr. Stevenson. It might have been a career risk. It might have been a recreational risk (any hang-gliders or parachuters in the bunch?) It might even have been something that you only count as a risk when you look back at it. But take a minute, what is the biggest risk you have ever taken?

Why do I ask you might wonder? Well we have talked a lot lately about what following Christ and living a Christian lifestyle means. From forgiveness to charity, from faith to action in our community. One thing that we haven't talked a lot about is the risk that is involved in living in a Christian lifestyle.

But the gospel lesson today has something to do with risk. Let's look at it again:

A master leaves town and he leaves some slaves in charge of his household, his farms, his accounts, everything. He leaves them some money to operate with too. To the most capable he leaves the most and doles out money to the rest accordingly.

There seems to be no direct instructions for the slaves about what to do with this money. They are just free to use it as they see fit. They are not the lords all of a sudden, he did not give them his whole estate but he did leave them as functional masters, to do with what was his as they saw fit. They were to see to operations as best they could, using him and his work before he left as an example. He trusted that the skills that he had taught them and those that they had always had, that he had chosen them for, would see them through and help them to see his property through too.

So two of the servants took what they had been given, they followed the example of their master and they increased what he had left for them. They seemed to do it with little fear and little trouble. And they took huge risks. They invested it in high yield, therefore extremely high risk, places and it paid off!

But the third servant kind of missed the bus. He was confused. He misjudged his master. He heard only a threat in the promise of trust that he was given. And so he took the little money that he had been given and he hid it away, absolving himself, as far as the law at the time was concerned, of any guilt at all, whether the money remained, disappeared or somehow magically increased. You seee, in those days if you have buried money and it was stolen you weren't legally held responsible.

And so that last slave despite inflation and whatever else only had the first sum of money to give to his master upon the master's return, not even enough to run the place for a month.

I know a good next line would be that he had to ask for a government bailout because he had invested the money poorly. He should have asked for a bailout from the master I think. I think then he would have had rather better luck. If he had asked for mercy and acknowledged that everything that he had came from the master first anyway I think there might have been some mercy for him. But instead he blamed the master for the whole thing.

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."

And then, much to the surprise and dismay of this man, the master was not pleased at all that his fearful servant had chosen the hide the treasure. Instead he reprimanded the servant for feeling so fearful of him. It was clear to the master and clear to the other slaves that being left as stewards was both a sign of trust and an indication of freedom.

That is what allowed the servants to have hope. So they took what had been given knowing
that their master, their benefactor, their Lord, was loving and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

And that is why we are thinking about risk with this text.

Our master has been gone for thousands of years now and he entrusted us with much more than a little bit of money. He entrusted us with his church. Some have been thrilled with the responsibility and they have gone out and joyfully and spread the gospel all around bringing even more gospel back with them. Some have heard the gospel and buried it in the ground. Today's questions is which group are we part of? What have we here done with the great treasure entrusted to us?

Well, we've done some great things, we worked hard this year to take the gospel out and multiply it. Opening our doors to new people, welcoming them in our midst. Considering what our community needs and where our church fits into that. We have been good and faithful servants up to this point. But! we haven't taken very many risks and that is a shame because we have the freedom to. We are expressly invited in this lesson to take chances as a church and as people of God.

The popular theory right now about creating healthy churches says that the best thing to do, if you want to become a vital place where people are excited to come and hear the gospel, is to take chances! To take a risk. The idea is that very little that you do is really going to be the end of the world, especailly if it is done prayerfully. And so you always have the freedom to reach out and to try soemthing new. To reach God's people in a different way. To start a ministry in a coffee shop or to plan a big service project in your community. Even to start a little group that gets together on Tuesday mornings and reads the bible or one that has cookies together on Thursady night in the name of the Holy Spirit. Whatever it is, you are free to try it and to celebrate it if it works and to change gears if it doesn't work. Because part of taking a risk is being willing to fail. If Robert Lewis Stevenson from our story a minute ago hadn't gotten the girl? His life would have gone on and he probably even would have found love again but imagine the great gifts and the great accomplishment that he would have missed out on if he had never tried.

The servants who multiplied what they were given by the master were praised by being called good and faithful servants. And they were assured the chance to "enter into the joy of the master". First they got to enter into the work of the master spreading the gospel. And because of that they got to enter into his joy, the joy of sharing the great good news of God's abounding and steadfast love for us. So let us too, start taking risks and entering into the joy of our master. Amen.