What Do We Do While We Wait? Zephaniah 1:12-18, Psalm 90, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10, Matthew 25:14-15, 19-29 November 13, 2005, Year A, Proper 28 The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi A requirement for ordination as an Episcopal priest is completion of 400 hours, usually 40 hours per week for 10 weeks of supervised clinical chaplaincy known as CPE or Clinical Pastoral Education. CPE is where theory and reality, theology and pastoral care either conflates or collides. Because I had limited experience of being around death, I requested placement on the oncology floor of the major hospital in Austin. Having 7 patients die my first week, I questioned my choice, however, by the end of my 10 weeks, it proved to be the right one. I came to know that to hold the hand of someone as he or she drifts from life in one kingdom to the next kingdom can be one of life’s most powerful spiritual experiences. I watched as some crossed gently, peacefully, joyously and others whose terrified expressions never eased as they fought for every breath until their bodies could sustain the battle no longer. I prayed in the midst of families and friends who cycled through tears of grief and laughter, and I prayed in darkened rooms entered only by hospital staff. I encountered those whose religious faith seemed to make them well or enable them to welcome death peacefully and those whose faith or lack thereof seemed to exacerbate their cancers and their complications and to face death with terror. It was in CPE that I met, well, we’ll call her Jane. Jane was a devout church attender. However, Jane and I knew different Gods. Jane’s God would have been the God who sent Katrina to destroy the sin in New Orleans and the gambling on the Gulf Coast. Jane’s God had inflicted various forms of punishment upon her throughout her life: a severe burn when she was 7 because she had stolen a piece of candy at the store, various mild to serious illnesses during her adolescence coinciding with the severity of her lies, a miscarriage during her only pregnancy because she had allowed a boy to touch her inappropriately while she was in high school, a failed marriage because she had not obeyed her husband as she should have and, now, her God had given her terminal cancer because she just didn’t have enough faith or perhaps because she was just not good enough after all. As I sat prayerfully with Jesus’ parable this week, I had an image of Jane standing before the majesty and grandeur of God’s kingdom and saying, “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.” As we wind down the remaining weeks of the season of Pentecost and begin our new Christian year in Advent, our Sunday texts will confront us with images of the eschaton, the end of time, or the parousia, the second coming of Jesus. Unlike 1st century Christians who thought these events were just around the corner, except for apocalyptic and rapture zealots, few today give much thought to the end of time. Also, unless we are in what we consider to be the latter years of our lives or have experienced a life-threatening event or illness, few of us even give much thought to our own death. While Matthew offered Jesus’ parable as an allegory for his community as they waited for the parousia, the focus is not on the end, but on the middle: on who God is for us and what we do with the life God gives us. Some background may help us understand. First, a talent was a significant sum, equal to about 6000 labor days, over $270,000, even at minimum wage. So 5 talents would exceed $1 million. Once again Matthew emphasizes God’s abundance. The 5 and 2-talent servants go to work immediately. There is a sense of enthusiasm here. None has to light a fire under them – they are excited to be trusted with such a great treasure. Even though one has gained five talents while the other has gained only two, the master's words to both servants are exactly the same, “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.” We like to hear the phrase, “Well done good and faithful servant.” We want it said about us. We want to hear our name praised and to receive public accolades. However, the two servants doubled what they had been given not for praise, not to get a ticket punched to get into heaven, but because they understood who the master was and who they were. Their role was to use joyously what they had been given and to multiply it. Then, we come to the one with one talent who did what Jesus’ hearers would have thought reasonable. According to the customs and laws of the time, to bury such a large sum of money would have been considered a good way of safekeeping. Not only that, but one who chose such a method was not accountable if the buried sum was lost or stolen. Besides, even to us, his response seems reasonable. Because you are so demanding, I didn’t want to chance losing what was yours – so, it’s your fault. He gives his talent back with dirt still clinging to it. Only after it is taken away from him and given to the one now with 10 did the hearers understand it was not for their safekeeping but given to them outright. With this realization, the parable is not about stewardship but about grace and response to it. Note the first two greeted the master saying, “Master, you handed over to me . . .” The third greeted him with, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man . . .” Being “good and faithful” is not mere theological correctness, passive waiting, or strict obedience to clear instructions, but active responsibility that takes initiative and risk. Notice the master gives no instructions as to what to do with the money, so faithfulness is not merely obedience to directions. Each servant must decide how to use his time waiting. It is how we use God’s grace while waiting that is important. It has to do with how we allow the life of God to flow through us, whether we put God under the mattress or allow God to move through us changing our lives as individuals and as communities. The irony is that the one-talent servant, concerned only for his personal security, loses that security because of his unwillingness to take even a small risk or to make even a small effort. We may give little thought to the eschaton or the parousia, but we also are waiting. The last time I talked with Jane, she had little reason to live but feared death because although she had tried to obey all the rules, she knew she wouldn’t measure up. I envision her standing before God and saying, “Here’s the life you loaned me, I’m giving it back. It’s got a little dirt on it from where I buried it so it’d be safe until you wanted it back.” So this parable asks you: have you opened your eyes and seen the wonder of God’s grace and love and what are you doing with it? Have you multiplied that grace? Or, like the servant or like Jane, have you buried it? As Matthew’s Gospel asked the 1st century church what they would do with God’s grace, it asks the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection what it will do with God’s grace. You know, we have a wonderful church here – beautiful building, great liturgy, kind and loving members. Yes, we’ve got one of the best kept secretes in Starkville. However, today’s parable asks us which Church of the Resurrection will welcome the returning master? One that says, “You know it was just too hard to keep those children and youth programs going. I just wanted to keep the music and liturgy I like the most. I’m sure anyone in Starkville who wanted to be Episcopalian is already at Resurrection, and I hate it when someone sits in my pew. So, I’m giving it back to you. You’ll have to ignore the deteriorated exterior wood, the burned out air conditioner in the Student Center, it’s just all we could afford. Besides, we had buried it so that it would be safe.” Or, are we to be one who says, “I have doubled what you gave me!”? Consider the grace God gives you, multiply it in your personal life, in this parish. This is the waiting we are invited to live into before we are greeted with, “Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”