Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Excuse my shameless and blatant thievery of the title of this blog. I stole it from a book I am reading and in looking at the Gospels of the last couple of Sundays, I think it is fitting. The end of the world is coming, and Jesus tells a series of parables (last week the parable of the 10 Virgins, this week the parable of the Talents) to tell us how we are to prepare for the end of the world (aka Jesus’ Second Coming). The theme that resonates the loudest is easy to hear: BE PREPARED! Jesus tells us we must constantly live as if He is coming back at any time. And for those that don’t – those who squander their lives and gifts and talents, as the poor servant in the Gospel who goes and buries his Talent underground, there is some pretty harsh punishment.
Jesus has a plan for us – He has a job for us to do in this world. And when we ignore that call, when we pursue our own selfish interests and ignore God’s voice in our lives, He will not welcome us into His Kingdom. Jesus gifted all of us with certain unique abilities. He expects us to use them. And in the parable, He makes clear that not all of us have the same talents, some of us are more gifted than others, but whatever gifts we have, many or few, big or small, we are to put them to use. This can often be risky – in the parable two of the servants get 100% returns on their investments. It doesn’t say how long the master is gone for but that’s some pretty good ROI regardless. And it probably didn’t come without a certain amount of risk. In the same way, putting our gifts and talents to use may come with some very real risk-to our plans for the future, our livelihood, our comfort.
Following God has always been risky – when God called Abraham he had to leave his homeland and everything he had ever known behind and wander off into an unknown and uncertain future: “The Lord said to Abram: Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). Abraham does this – He follows the command of the Lord and eventually, twelve chapters and many adventures later, the scripture says that “Abraham had now reached a ripe old age, and the Lord had blessed him in every way” (Gen 24:1). Abraham’s original “investment” into God’s plan for his life not only led to countless riches but more importantly, it led to him being the father of a great nation that would eventually produce the long-awaited Messiah.
As Disciples of Christ, we cannot be risk averse. God may call us to make some questionable investments in our lives. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus encounters the rich young man and tells him “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matt 19:21). How many of us today could respond to an invitation like that? To leave everything behind and rely totally on God’s providence without any safety net?
Jesus wants to stress the importance of the life to come. We all can get caught up in the here and now, but our lives, and this world, will come to an end. The end of the world is just the beginning – hopefully it is the beginning of eternal life in perfect peace and love and happiness with God in Heaven.
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