November 20, 2024 (still on the boat)

Luke 19:11-28

Today’s reading is about God’s power of judgment and our accountability for how we use the gifts we are given in this precious human life. It is both eschatological (about the day of judgment, the last day), and contemporary, applying to our current life.  

Today we hear a parable that Jesus gave as he approached Jerusalem, towards the end of his human life on earth. He will be going on a journey, as it were, and he will return. While he is gone, we are entrusted with his teachings and with our God-given abilities to use as he has taught.

The gifts that God endows on us are like the gold coins that the king entrusts to his servants in the reading. The first servant invests his coin well and earns a tenfold return and the second servant earns a fivefold return, but the timid servant who received one coin just hid it away out of fear of losing it. The first two servants are rewarded in proportion to the extent that they used their abilities, but the king is angry with the timid servant that he did not invest the coin in the bank to earn interest, so he takes it away.  

The talents and gifts we are given by God are meant to be used for his work, for our fellow human beings, and for creation. Whatever the gift we have received – the ability to write well, to speak well, to grow food, cook meals, dig ditches, string phone lines, or to serve others in various ways that conform to the teachings of Christ – all these are abilities to be used profitably for others’ benefit and spiritual development.  Holding onto and hiding our gifts out of timidity is like the man who hid the king’s gold coin in a handkerchief rather than using it to generate interest at the bank.  We should not hold back from using and sharing our God-given gifts out of timidity or fear they will not be appreciated.  Therefore, “to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

We also hear about the power of God; the king orders his enemies slain before him. Those who stand in the way of his plans are ultimately destroyed. In the current context, those were the Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus and his message.  But it has a broader sense as well – those who do evil to the vulnerable and poor, those who knowingly plunder and spoil the earth and do not care.  

God’s power is like the ocean. The ocean looks beautiful and awe-inspiring on a balmy day, but the ocean can also destroy; tsunami waves and tempests can kill.  On an absolute level, God is powerful and his plans are unfathomable, and that’s the way it is. His power is unpredictable and judgment is at times harsh, but there it is. He has the power to judge, and we should not forget that.  Jesus says he will return, and we should not forget that either according to this parable.

God is not always gentle and kind. Sometimes he is harsh. Sometimes there is a firm course correction. Sometimes the answer is “no.”  God does not put up with nonsense.  That is all.