NOVEMBER 16, 2007  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Each of the Gospels for the last few Sundays of the year focus our attention on the end of all time. Today's Gospel is your Lord's Parable of the Rich Man Who Entrusted Money to His Servants. Two of these servants did pretty well with the talents (or money) they had been given. The third servant enraged his master because he did not even bother to earn simple interest with the bankers. All three of these servants are looking directly at you. They want to know from you: Are you a "good and faithful servant" like the first two servants in this Gospel? Will you be called "wicked and slothful" like the third servant? Will you be given more, or will what you have be taken away?

These questions all boil down to one question, and sooner or later you will be required personally to answer this question-whether you wish to answer it or not. Good or wicked, faithful or slothful, receiving or forfeiting, it all comes down to this: What will you have to show for the treasure you have been given?

The bare reading of this Gospel has already alerted you to how serious this question is for you:

"...his master answered him, "You wicked and slothful servant! You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. ---. cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

God your heavenly Father "entrusted his property" to you when He baptized you and adopted you to be His own dear child. The property God entrusted to you is His life giving and miracle producing Word FOR YOU.

The property entrusted to the servants in today's Gospel may be compared to God's Word FOR YOU, entrusted to you at your Baptism, because it is written in the Psalms, "The law [Torah] of Your mouth [O Lord] is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces" (Psalm 119:72).

This entrusted property may be compared to the Word because King David declares that God's Words are "more to be desired. than gold, even much fine gold" (Psalm 19:10). The property may be compared to the Word because your Lord Jesus is the Word (John 1:1) and Isaiah calls Jesus "a wealth of salvation and wisdom and knowledge" (Isaiah 33:6, NIV).

God your heavenly Father gave you His Word and promises- He "entrusted [you] with His property"-on the day He baptized you. In other words, when you were baptized, your heavenly Father implanted His Word in you (James 1:21), which is now powerfully at work in you (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

The Word entrusted to you at your Baptism exerts its divine power over your sin, not only by assuring you that all your sins forgiven through Jesus (Acts 13:37), but also by giving you strength to resist the temptations of the evil one (James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:9).

The divine Word entrusted to you at your Baptism does its good work both in you and through you because God has promised you: "My Word. shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11).

Because of your Baptism, this Word from God is continually "near to you, in your mouth and in your heart" (Romans 10:9), empowering your confession of faith so that you may be saved.

So here you are in the company of those servants who have been entrusted with their master's property in today's Gospel. Along with all the baptized of Christ, you each have been given your individual share of your Master's treasure. You personally have been given your share in order that you might make good use of it. Your share of your master's property must be carefully guarded and wisely invested so that you will not be treated like this third servant in this Gospel, who was called "wicked and slothful" and who was thrown out of the master's house.

You know, some people will object to my comparison of God's baptismal Word and promises FOR YOU to the money entrusted to the servants in today's Gospel. Some people will argue that one servant receives more than another in this Gospel, but that "God shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34). They will say that God your Father His forgiving Word and promises to all people equally. For that reason His Word and promises FOR YOU in your Baptism should not be compared to the property in today's Gospel.

I will not protest or argue that God shows no partiality. I will not dispute one bit that God's Word is equally spoken and equally beneficial to all people. To each of you, large or small, old or young, rich or poor, God forgives you all your sins because Jesus died and rose from the dead FOR YOU.

While I agree that God's Word is equally for all, I will also declare that some people in the Church have been given greater responsibility for the care and preaching of this Word than others. Some bear a greater responsibility than others, just like the man in this Gospel "who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability."

Obviously, the baptized saints of our cradle roll are not given as much responsibility for the Word as are the pastor and elders of the congregation. Obviously, parents bear a greater burden for faithful teaching of the Word than do the children whom they were given to teach.

Nevertheless, each servant in today's Gospel was entrusted with his master's property. The amount of money does not matter as much as the trust itself matters.

In the same way, EVERY SINGLE BAPTIZED CHRISTIAN has a share in the Word that has been entrusted to the holy Christian Church.

EVERY SINGLE BAPTIZED CHRISTIAN must give an account for how he or she used the responsibility and trust that was given.

You must guard the property entrusted to you. You have a role and responsibility in the preaching of God's Word in this place. Yes, my responsibility is to preach and to teach faithfully. Your responsibility is to listen faithfully, and not one for your personal benefit or for the benefit of your family. Your responsibility is to listen faithfully so that God's Word may indeed be carefully guarded and faithfully preached for the forgiveness and salvation of others as well.

You also must wisely use and invest the property entrusted to you. In fact, your responsibility in the growth of God's Word does not merely involve your listening, but also your speaking.

You proclaim God's Word to the world with every "amen" you speak in this place. The miracle-producing Word of God goes out from your mouth with every Psalm you read with me, with every confession you make in the creeds, and with your every praying of the Lord's Prayer.

You are even investing the divine property entrusted to you-taking part in its multi-plication and growth-every time you come to Holy Communion. This is why St. Paul has declared to you, "As often as YOU eat this bread and drink the cup, YOU proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26).

God your heavenly does not want you to lose this great gift of His Word that He has entrusted to you, which is more than powerful to save you (James 1:21). This is why your God so earnestly says to you, "Lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul" (Deuteronomy 11:18).

The apostle Paul reiterates this though, so he declares to you and to all God's people, "Guard what has been entrusted to your care" (1 Timothy 6:20).

It always feels kind of strange for me to preach about the importance of worship to those who have gathered for worship. But there is more to preaching than correction and rebuke (2 Timothy 4:2). I am telling you these things for your comfort, in order that you will NOT change your regular habits of coming to worship.

Dear saints of God-faithful servants, every one of you-think of Sunday morning worship as nothing other than continued investment and growth of the property entrusted to you at your Baptism. "Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them."

With the divinely-given interest and growth that God Himself provides for you in this place-that is, with the on-going declaration of forgiveness and the promise of life that are credited to you here-the entrusted property of God's Word and promises FOR YOU shall not fail. The trust you have been given shall indeed bear its fruit and its interest FOR YOU and you shall not be cast out of your master's house.

Today's Gospel is your Lord's Parable of the Rich Man Who Entrusted Money to His Servants. Two servants did pretty well with the talents (or money) they had been given. The third servant enraged his master because he did not even bother to earn simple interest with the bankers. All three servants are still looking directly at you. What will you have to show for the treasure you have been given?

Don't answer these questions by looking into your heart or mind. Don't base your answer on how you feel at any given moment. Answer these servants by looking ONLY at the entrusted property of God's Word that your heavenly Father gave to you on the day He adopted you in Baptism.

Answer these servants in this Gospel by telling them that your entrusted property of God's Word gains interest and accrues with each liturgy, each absolution, each sermon, and each Holy Communion.

Tell them that your investment has not been buried in the dirt, but that you hold by faith in the coming of the Son of Man. Your God shall without fail settle His accounts with you.

Because of what you continue to receive here, in the on-going preaching of His powerful Word and in the unending administration of His sacraments, your Master shall most certainly say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master."

Christ is Risen!