“Faithful Discipleship:  Preparing for a Great End.  Part 3: The Return on Invested Talent” by the Rev. Don Wahlig, November 19, 2023, Year A / 25^th  Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28) – Judges 4:1-7 and Psalm 123 • Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18 and Psalm 90:1-8, (9-11), 12 • 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 • Matthew 25:14-30

THEME:  Discipleship requires risk. Trust God to multiply our talents.

When you think of great entrepreneurs, who do you think of?  Steve Jobs? Bill Gates? Maybe Henry Ford or John D. Rockefeller? How about Ben Franklin? There is no question.  These are some of the world’s greatest inventors and innovators. But, to my mind, the one who truly epitomizes what entrepreneurship is all about is Richard Branson. If that name is familiar to you, it is almost certainly because of the companies he founded: Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Media, Virgin Megastores, and Virgin Mobile, to name just a few. 

His business track record is phenomenal. His personal story is equally remarkable.  Richard Branson did not get off to a promising start in life. He was dyslexic. He had trouble with reading and math.  At age 15, he dropped out of high school to start a magazine for students. It was a success. He translated that into a mail order records business, and then a record label. Then, at the ripe old age of 34, he took the bold step of entering the crowded airline industry with Virgin Airlines.   It was a huge risk. He had to put up the money from his other businesses to start an even riskier business in the airline industry. Everyone with any sense told him he was crazy. They said no one would feel safe flying an airline called Virgin. But they did not know Richard Branson. Starting with just a single plane, he built Virgin Airlines into a major success.

The way he did it was the way he always did, by focusing on people. One day, after a particularly bad experience on another airline, he asked “What if flying could be fun? What if it wasn’t so expensive and the food wasn’t so bad?” By focusing on people, both employees and customers, he built Virgin Airlines into a formidable competitor to more established companies like British Airlines. Richard was willing to risk more than just his money. He even put his own life at risk in pursuit of his dreams. Once he caught the travel bug by building Virgin Airlines, he made headlines crossing the Atlantic in a speedboat and attempting to circle the globe in a hot-air balloon.  

Some said he took these crazy risks solely for publicity.  Others said he had a death-wish.  But neither one was true. Richard Branson was simply embracing life with all the talents, skills, and passions he had been given by God. For him, the financial return on his investment was – and is - the by-product, not the purpose. The purpose is to help others thrive.

Interestingly enough, that is the message from this morning’s parable as well. Once more, Jesus is teaching his disciples about the Kingdom of God.  He compares it to a very wealthy man who goes on a journey. This man will definitely return, but no one knows when. In the meantime, he entrusts huge amounts of his money to three servants. They each receive different shares according to their differing abilities. We need to bear in mind is that even one talent is equal to 20 years’ worth of wages. So, the one with 5 talents has been entrusted with an amount equal to 100 years’ worth of wages.

When the master returns after a long absence, he discovers that his servants have done very different things with his money. The first two immediately put his money to work by trading with it.  They don’t even hesitate. It’s as if they have a certain confidence that things will go well.  When their master returns, he is pleased to discover that they have each doubled his money. To each, he says “Well done, good and trustworthy servant.”  But the third servant has taken a very different approach.  He has taken the 1 talent entrusted to him and buried it in the ground. That may seem strange to us, but we have to remember that in the ancient world, there were no banks.  There were no vaults, and no safe deposit boxes. The safest thing to do with something valuable was to bury it in the ground. When the master discovers that, however, he is far from pleased. He calls the 1-talent servant wicked and lazy, and casts him out to suffer in darkness.

The point of the parable is that everyone has potentially powerful gifts. God has given each and every one of us not only financial resources, but skills, talents, and passions. The return that God expects from us the investment of his gifts for the well-being of others. Like the 1-talent servant, even the least gifted among us has been entrusted with gifts that can have a profound impact on others’ lives and the well-being of the world in which we live. 

When Jesus returns, he will demand an accounting for our use of those gifts. So, the time is now to ask ourselves what makes the difference between the trustworthy and faithful servants who make good use of their gifts and those lazy and wicked servants who do not.  In a word, the root cause of the difference between them is attitude: fear versus faithfulness. The wicked and lazy servants do not trust God to multiply their gifts. In fact, they do not trust God to work through them at all. They operate from a mindset of fear. Their fear is based on the erroneous assumption that whatever they build and achieve in this world is really up to them, not God. Since they only depend on themselves, they are naturally fearful. They don’t even trust themselves fully. 

So, instead of thinking in terms of what is possible with God, they think about what is safe on their own. They are unwilling to risk anything of consequence. As a result, they achieve nothing of consequence.  We’ve all known people like this, haven’t we? They crave a sense of security, even if it is a false security. Consequently, they live limited, narrow lives. In truth, they barely live at all. 

On the other hand, there are those who approach life with an entrepreneur’s mind set. They, too, consider the possibility of failure, but they do not let that possibility deter them from taking well-calculated risks, even big ones. They know what Robert Kennedy famously said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” They are entrepreneurial thinkers. They take the approach Richard Branson did. They focus first and foremost on other people.  They ask what do people need in order to thrive? Then, they not only give of their own gifts and talents in the service of others, they inspire colleagues to do the same.

Friends, this is what Jesus expects from you and me when he returns. He wants us to be entrepreneurs for his Kingdom. To do that, we have to do three things.  First, we need to realize the potential power that we have been given through even the least and lowliest of our gifts. In God’s eyes, those gifts are of immeasurable worth.

Second, in making use of our gifts, he wants us to focus on other people. We need to ask what do they need most? What is it that they lack that prevents them from thriving as God intended?  Third, he wants us to trust that God will be with us when we put his gifts to work on behalf of others. He wants us to dream big and dare mightily, trusting that God will work through us to do far more for others than we could possibly do on our own.

Will we be afraid? You bet we will. But he wants us to take to heart what Franklin Roosevelt said. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”  Friends, that something is faithfulness. Being an entrepreneur for God’s Kingdom. 

So, what are your gifts? Have you thought about that lately? What resources has God given you? Sure, that’s money, but we else?  What is it that makes you unique? Even little things. Whatever they are, God can use those gifts. He will work through us when we dare. He will work through us greatly when we dare greatly. In the long run, simply playing it safe is the most dangerous thing we can do. It not only limits our lives today, but it carries a very heavy penalty when Jesus returns.

So, let’s take the approach Richard Branson did and let’s start where he did. Who do you know who is in need? Whose life is not being lived to the full? How might you and your gifts be useful in helping them thrive as God intended?  Then the big question: Are we willing to trust God to work through us to make this world look more like his coming Kingdom?

As you consider that, let’s remember. Fear will paralyze us and shut the door to a better life for others and ourselves. But stepping out in faith opens the door to the miraculous.  That is how we become entrepreneurs for Christ and his Kingdom.

May it be so.