St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
November 19, 2023
Year A, Proper 28: The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
Our Zillion Blessings
If you were here last Sunday, you may remember that we began a kind of seasonal change.
Although the holy season of Advent doesn’t begin for two more weeks, our Bible readings and prayers and even our music are getting us ready by drawing our attention to the Last Day – the Day of Judgment.
Last Sunday, we heard Jesus’ Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids.
The wise bridesmaids had enough oil for their lamps while the foolish ones were unprepared – not ready for the arrival of the bridegroom.
The foolish bridesmaids made a big mistake, thinking somehow that they had all the time in the world.
And in today’s lesson from the Gospel of Matthew, we pick up right where we left off last week.
We hear another challenging parable from Jesus – what’s often called the Parable of the Talents.
Some scholars think that this parable was originally an economic critique from Jesus.
The character of the master – demanding, shrewd, cruel - would’ve been familiar to Jesus and the people of his time and place.
And, we also know his type, don’t we?
The slave who received the one talent is definitely not wrong when he says, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed…”
And, if there was any doubt about the master’s harshness, casting into the outer darkness the slave who buried his one talent settles the question once and for all.
In our own time, when employees are often mistreated and casually cast off, I’d say that this economic critique still holds up.
But, by the time of the Gospel of Matthew was written, a couple of generations after Jesus’ earthly lifetime, some early Christians heard something else, something even deeper, in this parable.
We don’t know exactly how much a “talent” was worth in the ancient world, but it was a lot – in fact, a “talent” may just be a shorthand expression for “a lot of money” like we might say, “a million dollars” or, with inflation, maybe “a zillion dollars.”
Early Christians began to recognize that Jesus might not only be talking about money but might be teaching us about the blessings that we have received – the “zillion” blessings we have received.
Our “talents” – our blessings – come not from a harsh master but from a loving God.
But, nevertheless, we are expected to use our blessings wisely – to multiply our blessings, for the good of the world.
Each of us has the obligation to invest our blessings, not by burying them, not by hoarding them, not by zealously guarding them, but by sharing what we’ve been given.
And, together, we the church, have a sacred responsibility – a holy expectation - to share the zillion blessings we have been given.
As I mentioned to you last week, Sandy Martin was one of the first people we met here at St. Thomas’. Sue and I met him and his beloved Beaumont even before we moved here. Their warm embrace helped to convince us that this was the right place for us.
And Sandy’s death has gotten me thinking back to my first encounters with St. Thomas’, which were on paper and video.
And somewhere in the parish profile or in the videos you put together – I didn’t have time to go looking - this parish expressed the hope that it – we – could be a spiritual resource not only for our parishioners, but for the whole community.
You recognized that St. Thomas’ has been blessed in a zillion ways – and we certainly have – we’re the slave who has been given five talents.
And it’s our duty and obligation and privilege to share as much as we can with the people beyond our walls.
Of course, parishioners like Sandy and Beaumont and so many of you have been doing that all along – it’s built into the DNA of this place – just look at the Thanksgiving bags that are currently crowding the Old School Building.
But, I want to share with you just a couple of recent examples of us sharing some of our “talents” – our zillion blessings – with people “out there.”
Many of you will remember that a few weeks ago, Janice Mabry, the wife of Curtis Mabry, the longtime golf pro at the Greenspring Club, died.
Although Janice and Curtis were not parishioners, it felt very appropriate for her funeral to be here.
In her funeral homily, Caroline Stewart noted the longstanding close relationship between “the Club” and St. Thomas’ and how right it was for the community to gather here to celebrate Janice and to comfort Curtis and his family.
That day, St. Thomas’ was a spiritual resource for the whole community.
Right around the same time as Janice’s funeral, we received an inquiry through our website about possibly having another funeral here.
A woman named Lisa wrote to tell us that her daughter had recently given birth to twins – Summer’lynn and River’lynn – but, so very sadly, after only four days of life, River’lynn had died.
Lisa wrote that she and her family were new to this community and hadn’t found a church, yet. Would we be open to having River’lynn’s funeral here?
I wrote back to Lisa and we set up a time to meet.
Several family members joined us, including Summer’lynn and her mom.
I have to tell you, it felt like a little village of love had come to visit.
We had a beautiful and sad conversation, learning a little bit about each other, and talking about what River’lynn’s service might look like.
At one point, I asked Lisa why had she reached out to us. Why St. Thomas’?
And her answer was, she liked what she saw on our website – how we emphasized that everyone is welcome here – and, I think, she wanted to see for herself and her family if that claim was actually true.
“Would we really be welcome here?”
Well, River’lynn’s sad and beautiful service was here yesterday afternoon, followed by a small reception in the Parish Hall.
Jane, our Parish Administrator, spent a good part of the week creating a brand new service bulletin, since we had no existing template appropriate for someone so young.
Roz created a beautiful pink quilt, which we gave to River’lynn’s mom, and another parishioner dropped off a plant to give to the family.
John was here to assist. Wanda played - and Jon and Rachel sang – all so beautifully, just as they did for Janice, just as they will for Sandy tomorrow, just as they always do.
Chris gave up a good chunk of his Saturday to set up for the reception, live-stream the service, and then clean up and get us ready for today.
It was yet another another busy weekend for the Altar Guild.
And I hope that our sharing of just a few of our zillion blessings was a comfort for River’lynn’s family – a reminder of God’s love – a sign that God really does not let go of us, no matter what.
I decided to share these two stories with you not to toot our own horn.
Frankly, I doubt Jesus is impressed – he would say that we were only doing what we ought to be doing.
But I wanted to share these stories as signs of what really is possible - examples of us heading in the right direction, of us being a servant church, with God’s help.
We really have been given a whole lot of “talents” and we know that God calls us – expects us – to invest them by sharing them with others, people we’ve known for a long time and people we’ve never met.
And, this little pre-Advent season is a pointed reminder to get going, because we do not have all the time in the world to share our zillion blessings.
Amen.
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