Football.
I am one of those poor souls who just doesn’t get it.
I grew up going to Death Valley.
My youngest brother was the kicker when Greenville High almost won the State six years ago.
I even played lots of neighborhood football and I never progressed beyond awful.
But, I remember one time, I must have been 13 or 14, we were playing football and suddenly out of nowhere the ball landed in my hands. Everyone was so surprised that the game almost stopped, “How did Jack get the ball?”, and I was the most surprised of all.
Suddenly every one screamed out, “Run!” and I did, in the right direction and everything and I made a touchdown. It was like the parting of the Red Sea, everyone went crazy!
It was almost as big of a miracle as me using a football illustration in a sermon.
I keep picturing Jesus’s parable of the talents as these three people suddenly finding the football in their hands and God yells out, “Run!”
And they all say, “Where? Which way?”
And God says, “I don’t know. Surprise me!”
And two of them run and make touch downs and one just stands there looking at the ball, and God takes the ball back.
In the parable as Jesus tells it, one man gets five talents, another gets two, and the last one gets one.
In the first century a talent is the equivalent of fifteen years of wages.
So one man gets 75 years worth of pay checks.
The other one gets 30 years worth of pay checks.
And the last gets 15 years worth of pay checks.
They all involve a huge sum of money landing in their hands, much more than a football, a tremendous gift, unimaginable, imagine Carl Sagan saying billions and billions. And the first two risk it all and make a return on their investments, they double it.
The third just holds onto it, too afraid to lose it, to risk it.
He doesn’t run with the ball.
One of the reasons I’ve always been fascinated with this parable is the effect it has had on our language.
Our understanding of the word “talent” comes from this parable. We understand a talent to be a special gift or ability somebody might have that makes them stand out in some way.
The word comes from this parable, to be talented is to have lots of talents, a denomination of currency, lots of money. So what was originally a denomination of currency in the Roman Empire, has now become in the English language a special gift or “talent” to be exercised.
So part of the origin of our language is found in this story, that is part of the power of a good story, it changes the language.
Though this parable is not about special abilities or money, it is about grace, the grace that saves and the grace by which we live and exist, it is talking about the grace of the Kingdom of Heaven.
For the Kingdom of Heaven “is as if” a tremendous treasure has been given to each of us, more than we count, more than we can ever spend or lose, and what do we do with it? That is the question.
How do we live with this gift, this grace that has landed in our lives? Do we run with the ball and live in a new way or do we burry it? Do we live in a new world because of it or do we try to make it fit into all the old rules that we live by?
We live in an economy of scarcity, value is determined by supply and demand, value is determined by scarcity, by there not being enough. We live our lives not having enough and we structure our needs and wants and priorities around there not being enough, whether it is time, or energy, or food, or money, or attention, or water, or air. The economy of scarcity is almost all that we know. Especially lately.
Suddenly, in the midst of all the scrambling and prioritizing because there isn’t enough, out of the blue, the ball lands in our hands and we are confronted by a new economy, an economy not of scarcity, but of abundance, of more than enough, way more than enough. What do we do?
Do we realize that the rules have changed? That we can live with a reckless hope now, entrepreneurs in the best since of the word, that we have been given more than we can ever use up?
Or do we try to make all the abundance fit into the small hole in the ground of the economy of scarcity?
Do we run with the ball or do we try to hide it for fear it may be lost?
The Kingdom of Heaven is as if we were all given the ball and told to run, nothing to stop us anymore. Can we forget the old rules of scarcity and live with these new rules of abundance, of reckless hope.
The Gospel, the Good News is that Jesus is that gift of amazing grace suddenly landing into our lives. Will we live differently now? Will we accept that freedom? Can we live with that hope knowing that there is more than enough? The more we give the more we receive, the more we live the more alive we become, the more we share freedom the more free we become, the more we forgive the more we are forgiven.
The Kingdom of Heaven has landed in our hands.
All the Hosts of heaven yell out, “Run!”
And we say, “Where? How?”
And God says, “I don’t know! Show me what freedom looks like! Surprise me! Run! Run! Run!”
So Grace Church, the ball has landed in our hands. Which rules of the game will we play by? Scarcity? Or Abundance? Freedom or gnashing of teeth?”