Reflection for this Day
What are you doing with what you are given?
Today I chose to share with you as a parish the 226th Diocesan Convention worship service, at the encouragement of our Bishop, so that all of us can share in the joy of the diocesan-wide gathering. The preacher is the Rt. Rev. Phoebe Roaf, Bishop of the Diocese of West Tennessee. Bishop Goff will celebrate the Holy Eucharist while we partake in spiritual communion.
It is important for us to celebrate and feel a part of the larger community to which we belong in the body of Christ. Please click on and be fed.
I also wanted to share with you a few of my thoughts about the Gospel text this morning. I am entitling it, “What are you doing with what you are given?”
The text this morning is the parable of the man who going on a journey, entrusted his property to his slaves - to one he gave five talents, to another two, - to each according to his ability.
One went and traded his and made five more talents. Another did the same. Another, the one who had received one talent dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
A talent in this time was equal to 6,000 denarii. Five talents given would be equal to 100 years of wages- You can see the extravagance regarding what each of them were given.
When the master returned, each slave accounted for what he had done with what was given to him. Those who had made more with what they had been given reported this and the one who had just “buried it in the ground” also reported, and returned what he had been given. He had lost nothing - but he had gained nothing either.
What causes us to “do nothing with our talents”? To bury them in the ground? Verse 25 gives us a glimpse of what caused the slave to bury his talent and I suspect may cause us also to bury what we have been given. “I was afraid”. Matthew 25:25 Fear holds us back in faithfulness to the kingdom.
What are we doing with the gifts God has given us now?
What are we doing with the abundant resources God has given us now?
How do we respond when we lead with what we are most afraid of?
The master responded to this slave, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?” The master responded that the slave instead of operating out of what he knew of the master’s character- responded out of his fear and his talent was taken from him.
What does this text reveal to us about God? What do we know about God’s character? What has God entrusted to us?
What are our fears? What is holding us back?
Love to you all this week,
Rev. Jennifer