| To contact us: Calvary Episcopal Church 667 Mount Road Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 OFFICE mail@calvaryepiscopalrockdale.org |
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| SERMON 27 Pentecost - Proper 28 November 16, 2008 The Rev. Kristine Hill |
| 667 Mount Road, Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 |
| Small Parish - Big Heart The little church you've been looking for! All are welcome! |
| Our Mission: To worship the Lord To serve the community To grow the church |
| Judges 4:1-7 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Matthew 25:14-30 |
| The Rev. Kristine Hill, Interim Rector |
Because he was frightened, he couldn’t decide which would be best. Should he
hide the box under a loose board in the floor and cover it with an old rug, or
put it way back in the corner-of-the-darkness on the top closet shelf (no, anybody
would think to look there), or take it and bury it somewhere out in the woods
(but… someone might see him and mark the spot). He wasn’t going to entrust it
to a bank, that was for sure! Not after the hardships he had suffered, him
without a friend in the world. Trust a bank? For goodness sake. He opted for
‘under the loose board in the floor, covered by an old rug.’ He made it look as
door. Late at night with the curtains drawn, his doors bolted and only the barest
light on, Silas Marner would take the box out of its hiding place and run his
fingers through his gold. His eyes would shine. All that gold - his! He never
spent any of it; he lived as poor as a church mouse - wearing old clothes and
eating crusts of bread. He was afraid if he spent any, people would suspect he
had more and come looking for it! They might find it and take it. No, he never
spent it. His pleasure was in having it. Those nights when he bolted the doors,
closed the curtains, and ran his hands through his coins were the only happy
times he had; until the child appeared.
But before that, a terrible thing happened. One day while he was out, someone
broke into his house and stole his gold. The entire box was taken; nothing was
left. When Silas returned home and saw that he’d been robbed, he was dumb-
founded, then aghast, then enraged. He overturned everything in the house
looking for his treasure, he searched the yard and the barn; he tore at his
clothes, pulled his hair and ran through town crying out: “thief! “thief!” People
clucked their tongues and shook their heads and said “dear, dear,” but his
money was gone. Silas Marner was shattered.
After that he retreated to his house, staying closed-up in there all alone, grieving
his loss… until one cold, snowy night he heard a sound at his front door. Going
to investigate he found a small child crouched there, shivering. Silas picked her
up and brought her inside to warm her by his fire. The next day he looked, but
could find no family relations to claim the child. So Silas decided to raise the girl
as his own. His life became new. He spoke to people and they spoke back. For
the child’s sake he received their kindness, whereas before he had rebuffed it.
In time he became known to his neighbors, became part of the community. The
child thrived and he doted on her; she loved him, too. Silas’s life became rich in
ways it had never been rich before.
That’s a wonderful story, George Eliot’s novel Silas Marner. In fact, as I was
reviewing it in preparation for this sermon I got out my old, old copy of the
book, saw that the words were faded and ordered myself a new copy. Human
nature loves to hear stories about reversals -- where a person who had been
closed-off from human community becomes open again, where someone who had
been wounded and broken is healed and restored to the fullness of life. Silas
Marner is that kind of story. It is also, however, a story about a person’s fear of
living and the power of money. People are not meant to love money, yet they
often do. Even so, a person may love money or wealth for various reasons -- out
of simple greed, or a desire for finery, from a lust for power, or to exalt oneself,
or because of fear. Fear may the most common reason why people accumulate
and keep wealth. A large bank account, lots of stocks and bonds, would appear
to be a strong barrier against the harsh things life can throw at us – hunger,
homelessness, deprivation, sickness, ending one’s life alone and unknown. Great
wealth would appear to shield us from that, but does it?
Life is a complicated business. We have so many responsibilities to fulfill --
responsibilities as parents or as children, at work, as a citizen in this community,
this nation. We have individual responsibilities which tend to pile up on us --
bills to pay, a home to maintain, our health to worry about, keeping food on the
table and clothes on our backs, the car to look after, commitments to loved ones,
taxes that come due… all manner of things. In this day and age we must
constantly be learning -- about computers and other technology (get ready for
HDTV in the new year or you won’t have a picture on your television screen).
Then there are the new gadgets that come out - a cell phone that’s a day
planner that gets email, plays music, cooks, and does the laundry. Keeping up
with it can wear a person out. Add to all that the uncertainties of the economy --
the unemployment rate is up, home foreclosures are sky high, middle class
incomes are stagnant -- and there is cause for some anxiety.
Our current economic situation puts today’s parable from Matthew in a sharper
light. The specific language: “the one with five talents went off and traded with
them, and made five more talents…” brings to mind the activity of the stock
market. A case might be made that the first two employees in the story were the
owner’s top two young brokers with whom he left a couple of large accounts. In
his absence they did a great job and thus, received a promotion upon his return.
The remaining young broker, also a talented prospect, was afraid. He chose to
bury the investment he’d been given in the backyard rather than risk losing a
penny of it. When the owner returned this employee gave back exactly what had
been given to him. Well. So…
What if the owner, before leaving, had given this employee … a fine mind,
creative and able to piece together solutions to conflicts between quarreling
factions, and the ability to stick with a task patiently and confidently until it was
completed. In addition to that, the owner had given this employee a caring heart,
the kind that sympathizes with the feelings of others so that he is able to see
their viewpoint but without it impairing his independent judgment; of course, we
know that a caring heart also means he could be wounded by others. Then
finally, the owner gave this employee a sense that he was loved, a sense that all
people are loved, so that the employee knew in the depths of his heart that
conflicts should be resolved so that people can live well with one another. Then
the owner went away.
But the employee, left with these fine talents, looked out at the world and saw so
many possibilities for defeat, so many places where conflict raged and people
were not reconciled; he saw how unkind people could be to one another; he saw
how those who tried to make peace between warring factions were often ridiculed
or blamed for making things worse, and he was afraid. He decided to stay inside
rather than risk failure, ridicule or getting hurt. Because of his fear he never
ventured to try any of his abilities. Instead he kept them to himself so that when
the owner returned the employee gave him back the same fine mind he had
received - unused; the same caring heart - unused, the same good judgment -
unused. What a waste. What gift-giver would be pleased with that? It doesn’t
make any sense.
Today is our Stewardship Sunday, a day when we consider the various gifts God
has given us. Each of us has received remarkable gifts from God - minds and
hearts, voices and vision, intelligence and compassion and insight. God has given
us bodies and souls, minds and spirits for living life well, for living our lives
productively and distinctly as people of God. Some of us can teach others to
sing, some can talk to children, some listen and in their listening help others
know God’s presence; there are people among us who can tell the story of God’s
love, who bring joy to lonely people, who encourage people who are down-
hearted, who look at conflicted situations and see the beginnings of a solution.
Everyone in this congregation can let the light of Christ shine through him or her
to make the world a better place, and certainly we can do that together.
But sometimes fear gets a-hold of us and we become like Silas Marner, hiding
our gifts under the loose board in the living room, covering it over with a rug
and pretending nothing is there. We hid our gifts from fear of… what? Maybe
fear of letting others truly know us, the good and the not-so-good. Maybe fear of
change, in our routine or in ourselves -- we’ve been doing things this way for so
long. What would it be like to do things differently? Maybe fear that if we give
generously from our financial resources to God’s work at Calvary church there
won’t be enough left to save us from the future. We like to think money will
protect us from the future. It won’t, but we like to think it will, so it’s hard for
us to give well, …a tithe …or more. We have to fight the urge to put our
money, our gifts, in a box, and hide them where nobody can find them or steal
them. And the heartbreak of it is, that’s no way to live at all, with the door
bolted and the lights dimmed, the curtains drawn and the world shut out so no
one can touch us.
We don’t have to live that way. Our hope is not in a box-of-treasures buried in
the backyard. Our salvation is not in our bank account. And contrary to what the
last employee seems to think of his Master in today’s parable, ours is not harsh
and demanding, expecting us to succeed at all costs. Our Lord is gentle and
honest, just and merciful; our Lord first came to us as a child so that we would
not be afraid as we might have been had God approached us as a mighty king or
a conquering warrior. We were won over, instead, by the love of a little one who
then grew to be our good and gracious Savior.
It is Jesus, the Savior, who calls us to use the gifts we have been given to live
fully in this world, to live distinctively and joyfully, as God’s people. There is no
need to fear; we are not going to lose ourselves; Christ has our lives safe in his
keeping. The future is no threat; come what may, Jesus will be with us as our
friend and our guide. If we stay shut up in our houses out of fear, what good is
that? But if we come out and pool our resources, help each other, address the
needs in our community as one people, encourage each other with hymns and
prayers and fellowship all in Christ’s name, our gifts multiply, God is served, and
blessings abound. Let us open our hearts and give freely of ourselves - our
abilities and our blessings - to serve God and to live deeply the life God has
given us. amen.
hide the box under a loose board in the floor and cover it with an old rug, or
put it way back in the corner-of-the-darkness on the top closet shelf (no, anybody
would think to look there), or take it and bury it somewhere out in the woods
(but… someone might see him and mark the spot). He wasn’t going to entrust it
to a bank, that was for sure! Not after the hardships he had suffered, him
without a friend in the world. Trust a bank? For goodness sake. He opted for
‘under the loose board in the floor, covered by an old rug.’ He made it look as
door. Late at night with the curtains drawn, his doors bolted and only the barest
light on, Silas Marner would take the box out of its hiding place and run his
fingers through his gold. His eyes would shine. All that gold - his! He never
spent any of it; he lived as poor as a church mouse - wearing old clothes and
eating crusts of bread. He was afraid if he spent any, people would suspect he
had more and come looking for it! They might find it and take it. No, he never
spent it. His pleasure was in having it. Those nights when he bolted the doors,
closed the curtains, and ran his hands through his coins were the only happy
times he had; until the child appeared.
But before that, a terrible thing happened. One day while he was out, someone
broke into his house and stole his gold. The entire box was taken; nothing was
left. When Silas returned home and saw that he’d been robbed, he was dumb-
founded, then aghast, then enraged. He overturned everything in the house
looking for his treasure, he searched the yard and the barn; he tore at his
clothes, pulled his hair and ran through town crying out: “thief! “thief!” People
clucked their tongues and shook their heads and said “dear, dear,” but his
money was gone. Silas Marner was shattered.
After that he retreated to his house, staying closed-up in there all alone, grieving
his loss… until one cold, snowy night he heard a sound at his front door. Going
to investigate he found a small child crouched there, shivering. Silas picked her
up and brought her inside to warm her by his fire. The next day he looked, but
could find no family relations to claim the child. So Silas decided to raise the girl
as his own. His life became new. He spoke to people and they spoke back. For
the child’s sake he received their kindness, whereas before he had rebuffed it.
In time he became known to his neighbors, became part of the community. The
child thrived and he doted on her; she loved him, too. Silas’s life became rich in
ways it had never been rich before.
That’s a wonderful story, George Eliot’s novel Silas Marner. In fact, as I was
reviewing it in preparation for this sermon I got out my old, old copy of the
book, saw that the words were faded and ordered myself a new copy. Human
nature loves to hear stories about reversals -- where a person who had been
closed-off from human community becomes open again, where someone who had
been wounded and broken is healed and restored to the fullness of life. Silas
Marner is that kind of story. It is also, however, a story about a person’s fear of
living and the power of money. People are not meant to love money, yet they
often do. Even so, a person may love money or wealth for various reasons -- out
of simple greed, or a desire for finery, from a lust for power, or to exalt oneself,
or because of fear. Fear may the most common reason why people accumulate
and keep wealth. A large bank account, lots of stocks and bonds, would appear
to be a strong barrier against the harsh things life can throw at us – hunger,
homelessness, deprivation, sickness, ending one’s life alone and unknown. Great
wealth would appear to shield us from that, but does it?
Life is a complicated business. We have so many responsibilities to fulfill --
responsibilities as parents or as children, at work, as a citizen in this community,
this nation. We have individual responsibilities which tend to pile up on us --
bills to pay, a home to maintain, our health to worry about, keeping food on the
table and clothes on our backs, the car to look after, commitments to loved ones,
taxes that come due… all manner of things. In this day and age we must
constantly be learning -- about computers and other technology (get ready for
HDTV in the new year or you won’t have a picture on your television screen).
Then there are the new gadgets that come out - a cell phone that’s a day
planner that gets email, plays music, cooks, and does the laundry. Keeping up
with it can wear a person out. Add to all that the uncertainties of the economy --
the unemployment rate is up, home foreclosures are sky high, middle class
incomes are stagnant -- and there is cause for some anxiety.
Our current economic situation puts today’s parable from Matthew in a sharper
light. The specific language: “the one with five talents went off and traded with
them, and made five more talents…” brings to mind the activity of the stock
market. A case might be made that the first two employees in the story were the
owner’s top two young brokers with whom he left a couple of large accounts. In
his absence they did a great job and thus, received a promotion upon his return.
The remaining young broker, also a talented prospect, was afraid. He chose to
bury the investment he’d been given in the backyard rather than risk losing a
penny of it. When the owner returned this employee gave back exactly what had
been given to him. Well. So…
What if the owner, before leaving, had given this employee … a fine mind,
creative and able to piece together solutions to conflicts between quarreling
factions, and the ability to stick with a task patiently and confidently until it was
completed. In addition to that, the owner had given this employee a caring heart,
the kind that sympathizes with the feelings of others so that he is able to see
their viewpoint but without it impairing his independent judgment; of course, we
know that a caring heart also means he could be wounded by others. Then
finally, the owner gave this employee a sense that he was loved, a sense that all
people are loved, so that the employee knew in the depths of his heart that
conflicts should be resolved so that people can live well with one another. Then
the owner went away.
But the employee, left with these fine talents, looked out at the world and saw so
many possibilities for defeat, so many places where conflict raged and people
were not reconciled; he saw how unkind people could be to one another; he saw
how those who tried to make peace between warring factions were often ridiculed
or blamed for making things worse, and he was afraid. He decided to stay inside
rather than risk failure, ridicule or getting hurt. Because of his fear he never
ventured to try any of his abilities. Instead he kept them to himself so that when
the owner returned the employee gave him back the same fine mind he had
received - unused; the same caring heart - unused, the same good judgment -
unused. What a waste. What gift-giver would be pleased with that? It doesn’t
make any sense.
Today is our Stewardship Sunday, a day when we consider the various gifts God
has given us. Each of us has received remarkable gifts from God - minds and
hearts, voices and vision, intelligence and compassion and insight. God has given
us bodies and souls, minds and spirits for living life well, for living our lives
productively and distinctly as people of God. Some of us can teach others to
sing, some can talk to children, some listen and in their listening help others
know God’s presence; there are people among us who can tell the story of God’s
love, who bring joy to lonely people, who encourage people who are down-
hearted, who look at conflicted situations and see the beginnings of a solution.
Everyone in this congregation can let the light of Christ shine through him or her
to make the world a better place, and certainly we can do that together.
But sometimes fear gets a-hold of us and we become like Silas Marner, hiding
our gifts under the loose board in the living room, covering it over with a rug
and pretending nothing is there. We hid our gifts from fear of… what? Maybe
fear of letting others truly know us, the good and the not-so-good. Maybe fear of
change, in our routine or in ourselves -- we’ve been doing things this way for so
long. What would it be like to do things differently? Maybe fear that if we give
generously from our financial resources to God’s work at Calvary church there
won’t be enough left to save us from the future. We like to think money will
protect us from the future. It won’t, but we like to think it will, so it’s hard for
us to give well, …a tithe …or more. We have to fight the urge to put our
money, our gifts, in a box, and hide them where nobody can find them or steal
them. And the heartbreak of it is, that’s no way to live at all, with the door
bolted and the lights dimmed, the curtains drawn and the world shut out so no
one can touch us.
We don’t have to live that way. Our hope is not in a box-of-treasures buried in
the backyard. Our salvation is not in our bank account. And contrary to what the
last employee seems to think of his Master in today’s parable, ours is not harsh
and demanding, expecting us to succeed at all costs. Our Lord is gentle and
honest, just and merciful; our Lord first came to us as a child so that we would
not be afraid as we might have been had God approached us as a mighty king or
a conquering warrior. We were won over, instead, by the love of a little one who
then grew to be our good and gracious Savior.
It is Jesus, the Savior, who calls us to use the gifts we have been given to live
fully in this world, to live distinctively and joyfully, as God’s people. There is no
need to fear; we are not going to lose ourselves; Christ has our lives safe in his
keeping. The future is no threat; come what may, Jesus will be with us as our
friend and our guide. If we stay shut up in our houses out of fear, what good is
that? But if we come out and pool our resources, help each other, address the
needs in our community as one people, encourage each other with hymns and
prayers and fellowship all in Christ’s name, our gifts multiply, God is served, and
blessings abound. Let us open our hearts and give freely of ourselves - our
abilities and our blessings - to serve God and to live deeply the life God has
given us. amen.