A Beacon of Hope for Today

Matthew reflection:

The passage we are about to read from Matthew is part of a series of three parables about “faithful waiting”, how we live our lives as we wait to meet God face to face. The message is we will be held accountable for how we lived our lives and how we utilized the gifts that God has freely entrusted to us. The Parable of the Talents is about how we use the financial blessings God has entrusted to us. A Talent in Jesus’ day was worth 6000 denarii. The wages for day laborers are 1 denarri, so a Talent is worth 20 years of income for these servants. One can see why they might have been a little nervous with the responsibility given to them. We, in our interpretations of this scripture, also use the word association of talent to talk about the abilities and gifts we have as a person to serve God. In fact, as we accept new members into our congregation, we ask the question, “Will you support God’s church with your time, your talents, and your gifts both financial and spiritual?”

Read Matthew 25:14-29

Further reflection:

My suspicion is that the reason the master was so angry with the one servant is that he did not even try to use the gift left to his care. I also suspect that if the servant had tried to use it and failed, that he, too, would have been complemented for at least trying to do what he could to further the work of his master. So many times we, as the church, paralyze ourselves because we are afraid to try something and give it a chance. We sit on our talents and bury them. If we are faithful and invest what we have, we at least give the work of God a chance to succeed. If we live our fear and play it safe, there is no work for God to bless.

Sermon:

Sometimes it amazes me how and when the Holy Spirit breaks into my life. One profound moment for me was during a made-for-television-movie about a women’s football team. The movie actually showed about 25-30 years ago, as gender roles and stereotypes were being challenged and transitioning. In the movie a factory league for women’s football was established. The movie focuses on one particular team and factory showing how the women playing on the team took a lot of teasing, and sadly experienced a lot of anger from the men. After all, these upstart women had entered into their realm. Toward the end of the movie, the factory is sold, and the new owner does not believe women should be playing football, so he disbands the team. The movie closes with the quarterback for the team walking out of the factory with a male friend of hers. She is complaining about the unfairness and the injustice of what the owner has just done. “Why,” she asks, “does he think he has the right to tell me what is right for me and what I should enjoy and what I should not?” As she continues to lament, her male friend stops and says to her, “Hang in there, things will change someday.” Wrong response. The woman stops and looks him in the eye and very angrily says to him, “How long would you have me wait? This is the only life I have to live.”

I honestly believe that this moment or thought, that has obviously stuck with me over the years, is a major reason social justice issues are so important to me. I cannot imagine the deep hurt and frustration people must feel who are denied the fullness of life, who are prevented from pursuing fully their hopes and dreams in the one life we all have to live.

I love this year’s Stewardship Campaign theme of, “A Beacon Of Hope” and I am really glad to hear that it will remain our theme for awhile. The reason is I believe it shows the real reason we even talk about stewardship. It is not about money, but about our reason to be as the church. We are to be a “Beacon of Hope” to others. Jesus, himself, says, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. . . . Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to you Father in heaven.” This theme and this teaching show us why stewardship is not about what we do once a year in the month of October. To be a “beacon of hope” is what we are asked to be all year round. As I said, it is our reason to be, our reason to exist as the church.

Scripture tells us that “hope” is something that we do not yet see today, but we will someday. It is this reminder that our present does not have to be our future, but there are futures we can choose and work towards both in our personal lives, and in the corporate life of the church. The line in the movie reminds me that I, as a person who is blessed, cannot simply be complacent or not feel an urgency about bringing this future to fruition, because someone is being denied life, or the opportunities I have been blessed with. It is easy for me, or for us who have the blessings to say, “Hang in there, it will happen someday.” And as we can see in the movie, the attitude about women and sports has changed dramatically over the past 25-30 years. But for those who are waiting, they feel that urgency every day of their lives. It is the biblical understanding of justice that is defined as, “How well are we doing in our outreach to the poor, the widow, the orphan and the people pushed to the fringes of our society, who are not experiencing the blessings of the life around us.” Do we feel their urgency for life? Are we providing a light or beacon of hope for them, showing them that we hear, that we care, and that we work side by side with them to help them know the blessings of God?

This reminds me of a statement by Walter Brueggemann which addresses who we are as the church. It is a statement I have shared before and one I said you will hear often from me. Brueggemann says, “The thing that God does best is trust us with our moment in history, our moment in God’s story.” What an affirmation we receive as the church, that we are the beacon of God’s light into the world. It is indeed our moment to be the light, the beacon of hope and possibility to the world. It is what Jesus is telling us in the parable you heard today. The master leaves his business in the hands of his workers, with the full expectation that while he is away, they will be as responsible for the work as if he were there himself. And when he returns, his statement to those who lived up to his trust is, “Well done O good and faithful servant.” Maybe today, we can say, “Well done O good and faithful stewards.” But don’t you love the reward the master gives to the faithful. “You have been faithful with a little, so I will give you more.” The more faithful we are, the more we are given to do. You just can’t leave this business of bringing hope to anyone. It is too important. You have to leave it to those whom you can trust to do the work. It is what keeps the presence of God in the midst of life. We are the servants, the stewards today in this time, in this place in God’s story.

I was very appreciative of Rev. Glenn Rowley’s message last week when he pointed out that even when Jesus was with his disciples, he began to transition the work of the kingdom from himself to them. In the challenge to feed the 5000 people who had come to hear the good news, Jesus told them to give them food. “You do it,” were the words. And when they seem befuddled as to how they would do this, Jesus asked, “Well how many loaves do you presently have?” They had 5 loaves and two fish. There are a number of interpretations as to how these 5 loaves were able to feed the 5000 and still have baskets of leftovers. Some see it as a miracle story and that Jesus simply blessed and multiplied the offerings of the disciples himmself. Others suggest that in the crowd of 5000 many must have remembered to pack food for the day and that when they saw the disciples share, they, too, were motivated to share as well. The message that between them there was an abundance that not only met all of their needs, but had all these leftovers as well. An important message to us, as the church. But the point was and is, use what you have and as you give what you have the blessings will multiply and even overflow.

I could not help but think of how this happened in a very real and profound way for all of us as the church just in the last year and a half. A group of 11 of us went to see the ministry, “Hope for the Hopeless” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia a year ago June. This ministry helps the orphans, the street children in Addis Ababa. The estimates of how many there are range from 25,000-100,000 children. The program was living on the proverbial shoestring, and always just on the verge of closing. I must admit I have always waffled on whether I Iike the name of the ministry or not. In one way, it seems so depressing, but on the other, it does remind us that even those who may not see any possible source of light in their lives at the moment, can never know how God may break in and provide the possibility of a new future.

Because you believed in us who were going to Ethiopia, you gave us several thousand dollars to use as we saw fit to help the ministry. With that money we were able to rent another house so the ministry could double the number of children they could bring off the streets and transition into homes and families at any given time. When we came back and told you about the ministry, over 30 more children were adopted by you. Today, mainly due to the efforts of Jim Swenson and Anne Hanson, almost $50,000 has been raised to build three new structures on land the ministry has purchased outside the city that will house literally dozens of children. The building of these structures is a main goal of the mission trip in March.

It is indeed the multiplication of the loaves. Most of this money has been raised outside this congregation, meaning that the beacon of hope has grown and spread to not only other faith communities, but even to other states. Our Conference has also voted to make Hope for the Hopeless a mission of the Conference, and another mission team will go next October.

Helping a few hundred children in the midst of tens of thousands who need hope may not seem like much, but who can know where the efforts will lead. The last experience we had as we were leaving for the airport to go to Kenya, was a group of three young boys running up to our car, as they had recognized Pastor Surafel, the organizer and life-blood of this mission. He chatted with them for a few minutes and then they ran back into the streets selling pencils in hope of raising enough money to buy some food. When I asked him what they said, he said, “They were begging me for a place in the orphanage. But I had to tell them there was no room.” He had to tell them, “Hang in there, maybe some day.” Maybe the new facility will allow them to find a place of shelter and hope. This may all turn out to be another story of the loaves being multiplied into more blessings than we can imagine at the moment.

But none of this would have happened, without the offering of a few loaves of hope last year. Similar stories can be told about the many ministries that have been started or housed by this church, by you and me. It is what today, as Commitment Sunday, is all about. How many loaves will we offer? How will our loaves, given in love, be multiplied? Who will receive hope from our light today? I truly hope that when God watches us, as God looks upon us, God is saying, “Well done my good and faithful servants.” But if God is, we know the reward.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on October 28, 2007.