14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.
19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’
21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’
23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’
26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate,27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’
28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:14-30

Dear God, this is an interesting story for Jesus to tell. It’s one of the last parables Matthew records. This harshness on the part of God is a little out of character for Jesus to represent. But it’s followed up immediately by the story of those who are at the final judgment and told that they ignored the hunger, thirst, loneliness, etc. of those around them. I think the two need to be read together. I think that’s how Matthew intended them to be digested. That’s one of the problems with having our Bibles separated into not only chapters and verses, but also with little subheadings for the stories so they are easier for us to find. Our brains tend to take those artificial divisions and apply them to the text when the author might not have intended for there to be a separation between those two stories at all.

When I think of what you expect from all of us as your believers, followers, and disciples, I think you expect us to take the “talent” you give us and then do something for your kingdom with it. And some of us will have more than one talent. I met a woman last night who seemingly has a lot of money and I know that she is generous with it. And it would be easy for her to sit back, write checks to people, and accept their gratitude. But that wasn’t her spirit. She also has construction contracting ability. She has bookkeeping ability. I talked with her last night about a big project we are working on to build a shelter for domestic violence victims. Can she write a check? Sure. But her eyes lit up when she talked about the other things she can bring to the table. You gave her more than one talent. You gave her five. And the spirit I saw in her was a desire to bring all of them to the table to see what kind of return you kingdom can get from them.

Father, help me to evaluate the talent that I have, bring all of it to the table for your glory’s sake (NOT mine), and multiply it for the good of your kingdom, our community, and at least one individual life. Help me to do it with joy and an attitude that desire my own decreasing and your increasing.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen