Matthew 25:14-30<\/p>\n\n\n\n
November 14, 1999<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are so many things to worry about these days. Unlike Alfred E. Newman of MAD magazine who says, \u201cWhat? Me Worry?\u201d we have many things to worry about. How about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
flesh-eating bacteria<\/p>\n\n\n\n
global warming<\/p>\n\n\n\n
fertilizers and insecticides that poison the food chain<\/p>\n\n\n\n
earthquakes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HIV and AIDS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
school yard shootings<\/p>\n\n\n\n
flying<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and Y2K\u2014only 47 days to go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you scare now? I heard on the radio this week that the reason why Americans worry more today than in the past is that we have more time to worry. When we are busy with work and with less time on our hands, we have less time to worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When our son, Greg was little here in San Francisco, we lived in Daly City. Next to our house was this couple who own two or three dogs. They would bark and growl. We always had this image that if they could get a running start, they can jump over the fence and come into our yard. We were kind of scared. Well, Greg must have been scared too. Whenever he saw a furry animal, he would say, \u201cWowo, I\u2019m scared!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we are so worried about being scared and fearful of something, we are victims of \u201ctoxic worry.\u201d Toxic worriers are people who are obsessed over everything that could possibly go wrong\u2014to the point of paralysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you found yourself so scared that you are caught up with the hysteria of worrying about something that just happened? You read everything about it in the paper, watch it on the evening news, and can\u2019t stop talking about it on the phone with your friends? You worry so much that it is paralysis by analysis. It\u2019s reported that toxic worriers are 2 \u00bd times more likely to suffer heart attacks than less stressed-out individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can we deal with toxic worry in our lives? Let\u2019s go straight to the Scriptures. Today\u2019s passage is yet another parable by Jesus recorded in Matthew. When we hear this parable, most of us think that the servant was \u201cunfaithful\u201d or \u201clazy,\u201d as the text renders it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While this is part of the picture, there is another vantage point to understand the actions of the servants in this parable. Why did one servant shirk from developing his gift, while<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the other two invested their \u201ctalents?\u201d Did you know that one talent is worth five years of wages! That means that the first servant received 15 years of wages from his master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look, for a moment, at verses 24-25;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key phrase is: SO I WAS AFRAID. Toxic worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is one sure way to get people excited and worried about a situation, to stop them in their tracks: Invoke fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adam was so afraid and shameful for what he did that he hid on the ground from God in Paradise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the Red Sea, the Israelites, hearing the distant approach of Egyptian chariots and hoof beats, were extremely anxious and worried until the waters parted. And even when they were crossing on dry land, their worries eased only a bit until they remembered how scary it was surviving the plagues, taking the spoils from their masters, and moving into freedom\u2014something that they haven\u2019t known for many years. They were all but paralyzed with fear at the prospect of heading into the unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s like the ostrich that buries its head in the desert sand to escape the fear of danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having been given one talent, the equivalent of five years of wages, the servant was so scared of his master, a harsh man, reaping where he did not sow, and gathering where he did not scatter seed, that he took his one talent, dug a hole and buried it in the ground!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worry can inspire action or stop it cold. It\u2019s not that the first two servants didn\u2019t have their share of worry about this assignment. They were probably petrified in investing their portfolio on stocks that may lose money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the first two servants had good worry, the worry that works. All three servants shared the same circumstances. They all had the same harsh master. They were all given a job to do. They all had the same stockbrokers, investors, or online trading to deal with. But only two made worry work for them; the third was afflicted with toxic worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever was their motivation, and whatever they did, these two servants did something substantial: They doubled the funds given to them and returned a handsome profit back to their master. And, we see that the master in this parable was pleased with their work, rewarding each for their effort and success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the third servant for some reasons became scared. Maybe he believed the untruths he told himself about his master, that this was a man who was harsh and even a thief,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
someone who harvested what he didn\u2019t plant. Rather than to face his imagined fears about his master, he puts it out of his mind by digging a hole and burying his one talent. What he can\u2019t see, he doesn\u2019t have to worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of us can identify with the third servant who was given one talent. When you only have one talent, you worry more because there is so little to lose. After all, few of us are two or three talent people. The one talent we may have might be reading to a child, or singing in the choir, or baking cookies at which we are really good. That is our one talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The point of this parable is not whether we are multi-talented or singularly talented. Rather, the point is what is our relationship with God. For the servant with the one talent, he was so afraid of his master that he caught toxic worry and did nothing. Are you afraid of God? Is the God in your life harsh and vengeful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout Matthew\u2019s gospel, Jesus instructed the disciples about the kingdom of heaven. For Matthew\u2019s readers, we hear about the extravagance of the Beatitudes, the teaching on love for enemies, Jesus\u2019 healings and miraculous feedings. Jesus was teaching his disciples how to become a church and to manage the resources with which we have been entrusted. Rather than operating out of a sense of scarcity and fear (as the third servant), we are called to operate out of a sense of God\u2019s abundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see, a talent as a unit of monetary measure was extremely large. Whereas a denarii was an average daily wage for a day laborer, a talent was the largest monetary denomination. It was worth roughly 6,000 denarii. Clearly, the servant with just one talent would be a king\u2019s ransom! The kingdom of heaven is remarkable, excessive, and abundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The servant with the one talent may not have buried his talent for the fear of losing the little that he had. He may have buried it because never in his whole lifetime has he seen so much money at one time that he buried it because it was so much! Fear produces a climate of toxic worry in which talents are buried in the backyard, and the abundant goodness of God\u2019s reality is denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parable is directed against the sense of fear that we are insufficient. The first two servants are praised because they are trustworthy. They responded to God\u2019s abundant reality with a sense of possibility. They took what were given them and developed their talents two-fold. The third servant is rebuked because he was fearful and responded to that abundant reality out of a sense of scarcity. He only saved and conserved that which has been freely given to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do we have toxic worry at FCBC? When we see how large of an increase in pledges and giving we need to come up with for next year\u2019s Mission Budget, do we have paralysis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
from analysis? And with a million-dollar retrofit\/renovation project underway, are we worry and afraid that something that could possibly go wrong will?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist and instructor at Harvard Medical School and who wrote a book entitled, Worry: Hope and Help for a Common Condition,<\/em> nearly half the American people are consumed with one form or another of worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hallowell said, \u201cGood worry is worry that leads to constructive action.\u201d In other words, good worry works. \u201cToxic worry does just the opposite. It paralyzes you. You brood, you ruminate, you wake up in the middle of the night. Meanwhile you don\u2019t take action.\u201d Doesn\u2019t that sound like the servant who took his talent and hid it? Toxic worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hallowell proposes three things that can shift our focus from toxic worry to solutions resulting from good worry. And unsurprisingly, if the servant with the one talent did these things, he would not have been called a worthless servant and thrown outside where there\u2019s weeping and the gnashing of teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, we should talk with someone to neutralize the power of toxic worry. There\u2019s no evidence in the parable that this servant did that. Instead, he just dug a hole and hid his money. We should talk to someone\u2014a friend, a relative, a spouse, a pastor. Talking helps put things in perspective and folks rarely engage in toxic worry with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, we should also get the facts of a situation. Find out what is and isn\u2019t true. We know that God is not a harsh master who reaps where he didn\u2019t plant. That was only the figment of the servant\u2019s imagination. Once the facts are clear, the decisions jump out at you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, we should make a plan to deal with the situation, whatever it is. See what can be done to improve a problem\u2014rather than let it fester. The first two servants who received such a huge wind-fall, worked out an investment plan and were able to return to their master twice as much as they were first given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our church has been given many talents: most of us received only one talent. Only a few received multiple talents. But when we pool all of our talents together, we have a tremendous wind-fall!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t have to worry about whether we will raise enough pledges and giving for next year\u2019s Mission Budget when we are already blessed with so many talents. We share with each other about the mission of our church for the coming years\u2014to capture the vision. We talk with each other at Sunday school, around meals, on the phone\u2014to get the facts that our programs and ministries of outreach are vital for next year. We work together to come up with a plan\u2014even if it is Plan B for the budget\u2014to address the situation with creativity and answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t have to worry when Rose Construction opens up our church home and we realize that there are so many more unexpected projects that we need to do now. We don\u2019t worry because we are already blessed with so many talents. We neutralize our toxic worry by sharing with each other that sometimes, we need to spend a little money to save a lot of money. We get the facts about redoing our kitchen because it would then pass the health department\u2019s inspection. We work together and discover creative solutions like putting the furnace on the roof so that we would have more space in our Fellowship Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FCBC is using good worry to take action and find solutions to problems. We are not afflicted with toxic worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me close with a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was once a miser who sold all of his possessions and bought a large piece of gold. He buried the treasure in the earth near a large wooden fence. Each day he dug up the gold and admired it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A gardener observed the miser\u2019s daily ritual and wondered what the old man was doing. One night he crept to the exact spot where he had seen the miser and discovered the magnificent gold piece. He immediately placed it in his pocket and left the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the miser discovered the empty hole the next day he let out a loud cry of anguish. A neighbor heard the scream and came running to the aid of her friend. Full of grief, the miser told her the entire story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStop your crying,\u201d the neighbor advised, \u201cand find a stone of equal size. Paint it the color of gold and put it back in the earth. Each day you can come and pretend that it is still here. The stone will serve the same purpose since you never meant to use the gold anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us not bury our gifts for our fear of losing them. Let us not just admire the talents that God has given to us. Let us not be afraid but to witness boldly the good news of Jesus Christ in the world. Let\u2019s join our many talents together to serve God with good worry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n O gracious and all giving God, we thank you for the many talents that you have blessed us with. Move us to uncover them out of the ground so that we may use them for your kingdom on earth. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 25:14-30 November 14, 1999 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco. There are so many things to worry about these days.Painted Gold<\/h6>\n\n\n\n