Reformation Lutheran Church 

     Jesus told a story about a man who was going on a journey, so he called his servants to him and he entrusted them with his property.  To the one he gave about $4 million.  (He was a wealthy man!)  To the second, he gave about a million and a half.  And to the other, he gave about $750,000.  He realized that some of his servants were more talented than others, so he gave them more, but even the least talented servant received a lot.  Well, while the man was gone, the servants had to decide what to do with all the property.  The first one hired himself a well-known stock broker, and he doubled what he had when he started.  His portfolio grew to nearly $8 million.  The second one went out and invested his million and a half in some real estate, and, with the way property values were going up, in no time he had doubled what he had.  But the third servant was the nervous type; he was afraid he would lose what he had, so he just saved it.  He even wanted to make sure no one would steal it, so he dug a hole and kept it in the ground.  Well, the day came when the man came home, and he called in his servants for an accounting.  And the one who had been given $4 million brought in his $8 million, and the master was overjoyed.  He gave the servant a big promotion.  And the servant who had been given a million and a half brought in his $3 million, and the master was equally delighted, and that servant got a big promotion too.  But the third servant, the one who was scared and hid his money in the ground, brought back only what he had received, and laid it before his master.  And the master was outraged, and he shouted, “You lazy and wicked slave.  You could have at least opened up an account in the Mission Investment Fund and increased what I gave you by 3%!.  So the third servant got “TO’d” and they never heard from him again.

     This is not a parable about money; it’s a parable about what we are doing with our lives.  The point is that God has given us great gifts and abilities – it’s interesting that the old word “talents” that you find here in this Bible story now means our abilities.  We have been blessed with incredible resources.  What God is trying to say to us is, “Don’t just sit on what you’ve got!  Use it!  Multiply it! See how you can use what you have to do the work of the Lord.”

     We live on a planet with incredible wealth.  Under the ground are immeasurable reserves of oil and coal and uranium, not to mention diamonds and rubies and a whole lot of stuff like that.  Over the ground is something that doesn’t look like anything – we call it air – but it a rich supply of energy for our bodies.  There is fertile soil in the ground and rains come from the heavens and nourish fruit trees and grape vines and flowing fields of wheat.  There is this large, bright object up in the sky, we call it the sun, and it produces the energy that supplies the needs of our planet.  And we have been given a wealth of creativity and ingenuity and the ability to solve problems, so we have unleashed the oil and coal reserves for energy, and we have channeled the waters from the sky into our fields and we have even harnessed the energy from the sun to make it multiply its effectiveness for our lives.  God has been good to us.  We live on a planet with incredible wealth.

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    And here is the question God has for us today:  What are you doing with what I gave you?  Are you sitting on it?  Are you afraid to use it?  Or are you multiplying what you have for the good of others?

     Last week down at the Liacouras Center, Rick Warren – I know the 40 days is over, but I’m still talking about Rick Warren – last week at the big Stand For Africa Rally, Rick Warren talked about a conversion experience he had about 3 years ago.  I know, it may seem strange to you to hear that a preacher, somebody whose father was a preacher, somebody who had been pastoring a church for 25 years would be having a conversion experience, but that what he said.  Something happened that turned his life around.  Warren pastors a church with incredible resources, not only because a lot of people come to his church – he told a story about how recently 45,000 people showed up at his 13 services one weekend – but also because many of the people at that church are pretty wealthy people.  So this was the kind of world that Rick Warren was living in.  But three years ago he took a trip to Africa, to Zimbabwe, where the average income is about 67 cents a day.  He said he couldn’t believe it.  People didn’t have electricity or running water, there was no medicine – you know, we discovered the cure for malaria a hundred years ago, but it still kills over 300,000 people every year – and often the people had very little food to eat.  Rick Warren did some research and discovered that this is the way half of the people in the world live – here we are on this planet that is lavished with resources and half the world has almost nothing.  Even in this country, where the standard is obviously higher, the poorest have very little, and their children are often hungry.  This is when Warren said he had his conversion experience.  He said he searched the Scriptures and he found Psalm 72.  This is apparently a prayer for King Solomon.  Solomon was one of the most powerful and wealthiest kings of all of Israel.  His might and influence were not in question.  The question was what he would use his influence for.  And Psalm 72 sets the perimeters of that influence.  Look at verse 12:  “He delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.  He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.  From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.”  The talented King Solomon used his talents to help those who didn’t have many.  Rick Warren said he read this passage and he decided he was going to use his talents – his affluence and his influence – for the sake of the people who didn’t have much of either.  Most of the proceeds of his book, which has made him tens of millions of dollars, have gone to AIDS victims in Africa.  He is taking what he has and multiplying it.

     We want to do the same thing here.  God has blessed us and we want to use what we have for the sake of others.  There are several things going on right now.  Many of you have brought canned goods today and we are going to get them out to Kulpsville today and on Tuesday they are leaving on a rental truck to Mississippi.  There are victims of Katrina still suffering there, and we want to use what we have for their sake.  We’ll be collecting other food this week, and next week you can bring fresh food, including some turkeys, and we are going to see that they get out to some needy families in our community for Thanksgiving.  During the last two weeks in November we’re going to have a coat collection.  This is being organized through the Lutheran Children and Family Service, and the coats will mostly go to refugees, many of the African refugees who don’t know yet about Philadelphia winters – so you can bring your winter coats by the last Sunday in November and we’ll see that they get put to good use.  It’s one of the ways we can multiply our talents.  And then there is the matter of hunger.   Even here in the United States, the problems of hunger are growing.  According to the USDA, hunger and food insecurity in the United States has increased for the fourth straight year. In 2004, more than 36 million Americans -- including 13 million children -- lived with hunger or on the brink of hunger.  Senator Richard Durbin (D- IL) has introduced the Hunger-Free Communities Act of 2005 which would increase federal funding available to local organizations working to reduce hunger in communities nationwide and establishing an ambitious commitment to end hunger in the United States by 2015. The bill has bipartisan support with Senators Richard Lugar (R- IN), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Gordon Smith (R-OR) as cosponsors.   Our Advocacy committee would like us to support this bill.  We don’t want to sit idly by while people are hungry.  We have resources – “talents” the Bible calls them – and we are being called upon to use them, to let them be multiplied, for the sake of others.

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