Conquering
Fear on the Road to Wholeness – Matthew 25:14-30
I first delivered this
sermon at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY
on Sunday,31 January
1993.
Brothers
and sisters, fear can be the most significant determining factor in our
behavior and lives.
For
many of us, fear belies our most crucial choices. Fear limits our decisions regarding careers,
vocation, education, relationships hobbies, gifts, talents and any number of
other interests. Fear impedes our
ability to experience abundant and freedom in daily living. Because we fear failure, we forego the
pursuit of heartfelt dreams and goals.
Conversely, some people actually fear the consequences of success; they
therefore falsely reason it is better not to challenge themselves. Serial monogamy emerges because of the fear
of love and vulnerability. Non-committal
encounters, sexual promiscuity and non-affirming behavior toward all
participants results. Anxiety about the
possibility of rejection forces many people to refuse invitations for dates and
other social activities. Perhaps, some
of these opportunities may have proven relationally beneficial and yielded
positive outcomes. This type of apprehension
explains why some people isolate socially.
The consequences of prevalent fear are a self-sabotaging pattern of
choices, consciousness and character that practically furthers procrastination,
resentment, shame, guild, regret and very low self-esteem. Summarily, fear can be the sole determining
factor in a person’s life.
Sigmund
Freud said that life consists mostly of love and work. Indeed, it does! We spend most of our time at our respective
places of employment. Who does not long
for a genuine, trustworthy and growing love relationship? Love and work are two essential parts of a
happy, serene and whole life. I pray
that we may conquer the fear in our lives that prevents us from enjoying an
occupation that complements our experience of a self-confident life and
inhibits us from giving and receiving love.
Jesus says, “The thief [fear] comes only to steal [our dreams and goals]
and kill [our faith, hope, trust, ambition, motivation and determination] and destroy
[gifts, talents, drive and actions]; I have come that [you] may have life, and
[more abundantly] and have it to the full.” Brothers and sisters at Emmanuel,
may we strive to defeat and resolve any fears that plague our choices. Wholesale annihilation of timidity enables us
to live healthy and holistic lives.
Let’s fully and boundlessly enjoy the precious gift of life!
Today’s
text, “The Parable of the Talents,” offers invaluable insight about the
debilitating nature of fear.
Interestingly, one biblical commentator refers to this passage as “A
Parable on the Use of Capabilities.” A
detailed analysis of this provocative biblical portrait contrasts polar
opposite responses to emotional, experiential and existential fear. In contemporary terms, a wealthy and
successful businessman summons three employees and gives them oversight of
several major projects. The first
employee receives managerial charge of five divisions. A second worker is responsible for two departments. The third middle manager must invest a
particular aspect of the company’s portfolio.
The chief executive officer grants the assignments in accordance with
his assessment of his subordinates’ abilities and potential to succeed. Straightforwardly, the text states that each
employee receives a single or multiple talents relative to his possibilities of
actualizing a profit.
Fundamentally,
the distribution of talents depends upon the employee’s character, historical
context and personal circumstances.
Almighty God, however, justly gives talents and gifts to each person. The businessman’s confidence in his workers
reflects God’s investment in each of us.
Absolutely no one can say reliably or honestly that he or she does not
possess some type of special ability.
Again, God is just. Whereas
fairness dictates an equitable distribution of gifts in quality and quantity to
each worker, God’s justice prevails as He, in His infinite providence and
unerring wisdom, gives talents to each person according to his or her
interests, passions and wills. An
equality of opportunity exists for each work to utilizes and succeed with what
he or she receives. Life’s complexity
and diversity precludes any possibility of an equality of ability. God through natural selection endows
humankind with disparate and diverse abilities.
Jefferson in The Declaration of
Independence posits this divine prerogative and will as he insists upon the
inalienable rights that God grants each human being chiefly among them being
the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A person enjoys these God given rights to the
fullest extent of his or her natural endowments; whereas the endowments are not
equal, the right to actualize them is.
Natural endowments could only be equal if human origins were to possess
uniformity. The incongruence in a person’s
beginnings such as race, class, language, culture, ethnicity, religion, creed,
sex, gender and other social distinctions prevents equality of ability. Such a superfluous uniformity would rob us of
our unique personalities that yield the breadth and depth of human creativity
as evidenced in art, music, literature, poetry, drama, dance and the
disciplines of the natural and social sciences.
Summarily, Almighty God justly gives each of us a talent or talents
according to who we are.
Incidentally,
God’s will for each us is the fulfillment of our heart’s deepest desires and
intentions in conjunction with our capabilities. What do you wish to accomplish in life above
anything else? Are you capable of
achieving it? If your answer is “Yes,”
then you have quite possibly stumbled upon God’s will for you.
For
the hearer’s of Jesus’ words, the talent was a unit of money worth
approximately $10,000. Some biblical
commentators posit that a talent was a certain weight of gold, silver or
copper. Those three precious metals
differ in the value of their worth which depends largely upon the use of these
elements. To reiterate, all of us have
been given a gift but some of us may have to mine deeply to find the treasure
and talents that lies within us. Like
some pursuers in the California gold rush of 1849, some people immediately
discover gold. Others of us stumble upon
silver after digging for a while. Then,
some other persons mine tirelessly and interestingly find coal. What happens to coal in time? It becomes diamonds which are rarer and more
precious than the other metals. Whether
monetarily or in terms of precious gems and minerals, a talent symbolizes God’s
gracious bestowal of innate abilities and endowments within each person.
In
the sixteenth verse of this passage, we observe the worker who was given five
talents “went at once (immediately) and put his money to work and gained five
more.” This worker seized the moment and
momentum. He resolved to take full
advantage of the opportunity which his master gave him. Was he merely the recipient of good
luck? It is quite possible. However, I agree with friend of mine who
describes luck as a meeting of preparation and opportunity. Nonetheless, this servant’s industry yielded
a dividend of one hundred percent (100%).
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete