Sermons

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Well Done!
April 1, 2001 
Pastor Dan Baumgartner
 
Luke 19:11-27

My grandfather knew the power of a story. There was nothing he liked better, living in that small town in Idaho, than to have a good story to tell. He’d walk to Main Street to go to the bank and the post office, and carry his story with him for the people he met. His eyes would crinkle up at the punch line and he’d get a huge chuckle. And you know what? You remembered Grandpa’s stories. Stories are powerful…and us kids would love finding ourselves in Grandpa’s stories.

Jesus knew the power of stories. He lived at a time and in a culture without newspapers, computers, magazines, televisions…if something was to be communicated, it would be from the spoken word. People learned by hearing, they remembered what they heard…and sometimes they would find themselves in Jesus’ stories. Parables. “Little stories with big points.” We’ve heard several from the gospel of Luke in recent weeks. Actually, it would be hard not to read parables if you’re going to read Luke. 30 parables in all, 21 as Jesus teaches on the way to Jerusalem, 15 found nowhere else. Today’s story, our parable, comes from Luke 19.

Luke wastes no time in telling us exactly why Jesus tells this parable. For two reasons. He was getting near to Jerusalem (having just come through Jericho, he was probably about 17 miles away…and 3300 feet downhill of Jerusalem)…and “because they supposed the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.” People were thinking, apparently…everything would change when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. The city of the prophets, the location of the temple, the seat of government, the city of David… everything was tied to Jerusalem. And for those who thought that Jesus would have his real break-out, perhaps even lead an open rebellion against Rome and the establishment…it would of course happen in Jerusalem. A new kingdom, the kingdom of God, would be established… and the aspirations of many militants, rebels, patriots, marginalized…would be realized. 

They were wrong, of course. Big things WOULD happen in Jerusalem, the kingdom would be inaugurated, but in very different ways than they expected. Jesus was going to his death, not a political triumph. The only throne in sight would be a heavenly one. It would be the beginning, perhaps, of the end of time…but far from the culmination. Jesus was, in fact, readying himself to go away, far away.

And he tells this parable about a man going away. A very unique parable. He tells it to a crowd…certainly including the 12 disciples, but also many others. A crowd which may have been excited BY Jesus, but not committed TO him. Really, there seems to be two parables wrapped together here. First, a man setting off to a distant country…to receive a royal crown, and return later. There were citizens around him, however, who resented him claiming any crown, and in fact sent a delegation to lobby against his future rule.

It seems like a strange way to start this parable, to us…why would someone leave to go and receive royal power? But Jesus’ audience would know exactly what he was talking about. 25 years earlier, when Herod the Great passed away, his son Archaleus went to Rome seeking to be named King in his father’s place. People around Jerusalem were so opposed to that happening, they sent a delegation to Rome, 50 people…to lobby against it. Jesus’ listeners would have known exactly what this was about. Their own history was wrapped into the story. Some of those who listened may have understood that Jesus was now about to go away, like the nobleman in the story.

As the nobleman prepares to go away, there seems to be no indication to his household, his servants, of when he might be coming back. But he leaves some clear expectations about what is to be done while he is gone. And here is the first indication that this parable will make some demands on its listeners. It is not just a story of what the heart of God is like, it is not a warm story of finding someone who is lost. It is not a parable of compassion and grace. That, of course, is at the center of the gospel and we talk about it often. But this parable…this focuses on committment, and service and ministry. Dale Bruner writes of this “We were not only saved FROM sin…we were saved TO service.” Grace comes first…but that is not the end of the story. It elicits a response.

We find in this story several different kinds of people. First are those who fought against the nobleman receiving royal authority…the kingship. If Jesus is the nobleman, they would be those who would not acknowledge the authority or identity of Christ. They would be those who would argue against him, who would claim that he was a heretic, or a renegade, or in illiterate itinerate…or perhaps even a great teacher…but not a king. Not the Son of God. Not someone who had the right to claim authority in their lives. 

That would seem to be true today as well. For many of us, the stumbling block to becoming a Christian lay in recognizing or acknowledging that there was Someone…who had a just claim on our lives. That we would have to relinquish the ultimate control of our lives. The claim of the gospel is that Jesus IS Lord. We can fight it, we can disagree, we can argue, and when all is said and done…Jesus is Lord. When all is said and done in this story, the worst ending, absolute disaster…is reserved for the enemies of the nobleman, the ones who opposed his claim to rule.

There are other people in this story too. As the master departs, a group of servants is called forward. Each is given a “pound,” (mina) a sum of money equivalent to three or four months wages for a working person. Their instructions were: “Do business with these until I come back.” Go work…go invest! Then off the master goes.

I confess that I feel a bit for the master here. It is a hard thing, sometimes, to entrust to others the responsibility for something you care about. It’s hard for you parents, isn’t it? If you are trying to teach a child responsibility and you give them a job to do, whether it’s mowing the lawn or painting or whatever…and you care about the result, it’s hard to just turn them loose, to not micromanage. It’s hard in business, to hand over a job which might ultimately reflect on you. It was quite a thing for Jesus to leave, entrusting the barely birthed kingdom message…to 12 very ordinary people. But the master freely hands over the money and departs.

When he returns, having received the kingship…the servants are summoned to explain what they were up to in his absence. Notice that each one of them calls the master “Lord.” The first hands over his one pound…and then ten additional pounds that he has earned. And he gets the great affirmation: The master exclaims “Well done!” What a great feeling! When I worked in business, if we had a good year I would get a bonus year at the end of the year. And several times I said to Anne, “You know, I’d give back the bonus if my boss would just sit me down and say 'Way to go, Dan! You worked hard, you made us look good.' ”

What is it that this servant did to get such affirmation? The laws of investing would say… he was a risk-taker. And if this is a parable of the kingdom, the risks are on behalf of the gospel. It’s a strong call here. We are called not only to meditation, not only to worship, not just to hold the ground we started with…we’re called to move out, to enter into ministry, to risk investing for the kingdom of God!

What does that look like? Sometimes it means stepping out into something we don’t know will even work! I think of things around here at Bethany. Almost twenty years ago, people started a food bank to serve other people. Four years ago the Wednesday night dinner started. Tutoring, etc… all started as risky investments. We didn’t know, couldn’t know if they would work, or last, or grow. But somebody stepped up to try.

Risk might mean something much smaller. It might mean being uncomfortable in some small way. Perhaps someone at work, or a neighbor shares with you a difficult thing that is going on in their life. You listen, you wonder what you ought to do…perhaps you stick your neck out and say “Would you feel okay if I just prayed with you about that right now?”

Risk might mean operating outside of what you think your gifts are. We talk a lot about finding our gifts for ministry, we’ll even be doing a Saturday seminar in a few weeks. But sometimes we can overdo that, too. If someone is dying on the street of hunger, we probably don’t need to stop and wonder if our gifts lie in the area of hospitality…we just need to find some food. If someone’s life is falling apart and they cry out to ask where any meaning or real security in life comes from…we don’t have to ask if we have the gift of evangelism…we just tell them about Jesus! 

When I was still in seminary, I came back to Seattle one summer to do an internship at a small church down in the Rainier Valley. I thought it was for things like preaching, teaching a Sunday School class, making hospital calls. After a week, I found out that ¾ of my time would be spent as a site coordinator for a Summer Academy sponsored by Emerald City Outreach. I ended up spending my summer with 30 kids from difficult home situations and every conceivable nationality…coordinating teachers, teaching myself, finding curriculum, inventing curriculum, disciplining, planning days, supervising food. I never would have signed up if I’d known! I KNOW my gifts weren’t in some of those areas. There were lots of people more gifted at lots of those things than me. But they weren’t there…and I was. It just needed to be done.  I get people asking me all the time,

“What could I possibly do, where could I possibly plug in here at Bethany?” It makes me want to rattle off like a hundred different options…here! Here! Here! Try something!

Sometimes risking means being bold enough to ask God for things. I can be very shy about that. Recently, I read a little book that a number of Bible studies around the country are now using called “The Prayer of Jabez.” To know about the prayer of Jabez, you have to really know your Bible Trivia. It’s mired in the Old Testament book of I Chronicles, chapter 4….absolutely surrounded by chapter after chapter of genealogies. From out of nowhere, this genealogy is interrupted, and it records this prayer of a guy named Jabez saying, “O that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm.” And then the list goes on and on for pages. 

When I first read that little prayer, I thought “That sure seems self-focused…why would God honor a prayer like that? It sounds like becoming a Christian so you’ll get rich.” But the author of the book puts a different light on the prayer. What Jabez really wants, he says, is to expand his ministry for God. “Lord, expand my opportunities! Let me do more for you! Everything you’ve given me to care for…expand it!”  And I wonder, sometimes, if God will say to me: “Why didn’t you ask for more? Why weren’t you bolder?”

Notice one more thing about the servant who was told “Well done!” The story does NOT say “Go now, faithful servant, and retire from your labors in the Bahamas.”

No, you’ve proven faithful in the small. Now I have something bigger…go and rule over 10 cities of my kingdom!” There’s work to be done…kingdom work.

The second servant is almost identical to the first. His investment gained five-fold, he was given five cities to govern. The third…and here one must wonder what happened to the other seven servants? There were 10 to start with. The easy answer for me is: that would have made a terrible story! It would have obscured the point: “And the third servant got four cities, the fifth made 3.5 pounds.” Only three are needed for the story.

Notice that all THREE called the master “Lord.” But this third one draws the wrath of the master. Not in the same way the enemies do…but there is deep disappointment. The servant confesses he was afraid to fail. He took a piece of cloth, wrapped the original pound, and then returned it upon the master’s summons. The master is incredulous. If it were fear…you would have at least put it in a savings account, and received your 1.7% rate return! If you were afraid of me, you should have been afraid of doing nothing! The servant didn’t lose anything. But the servant didn’t do anything. The Pharisees may have seen themselves in this third servant…we might to, the temptation to live safe and uncontaminated lives. That is what the master hates here. In the 5th century, the great theologian and father John Chrysostom wrote that this parable is spoken to people who “neither in money, nor in word, nor in protection, nor in any other things whatever, are willing to assist their neighbors, but withhold all.”

Fear is a terrible thing. And it is a kingdom barrier. God pleads with us, begs us to trust. Some of the very most prominent words in the Bible involve “Fear.” Every significant figure, from Moses to Joshua to Jeremiah to the disciples, must be repeatedly told by God: “Don’t be afraid. Step out. Don’t be afraid.” And never does God say: “Step out, risk, you have the right talents!” Never does God say “Step out, you can do anything you want!” Always, always, always God says “Don’t be afraid…I WILL BE WITH YOU.”

This is a parable of commitment. A parable of action. A parable that calls us to risk, a call to try, a call to walk through fear for the sake of the kingdom. The gospel of grace and forgiveness is entrusted to us by the King…and we are told not to sit still. Not to play it safe. But to to carry it everywhere…that the Kingdom might grow larger. And that the King might one day say, “Well done!”