I’ve realized this summer that titling sermons is sort of a strange thing – most of the time, because of our bulletin needing to be printed, I have to title it before I’m finished. Then if you change directions after that, the title may not even make sense!

My original title for this sermon was “The Return of the King,” because I thought that it described what happens in this parable, but also because I’ve gone all summer without any Lord of the Rings references and I felt like it was about time. But in the end (and before the bulletin deadline), I decided to rip off a 1980’s Tom Cruise movie title, “Risky Business.” (You don’t need to have seen either film to engage with this sermon.)

This is a parable about the return of our King Jesus, and it’s a parable about the business of risky living while we wait for his return…

Gospel reading: Luke 19:11-28

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, to die – but most of the people traveling with him don’t understand this. As he got closer to the city, the people assumed that the Kingdom – this reign of God that Jesus had been talking about for 3 years – was going to suddenly appear.

Maybe as soon as they walked through the gates of the city.

Maybe the Roman occupying forces would dissolve, the oppressive religious regime would crumble, and this new Kingdom would rise up immediately.

The people wanted God’s Kingdom completely, and they wanted it now.

In response to their expectation, Jesus tells them this strange parable about the way his Kingdom would be established:

This nobleman leaves to “a distant country to get royal power for himself.” And then once he is named king (probably by an emperor), he will come back and rule over his kingdom.

This was a historical reality for the disciples…several years earlier, Herod the Great (King of Judea) had died, and his son went off to Rome, to ask the Emperor Augustus to be named king in his father’s place over the Roman territory of Judea. Herod’s son wasn’t very popular with the Jews, and so they sent a delegation of 50 people to Rome to argue against him becoming their king. So this story was familiar.

A similar thing happens to Jesus…there are many who do not want him to be king: the Romans who are in power, most of the Jewish religious leaders. They will do everything they can to stop him from becoming king. Little do they know, Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world, and it cannot be stopped, even with his own death.

This nobleman in the parable, before he leaves, gathers 10 of his slaves and gives one “pound” (about 3 months wages) to each of them, charging them to “do business with these” until he returns.

Jesus does a similar thing…before he is betrayed and goes to the cross to die, he gathers his disciples together at the Last Supper and puts them in charge of his Kingdom, asking them to rule over it until he returns in glory (22.28-30).

This nobleman in the parable returns to his kingdom…Jesus, however, is crucified, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, but Jesus has not returned to us, yet. So the rest of the parable – what the master does when he returns as king – is about what will happen when Jesus does return in glory. So we read with our future in mind.

The first thing this nobleman does when he gets back, now that he has been named king, is to gather his 10 slaves and see how they did with his money…specifically, he wants to know: “what they had gained by trading.” That’s it, that’s all he is concerned to know. How much did you make. We get to see 3 of his slaves respond:

Slave #1:

“Lord, your pound has made 10 more pounds.”

Notice how the slave doesn’t take the credit; your pound has done this…there is humility in this first slave. A 1000% increase, this is good! It’s more than good, in fact, so the king says, “Nice job, you’re a good slave, I’m going to give you charge of 10 cities in my kingdom.

This slave was responsible and trustworthy, in a “very small thing,” so the king will reward him with more responsibility.

Slave #2:

“Lord, your pound has made 5 pounds.”

Again, the slave doesn’t take the credit; your pound has done this…not as successful as slave #1, but still a 500% increase, pretty good! He doesn’t get quite the affirmation as slave #1 got, but the king gives him 5 cities in his kingdom to rule over.

Again, this slave – also trustworthy though not quite as successful – is rewarded with more responsibility.

Slave #3:

“Lord, here is your pound, I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth…”

Notice that this slave takes the credit for having kept this money safe. Why didn’t he invest the money? Because, he says, his master is a “harsh man,” withdrawing what he doesn’t deposit and reaping what he doesn’t sow. He’s severe and exacting, not clear whether this is a compliment or a passive-aggressive accusation.

The point is, this slave is afraid of his master. But the slave is also deeply afraid of taking risks. He likes to stay safe…like the Pharisees, who safely kept the Law and didn’t contaminate themselves with anyone or anything.

The early Christians took a big risk in following God’s call and leaving the “safe” ways of the Pharisees and taking the Gospel to the Gentiles! Good thing for most of us that they took that risk, so that we would hear the Gospel.

How often do we act out of fear, or hesitate out of fear?

There is a “fear of the Lord” that is a good thing – a fear that is reverence and awe, and brings us to our knees to worship him.

And there is fear that is a bad thing – a fear that God will not pull through for us, that God us not to be trusted, and so we play it safe like slave #3.

We get afraid of Christian service and mission because it isn’t “safe.”

William Carey, an English Baptist missionary to India in the late 18th century, was a hugely influential person in the history of Christian missions. When he first heard God calling him to be a missionary in India, one Baptist minister told him,

“Sit down, young man; when God chooses to save the heathen he will do so without your help or ours!”

Thankfully, William Carey listened to God’s call more than this rebuke and did not act out of fear.

Being faithful and trustworthy servants of Jesus means:

• Taking good risks, sometimes big risks, not always taking the safest route.
• Accepting responsibility for what God has given us – all the many gifts! – not blaming him or others for what we haven’t done (Gen 3.12), or hiding behind the false humility of “not I, Lord…choose someone more talented than me.”
• Acting now, engaging in God’s work in the world – this adventure of the Christian life! Not passively waiting for the end times.

I had a great, very proper Scottish Old Testament professor who would describe this idea by saying, “It’s not just pie in the sky when you die, it’s cake on the plate while you wait.” God has good things for us now, good things to receive and to do, while we wait for Christ to return.

How will we act in response to what we have received? Good Presbyterians emphasize “grace then works.” It’s good theology…but then sometimes we forget about the works, and use grace as a theological argument: “God, you do what you want to do anyway, you don’t need me to do anything.” Like slave #3…

The king responds harshly to slave #3 by calling him a “wicked slave,” then telling him that he is going to judge him by his own words. If the slave knew that the master was harsh and demanding, then why did he do something so foolish as hide his money in a handkerchief?

The money just sat there, earning nothing. At least the slave could have deposited it in the bank and gotten interest. The king had told the slaves to “do business” with the money…to buy and sell and make a profit, not save it!

The master likes return on his investments and the slave should have known. This wicked slave doesn’t really know his master very well, or obey him.

Investing whatever God gives to us – time, money, talents, anything – doesn’t have to gain much return by the world’s standards. It doesn’t have to be big, or flashy…most of the time, it’s small, ordinary things God calls us to do with what he gives to us.

All the master was asking was for the slave to invest what he was given, to do some “business.” If he’d gained even one more pound, his master would have probably rewarded him by giving him authority over one city. Instead…

Judgment: the money is taken away from slave #3 and given to slave #1, the most successful slave. Even the people in the crowd sense the harshness of this punishment and say, “Master, slave #1 has 10 pounds already…as least give it to slave #2!

And then comes the most puzzling part of this parable, the king’s response to the crowd:

“To all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

At this point in the parable, you have to wonder what this means:

• Is it a theology of “God helps those who help themselves”?
• Is it sort of an anti-Robin Hood ethic of steal from the poor and give to the rich?
• It is a new theory of trickle-up economics?

How do you take something away from “those who have nothing”? It seems like nonsense.

I think that this is about opportunity. The reward for the trustworthy slaves in the parable is more opportunity (or responsibility)…the reward for Jesus’ faithful Apostles would be the great responsibility of leading the Church.

We often think of God’s rewards to us as far away in the future, heavenly and eternal – this is true, but God’s rewards are also blessings here and now, and God’s gifts to us are often opportunities to take responsibility.

But the flip side of this is that opportunities can be taken away from anyone – no matter how much or how little they have. When we focus so much on keeping our security and maintaining the status quo, we may lose sight of the gifts God is giving us, and like muscles that atrophy when they’re not used, even the “little” that we have may be lost.

The king has one last line in this parable: he demands that the people who opposed him, the people who hated him and who did not want him to become their king, are to be brought forward and executed in his presence.

And after Jesus tells the abrupt end of this story, as the people stand with jaws hanging wide open at the execution scene, Jesus “went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem,” where he would be first proclaimed king, then hand over his kingdom to his 12 closest disciples, and where he would be executed himself by those who opposed him.

See, this parable is a story within the story…a story that explains what is going on in the Jesus story, explaining what was happening, and what would soon happen, and what has not yet happened today – the future, from our perspective.

And the parable is both like and unlike what would happen to Jesus:

Like the nobleman:

• Jesus was going to claim his kingdom.
• Many would oppose him, saying he had no right to be King/Messiah.
• Jesus would entrust the rule of his Kingdom to his 12 servants (22.28-30).

But unlike the nobleman:

The people Jesus came to rule would kill him, ridicule him as “king of the Jews,” – but he would be raised from the dead.

And again, like the nobleman:

• Jesus will return one day in the future to claim his kingdom. The King is returning…he’s coming back to us.
• There will be an accounting…a judgment, when Christ returns.

When I was a little kid, I was really afraid of Jesus coming back (I wasn’t like the other kids in Sunday school for whom this seemed to be a comfort, this made me nervous). The imminent second coming of Christ was a very present reality for me in my pre-school years.

It started out in connection with my birthday, about 2-3 months ahead of time, getting nervous that Jesus would decide to come back before my birthday…I worried I would miss the party, gifts, mostly all the food. And so I prayed yearly for Jesus to delay his second coming until after September 20th.

Then, in elementary years, my fear of Jesus returning progressed as I became more aware of my sin nature. I was afraid more of judgment, and worried from time to time that I would not be going to heaven because of something I’d done, or that maybe I wasn’t really saved. But by the time I reached Middle School, I was very sure of my salvation…and this was a good thing, a comfort. It still is a comfort.

But after that I didn’t think much more about the judgment day having much to do with me. Until I read passages like this parable, and begin to realize – not that I need to worry about my salvation, not that I can somehow earn it or lose it – but that there will be an accounting one day for how I lived my life. I don’t need to live in fear of it, but it is sobering – and I think I need to live in more awareness of it.

This fall, we’re going to be preaching on The Apostles’ Creed…there’s that line that Jesus Christ “will come to judge the living and the dead.” The Christian life is about receiving God’s grace, and responding to God’s grace…it is also about a judgment day.

And though I can’t imagine it fully – it won’t be as simple as my good deeds against my bad deeds – I will be held accountable. We will all be held accountable. Christian life is about more than being saved. That’s a start, the foundation – but there’s a whole lot more.

On the judgment day, will we stand and say to our King: “

Look, I kept my faith – I stayed a Christian, I had a personal relationship with you, I did the bare minimum…”

Or

Will we realize (before that day comes) that we are called to more than the bare minimum?

There is a place for us at the end of this life – it’s hard for me to imagine this heaven, what it will look like, feel like, what my responsibilities and activities will be…

There’s also a place for us in the here and now, right here in a world we can see and touch now. I know a lot more about this present world, and in the world to come, I’ll be held accountable for how I engaged this present world. God longs for us to join him – not just at the end of this life, but to join him in his mission, in his love for this world.

The King is coming back, to put right all that went wrong…the parable doesn’t tell us when, but we wait for him to return – and while we wait, we actively prepare for his coming. And while we wait and prepare, we gather here at this Communion Table.

This Communion meal is a foretaste of Christ’s return to us, a foretaste – sort of an appetizer – looking forward to great banquet we will share together when our King comes back…