Sunday, November 15, 2020

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123:1-4
Second Reading: I Thessalonians 5:1-11
Gospel Reading: Matthew 25:14-30

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

Years ago, I was sitting in the back pew of the Cedar Presbyterian Church on Tribal land of the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota.  I noticed the changeable cardboard letter board in the front of the worship space.  It listed “Attendance Last Week” as 10, and it listed “Offering Last Week” as $86.00.  Amazing, I thought, how do you run a church on $86.00 a week?  How is that possible?

I listened to Mary Antelope tell that she has received her payment for a crop failure on land they farm.  Mary was talking in her strong, loud native voice.  She said that the benefit for the crop they lost came in and when she got her check she called the hardware store and said to take her 10% and use for paint for the church.  That was $78 she said.  And she said it not bragging or proud.  She just said it.  “Seventy Eight Dollars.  10 percent.  Paint for the church.  Put it on that.”

I realized she was tithing.  Not out of obligation, but out of expression of gratitude.  She gave that 10 percent—she gave that $78.00—out of her recognition of God’s presence in her life.  The crop failed and she still gave.  The crop failed and she was still generous and grateful.

Not the leftovers, but the first and best fruits.  Not the leftovers but the best of the best.  It is what God brings to us in Christ.  It is how God lived for us in the dying moment of the cross.  The best of the best.

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In the gospel story, the servant which receives the one talent receives a hefty amount of money.  The rub in the story is the servant acts out of fear.  There is no generosity or gratefulness here, and certainly no risk. 

The real tragedy in the story is that the one to whom one talent was entrusted lacked the creativity and the imagination to move beyond his fears.  He lacked the creativity and imagination to think about how the master/owner would move and act and risk.

Do our actions in the world reflect our own fears?  Do our actions in the world reflect the creative imaginations of God and how God calls us into this world during a global pandemic?  Where is that balance?  Where is that risk in our lives as we look to the God who risked it all on our behalf on the cross?

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk