11-11-14 - Double Your Money

I wish I knew the investment strategist guiding these guys in Jesus’ story:
“The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents.”

I don’t know what a “talent” was worth, but I know that doubling your money is always a good deal. If my math is correct, each of these servants got a 100% rate of return. I don’t know how sophisticated Jesus’ math was (but, hey, if he could conquer death he could handle calculus, right?), but I read into that percentage a symbol of wholeness. (And if we want to go number crazy, notice today's date... 11-11...)

This is not a parable about finance, but faithfulness. I think Jesus is saying that when we invest faithfully the gifts and assets God has given us, we realize wholeness. And if we say that the mission of God is to restore all of creation to wholeness, we get a big clue about how we as followers of Christ are to go about participating in God’s mission. One message of this parable is: Our acts of faith will yield fruit, 100% worth. Our holding back in fear? Nothing.

And we should expect big yields! We’ve grown so timid, so many of us nth-generation Christ-followers. For too long we have dwelt in the land of diminishing returns, our attendance and budgets and staffs shrinking, our giving tepid, our children fleeing what we know as “Church,” our neighbors disinterested in joining us. So we adjust our expectations downward – and maybe we hold back on our investment of faith and energy too. And all the while it may just be that God is leading us to do church in a new way.

This parable invites us to look up and remember who called us to those tired buildings in the first place. The Lord of Heaven and Earth says, “Join me – I am making all things new! Here, I give you all these riches, freely, your inheritance. Now plow it back into our Family Business. Let’s see what 100% growth looks like.” And you know, when we expect 100% - we’re more apt to realize it.

In what places in your life do you believe you reap a mighty return on investment of your time and energy? What feels fruitful? Why do you suppose that part works?

Where do you feel you get nothing back, or see returns diminishing? Might you ask Jesus to show you a new way to invest in that area? Maybe we need some new methods.

100% growth – I like it. it starts with our hearts and our faith and our actions, opening ourselves to the nudgings of the Holy Spirit. We can’t do it without God, and it seems God won’t do it without us.