"Commitment and The Hidden Value of Worry"
1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11; Matthew 25: 14-30
August 13, 2006 …A Summer Rerun of
November 13, 2005

We live in scary times…scarier than ever before? Probably not. But the anxiety in the air, sadness/depression/powerlessness…is palpable.

And it’s seductive. We get globbed into a togetherness that is not community…more a mob, polarized mobs.

And we think of ourselves as victims rather than as empowered people able to do, always do, one thing. Any one thing. Doesn’t matter which one. Just one thing you can do to be more yourself, more at ease with yourself in the world.

And remember, that’s all Jesus ever did…one thing…one thing at a time….and he changed a world. It can change you. You can change you, one thing at a time…..if you put aside your fear, your worry….your anxiety.

It’s tempting, like with the third servant, to push your anxiety onto others, onto institutions …blame "the way it" is to avoid your own responsibility.

We can do it! ….Resist globbing with others, resist blaming,
resist the quick fix,
resist willfulness,
resist getting so serious.

But it means you’ll have to live in the ambiguity, in the gray in-between places where there are no easy solutions…but where the fun stuff is, more options are, playfulness is, individuals are together.

And there, you get to do the unexpected!
Be so fed up with the way things are….
that you are going….stay!

Like the first two servants, we can let the anxiety pass through us, rather than absorb it…

Like them, we now each take responsibility for ourselves.

If worry is interest paid on a debt not yet due, the third servant of today's text must have been broke!

I can sure sympathize with this poor guy who, when given some money to invest, overwhelmed by what was entrusted to him....fell victim to paralysis by analysis, worried that he might lose the whole wad. So, he buried it rather than buying bonds or stocks.

He hid his light under a bush.

But why did this one servant shirk from growing his talent, while the other two invested their "talents" (equal to 15 years pay)? The key word is right in the middle of the verse....he blamed the master and then said, "SO I WAS AFRAID". Worried.

Worry/anxiety can inspire action or stop it cold. Accepting--just for a moment--that the master was harsh, look at the responses of the three servants. It's not that the first two didn't have their share of worry about this assignment. They were no doubt petrified to the bottom of their portfolios. All three servants shared the same circumstances, had the same master, were all given a job to do. But the first two had good worry, the worry that works. Two made worry work for them; the third was poisoned by it: toxic worry.

The third servant froze in his tracks. Maybe he believed the untruths he told himself about his master, that this was a man who was harsh and even a thief. These things AREN'T true of God, or course, nor of Jesus, but they ARE what many people imagine to be true....because they haven't taken the time to know God personally or dine with Jesus or read the whole of the story.

Weren't you just empathizing with the third slave rather than evaluating the truth of his judgments? I was.

If you think that such paralyzing fear only strikes a few of us, think again. Take a good look in the mirror. Nearly half of all Americans say they are consumed with one kind of worry or another.

Good worry is worry that leads to constructive action.....it works for you instead of against you.

Toxic worry...or bad worry...does the opposite. It paralyzes you.
You brood, you wake up in the middle of the night.
You can't imagine how things could ever work out.
And, you don't take action.
Toxic worry often stems from misinformation or not enough/too much information, from isolation.

In our parable, it may appear as if the servants were left alone with no instructions--no information, but actually this is not true. Matthew's Jesus is a teacher who offers instructions and guidance at every turn. Jesus is constantly instructing those around him about the "Kin-dom" of heaven. Jesus instructs through the extravagance of the Beatitudes, the teaching on love for enemies and on anxiety--remember the birds in the field? Jesus' healings and miraculous feedings all offer instruction about how we are to manage the resources with which we have been entrusted (our time, talents, and treasures...if you will).

Rather than operating out of a sense of scarcity and fear (as the third slave did), we are called to operate out of a sense of God's abundant provision. The third slave missed the whole point of the whole story!

Jesus' teachings are to be taken as a whole.

God's grace-filled reality offers the church the possibility of caring for the least of us...and all of us!, in the midst of a world which would turn its back and bury its talent for fear of failure...a world that runs away from commitment because it fears there really isn't enough for everyone, a world that doesn't really believe dreams come true. The promise of God's prosperity frees us to live out the primary command Jesus gives to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

You know, we're not that third servant. We have more going for us than that slave.

He didn't talk to any one about his worry. He didn't try to understand his fears. But we have lots of people we can talk to. Talking things out helps and we benefit from the wisdom and perceptions of others. Talk to someone.

He didn't get the facts. He didn't test out whether his perceptions were true....didn't get the whole story. But we have the whole of the story before us…our challenge is not to become information junkies. Once the facts are clear, decisions often jump out at us in new ways.

The fact is, here at Tippe, we've come a long ways....and our ministry has just begun. The fact is we have done far more than our resources would have led us to believe was possible...through faith, we didn't doubt the abundance of our good master. We have begun to answer the call of abundant, grace-filled stewardship of God's resources.

We worry less and do more.

That third slave didn't have a master plan of how he would deal with the tough situations of life. Do you? As believers, we have a master plan...something even greater than talking it over with others or making a to-do list as ways to conquer worry.

We have a loving Savior--a master with a master plan for how to live a happy life....a savior who wants to see us do well, to succeed with whatever we are given to do...and in whose presence with us we can be forever sure.

So, what about you and toxic worry....bad worry which binds you in fear and causes you to bury your talents? ....a fear which may have caused you to figure out how little vs. how much of yourself you would like to commit to God here this coming year?

We are in the midst of HUGS, gathering our talents for ministry, investing in a future. Is your session worried? Worried like the first two servants!

Worry is working here in our congregation as our spiritual leaders look to lead you in the using of your talents.

~Will you bury your talents in a jar in the ground?

~Will you let your fear that "you don't have enough" keep you among the frozen chosen?

~Or, will you put the whole of our story with God together and be freed to give of yourself double-fold this coming year?

The truth of this parable is that the choice is ours. May we each choose wisely.

Before you hand in your pledge card…or even having handed it in, reflect on your choice.....there's a new pledge card in the back and there is a pencil in your pew.

Commit and recommit yourself not for our good.....but for the good of your own relationship with God.

Whether you commit time and/or talents and/or treasures, let the hidden value of worry lead you to grow yourself through faithfulness and personal relationship with our Christ

....who entrusts you with much because you are trustworthy and precious in God's sight.....and God loves you.

The choice is ours. Let us choose wisely.