This is a strange little parable with the focus on a one talent man. Jesus has a way of doing that with his stories ... with his life. Choosing to shine a spotlight on an ordinary, insignificant sort of a person. Encouraging that person to be better than he or she already is. The sort of person who will live out life, not in splashing headlines and the front page ... but a person who is called to make a difference in the world. And sometimes that ordinary person does make a difference. Sometimes that seemingly insignificant person is challenged by God, whether they recognize the Source of the challenge or not.

A little boy with a picnic lunch, a lunch turned into a banquet for 5,000. Jesus did the miracle ... or was it the little boy willing to share his lunch? The little man Zacchaeus. He has much money, but little stature in the community. In his own eyes he doesn't measure up. Jesus shines the spotlight on Zacchaeus; Jesus gives him stature - Zacchaeus shares his wealth. These are situations in which Jesus, plucks from obscurity, the little and the least - and Jesus touches their talent and blesses them. As a result, these ordinary folk might are encouraged to do the extraordinary. I know such a person. Maybe you do to. I know such a person called by Jesus to do more than he felt he could ever do in life. I saw him this morning in the bathroom mirror. Maybe you saw such a person too, as you brushed or combed this morning. During the last week of his life Jesus went about doing what he did so well. He told stories; stories that get to the heart of the nature of God and stories that get to the nature of the heart of God.

A rich man goes on a journey. He is rich; for he has slaves. He is generous; he entrusts his fortune to his slaves to invest. To one, five talents; to another, two talents; and to the third, one talent. And we know the spotlight is destined to fall on the one talent man! Each was given according to his ability. This was no emptying of his pockets of small change. He wasn't saying, "I'm off for awhile - you can each have the leftovers from our recent Vendor Fair." Some scholars says a talent is equal to fifteen years of wages; another says a talent is equal to what you could earn in five years. Either way, it is an a goodly sum of money given to three slaves, each according to their ability.

What kind of rich man would leave everything to the slaves? That's what we want to know! And then with a sudden burst of recognition, we realize that Jesus is pointing us to what God has done ... for us! God has given us the gift of life. The gift of the earth. The beauty of nature. This is the forensic evidence of God's great: we have families; we have friends; we have combination of family and friend in this Christian community. Greatest of all, God has give us the gift of today. What a present!

It is a happy coincidence that our word talent is the same word used as a measure of money in the time of Jesus. God gives talents ... to you and to me. God has given to us the abilities by which we amaze others, and sometimes, we are fortunate enough even to amaze ourselves. The analogy breaks down in that we are not the slaves of God, but rather, through Baptism we are the children of God. And how pleasing it is to God when you and I use the talents we have been given; when we live up to our capabilities, each according to our own ability. You've heard the expression, "They left in all on the field." It's a way of saying that the athletes expended their last bit of energy in pursuit of victory. Our Gospel text expresses the same thought in different words, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

But one of the slaves, the one talent man, does not hear the praise, "You've left it all on the field." Is that me at times ... the face I saw in the mirror? Or, is it you? The one talent person, who has taken that talent, and out of fear, or lack of confidence, or whatever it was holding him back, he made the choice to grab a shovel and bury that talent in the field." That's like buying an expensive car and leaving it in the garage so it won't get nicked or dirty.

Maybe you think it is rather unfair that Jesus shines the spotlight on the cautious one talent man. Maybe you think he gets a raw deal merely because he buried the gift ... in order to preserve it! I'm thinking, if Jesus told this story today, the 16th day of the 11th month 2008 - if Jesus told the story today I'm thinking the one talent man would be commended for his foresight. "Well done, good and faithful servant." He saw the sub-prime crisis looming and noted that the fundamentals of the economy were weak and dug a hole to bury the dough, and don't we wish we had done that six months ago!

But this parable is less a story about how we invest our financial resources and more a story about the graciousness of God ... who has given us untold talents ... and intends for us to use them wisely for the sake of the Gospel! It's not a matter of the one who dies with the most toys wins; it's God calling us to use our many talents, or our few talents, or to identify our one talent ... and let him bless our talents to be a blessing to other. Let God bless our talents to feed others, the same way Jesus used the contents of a picnic basket to feed 5,000.

I once read something I'll personalize for the sake of this sermon: "When I die, God is not going to ask me why I was not a Bishop; or a Billy Graham; or a Joel Osteen. God is going to ask, "Were you the best Tim you could be?" I haven't been, of course ... but I have been given the gift of the present; today. And today I can begin to turn things around!

Jesus tells this story when he is two days off from a date with a cross. He is prepared to give everything, to the last ounce of his strength and the last drop of his blood, on behalf of me; on behalf of you; for the sake of all humanity. Should God should be angry at the half-hearted response of so many of us? Should we be preparing our passports for the land of outer darkness?

Well - no! There is grace upon grace in God's generosity. The Grace beyond the parable is the cross of Christ. People jeered Jesus as he hung on a cross, telling him in effect to go to hell. And he did! The Grace is Jesus, all sweaty and thirsty and hanging on a cross, soon to be dead and buried ... and descended into hell. God in hell? The Church's way of telling us that Jesus went even to that outer darkness. Jesus went as far as a person can go to be separated from God ... in order to bring God there. And Jesus came back - to bring God into the lives and the midst of God's people. What an extravagant God. Imagine! The first miracle of Jesus was the turning of water into wine ... saving a wedding reception. The greatest miracle of Jesus, however, is the turning of wrath into grace ... saving me and saving you from the weeping and gnashing of teeth we perhaps so rightly deserve.

Whatever your talents ... expand them; expend them. Someone wrote, "Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them." If you can sing ... do so to the glory of God. And frankly, for the nourishment of your congregation. If you can bake, do so to the glory of God (as some are doing for our Seasoned Citizens this very morning). If you can teach (it's going on all around us this morning) do so for the Glory of God. If you can talk (and you can), if you can love (and you can), if you can pray (and you can),- do so to the Glory of God. "If you" as St. Paul put it in our second reading, "If you can encourage one another and build up each other" (and you CAN) ... do so for the Glory of God. That is my task this morning. I want to encourage you. I want to be the agent of the Holy Spirit, knocking on your door. "Use what talent you possess," Henry Van Dyke once wrote. "The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best."

If you are, like me, a one talent person ... use that one talent to the Nth degree ... for the glory of God. God wants you to be the church ... beyond the church. If you have been reluctant in the past ... well, that's history. And don't wait until tomorrow. Today is God's gift. And there is no time ... like the present.

I shared the question God might ask of me, "Were you the best Tim you could be." Here's the answer I'd really like to give ... courtesy of Erma Bombeck "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'" In other words, "I left it all on the field."