Sermon: Wittenberg Academy Matins - November 10, 2022

Text: Matt 25:14-30

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The kingdom does not conform to our notions of fairness.  Can you just imagine a politician running on this platform: “To everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.  But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”  And indeed, equity is not to be found in the Lord’s kingdom.  We do not all start at the same place.  Some have more, some less.  But no matter what hand we are dealt, so to speak, we are to invest what we have in the kingdom.  Nor do we all end up with the same result.

Dear friends, look what we have to gain: eternal life, and not just for us, but for the entire world, to all who believe this Good News and receive it by faith.  No-one is excluded based on ethnicity or social status.  We are all poor miserable sinners for whom Christ died.  He has invested His talents, the very riches of His life, in us, in His beloved.  And so the stakes are high.  Jesus came to conquer sin, death, and the devil – to raise our bodies in eternity in the resurrection.  He has come to recreate the entire universe and to restore it to its pristine glory.  That is the Good News we have for the world – a world that hates us for having Good News to share with them. 

For indeed, the way the kingdom works is not fair.  God is not a cosmic social justice warrior, but at the same time, He creates a world of true diversity, where we are neither judged by the color of our skin nor by the content of our character.  Rather we are judged righteous through the blood of the Lamb.  And because we cannot lose, dear friends, we have no reason to be stingy in the kingdom.  We have no reason to operate out of fear.  For the Lord has given all of us different gifts and talents (‘talents’ as we use the word in English).  And He implores us not to be faithless and selfish, but to boldly look to the kingdom, trusting in the Lord to provide – not only for our needs but for the needs of the kingdom.  We have Good News for the world.  So let us invest in the kingdom!

We are in the time between Jesus’ first and second coming.  This is the time for us to use our talents and our worldly gifts to labor in the vineyard, and to put those God-given gifts to work in the kingdom.  We have babies to baptize, children to educate, unbelievers to dazzle with the Good News from the Word of God.  We have older folks to care for according to our callings.  For Jesus is telling us a parable.  It isn’t about making millions of dollars in the market, or even earning a few bucks on interest from savings.  For we are about a different kind of saving.  We Christians have the very thing to save the world.  And it is not this world’s concept of social justice.  For the Lord’s justice is crooked, dear friends. 

The Judge is biased, but biased in favor of those for whom His Son died.  The Judge is partial, but partial to those of us whom His Son defends in court, those who believe and are baptized (Mark 16:16).  The Judge is unfair, but unfair only to Satan, the accuser who would drag us into the pit of hell.

But thanks be to God that He runs a crooked courtroom, focused not on justice but rather on mercy.  Let us not bury the talent, dear friends, but let us rejoice in how much a tiny down-payment grows by the will of God.  For He has paid it all “not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”  Jesus did not bury the talent, for He would not stay buried.  God has invested it all in us, His beloved, and in the new heaven and the new earth.  Thanks be to God for His unfairness. 

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.