Generosity - Generous with your talents 

Over three weeks, the Dover Town Benefice Churches will be thinking about generosity. In this second reflection of the series, Reader Nigel Collins looks at generosity with our talents and thinks on the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, verses 14-30.

I wonder…

Are you one of those people who are good at making things or repairing things?

Or one of those people who are good at organising things?

Or are you one of those people who could talk with anyone about anything – someone who could be described as a ‘people’ person?

We all have gifts and talents – things we are good at. These are God-given and should be used to serve Jesus and His Church as we live out our Christian calling in our daily lives. Our sermon last week encouraged us to think about how God wants us to be good stewards of our time and resources – today, we are thinking about how God expects us to use the talents and gifts he’s given us to join Him in His work in the world. As we strive to do our best with what we’ve been given, the Lord may enable and multiply the work we do in His name.

In his book, The Purpose Driven Life, Pastor Rick Warren writes:

“You were put on Earth to make a contribution. You weren’t created just to consume resources – to eat, breathe, and take up space. God designed you to make a difference with your life. While many best-selling books offer advice on how to ‘get’ the most out of life, that’s not the reason God made you. You were created to add life on Earth, not just to take from it. God wants you to give something back.”

Rick Warren reminds us that, as human beings, we all have a hunger inside us to make a difference in the world around us. The gifts and talents God has given us equip us to make a difference. God intends us to be good stewards of our gifts – this is one of the great privileges and responsibilities of the Christian life.

Our gospel reading from Matthew brought us the ‘parable of the talents’ – a story Jesus told to help us think about stewardship and how we use the gifts we are given:

It starts with a man giving each of his servants some talents to invest – giving the first servant five talents, the second two, and the third servant one talent. We could look at this parable in a number of ways, but today, we are going to focus on what God wants us to do with the gifts and abilities which he gives us.

We should notice that each servant used their talents differently. The first two servants invest what they have been given and earn the same again – the first servant earns five more, and the second servant earns two more. But the third servant hides away what he’s been given and earns nothing more for his master. When the master returns. He praises the first two servants for using what they have been given wisely. But he rebukes the third servant for not using what he’s been given.

What can we learn from this parable? In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes:

“We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:6-8)

Paul reminds us that God gives gifts to everyone in His church. In the parable of the talents, the master gave a gift to each servant according to what he perceived to be their potential ability to use that gift. The master saw the potential in each of his servants – just as God sees the potential in each of us. Even though we know what the third servant does with what he’s given, we can see that the master saw his potential to use what he was given well.

Sometimes we may be a little like the third servant who doesn’t recognise his own potential. We may feel as though we haven’t got anything to contribute, especially when we compare ourselves to others – I wonder if the third servant thought he wasn’t as good as the other two?

But God does see the potential in us – we do have something to contribute – we do have the ability to make a difference.

In his letter to the Corinthian Christians, Paul writes:

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

Paul reminds us that God doesn’t give the same gifts to everyone. We can see that some people receive a different intensity of gifts this may lead us to thinking that some people are more gifted than others – again, we can fall into the trap of comparing ourselves with others and feel less valued as a consequence. In the parable of the talents, whilst the master did give a different number of talents to each servant there is no suggestion that he thought any less of their ability to use what they’d been given. In a similar way, the number and kind of gifts we’ve been given doesn’t make us more or less valuable in God’s eyes. God has given each of us gifts and he knows that we can use them to make a difference.

In the first letter of Peter, we read…

“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:10-11)

Here we are reminded that God wants us to use the gifts we’ve been given in Christian witness and service. In the parable of the talents, the master honoured the servants who used what he’d given them and rebuked the one who didn’t. In the story, we’re told that the servant who chose not to use what he’d been given, did so because he was afraid of his master. But I wonder if he also lacked confidence in his own ability. Whilst Jesus implies that the master represents a picture of what God is like, we know that we have nothing to fear from him. However, we may well lack confidence in ourselves – we shouldn’t because God gives us gifts so that we can make good use of them rather than hide them away.

In the letter to the Ephesians, we read:

“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Reminding us that God created us to do good works as an expression of who we are as Christians – to use our gifts and talents for good is part of our Call to follow Christ in life.

We could be like the servant who lacked confidence and chose to do nothing with what he’d been given. But God wants us to use the gifts we have been given. In the first letter to Timothy, we read…

“Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.” (1 Timothy 4:14)

If we are lacking in confidence, maybe we need to receive these words for ourselves. God doesn’t want us to neglect the gifts he’s given us. Timothy was reminded that he received a special ‘commission’ to do this – our commission to use our gifts was given to us at our baptism. As baptised Christians we must not neglect the gifts we’ve received but instead put them to good use.

God delights in us when he sees us using our gifts and echoes the words spoken to the first two servants – “well done – good and faithful servant.”

In the parable of the talents, there were consequences for the lazy servant who chose not to use what he’d been given. We face consequences for not using our God-given gifts or for being selective about how or when we use them and maybe even picking and choosing who will benefit from them! We may not be thrown into ‘outer darkness’ like the lazy servant – but then again, we will face the judgement of Christ at some point. When we fail to use our God-given gifts, we miss the blessings that come from serving others and others miss out too. As Teresa of Avila put it:

“Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

When we neglect to use our gifts and talents; we neglect those who need the service of Christ here and now in the local community and wider world. As a consequence of our inaction, people don’t get to hear the good news of God’s love, the hungry don’t get fed, and the lonely don’t get visited!

In the parable of the talents the faithful servants doubled their master’s investment. We may feel that we only play a small part in God’s mission and ministry to the world. But the parable reminds us that God will do far more through us than we can imagine when we use the gifts and talents that he’s given us to honour him.

By generously using our God-given gifts and talents we will join with God’s mission in the world. We will make a difference as we bear witness to Christ’s saving love.

In closing, a prayer...

Generous God,
Thank you for equipping us with such a variety of gifts and talents.
We ask that you fill each of us with a renewed confidence to generously use our gifts in
your service both in the church and in our daily lives.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.