Matthew 25:14-23

“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” vss. 14-15

Matthew’s account of Jesus’ teaching ministry begins with the Sermon on the Mount and ends with three parables about the coming Day of the Lord and the Final Judgment. The parable of the talents teaches that each of us are stewards and that we have been entrusted with God’s richest blessings. Everything that we have and all that we are is like a trust from God, and furthermore, we are held accountable for how we use those gifts. This teaching implies that, while each of us are gifted, we do have different gifts…and that certainly rings true with our experience. In the course of a lifetime we observe that talents and abilities are not spread evenly among us. Our genetics, environment, and education produce an endless variety of personalities and gifts. Each of us is an absolutely unique and peculiar individual…and all of us are loved by God. Paul is thinking of this in his letter to the Romans as he describes how our “gifts differing” can be used to strengthen the Body of Christ. We’re not all the same but God has made an investment in each of us and invites us to use our various gifts according to our ability for the benefit of all.

Thought for the Day: How would I describe my gifts?

1 Thessalonians 5:6-11

“Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” vs. 11

Paul was charting new ground in his letter to the Thessalonians. He’d never been to seminary or taken a class in pastoral care…there weren’t any denominations and no one knew exactly what was going on. Paul himself had done a lot of praying and had come to depend on the Holy Spirit in the course of his travels…and along the way he had proclaimed the good news of Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles. When he moved on he left small communities of believers who in turn had to figure things out. They baptized, gathered at the Lord’s Table, and studied the Hebrew Scriptures. At times they were ridiculed and persecuted…life was hard, and they had a lot of questions. Paul knew this and did his best to offer encouragement and praise…and in so doing he put his finger on the biggest blessing of life in community. There is such power in building one another up with kind and encouraging words. We live in a world that delights in putdowns and in dreaming up new and devious ways to strip us of confidence and spiritual strength. It starts with schoolyard bullying and continues as long as we live. As a result our congregations are full of broken hurting people who are hungry for affirmation and encouragement. When words of kindness and affection are commonplace among us, spirits are healed and joy abounds.

Thought for the Day: Who needs my encouragement today?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-5

“But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” vss. 4-5

It was widely agreed in the early church that the Day of the Lord would come without warning like a thief in the night, and it seems there was considerable speculation about just when that would be. Many believers were hungry for specifics so that they could make adequate preparations and not be taken by surprise. In that context Paul’s words to the Thessalonians must have seemed like a breath of fresh air. He tells them not to worry about that coming day. Only people who lived in darkness needed to worry and the Thessalonians were all children of light and children of the day. In other words, they had it made! They didn’t need to be concerned about the end. Paul’s words are worth our attention. When we walk in the light of Christ there’s really no point in getting caught up in all the talk about endings. When our end comes, as it surely will, everything is going to be okay. There is such a tendency among Christians to get caught up in debates about the times and the seasons and some spend endless hours digging for answers in obscure passages of scripture. It’s such a pointless exercise! There are plenty of things for us to worry about, but a date for the Day of the Lord isn’t one of them.

Thought for the Day: Who should worry about the Day of the Lord?

Psalm 90:5-8, 12

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.” vs. 12

It’s not unusual for the young to have a sense of immortality and to act as though they are going to live forever. Many seem to not quite understand that someday they too will be old and that their bodies will begin to wear out. They see old people around but they’re careful in their interactions. These faceless aged folks are for them almost like another species. And then comes the day when realization begins to dawn. As these seniors are they one day will be…and then the corollary, as they are these seniors once were. The psalmist indicates that there’s wisdom in knowing that our days are numbered. Such knowledge helps us to understand that each moment of life is precious and is not to be wasted. We live on the third planet from the sun in the Milky Way galaxy…and it’s a pretty incredible place…insignificant in the whole scope of the universe, yet the center of our lives. And here is where we live and breathe and have our being. How sad it is to see careless, reckless living…not only among the young but among the old! There is so much to experience in the course of a lifetime. Blessed are those have learned to count their days, who have begun to understand the meaning of life! Blessed are they, for their lives will be full!

Thought for the Day: At what age did I first realize my mortality?

Psalm 90:1-4

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” vss. 1-2

A sizeable majority of people say that they believe in God yet ideas about the nature of God are all over the map. It’s not surprising that this would be the case…our vocabularies simply don’t have the words to even come close to a definition that does more than scratch the surface. The psalmist takes a stab at a description and most of us could probably agree that he does a pretty good job. He says that God is our dwelling place…some would go further and say that God is the ground of our being. And more than that God is greater than all that exists, and before there was a universe there was God. Can we understand the enormity and the mystery of what the psalmist is describing? Probably not…as scripture says in a variety of ways, God is totally beyond our human understanding. So we do the best we can with words like holy, ineffable, omnipresent, omniscient, almighty…there are a whole string of adjectives available. And even though we can’t know God, we can acknowledge the majesty and wonder of creation and regularly offer God our praise and thanksgiving. We are here for such a short time, only the blink of an eye, but those months and years are a precious gift, an opportunity to sample God’s goodness in extraordinary ways. May we never ever take them for granted!

Thought for the Day: What’s my favorite definition of God?

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18

“At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’”

A century earlier Amos had a word of warning for Israel…and the country was destroyed. Now Zephaniah warns the people of Jerusalem, his hometown, that the same fate awaits them on the coming day of the Lord. Prosperity has only served to deepen the rift between the people and their God. The complacent have virtually ceased to believe in the power of the Lord…in their eyes God is simply not a factor. They live as if there is no God. Some wonder if our country might be a candidate for similar judgment. The wealthy flaunt their power even as resentment grows among the least and lowly. Mass shootings have become a way of life…and we lack the will to regulate even the most lethal weapons. Large numbers of people boil with resentments, both real and imagined…and people are staying away from churches in larger and larger numbers. For most, the God they acknowledge is impotent and unrelated to the concerns of their lives. Self-interest has run amok and few people are the least bit worried about looking to the interests of others. So what word might Zephaniah have for us? Of course some are dismissive…in their estimation words of warning from long dead prophets can safely be ignored. But others wonder…and in their eyes it really does look like the Day of the Lord is at hand.

Thought for the Day: What will the coming Day of the Lord be like?

Matthew 25:7-13

“Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’” vss. 11-12

This is a parable that the upright and prepared can give a hearty “Amen” to. They particularly like the part where the wise bridesmaids say to the foolish, “Go buy your own oil!” That sentiment appeals to those who have lived life the right way and who would relish the chance to tell the wastrels among them, “Too late now! Too bad!” and “No, we’re not going to share…you’ll just have to face the consequences of your slothful living.” And when the foolish get locked out of the celebration they’d love to be able to shrug their shoulders and say, “It’s their own fault,” and then go on with the party. Appealing as such thinking might be, we have to recognize that it it has little to do with the gospel. Matthew told this Jesus story to encourage his community to not lose heart at the delayed return of the Christ. He wanted them to remain faithful to the hope of renewal…and that’s his word to us too. It’s easy with our built-in prejudices to embrace a message of limitations and closed doors. It’s much more difficult, particularly in a time of mass shootings and widespread divisions, to believe that someday God will act and all people will know God’s salvation…but that’s exactly what the gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to do.

Thought for the Day: Who are the wastrels among us?

Matthew 25:1-6

“When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” vss. 3-4

Matthew remembers a story that Jesus told and uses it to address the problem of Christ’s delayed return. Evidently some in his community were like the five foolish bridesmaids. They were ready to greet the returning bridegroom…but they hadn’t expected to wait…and their lamps burned out…and they have no reserves. That can easily happen for those who begin their life in Christ with high expectations for the future. Often they’re confident that good things will come quickly, that prayers will be answered, and life will be different. But then there’s a delay…life grinds on and nothing changes…and expectations fade. Belief itself becomes tenuous when there’s no sign of Jesus…and some begin to drift away from community. Soon they’ve entered the category we’ve begun to call the “nones,” those who have no strong commitment to anything, only a vague sense of a vanished faith. And then when Jesus does show up, as he surely will, they’ve lost the means to welcome him into their hearts. Matthew hints that the wise will be ready for a delay and will continue living with constant expectation even when life turns sleepy and boring. Their faith reserves are full and they’re comfortable in community even in the times when it seems nothing is happening. And when Jesus does come they’re ready…and their hearts are filled with joy.

Thought for the Day: What might I say to a “None”?

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

“For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” vs. 16

There are references throughout the New Testament to an immanent return of Christ…it seems to have been a universal expectation for Christians. Believers were confident that the work that was begun in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus would be brought to completion by his return in glory…and they waited eagerly for that great day. Paul had received a vision of what that second coming would be like and uses it to assure the Thessalonians that those who had died in Christ would in fact be the first to greet him upon his return. With our view of the universe it’s hard to picture the dead rising up to meet the descending Christ…though it was a favorite subject for medieval artists. But dismissing the image doesn’t mean that we are compelled to dismiss the hope of new life in Christ beyond death. Most of us recognize that life in this world is far from sanctified and that the work of Christ is incomplete. It’s perfectly proper for us to yearn for that completion with all of our hearts and even pray that it comes quickly. Early believers greeted each other with the Aramaic words “maranatha” which means “our Lord is coming.” That’s exactly the sentiment some are feeling today…and they’re quick to add, “may he come quickly!”

Thought for the Day: How do I imagine the coming of the Lord?

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-15

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” vs. 13

Early in his missionary journeys Paul believed in the immanent return of the Lord Jesus, but as time passed he began to hear that some believers had concerns. They were wondering about loved ones who had recently died. Would they miss out on the glory of Christ’s return? Was there any hope for them at all? Paul doesn’t have all the answers, but he does have strong convictions and he shares his ideas in his very first letter. He tells his readers that he does not want them to “grieve as others do who have no hope.” Those are important words for all those who have questions about death. It’s not at all uncommon even for followers of Jesus to wonder about those who have died. We have questions about heaven and new life…sometimes the images we’ve grown up with are no longer satisfying. In the culture more and more people are saying that dead is dead, and that to talk of new life is just wishful thinking. Paul’s words remind us that it’s okay to grieve…but the grieving of a believer is grounded in hope…and that makes a big difference. We may not have all the answers but we do know one important thing: in Christ death never has the last word!

Thought for the Day: What happens when we die?