Homilies
What is your talent?
Holy Spirit take my words and speak to each of us according to our need.
I wonder what comes to mind when you hear the word ‘talent’. Perhaps, a particular gift or ability: someone who can sing beautifully, someone who can fix almost anything, someone who knows how to bring people together, or someone who quietly gets on with the jobs that need doing.
In Jesus’ time, a talent was actually a considerable amount of money. And in today’s parable a man entrusted his servants with some of his wealth before going away on a journey. One received five talents, another two, and another one. Each was given something valuable to look after. The first two put what they received to work, and were rewarded with more. The third servant, however, dug a hole and buried his talent in the ground.
I have sympathy for that third servant. I suspect he thought he was doing something sensible. He had been given something valuable, and he wanted to make sure it was still there when his master returned. He chose the safest option he could think of. If he didn’t risk it, then he couldn’t lose it! And I’m sure we could all understand that instinct.
When something matters to us, we want to protect it. When we have spent years caring for something, investing our time, energy, money and love in it, we want to know that it will be safe. We want to know that the things we have worked so hard to build will continue to be cared for and be useful in the future.
The same is true of our families, our homes and our churches. Our churches have stories stretching back generations. They have been sustained by the generosity of people who have given what they could, often through difficult times. People have raised money, maintained buildings, organised events, served their communities and kept the light of faith burning. There is a great deal worth celebrating and protecting.
So, it is entirely understandable that, when things begin to change, we might feel anxious or uncomfortable. Will the things that matter to us still matter? Will our local needs continue to be understood? Will decisions be made wisely? Will we still have a voice? Will the resources we have worked so hard to raise be used in ways that make a real difference? They are reasonable questions. They come from caring about our churches and wanting them to flourish.
But there is something interesting about the servant who buried his talent. He explains his decision with three simple words: “I was afraid.” His fear shaped what he did with what had been entrusted to him. He became so concerned about the possibility of losing something that he never gave it the opportunity to grow. He kept it safe, but he kept it still.
And that is where this parable can speak to all of us, whatever our circumstances. There is a difference between looking after something carefully and being so afraid of losing it that we cannot imagine using it at all.
Imagine, for a moment, burying £10 in 1950 and digging it up today. You might be pleased that the money had survived, but you would still have only £10. Over those 76 years, the cost of living has risen considerably, and that £10 would buy far less than it once did. Keeping something untouched is not the same as preserving its usefulness. Sometimes, in trying not to lose something, we miss the opportunity for something better to grow.
Now, this does not mean that we should take foolish risks or stop being careful. The servant's concern about his responsibility was not unreasonable in itself. What went wrong was that fear became the deciding factor. Good stewardship matters. Careful financial management matters. Accountability and transparency matter. We should ask questions, plan wisely and make sure that the resources entrusted to us are used responsibly. But careful stewardship can also mean asking a different question: not simply, “How do we keep what we have safe?” but, “How might what we have been given help God's work to flourish?”
That is both a challenging and important question for us as we continue to become one ministry area. Coming together does not mean that every church suddenly becomes the same. It does not mean that our individual histories, characters and callings become less important. Nor does it mean that the care we have always shown for our own communities must somehow be set aside. Rather, it becomes an opportunity to discover how that care can extend further by drawing the circle wider.
Think about a family. Family members have different needs at different times. Sometimes one person needs extra help. Sometimes another has more to offer. Sometimes the person who has been giving support for years is the one who needs it. We would not say that someone who needs more help is worth less to the family, or that someone who can give more is more important. We understand that belonging means being able to give and receive. And we know that fairness does not always mean giving everyone exactly the same thing. It means paying attention to people's circumstances and responding to their individual needs.
Could that be part of what God is inviting us to discover together? Within our ministry area, each church has its own needs and its own gifts. There will be times when a particular community needs additional support. There will be times when resources, experience or people can be shared to make something possible elsewhere. Circumstances will change, and the balance may look different from one year to the next.
Using the parable of the talents we can see that shared approach to our finances gives us an opportunity to respond to those needs differently. It allows us to consider how the resources entrusted to us can best support the mission we share, while continuing to care for the distinctive life of each local church.
That requires trust, of course. And trust does not appear simply because we have a shared bank account. Trust grows as we listen to one another, communicate openly, make decisions transparently and demonstrate that the needs of our communities are taken seriously. It grows as we discover that we can ask for help without embarrassment, offer help without resentment, and work together without losing sight of the people we are called to serve. We know that there is a unique distinctiveness in the culture of each valley and that is important to recognise and celebrate.
We do not have to pretend that change is easy. We do not have to ignore our concerns or have every answer immediately. We can take thoughtful steps, learn as we go and make sure that everyone has a voice. The invitation is not to abandon what we value. It is to consider how we might enable it to bear fruit.
That is one of the most helpful ways for us to hear the parable of the talents. The question is not whether we have five talents, two talents or one. Jesus does not ask us to compare ourselves with somebody else. Each servant is entrusted with something valuable, and each has a responsibility to respond to what has been given.
Our churches have all been entrusted with gifts. Some are visible; others are much quieter. There is the generosity of those who give money, the faithfulness of those who pray, the wisdom of those who have served for many years, the enthusiasm of those who are just beginning, and the compassion of people who care for their neighbours in countless ordinary ways. These gifts are not ours to just preserve. They are gifts that can and should be used in God's service.
Paul reminds us that the Church is one body with many members. We do not all have the same gifts or perform the same tasks, but we belong to one another. The hand does not become less important because it needs the help of the eye. The eye does not lose its purpose because it works alongside the hand. Our different gifts are not a problem to overcome. They are part of what makes us a community. And we might just discover that working together enables each of our churches to do things that would be difficult to achieve alone. Perhaps resources shared wisely will help a local ministry continue, enable a new opportunity to emerge, or give a community the confidence to try something it could not manage by itself.
The fruitfulness may not always be measured in money. It might be a person discovering faith, a lonely neighbour finding friendship, a child encountering the Christian story, or a church finding renewed confidence in its future. These are the things our resources exist to support. The servant who buried his talent could only see the risk of losing what he had. The other servants were willing to put what they had received to work. They could not have known every detail of what would happen, but they acted rather than allowing fear to make the decision for them.
Maybe we should consider whether we are being invited to do something similar: not to rush ahead without care, but to remain open to what might become possible when we trust God and learn to trust one another. We are not being asked to care less about our own churches. We are being invited to recognise that caring for one another can be another way of caring for our own. We are not being asked to give up everything that makes our communities special. We are being invited to bring those distinctive gifts into a wider shared life. And we are not being asked to ignore our fears. We are being invited to acknowledge them honestly, bring them into the light, and make sure that they do not prevent us from discovering new possibilities.
God has already entrusted us with so much. We have the gifts, the experience, the resources and the people. We have years of faithful service behind us, and many opportunities still to discover ahead of us. We do not need to know exactly what the future will look like. We simply need the courage to take the next step together, the wisdom to use what we have been given well, and the generosity to recognise that sometimes we will give, and sometimes we will receive.
May we have the confidence to care for what we have inherited, the imagination to see what it might become, and the grace to share our gifts so that others may flourish too.
Amen.