Monday, November 13, 2017

The Day Before . . .

Our congregation is having a joint Divine Service with Immanuel Lutheran Church in Alexandria this coming Sunday, so I do not believe I will be preaching. Nevertheless, I had some thoughts about this Sunday's pericope, the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). What do you think?

What do you think the three servants were doing the day before the master called them and gave them those talents? Going about their business, doing their work, all the regular things of life, right?

But the master interrupted all that with His gift. A divine interruption of their lives. Were the servants glad to be so interrupted? I don't know about you, but I usually don't like interruptions!

Well, the first two servants did what the master had gifted them to do. Didn't they have to stop what they were doing before, their regular life and work, to do something new and different? But, apparently, they saw the gift as an opportunity, and when the master returned, were glad to tell him the new things that they had done.

It was the third servant who did not want to be interrupted - and he let the master know it! He did not see what he had been given as a gift, but as a burden and an obligation. So he didn't do what his master had gifted him to do, but continued doing the old.

What is God gifting you with? How is He interrupting your life with something new and different, in order to bless you? Maybe it doesn't seem like a gift but more like an obligation. Are you resisting? Are you missing out on blessing because you aren't receiving what He's giving as a gift and with joy?

I think there's some good preaching stuff here. Maybe I'll get to use this in three years when the reading comes back again . . .

No comments: