Talents for the Talentless

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.:: Emma Lazarus

If there is one sermon illustration that has constantly been worn down to a shoe sole, it would have to be the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25. My heart gets hardened even thinking about the story because I have heard it so many times before. And the moral always seems to be: use whatever God has given you to glorify Him, because he has made you talented in some areas of your life.

But what if he hasn't?

This idea of talent is such a Western mindset, and the parable has been misconstrued to be something where we can take our abilities and mold them into what we think God would like to use. But...how many people in the world face the reality of routine where they are unable to use their talents? A large majority of the world relies strictly on agriculture and much of their time is focused on doing menial tasks throughout the day. It does not involve any special talent. Why do I think that my talents are anything extraordinary?

God doesn't ask for us to perform, He asks for us to be obedient. And that might mean doing things in life that aren't our "giftings." The point of the parable is obedience, not attempting to blend word definitions to place the focus of our lives once more on us.

""His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" {Matt 25: 21}

You have been faithful...not talented.

The text speaks for itself, but as I really look at it, I realize that many pastors I have heard have attempted to stretch this to mean personal giftings and talents to be developed.

Lies. When will we understand that the point of our existence is to glorify God? Oh wait...but that would mean we would have to stop glorifying ourselves.

I relinquish any of my talents. Let me be like the poem I posted at the beginning of this entry. Let me be faithful to the point where I reach heaven and Christ says "Come to me. You have been faithful, which has taken everything that you could ever have had for yourself, but you have happily offered to me. Your bondage to yourself is broken, you can experience freedom due to your faithfulness. Not because you were particularly good at anything, but because you were obedient."