Stewards and Wagon Trains

During our discussion on Extravagant Generosity, I want to bring up the always troubling story told in Matthew 25:14-28. It is convenient for illustrative purposes that the word "talent" has double meaning as a coin of the Biblical era and as contemporary natural gifts and "talents."
You can read the story in your favorite translation. The "skip to" verse is verse 36  when the master chastises as "wicked and lazy"  the slave who hid his talent in the ground and gave back only what was given to him. "You should have invested my money with the bankers and when I returned I would have what was mine with interest," the master says.

The slave was afraid to take a risk, afraid to put the talent out in the world and use it to create more talents. By being afraid to fail, and by giving in to that fear, the slave failed on a grand scale. I wish the story had included another slave, one who invested the money and lost it. I long to hear what the master's treatment of that slave would have been.

I feel that too often we view stewardship as only taking care of, maintaining the status quo, protecting where we are, circling the wagons, putting up the stockade fence, waiting out the storm - enough cliches? In this story, Jesus clearly tells us that isn't good stewardship.

We are using the term circle of stewards here, so I want to take the circling the wagons analogy a bit further. The wagons were circled at night so the pioneers could rest safely, but they weren't stopping there, they were resting in order to gain strength for continuing a journey. The safety of the circle was only a temporary respite  in the midst of a journey to a place they have never seen, but had faith existed because they had heard of it from others. The circle was a place of rejuvenation that enabled them to move on to new unknown destinations through a sometimes exciting, sometimes boring, and sometimes dangerous journey.

My dear fellow stewards, my prayer is that we may be for this congregation the circle of safety, but also the faithful stewards who lead in daring to invest our talents and the talents of this congregation in the world so that the Master will receive back what we were given with interest.