But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money (Matthew 25:15)

On the last days of term we generally have a talent show at school. Some of the kids, and some of the staff, get up on stage and perform. Some sing. Some dance. Some play musical instruments. All sorts of stuff. We’ve been doing these talent shows, I suppose, since talent shows became popular on television again with programmes like “Britain’s Got Talent”. I wonder, sometimes, if these talent shows are altogether a good thing. I see these kids on stage singing and dancing. I meet so many people, though, in later years who won’t open their mouths and sing, who won’t get up and dance, who shy away from anything like that because they feel they “can’t sing”, that they “can’t dance”. I wonder if, seeing these folk on the television all the time with their wonderful voices and graceful elegance, people just feel that’s what real talent is; what they have just can’t cut it so there’s no point trying.

The word “talent” comes from the parable we heard this morning. A talent was, in Jesus’s time, a unit of weight; an amount of gold. Over the years this parable was so often interpreted  - correctly, I think - as referring to the gifts God grants us to work in his service - that the word talent became associated with innate gifts and abilities. What has been forgotten, though, is that these gifts and abilities were intended to be used in the service of God. 

Let’s put ourselves, for a moment, into the head of the guy who only received one talent. I’m not sure “only” is the right word, but I’ll come back to that. In his mind, I think, he is cowed by the fact that he has only received one talent. He’s looking at the guy with five talents - who’s got all this money to play with - and thinking, “What am I supposed to achieve compared to him?” He’s looking at the guy who’s got two talents and thinking, “I’m not even in his league”. He makes the mistake, as so many people do when we’re talking of talents in terms of being able to sing and dance and the like, that limited talent is the same as no talent. And so he goes and he buries his one talent.

And maybe we all do that sometimes. There are always people who are richer and more powerful than we are. There are always people who are smarter or more creative than we are. There are always people who seem much more talented and gifted than we believe ourselves to be; and we can get to think, “What difference can I make in the world? Who’s going to notice me, or pay attention to me?” When there are others who seem so much more gifted and talented than we are we can get to feel small and inadequate, or we can get to think it’s their job, with all their talent and wealth and prestige, to make a difference in the world. And so we keep our heads down and get on with being ordinary. We bury our talent in the ground.

But here’s a thing. The guy who received two talents received the same praise and reward as the guy who started with five talents - even though he raked in only 40% as much profit. He, too, had every right to feel inadequate compared to his richer, more “talented” colleague, but that didn’t stop him using what he had in his master’s service. Neither should we be deterred from using our gifts - however limited we might think they are - in the service of God.

We can all feel, sometimes, like the guy who buried his one talent in the ground. We can feel we stand in the shadow of people who are smarter, richer, more talented than we are and we can feel just “ordinary”. Who are we to change the world - leave that to those who have the wealth, the status, the gifts to make a difference.

You are not “ordinary”. You are extraordinary. We are all extraordinary. We are human beings, made in the image of God, and we are his children and we can do things with the gifts God has granted us that no other species on this planet - maybe in the whole of this universe - can do; for good or for evil.

Maybe you have the image in your mind when you read this parable of this guy with his one, meagre, talent burying one coin in the ground; covering some small quantity of money in soil, marking its burying place so that he could come back and dig it up. If that’s in your mind, forget it. A talent - one talent - was a huge amount of money. If you were an average worker in Jesus’s time it would take you about 20 years to earn a talent of gold. It wouldn’t have come as a single coin, but as a large number of smaller coins.

Maybe this is the point. It’s easy to look at the big impressive talents that others have and forget how many small tokens of God’s love we, all of us, have; how many gifts we all have that we can use in the service of God. Maybe we underestimate the difference that the many small gifts we all have can make in the world.

We have the gift of compassion. We can feel for others. We can put ourselves in the position of others and imagine what it must be like to be enduring what they are enduring. We can imagine what it must be like to lose someone precious; how scary it is to be in hospital and unsure how things are going to pan out. There are folk who will tell you that a gift as small as compassion - one that we all have makes no difference in the great scheme of things; but I tell you, a kind word when you’re grieving, a visit in hospital, makes all the difference in the world.

We have the gift of generosity. We can give some of what we have to others - folk who maybe need it more than we do. We can can put a few coins in a box. We can take a few moments in Tesco to pick up an extra tin of beans and hand it in to a food bank. There are folk who will tell you that those few coins, that jar of coffee are just a drop in the ocean; but I tell you that every coin - however small - has value; every tin of beans means someone gets fed.

We have the gift of justice. We know that it isn’t right that there are people in this world who dine every night on the finest produce this world can provide while others watch their kids dying of malnutrition. We know that it isn’t right that parents can’t put a warm coat on their kids’ backs, that folk bring food back to food banks because they can’t afford to turn on the cooker and cook it. There are those who will tell you that that’s just the way the world works. I tell you that every voice raised for what is right makes a difference.

The guy in the parable thought that his “limited” talent made him “ordinary”; that he could do nothing with the gifts he had. We have such brilliant gifts. Every time you show someone you care - every time you show someone they matter - you show them what it means to be able to do that and let them pass that on. Every time you give something you empower somebody else to give something in turn. Every time your voice is heard for justice in this world you inspire somebody else to raise theirs. And that is how God’s love permeates this world. That’s how the world gets changes.

Lord you have gifted us with word and touch, with compassion and generosity and an understanding of justice. May we use them in your service and grow compassion, generosity and justice in the world

Preached at Tundergarth Church