Opportunity

Opportunity

Matthew 25:14-30

            The parable of the talents.  How often this story has been used incorrectly, defining the word talent as an ability, with the speaker urging his audience not to bury their talents but to develop them.  It’s not a bad way to use the story, but it’s not what Jesus had in mind.

            A talent was a sum of money worth about twenty years’ wages to a common laborer.  This would be more money than a servant would earn in his lifetime.  Five talents—even two would be a fortune beyond his comprehension.

            Yet here is the master, giving large sums of money to three of his servants—we assume the most trusted ones—to care for while he is away.  What will they do with it?  How can they repay their master for his trust in them?

            We know the story.  The one who had received five talents used them to double his master’s money.  Now there were ten talents where there had been five.  The man who had received two talents did likewise, turning his two into four.  The master was pleased with their industry, their business acumen, and, of course, the results.  Because they had been so productive they were given increased responsibilities in their master’s kingdom.

            It should be noted here that Matthew tells us early in the parable that Jesus said the money had been distributed to each of the servants “according to his ability.”  We can assume that the servant who received one talent, while trusted by his master, had less ability than the other two.  Nevertheless, the master clearly valued this man, and assumed he would succeed as well as did his more able colleagues.

            But he didn’t.  He was a cautious fellow, and, not wanting to incur his master’s wrath if he lost the talent, he buried it.  (This is the place in the sermon where the preacher warns about burying your talent.)

            When he told his master what he had done the lord was furious at his lack of ingenuity and effort.  He had been given a great opportunity and he had wasted it.  Harry S. Truman once said, “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of opportunities, and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”  The third servant definitely fits the pessimist category. 

            How often do we miss an opportunity for service because we’re afraid to take a chance?  Jesus set the standard for risk taking.  He knew what his ministry would cost him, but he also knew he had been given a great opportunity, and he didn’t waste it.

            We also miss opportunities because we’re looking in the wrong direction.  Alexander Graham Bell, himself a risk taker, said, “When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

            Every day God gives us is an opportunity for service.  Every morning begins another day when, if we’ll look in the right direction, and be prepared to take risks, opportunity will be waiting for us, holding open a door that God is calling us to go through.

            And that brings us to a third reason we miss opportunity.  This appeared in the National Safety News, January, 2006.  “Opportunity is often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be tuning in.”

            God is always broadcasting.  Are we tuned in enough to hear?