Whatever you have, whatever your talents, whatever your possessions and abilities, none of these are your own; they are the Lord’s good gifts, which He has entrusted to you as a stewardship. And as the Scriptures testify, it is required of a steward that he or she be found faithful.
Whatever money you have, it is the Lord’s. And whatever you are especially good at, those talents, too, are from the Lord — and for the Lord — just as you yourself are His own workmanship. If you are smart, it is from the Lord. If you are fast or strong, it is from the Lord. If you are good at math or music or languages or art, any and all of those skills are a stewardship from your Lord.
Likewise, your callings and stations in life are the positions and responsibilities within which the Lord would have you serve His purposes in faith toward Him and in love toward your neighbors. And whatever you may hold within your hands, that is not only God’s good gift, but it is His own “stuff,” just as you also are His. Your whole body and life are a sacred stewardship from the Lord.
Be faithful, therefore, in the use of your talents. In the fear and faith of God, use them according to His Word. Use whatever you have to the glory of His Name. Use it for the benefit of His Kingdom.
Don’t look around at your neighbor to see what he or she has been given to do. Don’t be counting, comparing, and competing. Do not harbor pride or envy in your heart. Do not consider whether you or your neighbor has more or less, because it all remains the Lord’s in any case. Do not be down in the mouth if you have less, and do not be arrogant if you have been entrusted with more. Rather, use faithfully however much or little you may have, however many or few your talents.
When you covet what the Lord has entrusted to your neighbor — when you despise or resent your Lord for the ways that He has distributed and managed His own things — then you presume that His things are really yours (or should be), as though by right or merit. But that is not the case.
Use what God has given you in faith and love — not selfishly, for your own profit. Be responsible, and take care of yourself and your family, to be sure, but not as though your life and future were in your own hands. Remember that all you are and all that you have is from the Lord and ever in His hands. And so use what He has given you in the ways that He intends — in order to return thanks to the praise and glory of His Name, especially by serving and caring for your neighbors.
Don’t be afraid to use the talents God the Lord has entrusted to you. Don’t be afraid to exercise your stewardship. Do not be frozen by indecision, as though success or failure depended on you making all the exactly right choices and decisions, doing and saying all the right things. But rather trust the Lord, and so be faithful in using His good gifts according to His good and gracious Will.
You know His Will from His Word. He has not left you in the dark. He has told you what to do. He has given you guidance in using what He has placed into your hands.
He distributes His gifts according to each man’s ability — and of course, each man’s ability is also from the Lord your God. So your stewardship is not too hard for you. Have confidence in your Lord, who has created you and called you in Wisdom, and who continues to care for you in Love.
Do not hoard His gifts, but use them as He intends. Do not misuse them, but do use them rightly. Use His Name, which He has given to you in Holy Baptism, by calling upon Him in every trouble, by prayer, praise, and thanksgiving under every circumstance. Do not despise the good gift of His Word and the preaching of it, but gladly hear and learn it. Do not despise your parents and the other authorities whom the Lord has placed over you in love for your good, but honor them with obedience, love and serve them, pray for them, and submit to them for God’s sake. Do not hurt your neighbor, but help him as you can, and provide for his needs of both body and soul. Do not take your neighbor’s stuff, but help him to guard and keep whatever God has entrusted to him.
Do not covet or jealously desire the position and possessions that God has given to your neighbor according to His divine Wisdom and His good and gracious Will for the repentance and salvation of all people. Rather, use wisely and well whatever God has entrusted to you. Serve faithfully within your place, within your position in life. It is for that that you will be judged and rewarded.
Just as a pastor is a steward of the Mysteries of God, and it is required of him to be found faithful in that stewardship, so is it also required that you be faithful in your stewardship, whatever it may be, whether it is big or small, and whether or not it involves lots of money or people or things. “Be thou faithful unto death,” trusting and believing that the Lord will give to you the Crown of Life.
If you are a husband, use your gifts — use God’s gifts — to love and serve your wife, to protect her and provide for her, to care for her. And if you are a wife, use the gifts that God has given you to love and serve your husband, to do what is good and right, and to care for your own family.
If you are a father or a mother, use the gifts of God to love and care for your children, to teach them what they need to know, not least of all the Word of God. Bring them to church and teach them how to pray. Teach them by your words and by your example. That is your stewardship.
If you are a child, use the gifts that God has given you to love and serve your parents and siblings, your playmates and your peers. If you are a student, use the gifts of God to study faithfully, to learn, to grow in knowledge and wisdom. And if you are a teacher, use the gifts of God to teach.
Whatever your occupation, work to benefit your employer and to serve your customers and clients.
And whatever your calling and station in life, enter into the joy of your Master. That is to enter into the joy of repentance and faith, of life and love, of righteousness and peace, justice and truth.
Do not use your talents for wickedness, certainly. Do not squander God’s possessions on foolish things or wicked things. But do not be lazy, either. The lazy and wicked slave who is condemned in our Lord’s Parable is not a man who has squandered his Master’s money on fast living, but one who has simply not used it at all. So, then, do not neglect the talents with which the Lord your God has blessed you, by failing to do what is good and right according to your abilities and the position in life that He has given you. For it is to this that you are called. It is a sacred trust. Your entire life is lived before the Lord, to whom you are accountable for all that you do with His gifts.
What shall be the settling of accounts when your Lord returns from His long journey? When the books are opened, what will the ledger show? What will you have to say?
Where you have not used the talents that God has given you to glorify His Name and to serve your neighbor in love, Repent. Turn away from evil and begin to do what is good and right.
Do not devise excuses for yourself. Do not claim fear or ignorance, as though this would get you off the hook. But invest yourself and your talents in bringing forth the praise and glory of God, in bearing fruits worthy of repentance, in bearing fruits worthy of your Lord and Master.
Indeed, let us consider what sort of Man the Lord is. What is He like? Is He a “hard man”? Is He a harsh taskmaster? Does He care only about what He can get from you, this One who has given you everything you are and have? Is that what He is like? Is He a “hard man” because He reaps where He has not sown and gathers where He has not planted? Or is it not, rather, that He is gracious and merciful, that He is generous and kind in calling all men to Himself? Why? Because He needs something from them? Not at all. It is rather because He desires all men to be saved.
What sort of Man is He when He causes His Seed to be sown and His Word to be preached even to the ends of the earth? In point of fact, He does not take anything away, but He freely gives everything to His own creatures. If you listen carefully, He’s not at all the sort of master that third slave claims Him to be. He takes the one talent back from him, but He doesn’t take it for Himself; He gives it to another servant. He clings to nothing for Himself. He is gracious. He is generous. He is kind. He is not harsh but bounteous in bestowing His gifts upon His people. Upon you.
This Rich Man has actually made Himself poor to the point of death, in order to make you rich with all the wealth and riches of His Kingdom. He has liquidated everything, His whole Body and Life upon the Cross, in order that you should have divine, eternal Life with God forevermore.
That is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The King has gotten a Sacrifice for Himself. He has gotten a Lamb for Himself to offer. The King has buried His singular, greatest Treasure, His own beloved Son, in the ground of the earth. He has put Him in the dark. He has buried Him. That is the journey on which your Lord Jesus has embarked — by the way of the Cross, through death and the grave, through the valley of the shadow of death — in order to atone for your sins by His own holy and precious Blood, and to justify you in righteousness before His Father in His Resurrection.
He has borne your sin and shame. He has borne your failure to use the talents He has given you. He has borne your falsehood. He has borne your arrogance and fear, your pride, and your despair. He has borne it all, and He has suffered for it. He has been cast out into the outer darkness of death and the grave. You know that He has done it. And He has done it all for you.
But He has not returned from His journey void or empty-handed. He has not come back looking for you to help Him. But in His own crucified and risen Body He has become the Firstfruits of an abundant harvest. He does indeed reap where He has not sown, and He gathers where He has not planted, in this respect: He reaps life from out of death, from the curse of your sins. He gathers victory from out of the grave — which was not His own, but He made it His, that it should not be yours forever. He has compounded interest on His investment, far more than you could ever count.
And here is the currency of His Kingdom. This is the coin of His realm, as I’ve often said. Not gold or silver, not dollars and cents, but the free and full forgiveness of all your debts and all your trespasses. Not the money in your bank account, but His own holy Body and His precious Blood, given and poured out into your mouth — into your body — for the forgiveness of all your sins.
That forgiveness is the foremost talent with which He blesses you. That is the treasure that He places into your hands — the forgiveness of all your sins. And with that forgiveness, He gives you Himself, His Life and Salvation, and all good things. That is what He gives you here and now.
He has been faithful in much. He has been faithful in everything, in order that He should freely bestow upon you all the treasures of His divine and heavenly Kingdom.
Therefore, as you are forgiven much — as you are forgiven everything — so also love much. Trust the Lord your God, your Savior and King. Love Him, and so also love your neighbor in the Name and for the sake of this dear Lord Jesus Christ. As you are forgiven much, love much, and forgive those who trespass against you. Multiply the talents of Christ by forgiving as you are forgiven.
That is the marvelous divine paradox of your Lord’s Kingdom. His talents bear interest as they are given away. His Gospel increases as it is spoken. His forgiveness is multiplied as it is shared.
So, then, forgive as you are forgiven. And by His forgiveness, enter into the Joy of your Master.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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