Elders, deacons, deaconesses, priests, nuns, imams, and rabbis are not the only folks set aside for ministry. All of us are. Every one from the youngest to the oldest, the loudest to the softest, and the shortest to the tallest has something that God needs for the transformation of the world. Today let us lay claim to these gifts and offer them back to the one who loaned them to us in the first place – God.

One of the most pervasive obstacles we face in responding to God’s call is reluctance, or “harmlessness” as John Wesley called it. Somehow we think the person next to us is more gifted to do this or that. But reluctance is something we must overcome; it leads nowhere good. Wesley said that “there is no such thing as negative goodness.” By this he meant that we actually have to risk involvement to make positive changes in our world. Reluctance to get involved in the mess of life obstructs the building of God’s reign and the realization of God’s vision. When we say “yes” to reluctance then we say “no” to building whole, healthy communities where people live in joy and peace. We can look throughout history and see moments where paralysis, reluctance, or seemingly harmless behavior resulted in the most terrible atrocities. In just this past century alone, genocide resulted when the US would not intervene in Hitler’s plans, when the world allowed the struggles in Kosovo to spiral out of control, when approximately 800,000 Rwandans died in only 100 days. Reluctance to get involved also manifests in smaller, less obvious ways. It doesn’t take a world catastrophe to expose the fragmentation, the isolation, the injustice that results when we don’t offer ourselves and all that God has given us for making the world better. Some of us don’t know our neighbors anymore. We wonder what happened to that child who was being scowled at by his father in the store the other day. We are puzzled at election results when we didn’t vote. We don’t offer our presence to the children of this church or in our child’s school because we think someone else is better equipped or has more time. We think someone else better understands the issues and don’t get involved in this or that when really our presence, our desire to know more, our interest may be the one thing needed. It is hard to overcome reluctance, fear, harmlessness. But Wesley’s words seem very true to me, “There is no such thing as negative goodness.” Overcoming reluctance is necessary for us to realize God’s gifts and to use them for the transformation of the world.

In today’s gospel lesson, a man entrusts his entire wealth to three servants, according to their ability. One servant receives five talents, another two, and the last servant receives one talent. These are enormous sums of money; one talent is equal to about 75-96 pounds of silver. The master wanted his servants to trust in his faithfulness and kindness enough to take risks. One servant did not have that trust. He assumed that his master was a harsh man so he hid his talent, thus cutting himself off from the abundance of his master’s grace. His own choice to hide what had been given him, his mistrust of the one who trusted him so much, resulted in a painful world. We often read this story as confirmation of the third servant’s fear; he was, after all, put into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But what Matthew is trying to tell his community in each of the stories that contains that phrase or one like it is that the people have a choice. They can choose to risk everything to help God create God’s dream of a whole, healthy, just, and compassionate world, or, simply not. There is no such thing as negative goodness. If we don’t participate in the divine will, we obstruct it. We contribute to a world where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This story has many meanings, but it clearly has meanings on three levels. First, Matthew is writing a story about Jesus and his ministry. We have read about Jesus being challenged by and in turn challenging the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus has publicly decried their hypocrisy. These conflicts have become increasingly intense as Jesus moves geographically closer to Jerusalem, where he will be killed. In private, Jesus is telling his disciples that a time will come when their faith will be tried. The same conflict that has come to him will then fall to them. Continue the work, he tells them. Second, Matthew is writing to his own community as it struggles with its Jewish identity. It is a community in conflict and fragmentation. The Temple has fallen, Jesus is gone, and Christians are abhorred by many. Matthew, like Jesus, tells his community to stay the course and take heart that God has not abandoned them. Third, Matthew talks to us. He tells us that the work of reconciliation is not done. The work to establish a just and compassionate world is not over. We, like the disciples and the early Christians, face enormous obstacles, but God does not abandon us. God gifts us. God equips us. God calls us. God goes with us. We, like the disciples and the early Christians, have choices before us to offer all that God has placed at our disposal or to turn away.

Methodists have a long history of risking themselves for the gospel. We began as a reform sect within the Anglican Church. As a movement, Methodists urged change within their lukewarm denomination. They sought justice and compassion for those least cared for. To be a Methodist entailed visiting the sick and imprisoned, taking communion, caring for the ill, spending time every day in devotion, and ending every day in reflection. Methodists were born of the desire to make change in a church and society that had forgotten its ties to a gospel for the poor led by a Messiah of the outcasts. Today we have a “Social Creed” which states: (The creed as it appears in paragraph 166 of the 2004 edition of the Book of Discipline:)

“We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation. We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends.

We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind.

We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family.

We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.

We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; in the rights to property as a trust from God, collective bargaining, and responsible consumption; and in the elimination of economic and social distress.

We dedicate ourselves to peace throughout the world, to the rule of justice and law among nations, and to individual freedom for all people of the world.

We believe in the present and final triumph of God’s Word in human affairs and gladly accept our commission to manifest the life of the gospel in the world. Amen.”

Wesley is famous for saying, “My fear is not that our great movement, known as the Methodists, will eventually cease to exist or one day die from the earth. My fear is that our people will become content to live without the fire, the power, the excitement, the supernatural element that makes us great.” It takes effort to sustain fire, power, and excitement. We have to step away from any reluctance that we might have that we’re not right for the task at hand, realizing that we’re who God has called – each of us. The Social Creed of The United Methodist Church is one of our clearest statements of purpose as a denomination, and it calls us into the fray of human life and conflict as agents of peace and reconciliation, of bearers of justice and compassion. It is holy and sacred work, and it is risky.

We are given Stewardship Sunday each year to offer our pledges of monetary support to the work of the church. We are also given this Sunday as a time of examination of and reflection upon our participation in the work of the church as Christ’s body, as the continuation of the ministry of Jesus toward the establishment of God’s reign. We can offer ourselves in little and big ways, all needed and necessary. I ask each of us gathered here today to examine our hearts, to thank God for the gifts and talents of which we are stewards, and to offer them back to God’s work in this place. On this Stewardship Sunday, we have the opportunity to reflect upon and recommit ourselves to witnessing to the gospel. When I look around I see an abundance of talent and giftedness, I think about Jesus’ words to the faithful servants. Their reward was more responsibility. Their reward was the joy of their master’s company. We, too, have a responsibility for proclaiming the gospel and embodying its message. We, too, have a responsibility to offer back to God all that God has first offered us. I can’t imagine the joy that could result if we stepped out of reluctance into involvement and eventually into the freedom found when we live in complete union with God’s will. God’s kingdom will come.

Amen.