Time to Check on Our Investments - Sermon for Pentecost 25A (Matthew 25:14-30)

 

Matthew 25:14-30

Not long after Cheryl and I were married, my father-in-law took me to meet with his stockbroker. He did this because he thought I would benefit from learning how to invest wisely in the stock market. The broker talked to me about investing in companies that I was familiar with and had actually interacted with in some way. This was before tech stocks were the big thing, so I didn’t invest in Apple, Samsung, or Amazon. The broker also suggested that I read a book on investing that he found to be helpful. It was helpful. Even though I was a poor seminarian contemplating getting additional education so I could be a poorly paid academic, with very little money to invest, I think as time passed, the visit was helpful. It took a while, but over time Cheryl and I have had the opportunity to invest.  

Our reading this morning from the Gospel of Matthew has something to say about wise investments, which is why it is often used by preachers as the basis of their stewardship sermons. This is, after all, for many congregations, stewardship season. Back during my pre-retirement ministries, the parable of the talents would pop up every few years in November, providing me with a biblical foundation for one of my stewardship sermons. Since I’m not the pastor of this congregation, you don’t have to worry about me preaching a stewardship sermon. I’ll leave that task to the appropriate congregational leaders.  

When it comes to the parables of Jesus, preachers often turn them into allegories. So, in the case of the parable of the talents, preachers often start by identifying the landowner with God, who either rewards faithful stewards or punishes the unfaithful ones. If that’s the way we read the parable, you can understand why some preachers are tempted to use the passage to guilt church members into giving to the church lest they face divine retribution! Who wants to end up being cast into outer darkness where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth? 

While the parable of the talents can serve as an example of how we might properly use the resources God provides us, it can also serve as a cautionary tale about economic exploitation. The usual way we read this parable is to assume that the landowner represents God and the slave who buries the talent represents the person who fails to properly use the gifts of God. Therefore, they are wicked and worthy of punishment. But what if we turn this parable on its head? What if the landowner doesn’t represent God but instead represents landowners who exploit their workers? If this is the case, then this third slave, who buries the talent in the ground, isn’t really wicked. Instead, the third slave has a realistic view of how people in power can operate unethically. 

It’s worth remembering that Jesus lived within an economic system that often took from the poor and gave to the rich. If this is true, then there is a connection between Jesus’ audience and us. Our economy seems to benefit the wealthy who seem to get richer by the minute, while the middle class struggles to get ahead, and the poor get poorer. In other words, although the stock market might be at all-time highs, the majority of people struggle to pay their bills. 

As we think about Jesus’ message, it might help us to understand it if we translate the word “talent” into its modern financial equivalency. Based on what we know of first-century economics, even the servant who received one talent got a lot of money to invest. That’s because one talent would be worth about $600,000 in today's money. We might look at this as a form of venture capital, which the landowner entrusted to three managers to invest during a period of absence. The owner, of course, expected to reap a reward upon returning home. The first two managers got busy, invested the capital, and achieved growth. However, the third manager viewed this responsibility very differently. Investing can be a risky business. Since he didn’t trust the landowner to act reasonably if the investment went bad, he wasn’t inclined to take a risk. So, instead of investing the talent, he buried it. That way, when the owner returned, he’d get his talent back. Although it may seem odd to bury money in the ground, it was a common practice in the ancient world. Even today, people bury gold in the backyard because they don’t trust the banks. 

If this parable addresses economic exploitation of workers who live paycheck to paycheck, then we can understand why a worker might be anxious about putting their trust in ownership. After all, if you make a mistake you might be out of a job. If you lose your job, you might lose your health insurance, and even face homelessness. While the parable suggests that the third manager was wicked, it’s possible that he represents the kinds of people who gathered around Jesus, people who lived on the margins of society and endured injustice and oppression. 

The question that emerges from such an interpretation is concerned with where Jesus is present in the story. Furthermore, how do we act on the message of the parable? That is, how might we participate in creating a climate where every person can flourish, without fear of falling into poverty and despair? 

In a little over a week, our nation will pause to give thanks to God for the blessings we have received through the year. We might even get to celebrate a Lion’s win over Chicago. Now, that would be a blessing! But not everyone feels as blessed as others, so what might Jesus have us do?

Now, there is another layer to this story that speaks to how we can invest our lives in the coming realm of God. In the story that follows the parable of the talents, Jesus speaks of the day of judgment, a day when the peoples of the earth gather before the throne of Jesus. In the story of the day of judgment, the nations are judged on the basis of how they treat the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, and the imprisoned. This story follows the story of how people invest in the realm of God. Our ability to do so is dependent on our level of trust in God. We’ve all been entrusted with a measure of grace. The question is, what will we do with it? There is, of course, a stewardship element to this question because it speaks to our willingness and ability to trust God to be just and fair if we stumble and fall short of the goal. 

As I noted earlier, investing involves a degree of risk. Every investment broker will remind the prospective investor that past results do not guarantee future success. Many people have invested at the top of the market and then lost everything in risky ventures. Wise investing involves mutual trust. 

What is the difference between the responses of the first two managers and the third one? Each is given a measure of grace, but the first two had greater trust in the landowner, so they invested their capital, while the third slave buried his talent because he didn’t trust an owner he believed was harsh and who reaped where he didn’t sow. According to the parable, it seems that the landowner acknowledged that he was untrustworthy and unethical. Fortunately, for us, the description of the landowner as a person who is harsh and reaps where he doesn’t sow doesn’t describe the God we encounter in Jesus.  

I’m not sure whether or not the landowner represents God in the story, but the parable does invite us to consider how we view God. Is God harsh and unforgiving like the landowner? Some people think of God in that way. That’s why some parents seek to put the “fear of God” in their children to get them to behave. Churches have used the fear of God to get people to join committees and turn in their pledge cards. You don’t want to disappoint God, do you? But fear gets you only so far in life. Sometimes it causes a person to bury their gifts in the backyard.

While fear can be a motivator, perhaps building trust can be an even greater motivator. When it comes to investing in the coming realm of God, we may need to take some risks. However, our ability to take risks on behalf of God will require our being able to trust God’s faithfulness and love. 

If we’re going to embrace the message of the parable and see it as a word from God, we might want to set aside the final verses, where the master tosses the third servant into outer darkness. I’m not sure that this is a good motivational tool for servants of God. Instead, let’s focus on the responses of the first two servants, and the blessings that come to them. They received more responsibility because they trusted the master to be fair and just.  

I believe that we have been entrusted by God with gifts of grace that not only will bless the congregation but also the larger community. The only question for us then is how we make use of these gifts to bless the peoples of the earth in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and to his descendants through our participation with Jesus in the work of God’s realm.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Tyrone Township, MI

November 15, 2026

Pentecost 25A

Attribution: Fortt, Annette Gandy. Parable of the Talents, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/56021 [retrieved November 14, 2026]. Original source: annettefortt.com.