Daily Office Readings for Friday of the 3rd Week of Advent: Year 2
Morning, Psalms 40 and 54; Evening, Psalm 51;
Zechariah 7:8 to 8:8; Psalm 121; Revelation 5:6 to 14; Matthew 25:14 to 30:
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them;to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” (Matthew 25: 14 – 15)
This is a very familiar parable. It is about using whatever gifts we have to the best of our abilities. In this parable, the one servant who gets only one talent, decides not to use it. He buries it until the return of the master. Bad move.
I ponder about what is the relative effect of this parable. The man who receives the one talent witnessed the others receiving more before he got his. One gets 5, the next gets 2, and finally he, the third servant, gets only 1. The only way this could have possibly been worse is if the order of giving the gifts was reversed, that is, servant receiving one talent then see the other two getting 2 and 5 respectively. He probably would have had an emotional fall even worse.
What I want to bring to the forefront here is the responsibility we all have to do the best we can with what God has graced us with. Whatever gift (or gifts) we have, it is what our family, or community, or the world needs. God does not waste gifts. Some of us have gifts of mathematics; some of us have gifts of voice as in singing; some of us have gifts of extraordinary compassion; some of us have gifts of agricultural cultivation and some of us are blessed with more than one; maybe two or three gifts.
I try not to focus on our feelings of a neglected state due to unexplored gifts. The saddest part for me is that we too often suffer from a false sense of worthlessness of what we should be enjoying. God does not waste gifts. Has God gifted you with something we need or want in our lives right now? Please make use of it, we need it. Remember, what the world needs, and what you enjoy doing, is where God enters our world. We are all a work in progress and we are all still being created, even after a good Sabbath rest.
Today we remember Lillian Trasher, Missionary in Egypt, (1961) and her information may be found at: Lillian Trasher
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom.
What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath – YouTube
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: For the Right Use of God’s Gifts (BCP p. 827)
Almighty God, whose loving hand hath given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor thee with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of thy bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
onewhoponders 