The third servant in today’s parable was trying to bury a responsibility that he wished to avoid. The treasure he had been given was an opportunity for him to invest and please his master, but instead of putting himself out, he buried the treasure where he could forget about it and go about his own affairs. Buried deep, the treasure was no longer an uncomfortable reminder of his master’s expectations. Meanwhile, the other two servants, realising that there is no gain without pain, risked everything on their master’s account. They invested and multiplied their gifts, and their master was pleased by their efforts.

Like the three servants in this story we too have been given talents and gifts, and with those talents comes a responsibility to use those talents as an opportunity to make the world a better place. Our talents are varied, some great some small but we are all gifted in some way. Some have high profile and very obvious talents … there are those who are great musicians, surgeons, sports people and scientists. The rest of us might have less obvious talents. We might have a talent for caring, listening, speaking, growing things or solving  practical problems. Whatever our particular gift we are urged to step out with it … stick our neck on the line and invest our gifts in God’s cause. God will not be so impressed if we are too afraid, embarrassed or lazy to use our talents. Ever heard the expression ‘Use it or lose it.’ If we ignore our gifts long enough, there will come a time when we can no longer rely upon them. This is what happened to the third servant.

One of the excuses that the third servant made for not investing his gift was that he was fearful of losing it. But the message today is not to be fearful. God never asks us to do something we are not capable of doing, and he is not judging us by our levels of productivity. The master in the story did not judge the third servant for producing nothing from his gift, but rather for being lazy and for his bitter indifference to his master’s generosity. The master would not have judged him harshly, if he had tried his best but failed.

Today we are invited to look again at what gifts we have been given and how we are using them for the benefit of all. We are asked to examine what gifts we might be ignoring because we are too embarrassed or afraid, and we are asked to live a little dangerously and invest more of  ourselves in God’s cause.