Today we’re going to talk about taking responsibility for our lives. Irresponsibility is when I don’t take responsibility for the things I’m responsible for, and when I’m irresponsible, someone else has to take up my responsibility. Irresponsibility is not easy to recognize in yourself. And irresponsibility started from the beginning of time.
In one of the first stories in our Bible, God gives Adam and Eve a responsibility. God says go, increase and have children. Fill the earth, subdue it, rule over the earth and all the creatures. Humans, you are responsible for the earth. So, God gives them a lot of responsibility, and only one rule.
God gave us responsibility to take care of the planet. This story means you were created to be responsible. We are happiest when have responsibility. Even if we don’t like our work, we are usually glad to have a job. We are glad to be a parent, or grandparent, or if we’re retired, we like to have something important to do. Responsibility helps you feel good. That’s part of why COVID is so hard on us: we don’t like to have to stay home: we want to fulfill our responsibility. Or if we’re sick, we hate it when we are flat on our back and can’t do what we usually do. It’s hard because you were designed to be responsible.
In the story from Genesis the serpent tempts Eve, and Adam was there with her, they both sin. As soon as they sin, they feel ashamed. It’s a famous conversation. In chapter 3: the man and wife hear the sound of the Lord God and hide. In verse 8 God calls, where are you? Adam says, I heard you in the garden and was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid. God says, “Who told you you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit of the tree I told you not to eat from?” Adam says, “Yes I did, and I take full responsibility for my actions. Do with me what you will, but leave Eve out of this, she’s innocent!
Adam didn’t really say that! The world would be a different place if that’s what happened. What he really said was, “The woman YOU put here with me did it!” I didn’t ask for a woman. But YOU put her here. You took this rib out of me and made her and what a mess she made! This isn’t my fault, it’s her fault, so you leave me out of it!
Then God says to the woman, “What is this you have done?” Then Eve says: “The SERPENT deceived me.”
We’re irresponsible at times, and when we are, we make excuses, we blame others when we feel guilty. It is amazing when someone actually says, “I’m responsible, it’s my fault.”
Every parent has heard their kid say, “That’s not fair!” And what do the parents say in return? “Life’s not fair.” We want life to be fair, sometimes. When we get the smallest piece of the pie, we want things to be fairer. But when we win the lottery, we don’t look around and think, this isn’t fair. I will give away this money, I will split it with 1000 people, so it’s fairer and more even. No, we don’t do that.
Fair is relative. We want life to be even, sometimes, when it’s to our benefit. But life isn’t even. The unfairness and unevenness of life quickly become an excuse for us to be irresponsible. Why even try? Why go the extra mile? Life’s unfair. I got the small piece of the pie. I have every reason to shirk my responsibility.
But people who get the large piece of the pie also make excuses. Maybe you’re blessed with a lot of time, or a lot of money, a lot of opportunity, and you say, “Life isn’t fair, but I don’t care, I’m on the winning side.” And you waste the extra that you’ve been given. You act like life is all about you. You don’t take responsibility to do something positive with all you’ve been given.
The more you focus on how life is unfair: the more you will try to excuse yourself from responsibility.
So, what is God’s perspective on the unevenness of life?
Jesus tells us God’s perspective in the parable of the talents. The word “talent” makes us think, I can sing and dance, I’m good at sports, I can fix a car. But a talent was a measure of money. Jesus would tell parables: a made-up story to prove a point. The parable didn’t really happen. Jesus speaks in extremes to make a point. In this parable, God doesn’t try to fix the unevenness, unfairness of life.
In Matthew 25:14 Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a man who goes on a journey and entrusts his wealth to three servants. To entrust means to assign the responsibility for doing something. He is holding these three servants responsible to do something with the wealth he gives them. He wants them to manage it while he goes on a long vacation.
The talent is a measurement. The amount of gold in a talent was worth about 16 years wages. So just one talent was worth over a third of the money you would earn in a lifetime!
The master thinks the first servant is pretty capable. He gives him 5 bags of gold. That’s 5 talents. It’s more than a person would earn in a lifetime! The master gives another servant 2 bags, and the last servant 1 bag, each according to their ability. You might say, “That’s not fair!” But it didn’t even happen. It’s a parable!
The servant with 5 bags of gold put the money to work and traded for other items. He gained 5 bags more. He doubles it! You may say, “I don’t think you could double it in that amount of time.” But it’s a parable!
The last servant took his one bag of gold, dug a hole and hid it underground. Now would you put a third of all the money you will earn in your lifetime in a hole? No! It’s not safe. Someone might dig it up! But even more, the master wanted this servant to increase and multiply this bag of gold.
The master finally comes home after his long trip. He says to the servant with 5 bags who doubled that to 10 bags: “Well done, you have been faithful with a few things (that’s more than a few things!) come share in my happiness!”
The master calls the servant with two bags of gold, who says, “I have gained two more bags!” The master says, “Well done thou good and faithful servant!”
Then the last servant comes, and he starts with an excuse: “Master, I knew that you were a hard man.” It’s like the servant is saying to his master: “You’re tough. If you weren’t so tough, I wouldn’t have been so scared. Maybe I would have taken responsibility and done some work to grow your money.” He’s blaming the master. The servant also says he knew the master was really good at increasing his wealth. “So, I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”
The servant has excuses: his master is too tough, the servant is scared, he’s not as good as his master at investing. But the fact remains that he didn’t take responsibility for doing what the master asked. He gave up and buried the money. He was lazy and missed a golden opportunity!
That master is angry and has him thrown out.
The point of the parable is: you are to look at your bag, and decide, what am I going to do with this? I have an opportunity from the master. I have been given something and I refuse to take it for granted. I refuse to waste it. I’m going to step up!
The parable also tells us, there are 5 talent people. They have so much wealth and opportunity. I think of the celebrity Kim Kardashian. She used her connections to go see President Trump and ask him to pardon a woman who was serving a 21-year jail sentence for a nonviolent crime, which didn’t usually deserve that long of a sentence. The woman was pardoned. Kim Kardashian was using her talent, taking responsibility to do something good with it.
Now, most of us are not 5 talent people. None of us can call the White House and ask if we can stop by and talk with the president. We aren’t Kim Kardashian.
Then there are one talent people. They don’t have much. But they still have an opportunity to do good. I think of the gospel story about the crowd that was hungry, and the boy with 2 fish and 5 loaves who gave his lunch to the disciples. Jesus used that lunch to feed 5000!
Most of us somewhere in between those two. We’re not Kim Kardashian, but we have more than one lunch to offer. We have some opportunity, some money, and some time.
In this parable, if you think of God as the master, God can sound mean! And what about grace? We are saved by grace through faith. It is a gift of God. You don’t have to do anything for God to give you salvation. But once you are saved, God hopes you will do something with your life. God gave you so many blessings, loves you so much, and He hopes the world will be a better place, because you didn’t make excuses, you did what God made you to do. God loves us, he is cheering us on. We will feel great for taking our bag and doing something with it that we are proud of and that God will be proud of. We will be happy if when the master comes, we can say we have taken responsibility, and made a difference.
My challenge for you this week is for you to ask yourself: What am I going to do with the bag I have been given?
When it comes to responsibility, we all have excuses. We have reasons we are not the ones to do any particular job. The world isn’t fair, it isn’t even. But just because everyone’s situation is different doesn’t mean God lets us off the hook. He still hands us responsibility and hopes we will take it to heart and do our best with it. We will share the master’s joy, and experience joy for how we’ve helped others, when we use our bag for the sake of God’s kingdom. Amen.
Nov. 15, 2020
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 