Nov. 9 Sermon by Father Jeff MacKnight

Father Jeff MacKnight
St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church
Bethesda, Maryland


Today’s scriptures are full of doom, gloom, and judgment – not our favorite topics in Holy Scripture. The prophet Zephaniah warns:

“Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath.”

If we change “silver” and “gold” to “stocks” and “bonds,” we have a stunningly prescient view of our own economic mess today! It never ceases to amaze me how these scriptures, written 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, continue to be relevant today.

But today I wish to focus on the Parable of the Talents, and on our new outreach partner, Five Talents International. This well-known parable is a practical guide to God’s will for us, especially when it comes to how we use our money and other resources God has given us.

It’s like Jesus’ advice against hiding your light under a bushel – God clearly doesn’t want us to hoard our wealth for ourselves and our own security. If this economic crisis is teaching us anything, it is that our hordes of wealth are not as safe, not as secure as we thought. They will never be the source of true security and peace. God does not approve when the “haves” of this world hoard, while the “have-nots” starve.

The Parable of the Talents reminds us not to hoard and bury what God has entrusted to us, but to use it, invest it, and yes, take some risks with it, so the wealth can grow and all can benefit. Even putting the talent in the bank to collect interest is better than burying it in the ground, we are told (especially if the bank deposit is FDIC insured). Throughout the Bible, “spreading the wealth around” is not a bad thing; it’s a good thing.

Today we focus on Five Talents International, and St. Dunstan’s new investment in it. St. Dunstan’s has committed $8,000 per year for three years, for a micro-lending program in a Dominican Republic village called La Barquita.

Thursday night I attended a meeting to learn more about Five Talents – a nine-year-old organization of which the Archbishop of Canterbury is patron. It is run by a small professional staff in Vienna, Virginia, and London, England. Five Talents is currently helping 20,000 of the poorest people around the world to achieve economic self-sufficiency. We were told how one woman got a $60 loan for her waffle-cone business. She bought a stove and several waffle irons, increased her production dramatically, hired several new workers, and now makes 46,000 waffle-cones per month. That’s a lot of ice cream cones.

Bill Eggbeer, now a board member of Five Talents – will tell us more after church about this phenomenal program, and what our investment – our talents – will do in La Barquita to fufill the Five Talents mission: “Fighting Poverty, Creating Jobs, Transforming Lives.” It’s amazing what a small loan, often just $142, can do in poor countries: actually start a business, support a family, get children in school, create new jobs, and perhaps most importantly, restore dignity to human beings – each one a child of God.

Thinking about these small, important loans, I remembered something I haven’t thought about in years. When I was starting college 30 years ago, I needed to make money to get myself through. I could play the piano and sing, so I thought of working in a piano bar. But I needed some sound equipment. So I went to my old accordion teacher, who owned a small music store. He lent me a couple of hundred dollars to buy a used sound system and microphone. I started working weekends, and soon was able to pay off my loan, and get the rest of what I needed. I played and sang a lot of Friday and Saturday nights to get myself through college.

I was blessed when someone took a chance and invested in me, so I could start a little business and put myself through school.

Would that all God’s children around the world could be given that chance, to become self-supporting and live a life of dignity. AMEN.