11.14.2020 Homily

We are really blessed this afternoon to be able to invite Vera, and invite Martin, and invite Isaac and Jesus into the household of the faith through the waters of baptism. Now, you two guys, you're going to have to help your family with your little brother. Okay.? You've got to teach him something. Alright? Okay.

The story in the gospel is about the master of an estate who takes his possessions, who takes his resources, and he hands them out to his servants. The image is meant to be that this is the way God has treated us. That God has given us each talent, each according to our ability. And what he's asking of us is that we use it. We use it for the honor and the glory of God, and for the good of our neighbor. He's asking that we don't be afraid that we don't hide what we've been given, because it isn't given for us. It's given that we might use it for others. And especially that we might use the gifts we have for those who have least, or those who are least.

Now, this story about the talents and the master, it really doesn't end the way I ended it this evening, because right away it goes on to describe what the Lord will do when He comes in judgment and how He will regard our use of those talents. And that's what the gospel of next Sunday is going to be about. He's going to say I was hungry and you fed me. And I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was a visitor and you welcomed me. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was in prison and you stood by me. I was sick and you cared for me.

He's going to say that's the way the talents are to be used. They're to be used in very practical ways; that you and I are really the hands and the voice and the eyes of God. That we are to look at each other with the same compassion and love, understanding and justice that God looks upon us with. We are to be servants of God. Now these young people who are going to be invited into the church today through baptism, they're going to be given those talents. That's what happens in baptism. The gift of God's grace comes within us and it fills us.

It is meant to be used by us in the service of others. And so these young people, they've got to be helped to know how to do that. They've got to be educated on how to do that. They've got to be given the opportunity to learn how to do that. You don't get there on your own. You get there because parents and godparents, and neighbors and friends, and grandmas and grandpas, and aunts and uncles, and the community provides for you the example that you need in order to live out what you've been given.

You know, by the time these young people are 20 years old, you are going to have told them a million different things, right? And you know what's going to happen? Everything you say is going to go into one ear and out the other. So it's not so much what you tell them that's important. It's you show them how to live as disciples of Jesus. You show them by your words, your actions, your attitude, your way of dealing with each other, your understanding of life. And that's what makes the difference. We learn more by what we see than what we hear.

Well, all of us are called to enter into that kind of commitment to give examples to those around us. And so in order to renew that in each of us, I would ask that we all join these young people as we profess our faith, that we profess the baptismal creed