Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
FBC Littleton 10/08/06
In Whom Shall We Trust
Matthew 25: 13-40
Many of you know that Eddie and I are the very proud owners of a two year old Black
Lab whom we affectionately call Mr. Gibson – named after the guitar not the actor. He is
quite the character. Mr. Gibson likes to retrieve anything and everything and always has
something in his mouth – often grabbing onto Eyore his favorite stuffed animal. He is
quite large, exudes boundless energy and requires a lot of energy from us his caretakers.
One of the things that brought us sanity when we got him was installing an invisible
electric fence around a major portion of our back yard. With an invisible fence, a wire is
laid around the boundaries and small white flags are placed at intervals around the same
boundaries. The dog wears a collar which will first emit a warning tone when he gets too
close to the boundary line. If he stills go forward a small electric zap occurs which
should make him jump backward. This worked very well and Mr. Gibson learned right
away not to go near the white flags. He felt the zap on the first day we had it installed,
he now knows where the boundaries are and won’t go near them. His memory of that
first pain is very strong. But the collar also gives him great freedom around our back
yard. We can let him just run out the back door and the area provides him with about a
half an acre to explore and run.
This past Thursday, our day off, Eddie was out in the back yard creating a new garden
space which was inside the electric fence boundaries. He had edged out a circle
surrounding three small birch trees and then moved a large azalea bush from the side of
the house inside the new circle. I also replanted some perennials into the new space.
Since Mr. Gibson was used to this space being available to him and had no understanding
of new plants – he was all over it – down in the dirt, rolling around in it, checking out the
plants and trying to eat them. Eddie and I pondered what we could do to keep him out
of the garden circle and I came up with the idea of putting some of the extra white
boundary flags from the electric fence around the circle. I thought we could just put the
flags in and not the actually electrical wires. I thought the flags alone would do the trick.
Eddie went over to the garage and came back carrying eight white flags. Mr. Gibson
watched this with great interest. While Eddie was still placing the flags around the
garden circle, Mr. Gibson turned and retreated to the back porch where he remained and
safely watched what was going on.
This was not a big circle – and there was still a large section of the back yard without
white flags – but I could not get Mr. Gibson to come out there with me. As hard as I tried
– calling him and coaching him – he just looked at me like I was crazy. He was not
going anywhere near those white flags even though there was nothing there to harm him.
He was afraid to move, based on a false assumption and a memory of something that was
painful to him.
I had lost his trust and his memory of being hurt was so strong that it preventing him
from not only coming near the garden area – but to me as well.
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Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
FBC Littleton 10/08/06
This was not what we intended because there was still a lot of room to explore, to run, to
play in the back yard – but his unfounded fear and his memory of being hurt, paralyzed
him.
I needed to restore his trust so I went in the house and came back out with a handful of
steak pieces from a left over Steak salad. I gave him one piece so he knew what I had in
my hand and then took a chair and sat down in the backyard parallel to the garden. Mr.
Gibson moved to the middle of the yard – but there he stayed put – and I called him and I
coaxed him and trying to get him to trust me. But nothing doing…he wouldn’t budge.
Mr. Gibson just stayed there in the middle of the yard - looking at me.
Eddie is now standing off to the side – looking at him – looking at me and decides to
remove all the flags around the edges leaving two flags in the very middle.
I try again – offering him the little bites of meat.
Nothing doing ….he stays put…looking back and forth between;
- Me with the goodies in hand.
- Eddie watching from the side.
- And the white flags - obviously evoking a painful memory
In whom should he trust?
Trust is subject of our parable from Matthew and it asks us to think through the same
question – in whom should we trust?
Trust is a scarce commodity in this day and age. We live in a culture of fear and mistrust
and we are bombarded by commercial and political ads which are all vying for our trust.
We try to build trust in our relationships – because trust is in short supply.
Stanley Carpet Cleaners are a clean you can trust! Their ad mentions trust four or five
times. They do background checks on their employees they say and they are a clean we
can trust. And if we decide we believe their ad and their product – we will take a step in
trust and employ them to come into our homes and clean our carpets.
In Massachusetts you can trust: Kerry Healey, Deval Patrick, Christy Mihos, and Grace
Ross as they run for Governor of the State. That is what they tell us in their ads and will
keep telling us until Election Day – when we decide whom we believe. Then we will
take that step in faith and trust and we will vote and hope that our candidate will win and
live up to that trust. We are all confronted with issues of trust – issues that are political,
economical, relational and spiritual.
Our parable today is a story of trust – a story involving the actions taken by two who
trusted and one who did not.
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Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
FBC Littleton 10/08/06
A man is going on a long journey and entrusts his talents to three servants. A talent is a
sum of about one thousand dollars – but for today’s purpose let’s expand the meaning of
the talents to mean any assets, blessings, gifts, money or other resources given in trust to
use for God’s glory. The person in charge gives five talents to one servant, two to
second servant and one talent to a third. But note that all of them receive talents or
abilities – including the third servant who is the one who is the subject of the parable by
Jesus. The Master goes on his journey – the first servant puts the assets to work –
doubles them. The second does the same - but the third servant – based on a false
assumption about the master and then acting in fear on that false assumption - does not
use his abilities – he buries the blessing he has been given and does not step forward in
faith and in trust. He does nothing with it and gains nothing what so ever.
When confronted by the Master who has since returned the servant says; “I knew that
you were a hard man, harvesting where you had not sown and gathering where you have
not scattered seed – so I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground – here
is what belongs to you” and the Master was not happy.
Is that true? Does the Master or God harvest and gather where he hasn’t planted? Does
He expect something from nothing? Or is God at work in everything, everywhere, all the
time, knowing all things and providing the resources we all need to live faithful and grace
filled life?
This parable tells us that everyone – has been given a talent – a resource – a gift – an
ability – which means that God has scattered seeds of blessings everywhere – everyone
has been given something to use for the Glory of God. If we believe that, then we act on
it in trust. It is an anticipatory act – bearing witness to something we believe - but which
has not been fully realized.
The Master believed that the man had the ability to use his resource and use it well-– but
the servant haunted perhaps by a bad experience or miscommunication – does not trust –
and is paralyzed and cannot put his talent to work. The Master responds; “You thought
that? Then you should have at least put my money on the deposit with the bankers – so
that when I returned I would have received it back with interest”.
The Message paraphrase of this text puts God’s response this way: “That’s a terrible way
to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best – why
did you do less than the least? Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the
most. And get rid of this play-it-safe who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into
utter darkness”.
What do we believe in – where do we place our faith – so that we can take that
anticipatory act of trust in our lives? We will decide – hopefully based on the issues and
not on TV ads whom we will trust enough to vote for. We decide issues of trust all day
long; where to buy our groceries? Whether it’s ok to eat spinach yet? Is it ok to send our
kids to school? Do we believe in a God of presence enough - so that we can live trusting
in God to take care of us, teach us, guide us, help us, heal us, and forgive us?
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Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
FBC Littleton 10/08/06
In whom do we trust in world filled with mistrust and indecision?
Mr. Gibson lay there filled with indecision about whom to trust – the white flags and his
memories – or me with the Steak. In the meantime Eddie went into the house to let out
our 13 year old diabetic dog - RJ – who was watching all this from behind the porch
door. He came limping down the stairs and took one moment to survey the situation in
the backyard. RJ has a lot of health issues – but apparently his eye sight is still pretty
good – because after one glance – he just started hobbling slowly out towards me -
walking right past Mr. Gibson. Mr. Gibson’s body started to quiver as he watched RJ
reach my hand and eat a piece of steak. And in a flash Mr. Gibson was right there with
us receiving a piece of steak – of which there was plenty – an abundance of love and
goodies for both of them. We stayed there together for awhile – hoping that an image of
safety and comfort would replace the one of pain.
Now was it the fear of not receiving a piece of steak – or was it trust that finally made
Mr. Gibson come to me? Was he afraid there would be nothing left for him? Or was it
an act of trust on his part, after seeing that no harm befell his buddy and his friend?
The line between fear and trust is very thin at times. However trust is an action – an
anticipatory act – stepping out in faith – taking action based on what we believe. I
choose to believe that trust was and always will be stronger than fear. Trust is an act of
courage.
It is an act of trust when….
We book the flight…
Start a new job…
Begin a new dream…
Give up an old dream…
When we say I’m sorry…or I love you…or let’s talk it over.
Trust is when we reach out and take steps forward every day. And so may the days ahead
of you be filled with courage and with trust – a trust that is built upon the steadfast love
of God.
Amen.
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