A Sense of Responsibility
Matthew 25: 14-29

Among the disturbing characteristics of our time is the decline of responsibility.
Many people in our time refuse to take seriously promises made, contracts agreed,…
When many are charged with failure to stand by their word and to pull their own weight,
they begin to make excuses.
In commerce, the tendency is to blame the market.
Employees and to blame the system.

As for our own personal failures, our lack of self discipline, it is rare to hear anyone admit
personal responsibility.
In most cases people will blame heredity or their genes or the way they were brought up.
Jesus observed the Pharisees excusing themselves: " And He said unto them, ye are they
which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts…"

It is rare to find a person accountable for his own acts.
Mark Twain must have been one.
He wants opened a letter addressed to his wife and then wrote on the envelope,
" Opened by mistake -- to see what was in it."

There is a conscientiousness which is overdone and unhealthy.
There are sensitive souls who worry themselves sick over trifles.
They have found, as Huckleberry Finn said, that there are times when conscience
" takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides."
They carry too many burdens on their hearts.
God never intended that any of His children should accept responsibility for everything and for everybody.

Nevertheless, our danger lives chiefly in the opposite direction.
We have become adept in shifting responsibility in one area after another.
If conscience does make cowards of us all, refusal to be conscientious does make weaklings
and ineffective citizens of too many of us.

Jesus, who knew what was in man, told a famous story concerning this self-centered sin
of irresponsible living.
A provincial ruler left for Rome on an important mission.
A new emperor had acceded to the throne, and it was necessary to secure continuance
of his rights as a subordinate governor.
Before leaving, he entrusted his affairs to three servants.
During his absence they would need all the faithfulness they could muster.

He said, " Here are considerable sums of money; $5000 for you, $2000 for you, and $1000 for you.
In my absence it will be business as usual.
All of you have the same opportunity and all of you have the same responsibility."
If they were unfaithful to him, upon his return they would meet with disaster,
and perhaps, even with death.

It is easy to picture each of the three men.
First is the keen, business type.
This man would watch the market closely, study the crop forecasts, and generally obtain
such useful information that his shrewd investment would prove immensely profitable.
Sure enough, it brought in a profit of 100%.

The second employ would be the blunt, honest type, and a solid man.
If he invested his money in a farm, he would drive the oxen hard, and work from sunrise to dark.
By sheer faithfulness of a good work ethic he doubled his invested capital.

The third servant was a different type.
He neither invested nor squandered the money given him.
He put the money in a hole in the ground which was a common thing to do in an age
which had no safety deposit vaults.
He hid the money.
He did not have as much as his two colleagues, and he was afraid to risk it.

So, when he returned it to his master, he rationalized his failure:
" You are a shrewd, hard businessman.
I might have lost the money, so I hid it safely.
Here is the exact amount you gave me.
You can't blame me if there are no earnings.
So, I am not responsible."
But he was responsible.

And his master condemned him, and punished him.
He was called an indolent rascal, and the money he had been given was taken from him
and was given to the man who already had twice as much as she started with.
This story points out the importance of having a sense of responsibility in the use of our opportunities.

Dr. George Buttrick, in The Parables Of Jesus, wrote that a talent was evidently
like any other coin.
It had two sides.
On one side was written " endowment," and on the other side, " responsibility."

With every gift there is a corresponding obligation and each is accountable for the way he handles it.

God plays no favorites, even though a few appear to be more favored than the rest.
We are not created equal except as we are equally loved by God, and have an equal chance
to prove ourselves before Him.
Nor are we equal in advantages, and we are not equal in opportunity.
What Jesus states is that we are all equally responsible for the best use of what we have received.

Once when Jesus was in the temple, He saw a widow cast her two mites into the treasury.
He said that she gave " more than they all together."
Well really she had not given more than they had.
But Jesus had a different standard of measurement than the average person in that day.
He estimated the amount by its love and sacrificial value.

Our Lord has His revolutionary measurement of success.
He does not ask, " How many talents do you have or how capable are you?"
He asks, " How much faithfulness do you exercise in using what you have?"
He judges us by our unseen, consistent faithfulness.

If we really believed this, business, international arrangements, personal relationship,
the work of the church of Christ in the world, would be changed and a good deal of selfish,
self-satisfaction would disappear overnight.
Consider how uneasy we should be -- we who have such resources, both material and moral,
for the upbuilding of this generation; who have enjoyed such wonderful freedom,
and immense advantages to make the most of our best, and who have had the Christian gospel
for so many years.

How shall we recover this saving sense of responsibility?

We must remind ourselves that life is a stewardship.
Someone has said: " Stewardship is a sense of personal responsibility for the best use
of what God gives us, and for the highest well-being of one's fellow men."
We are appointed stewards by God.
Whatever we have in talents, abilities, and worldly goods, God holds us accountable as a steward.

A pagan can say, " What I have is mine."
A Christian must say, " The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof."

Then, we must remember that our talent is needed.
This is what the man with the one talent in the story did not understand.
He lacked vision and imagination.
If he had these qualities, he would never have buried the talent in a hole in the ground.

The ruler distributed talents, but he was angry over the one that was not used.
Every one is needed in the divine economy.
If you or I refuse to accept responsibility for our part, however minor that part may be,
the entire economy may fail.
The single vote may determine the course of political life in a democracy.
The solitary voice may ultimately determine the issue of peace.

Somewhere I read of a ship that was wrecked because a young workman engaged
in hammering nails into fittings near the ship's compass.
He had the attitude that it he put a nail other than the brass nails provided that it wouldn't matter.
But it did!
The compass needle swung toward the substitute iron nail, and on its maiden voyage
the ship crashed on a submerged reef.

We are asked to serve in order to help boys or girls, or men and women, to find a place
of service and the church.
Many would say, " I have no talent for that kind of thing."
When a person takes that attitude they are not any different or any better than the man
who dug a hole in the ground and buried his talent there.

Another stimulant to renewed responsible service is to dust off our concept of Christian discipleship.
" Ye are not your own, " Paul said in a most solemn charge;
" ye are brought with a price."
We must rediscover a fact that it is required of stewards that we be found faithful.
And we are stewards of all that we have.

Jesus taught that money was not property to be owned, but a trust to be administered.
This teaching applies to great fortunes and also to widow's mites.
When we face our Judge, He will ask: " What did you do to make life better,
to lift a little of the weight from those weighed down with worry and heartache?"
" What did you do more than others?"

Our life, our salvation, our talents, our abilities, our incomes are all gifts from God.
God expects a return!

God smiles upon all of His children who are determined to use what He has given them
for the increase of His treasure.
But we must remember that responsible living involves long stretches of uphill climbing.
Stay close to Jesus!
Paul said to Timothy: " Take your share of hardship, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.."
(2 Timothy 2: 3)

We have unlimited potential!
He who gives us such great opportunities will also give us the energy and the will,
and best of all He gives us Himself in Christ.

Sermon by Dr. Harold L White