There’s no doubt whatsoever that one of the most urgent problems facing parish churches at this time, is the lack of willing volunteers. And the most pressing problem of all in this respect is the lack of people who are willing to take on any kind of responsibility for the church they attend. And by that I mean the lack of people who are willing to serve on PCCs, act as churchwardens, PCC Treasurers, PCC Secretaries and so on. I speak to many clergy and there are very, very few who don’t have this problem. In fact, it is such a widespread problem that it’s not too much to say that it’s a problem not just for individual parish churches, but for the Church itself.
To some extent, I can understand why this should be such a problem, partly because of the things people say to me when they’re asked to take something on for the parish church, and partly through my own experience. I know that people can be very busy already and would really rather not take on anything that would add even more to their already busy lives. And I do understand that. I haven’t always been a priest; I’ve had what people might call a normal job, although it was anything but normal in many ways because it involved travelling the length and breadth of the country and being away from home on a regular basis, sometimes quite unexpectedly. In any year, about 25% of my annual salary came from unplanned overtime I’d had to work to attend breakdowns at sites across the country. At the same time I was a married man with two school aged children. So I know exactly what it means to be busy with everyday life because I was busy myself, very busy, often. But that didn’t stop me from also being at church every Sunday and, if at all possible, for every major feast day of the Church that we celebrated at our parish church. It didn’t stop me from being on the PCC, being the head server at the church, running fundraising activities for the parish, nor did it stop me from leading non-Eucharistic worship in the parish. I was busy already, without doing what I did in and for the church, but I did that too. I did it because I wanted to do it because I knew it needed to be done and somebody had to do it. I did it because either I, or other people in the church, thought I had the ability to do it. And I did it because I saw it as my Christian duty to use those gifts and talents I had in the service of the Lord and his Church.
And that brings us to another reason that people often don’t want to do things for the church, they don’t think they have the ability to do the things that are needed. Again, people say this to me; “I’ve never done anything like that before”; “I’m not very good at things like that.” Well, again, I know exactly what that’s like. I’d never been an altar server before I did it; and I became the head server at my parish church. I’d never run fundraising events before I did that; but I ran them successfully and raised a lot of money for the church. I went to church already, but at one time I would have walked barefoot over hot coals rather than stand up and speak in public, rather than read the lessons and lead intercessions in church, and yet I didn’t only do those things, I was often asked to stand in at very short notice to cover for people who should have done them and weren’t in church. And that includes leading intercessions with no time to prepare. When the person who should have done them didn’t turn up, I was asked to stand in when I got to church that day. And I would never, ever have thought that I was capable of standing up front and leading public worship, but I did. I didn’t believe that I had the gifts to do some of these things, but others thought I had and asked me to do them. And all these things that I thought I couldn’t do in a million years, I suddenly found that I could do. Unfortunately, for them and the Church, there are so many, far too many, people who never discover what gifts and talents they’ve been given simply because they won’t even try to do something they’ve not done before or don’t feel comfortable about doing.
But we all have gifts and talents. Each and every one of us has been given some ability that we could use in the service of God and the Church, but we have to be prepared to find out what those gifts and talents are by putting them to the test. And to do that we have to be prepared to actually try to do something, even if that’s something that we’ve not done before, even if that’s something we’re not even sure that we can do.
We have a saying don’t we, that says “God loves a trier”. Usually when we say that of someone it’s a comment that they meant well, they’ve tried their best, but failed. We can often use it in a rather sarcastic way. But what this morning’s Gospel tells us is that God does indeed love a trier. The parable tells us that three servants were given a number of talents, each according to their ability. We have to bear in mind here that in Jesus’ day, a talent was a measure of weight, usually of some precious metal like gold or silver. The point is, that everyone was given something. The difference is that whilst two of the servants tried to use what they’d been given in their master’s service, the third didn’t. And when their master returned, it didn’t matter that one servant had made five talents and another had made only two, what mattered was that they’d both used what they’d been given in their master’s service. They’d both made something of what their master had given them, and so both were rewarded. The third servant on the other hand had made nothing from what he’d been given by his master – he hadn’t even tried. And so he was punished. And the meaning for us is quite clear; we’ve all been given some talents, some gifts and abilities by God. We haven’t all been given the same talents, or even the same number of talents, but we have all been given something that we can use in God’s service. And what’s required of us is that we do use our talents, whatever they are and however many they might be, in God’s service. If we do that, then no matter what we make of our talents, we will be rewarded. But we can’t expect any reward if we don’t even try to use the talents we’ve been given by God, in God’s service.
I do know that another reason people don’t and won’t do things for the Church is that they have a problem with the Church or with another member of the Church. They might not like what the wider Church is doing, and don’t see why they should do anything to support the Church from that point of view. They might not like the vicar and on that basis don’t see what they should do anything to support their parish church, at least as long as that vicar is there. They might have a problem with other members of the congregation and won’t support the parish church because the don’t see why they should help “them”, “that lot”. But to those who feel like this, I have to say, if you won’t use your gifts and talents for the Church for any of these reasons, you’ve completely misunderstood what using your gifts and talents in and for the Church is all about. If you won’t use your gifts and talents to support your parish church because of some personal issue with the vicar or anyone else there, you’ve not only misunderstood what using your gifts and talents in and for the Church is all about, you’re also risking the very future of your parish church. If you won’t use your gifts and talents to support your parish church as long as that vicar or that person or those people are there, you might not have a parish church to support when those people aren’t there.
Using our gifts and talents in the Church and for the Church isn’t about using them to support any person or group of people, it’s about using them in God’s service. We call the Church, the Body of Christ, and so using our gifts and talents in and for the Church is about using them for Christ. Again this is something that’s made blindingly obvious in the Scriptures. In his Letter to the Colossians, St Paul spells it out for us in unmistakable terms:
‘Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.’
So what we do in and for the Church, we don’t do for anyone but Christ. And the inheritance St Paul is talking about is the reward Jesus speaks about in this morning’s Gospel; to join our master in his happiness, to join Christ in heaven.
God has given all of us, each and every one of us, talents, gifts and abilities that we can use in his service and in the service of Christ and his Church. But it’s up to us whether or not we use those talents in that way. So we have a choice to make, are we going to ‘bite the bullet’ and at least try do those things that we’ve not done before, the things we think we might find hard, or perhaps even think we can’t do? Or are we going to carry on making excuses and letting other people bear the burden of supporting Christ and his Church for us? I’m sure we all want the reward promised to good and faithful servants, the reward of eternal happiness with Christ, our Lord and Master, but why should we expect other people to earn it for us by their hard work while we sit back, do nothing, and let them do it all? Or, to put it another way, Jesus asked us to take up our cross and follow him; why should we think it’s OK to let someone else carry our cross for us? Do we, especially those who won’t use their gifts and talents to support Christ and his Church, think that’s fair?
Each and every one of us has a choice to make; are we going to use our gifts and talents in God’s service and in the service of Christ and his Church or are we not?, in which case we might as well bury them in the ground. It’s a choice between whether we want to be happy with Christ, or to weep and grind our teeth in the darkness? God has given us that choice, but it is ours to make and it’s a choice we do have to make.
Amen.
Propers for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (2nd before Advent) 19th November 2023
Entrance Antiphon
The Lord says: my plans for you are peace and not disaster;
when you call to me, I will listen to you,
and I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.
The Collect
Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil,
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory,
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Psalm 128:1-5
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Matthew 25:14-30
RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
Psalm 90:1-12
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 