In Matthew 25. 14 - 30 we have a very familiar parable given by



Jesus. It is the scripture concerning the parable of the talents, in

which a rich man gives five talents of money to a servant, about

?600 or $US1000, and two to another servant and one to a third.

They were expected to use the money to produce more money for

for their master who would collect it when he returned.

The song written and sung by Billie Holiday enshrines an aspect of

this parable in the phrase "Them that has shall gain, Them that aint

shall lose..." This is because, while the first and second servants

return 100% accruals on their talents, the third had done nothing

with his talent and returned 0%. So the master said: "`Take the

talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.

For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an

abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken

from him..."

TALENTS AND ABILITIES

Not least because of the common meaning of "talent" in English,

this parable is usually understood in a wider sense than money,

although that is not excluded. Yet this is also central to the

context which Jesus himself sets. The servants received amounts

in proportion to the ability of each one.

So the importance of what the first two returned to their master

was not the absolute amounts of 10 talents and four talents,

but the fact that they had used their abilities to increase what

they had been given. Both actually returned 100% of what they had

been given. The ability of the first had allowed him to handle a

greater sum; the second servant, having the ability to handle only

two talents, nonetheless used that ability to bring in a 100% return.

This relationship between "talents" and "abilities" is crucial for

understanding what is required of us in our spiritual lives as

Christians. We all have abilities -- every one of us. Whether we

have more or less than someone else is unimportant to God. What is

important is how we use the abilities we have. These abilities may be

innate, having been acquired through genetic inheritances from

our parents, or they may be acquired abilites gained through, say,

the skills we pickup in employment or which are developed through

education and academic study. How we come by them does not matter.

What matters is what we do with them.

Similarly, we all receive "talents", if we understand "talents" to mean

the opportunities we are presented with to use our abilities on.

TALENTS BEGET TALENTS

Our genetic inheritance is something we need to regard as given

and is not something we can do much about. But those abilities

themselves can be used more or less effectively to generate what

we have just called "acquired abilities". Jesus calls on us to use

the existing abilities we have in the most effective way we can. Yet

it is important to realise that we generate acquired abilities through

our efforts at work and in education and training.

USING ABILITIES AND TALENTS SPREAD THE KINGDOM

Being a Christian means doing our best, and working as effectively

as we can, in whatever activity we are engaged in. Why? Because

this is the way the kingdom of God is spread.

We are tempted sometimes to think that spreading the kingdom is

purely a matter of verbally preaching the gospel. That is

important, but the kingdom is also spread, and perhaps often more

effectively, simply by the way we live.

We are called to follow the example of Jesus. And Jesus lived

every part of his life for his Father and to fulfill his Father's

will. We are called to do no less than also to "preach" the gospel

by the way we live: seeing that the moral strands of our lives are

securely woven into the fabric of Jesus' example, but also fully

using all our abilities in all our activities. We are all given

"talents", sometimes in the form of money, but more frequently,

and every day, as the chance to develop all kinds of opportunities

and to return 100% to the Father on each one of them.