From 60kg of gold to an athletic gifting - an exploration of the word "talent" in our last Chapel.
For our last full school Chapel this week, we looked at Jesus' Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30).
In this story, Jesus tells of a master who goes on an extended trip and leaves his wealth to three trusted servants to care for. He leaves each servant a number of "talents" proportionate to their abilities. The Greek word used here is talanton and actually refers to a unit of mass or weight, likely in this story to have represented around 60kg of gold per talanton. A significant sum of money! Its use as a metaphor in this story by Jesus has led to the evolution of our current use of the word "talent" to represent abilities rather than financial wealth.
The first servant receives five talents to care for. He dutifully invests this and by the time the master has returned, he is able to give back ten talents to his master. Likewise, the second servant is trusted with two talents and similarly returns four talents on his master's return.
Both these servants are invited to share in their master's happiness and are generously praised. However, the final servant, who has only one talent to care for, buries it. He is afraid and therefore can only return the one talent, ungained upon. His master scolds him severely, removes his single talent from him, and casts him out.
My message to our boys this week was that God has given ALL of them talents. Some of us may have more than others—but all have been given differing gifts and abilities. I am very certain that each student—even all of our youngest Year 7's—is more talented and capable at something than me.
From this story, we see how Jesus cares much more about us being faithful with what we have, not about whatever skills or abilities we happen not to possess. Making the most of our abilities is what defines us—not that which we happen not to be skilled at.
Above our library entrance, we have Jesus' words: "From those to whom much is given, much is expected" to remind us of this as we go about our work each day.
Our challenge for this term is to use our talents faithfully!
God Bless,
Mike
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