• Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
• Psalm 128:1-5
• 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
• Matthew 25:14-30

What is the connection between what God does and what we do? Sometimes we find ourselves thinking that God is all-powerful, so it doesn’t matter what we do; God’s will is done, whatever way you cut the cookie. But it isn’t quite like that, for God, astonishingly enough, invites our co-operation in making the world the way it is supposed to be, and the readings for next Sunday reflect on that remarkable fact.

The first reading is a famous one, meditating on the gift that is a “woman of valour” or “a worthy wife”. “Her husband puts his trust in her, and lacks nothing,” it says, before giving a list of all the things that she does, and her ability to manage the household. We should notice that among the many things that she does “she extends her hands to the poor, and reaches out to the needy”, so she is clearly in line with the strict demands of the God of the Old Testament. The reading concludes with what we should have seen all along, that she is “a woman who fears YHWH”; and so she must be “given of the fruit of her hands, let her works praise her at the gates [of the city]”.

The psalm likewise traces a link between domestic bliss and “fear of YHWH, walking in his ways”. Someone who lives like that will have “good fortune and happiness”; and his wife will be “like a fruitful vine” (which is presumably intended as a compliment) and their children “like olive shoots around your table”. Once again we hear mention of “fearing the Lord”, and a petition, “May YHWH bless you from Sion, may you see good fortune in Jerusalem, all the days of your life.”

That does not mean, however, that those who are the Lord’s disciples know all that is going on, as Paul has to remind the Thessalonians in the second reading. “You have no need for me to write to you, brothers and sisters, about times and seasons” (which probably means that they were asking about just that very thing), “because you know full well that the Day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night”. What they have to do is to remain in their status as “children of the light and children of day”. So what they have to say to themselves about co-operating with God’s word is “let’s stay awake and sober”.

So to the gospel for next Sunday; this is often called the “parable of the talents”. We shall do well to remember here that a “talent” is simply a very large sum of money. The setting is that of a prosperous business-person going overseas, and dividing his property among his servants. We need to be startled here at the generosity of God, and recognise that when you encounter generosity, the only possible response to it is further generosity; and we are told that what each of the servants got was “according to their abilities”. Notice how rapidly the first two respond, and double their, or rather God’s, investment; then look at No. 3. See how the story slows down at this point, as he “dug earth, and hid his Lord’s money”. We just know that he is getting it wrong.

So we are not very surprised when the Lord’s prolonged absence ends, and the day of reckoning comes. Once again, servants 1 and 2 are rapidly dealt with; both are congratulated (“good and faithful servant”), and invited to “enter into the joy of your Lord”. Then, once again, the story slows down as No. 3 gives his long excuse, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and harvesting where you did not scatter, and I was afraid {this is not the ‘fear of the Lord’ spoken of in the previous readings} and went off and hid your talent in the ground. Look; you’ve got what is yours”. But “what is yours” is not what God wants of us; what God invites us to is a co-operation that, to our astonishment, yields far more than we should ever have imagined possible. And that is what No. 3 has rejected. So he loses his one talent, and, what is more, is flung into the outer darkness. And what about us, this week? Are we going to co-operate with the Lord’s invitation to us to do something new? Or are we going to sulk and do nothing?