Theme:  God has given everyone a cluster of gifts and talents.  God’s gifts are always generous regardless of the size.

Here in my hand, I have a bare stem from a grapevine; it has three grapes on it.  You know when you see this stem that it is an anomaly.  You know something is wrong with it; that someone has taken the grapes off of it.  But here in my other hand, is a large cluster of grapes and there must be a hundred.  You know that this is the way that God makes grapes, in large abundant clusters. 

That is the same way that God makes all human beings. All human beings are made with large clusters of talents, clusters of abilities, clusters of aptitudes, and clusters of resources.  God is enormously generous with each one of us.

Your gifts are the sum total of all the resources that God has given to you. 

Your gifts or talents are not just your genetic abilities and natural aptitudes, although these are part of your gifts.  Many of your most precious gifts are qualities and resources that have been developed in you over time.  That is the way it always is. Talents, resources and abilities are developed over time. There is no exception to that.

We know that God wants us to use these gifts. God wants us to use our God-given gifts, however varied and numerous those gifts are.

What are the talents that God has given to you?  What are the talents that God has poured into you? 

Mary Schramm has written a book entitled, GIFTS OF GRACE.  She suggests that there are five steps in ascertaining and using your gifts, and I would like to walk through those steps with you.

The first step is to discover your gifts, and you always discover your gifts in relationship.  You rarely or never discover your gifts in isolation.  You discover your gifts through your parents, teachers, coaches, instructors, friends and others. Other people help you to discover your gifts.

The second step is to accept the gifts that God has given you.  This is the art of maturity, learning to accept the gifts that God has given to you and not given to you.  A key thermometer is how jealous and envious you are of other people and their gifts.  If you are jealous and envious of other people’s giftedness or feel inferior, chances are you have not really accepted your own blend of gifts that God has given to you.  One of the primary keys of life is to accept the gifts that God has uniquely given you, your unique blend of talents, aptitudes, abilities, life experiences, the sum total of all your resources.  That means to accept the gifts you don’t have, get on with life, and use the God given gifts that you have been given.

The third step is to enjoy your God-given gifts.  To take pleasure in them, to appreciate what God can do through your life.

The fourth step is to mature or develop those gifts.  Like all gifts, they need to be put to work, to be exercise, developed.  Nothing in this world becomes stronger without hard work and investment of time, self and energy.  Just to rely on native talent and avoid the hard work of developing that gift will lead you nowhere, but will cheapen your gift and you as a person.  We all know people who live off their gifts and resources and not truly discipline themselves.

And the fifth step involves all of the steps, and this is to surrender all your gifts to God.  It means to give all of your gifts to Jesus Christ. If you don’t, you will use your gifts for your own benefit…to glorify yourself or to satisfy yourself. And it’s either/or; one way or another; there is no middle ground.  Either you give your gifts to the service of Christ and his mission in this world, or you don’t. 

When you discover your gifts, use your gifts, and surrender your gifts, you are doing the will of God for your life.  Many people ask, “What is God’s will for my life?”  Very simply, you do God’s will in your life when you discover, surrender, and use your gifts to bless the world around you.  It’s not that difficult.  People make “finding and doing the will of God” such a complex issue. To do the will of God is to discover and use your God-given resources to make the world a better place

In our society, a talent is not a measure of the amount of silver but a measure of the amount of gifts/resources/abilities that God has given to each one of us. While the owner/God is away on a journey (although God is never really away from us), we are to use the varying gifts/resources/abilities that God has given to each of us.

The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. This slave was industrious with the capital that his master had entrusted him and he doubled the money.

-In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. This slave doubled the money.

Notice that the “five talent” person and the “two talent” person did not get into psychological games about who had the most talent. They didn’t get into games about “I am superior because God gave me five talents” or “I am half as good because God gave me only two talents.” There were no “comparison games” being played here.

Both people realized that their master and owner had given them resources and they were both to use these resources to benefit their master. That was simple and clear. They had to turn in an account of how they had used the gifts that the owner/God entrusted to them.

Similarly, Christ is our master and owner and has lent us our resources/gifts/abilities and we are to use these God-given resources to benefit our master. I am not to play the “comparison games” and compare the resources that God has entrusted to me with the resources that God has entrusted to someone else. 

-But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. Here is the problem. One slave buried the gift that the master had given him.  It seems that this slave was embarrassed that God gave him only one talent and so he went and buried the talent that God had given him.

Remember this talent was not meager in and of itself: it was worth three years of wage. Three years of wages is a considerable sum of money. But compared to the servants who had been given fifteen years of wages or six years of wages, the gift of three years of wages seemed meager to the person who was given one talent.

Similarly, God has been generous to all of us, including those who feel that God has not given them sufficient gifts. Every one of us has received clusters of talents, clusters of gifts, clusters of resources.

We as human beings can bury treasures/resources that God has given each one of us. We can minimize God’s gifts to us and complain, “I have been given only one talent.” The one talent person may claim that God/the Master is a harsh owner, judgmental and to be feared. God’s harshness is used as an excuse for not being faithful and not using his/her one talent for God. The “one talent” man/woman needs to find an excuse for not being faithful in the use of his/her talents and the clever excuse for disobedience is to blame God.

The point is: One talent is worth three years wages. The owner didn’t need to lend even one talent, but he generously did. God’s gifts are always generous regardless of the size.

Just as the cluster of grapes, remember that God has given you and I clusters of talents, clusters of resources, clusters of gifts. God wants us to use these gifts to bring blessings to the world around us.

By Rev. Edward Markquart