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Sunday Message for September 3, 2006
Acting Out Abundance
This is a magnificent universe, an opulent, abundant
universe. But it is also unfinished.
God has completed the all-important spiritual side (the kingdom of His potential). He
has also set in motion a universal creation process, supported by an ever-available
supply of infinite latent qualities. And, He has seen to it that it is
guided by a master plan of good toward the perfect manifestation of a divine
purpose.
God has also involved each of us in His creative process. As his spiritual
image and likeness, the fullness of His potential and nature are vested in
us. (As Jesus said, (Luke 17:21) “the kingdom of God is within you.")
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS
Today’s talk is about God’s waiting storehouse
of spiritual resources in us. It is based on Jesus’ story,
found in Matthew, chapter 25 verses 14-30, called “The Parable of
the Talents” The parable is about the kingdom of heaven. (Heaven comes from a root word that conveys
expanding potential.) This story compares the kingdom of heaven to
a rich man with three servants. The master of the house, before going
away on a long journey, gave each of his three servants money to invest
and increase for him while he was away. To one servant he gave five
talents, to another three talents, and to the third one talent.
This parable is sometimes confused with another one recorded in Luke which
is much like it except that it is in terms of pounds. The
only significant difference in this story is that the master gave the servants equal amounts
of money to invest. In both parables, when the master returned, he demanded
an accounting of the investment that the servants were to have gained by trading.
In the “Parable of the Talents,” two servants doubled their investments.
In the “Parable of the Pounds,” two servants also did very well
in increasing their amounts: one by ten pounds, another by five. To all
these successful servants in both stories, the master essentially said:
“Well done, good and faithful servants. You have been faithful
over a few things, I will now make you ruler of many things. Enter into
the joy of the Lord.”
But also in both stories is the example of a servant who did nothing because
he was afraid to lose what he already had. In both cases, the master
scolded the unsuccessful servant and took away what originally had been given
him, giving it instead to the servants who had succeeded.
Both stories end: (Matthew 25:29) “For to all those who have, more will be given,
and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what
they have will be taken away.” Matthew
continues: (Matthew 25:30) “As for this worthless slave, throw him into the
outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
PARABLE MEANING
We can conclude several things from these two parables. First,
God endows in each of us spiritual investments
– latent potentials and qualities of His nature that make up our essential
talents. Perhaps in the Parable of the Pounds we are meant to realize
that in the beginning we are all created equal. That, as the United States
Constitution says, we are all given equal spiritual endowments, as God’s
image. We are created equal, but we were not born equal nor do we stay
equal. The Parable of the Talents deals with this extended aspect.
Remember that in these two parables, Jesus is teaching us something important
about the kingdom of spiritual potential originally vested in us and its development
in us.
He is telling us that, from a spiritual perspective, God has given each of
us extraordinary gifts and extraordinary qualities of Spirit that can be used
by us in developing our lives. If we make right use of them, we’ll
become more like Him, and we shall find life increasing in meaning, beauty,
and value.
Among the richest gifts are those represented by the twelve powers. All
these twelve gifts of Spirit are on loan to us from God, and we are to use
the creativity of Jesus Christ to develop them. As He said, (John 14:10) “the Father who dwells in me does his works.” But He also said, (John 5:17) “My Father is still working,
and I also am working." – a
Father-Son creative partnership! God’s contribution is infinitely
greater than ours, but our part is very important too.
USE IT OR LOSE IT
The emphasis of these two parables is not on the amount
of the gifts, but on how we use what we have. The principle of the
kingdom of heaven is growth, the evolution of spiritual potential. The
law of life, therefore, is use or lose. This is true on every level
of life, be it physical, mental, emotional, social, or financial. And
of course it is true on the spiritual level.
It is the very nature of our endowments, attributes, and talents (no matter
how great or small) to be used and shared or they become worthless. When
we bury any asset with nonuse, we lose all benefits from it.
Unused talents are like a sundial in the shade. We are never rewarded
in life according to our talents, but rather according to what we do with them. Abilities
and capacities always grow with wise use, and it is true that those who have
- get more, and those who have not - lose what they have. If we have
gained knowledge, it is inevitable that we will receive more. The same
is true with physical strength, friends, opportunities, peace, tolerance, forgiveness,
love – any and all the qualities and attributes of life.
They are all developed and multiplied by use and lost by nonuse. Each
of us has many talents; yet, if we have only one talent of which we are aware,
and we use it, it will open to us “the windows of heaven.” It
will open us up to the fullness of life and all its possibilities.
TALENTS
Perhaps you wonder what your latent talents are. Each
of them is a way to express God, to express good in your life. They
first take form within as, for example, constructive, truth-filled thoughts
and feelings. They find expression as cheerful, optimistic, friendly,
creative, loving words and actions.
We are not to worry or make an issue about what we do not have, we are to do
our best with what we do have – we are to use well the Truth we know
today.
The following once appeared in Unity’s DAILY WORD:
Some years ago an ancient building was razed from
its site in England. The new building
project for which the location was cleared was delayed. In the meantime,
the sunshine and rain upon the bare ground caused plants to grow and flower
that were not indigenous to England soil.
Naturalists came to examine the plants and identified some as coming from seed
of plants which the Romans had brought to that land two thousand years before.
All of us have latent talents that have not been nurtured or exposed
to light and stimulation. Discovering these talents is an invigorating
experience in the adventure of living.
We can increase our confidence in the skills we already have by
putting more love into our present work and cultivating an attitude of gratitude. Right
now we can make the most of possibilities and opportunities that present themselves. And
we can have confidence that we are being led into the right environment where
our abilities and faculties are needed and appreciated.
GO THE EXTRA MILE
Talents are the seeds of God’s creative possibilities
in each of us. We all have them, but they must be germinated and
cultivated. Most people give up far too soon. We have become
a nation of spectators who live vicariously through the “great” and
the
“famous.” This is a mistaken emphasis. In our hearts,
we would all like to be extraordinary people; but, in Jesus’ approach
to life, the promise is that ordinary people can do extraordinary things!
Jesus once pointed out that the ordinary became extraordinary by going the
extra mile. Most of us are willing to do our fair share, but nothing
ever changes that way.
Progress is made by those who add something extra to the ordinary and, therefore,
they become extraordinary.
The scribes and Pharisees had but one job, to keep things the way they were – to
go to any lengths to maintain the status quo. But we can never successfully
do that, for then we bury our own possibilities, and all the promises of the
future.
To gain the kingdom of heaven, and to practice the creativity of Jesus, we
have to be willing to try something exceptional and not just “get by.” A
real Truth student is an exceptional person who should always be doing exceptional
things.
It is of course all a matter of consciousness. We must continually learn
to stretch our consciousness, to go the extra mile, to accomplish exceptional
and extraordinary transformations in our own beliefs and attitudes, and to
express unique and creative manifestations in our lives.
FINANCIAL INCREASE
Jesus linked the lessons of the talents and pounds
to something material – money and finances. He knew that they
represent a powerful control in our deep underlying convictions – that
where our treasure is, so are our hearts. We can easily get entrapped
in the wrong attitudes about money. Yet, Jesus knew that, because
of what it does command in us, we can also use our concepts about money
to uplift our lives.
Our attitudes about finances have a great effect on our health, security, self-image,
and on our total life experience. Jesus talked about abundant life. Abundance,
from His point of view, has far less to do with money than it does with our
attitudes about it. True riches are the riches of consciousness. Jesus’ point
in using monetary units in His illustrations about spiritual resources is that
if we change our attitudes about material possessions for the better, we can
change our lives considerably.
How many talents are hidden in you? You can get a glimmer if you will
accept Jesus’ promise: (John 14:12) “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes
in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works
than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Paul reveals the staggering implications of our own divinity in his insight,
(Colossians 1:27) “this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory.”
How do we discover these unsuspected talents? Shakespeare said, Assume a virtue, if you have it not. Ovid
elaborated, The virtue which lies hidden
unrecognized in times of prosperity asserts itself in adversity. Don’t
wait until your “ship comes in,” learn to act out abundance – the
opulent, abundant treasure of talents of Christ in you.
SPIRITUAL INCREASE
All life proceeds from within.
To rise above your present level of consciousness about life, stretch your
thinking above its average level – use the dynamic law of spiritual
increase. Begin to think, feel, and act as though you now had the
abundance in your life that you wish you had. Begin in your consciousness
to stir up gifts of God within you by being loyal to your divine inheritance. Start
remembering who you are – a child of God.
Learn to think in terms of the qualities within you rather than situations,
events, and circumstances without – the qualities that can be seen in
Jesus Christ, who, by being totally oriented to the kingdom of heaven and the
Father within, was the co-creator with the Father of the best life that has
ever been lived. Practice identifying the divine qualities of life, intelligence,
power, love, and goodness as yours to use – ready and waiting right within
you. Use well what you now have, and the Father will increasingly reward
you with greater expression. Tell yourself, “I am a child of God;
I am rich with the riches of the kingdom of heaven and all its divine potential.” Think,
talk, and act in the name of Jesus – the consciousness of Jesus Christ.
This is not pretending or trying to be something you are not. It is affirming
and expressing a little more of what you really are in Spirit and Truth. It
works for everyone and anyone who will apply it.
One of the most delightful and adventurous dramas
we can experience in our personal lives is the discovery of a hidden talent. But
it is also one of life’s grandest fruitions to use a familiar talent
in a good and faithful way.
Especially use your often neglected talent of positive, constructive, and creative
thinking. Use also your Godlike talent of creative imagination to act
out the “life more abundant” that Jesus Christ talked about. Stretch
your consciousness a little every day. Go the extra mile; dare to try
something new, different, exceptional, and extraordinary. You will find
that the market places of life will open themselves to what you have to offer. Above
all, learn to give of yourself, and you will receive much more than you can
ever give, because you can’t outgive God!
REFERENCE: Great Dramas of the Bible William Earle Cameron
SCRIPTURE: Luke 17:21; Matthew 25:14-30; John 14:10; John 5:17; John 14:12; Colossians 1:27
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Last updated September 3, 2006
