Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 through 30:
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. yYou have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Tom Long, Biblical scholar and former Second B adult retreat leader, says the key to understanding this text is to remember another saying Jesus spoke in the book of Matthew: "The eye is lamp of the body. If the eye is full of light, your whole body is full of light; if the eye is full of darkness the whole body is full of darkness.
"What you see is what you get," we say. And it may be that how we see things determines exactly what we get.
This is probably especially true for God. If, like the first two men in Jesus' parable, we take note of all that we've been given and therefore see God as a Master of generosity and magnanimity, then we will serve God diligently and with joy. On the other hand, if like the third man in the parable, we see God as a hard and demanding taskmaster then that'll be the God we either serve -- backbreaking my and without joy -- or reject callously.
Way back in the 1960s a boy in Sunday School at Second B told his teacher Chester Marston that he didn't believe in God. "Oh," said Chester, "well tell me about this God you don't believe in." The boy then described a god of trifle, vengeance and wrath. "Well," Chester said after listening to the boy, "I don't believe in a god like that either."
The eye is the lamp of the body and the light of the soul.
#BeLight
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