{"id":6908,"date":"2020-11-29T14:53:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T04:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6908"},"modified":"2020-11-29T14:53:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T04:53:09","slug":"using-your-talents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/using-your-talents\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Your Talents"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

New Testament Passage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>14 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>\u201cFor the kingdom of heaven\nis like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and\ndelivered his goods to them. 15 <\/sup><\/strong>And to one he gave\nfive talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his\nown ability; and immediately he went on a journey.16 <\/sup><\/strong>Then\nhe who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made\nanother five talents. 17 <\/sup><\/strong>And likewise he who had received two gained two more\nalso. 18 <\/sup><\/strong>But he who had received one went and dug\nin the ground, and hid his lord\u2019s money. 19 <\/sup><\/strong>After a\nlong time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>\u201cSo he who had received five talents\ncame and brought five other talents, saying, \u2018Lord, you delivered to me five\ntalents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.\u2019 21 <\/sup><\/strong>His\nlord said to him, \u2018Well done, good\nand faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will\nmake you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.\u201922 <\/sup><\/strong>He\nalso who had received two talents came and said, \u2018Lord, you delivered to me two\ntalents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.\u2019 23 <\/sup><\/strong>His\nlord said to him, \u2018Well done, good\nand faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you\nruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>\u201cThen he who had received the one\ntalent came and said, \u2018Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you\nhave not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 <\/sup><\/strong>And\nI was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

26 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>\u201cBut his lord answered and said to him,\n\u2018You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown,\nand gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 <\/sup><\/strong>So\nyou ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would\nhave received back my own with interest. 28 <\/sup><\/strong>So take\nthe talent from him, and give it to\nhim who has ten talents.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

29 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>\u2018For to everyone who has, more will be given,\nand he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has\nwill be taken away. 30 <\/sup><\/strong>And cast the unprofitable\nservant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing\nof teeth.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. The Master distributed his talents unevenly amongst his servants, perhaps knowing each one\u2019s ability to handle the talents. On his return, he rewarded both servants with the same words: \u201cEnter into the Joy of your Lord.<\/em>\u201d What does this show us about Christ\u2019s expectations from me? How can I tell if I am dealing with my talents appropriately? <\/li>
  2. On the master\u2019s return, he began to settle his accounts with his servants. What did he expect to receive from each of them? What might He expect to receive from us? <\/li>
  3. The servant who had one talent didn\u2019t lose it, yet he was still punished. What does this tell us about how Christ might perceive us if we do not commit evil deeds, but at the same time are not striving to practice righteous works? <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Old Testament Passage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0Genesis 4 3-7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And in the\nprocess of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the\nfruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 <\/sup><\/strong>Abel\nalso brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And\nthe Lord respected Abel and\nhis offering, 5 <\/sup><\/strong>but He did not respect Cain and his\noffering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>So the Lord said\nto Cain, \u201cWhy are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 <\/sup><\/strong>If\nyou do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at\nthe door. And its desire is\nfor you, but you should rule over it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    1. St Gregory the Great comments that the servant who was afraid to invest the talent for interest, like Cain, should have rather been afraid only of bringing it back to his master without interest. Many people in the church resemble that servant: they are afraid to attempt a better way of life. They perceive themselves as sinners, but they are too afraid to try to return to the path of holiness, whilst not having any fear at remaining in their wickedness. Peter is a good example of this. When he was still weak, he saw the miracle of the fish and said, \u201cDepart from me, O Lord, because I am a sinful man.\u201d St Gregory writes: \u201cIf you regard yourself as a sinner, it is only right that you not drive God away from you!\u201d How can we teach ourselves not to be afraid of returning to God, but rather fear remaining in sin? <\/li>
    2. St Gregory the Great teaches that \u201cburying in the ground\u201d is as if he chose to focus on earthly affairs, rather than failing to seek spiritual profit. What are some common barriers to me not investing my talents? <\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      New Testament Passage Matthew 25  14 \u201cFor the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.16 Then he who had … Continue reading “Using Your Talents”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[357,358],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-groups","category-small-groups-small-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6910,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions\/6910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}