Excerpt from Matthew 25:14-30 

"You are a good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little."

Reflection by William C. Green

In Jesus' parable of the talents, two servants were given a lot of money and congratulated for investing it wisely. The third also got a lot of money, but not as much, and so he chose to bury it for safekeeping, making Jesus angry. One talent equaled a lifetime of earnings! There wasn't much difference between getting 5,000 and 2,000 talents, as the first two servants did, and 1,000, as the third did.

But even many lifetimes of money Jesus calls 'a little" next to what really counts: faithfully investing our hearts and souls in what's right at hand. As with the third servant, our ideas of "big" and "little" can distort both what we do and what needs doing.

A prominent social activist said to a fine author who felt he was just writing books when he ought to be on the front lines of protest and going to jail: "You need to do what you do best. Quit moaning and do it!"

A woman at a friend's church, when asked to help with coffee hour the next Sunday, said, "I want to do something really important." The words of Jesus give me pause since I'd probably resist that task, too: If I can't be faithful in small things, can I be trusted to be faithful in bigger matters?

We're meant to appreciate much more what we can already do. It's not as little as it seems!

Prayer

O God, help us remember that none of the good we do is too small to matter. Amen.

About the Author William C. Green is Vice-President for Strategy and Development, Moral Courage Project, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and the author of 52 Ways to Ignite Your Congregation: Generous Giving.

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