Sermon for Sunday, 15 November, 2026
Judges 4:1-10
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
Working out God’s purpose for our lives can be an impossible task. If only he would write it out for us in black and white, then we would be able to live in full confidence that we are walking in step with the Lord!
There is an idea in our Christian religion, one that is uniquely Christian, and to which we owe a lot to the working out of ideas during the back-and-forth of the Reformation centuries: that of vocation, or calling. This is the idea that God does indeed have a specific job for each of us to do. Every single human being has been deliberately and uniquely created and placed on this earth by God in order to, through his providence, bring about his good purpose.
Now, if we were to take this Christian doctrine of vocation, and loop back around to our original problem, of trying to work out what that is, then we can breathe a sigh of relief: God has, in fact, written out for us in black and white exactly what he wants us to do! Our readings today, each in their own way, give us a way of figuring out our individual callings.
The big one comes from the Parable Of The Talents. Our Lord teaches us to think of our lives as an investment by God, and that God expects a return on his investment. This might sound cold and calculating, but it is what Jesus is teaching. When he uses the term “talents”, he is not using it in our modern, English way. This word comes from the Greek “talenton”, which is a way of measuring a large amount of currency. Think of it like the gold bullion you see in a bank heist movie. A talent is a big slab of gold or silver, used as a standard measure for calculating huge purchases. The ancient world used it a lot; these days, we can process transactions between mega corporations of millions of dollars using computers. Imagine if you didn’t have a computer! You would use several different tools, one of them being a set of talents.
A master is divvying out his wealth by handing out talents to his servants, so that when he is away, they can invest the money, and when the master returns, he will see a return on his investment. Two double their master’s money, while the third is so terrified he buries it. “Better safe than sorry” he thinks – to his doom: “cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” What does this say about God’s calling on our lives? Several things. But this morning, I want to focus on just one thing: the enormous value God has placed on us, that Jesus would speak of the enormous wealth of “talents”. And I will come back to this later.
For now, let us look at the other two readings, and see where the theme of calling appears. The book of Judges, chapter four, gives us a warning: a warning about when you get a clear call, but you dawdle on that calling. This is because God’s calling is not always difficult to hear, but it might be difficult to follow.
Look a how the passage begins: And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. This does not bode well for what follows! We have the classic pattern of the book of Judges: the people do evil, they come under attack, they ask God for help, and God raises someone up to fight off the baddies. This time, however, the one who God has raised up is a bit of a wussy baby. Barak does not carry himself particularly well. Deborah, a prophetess, calls Barak, and points out to him “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?”
Barak knows what God wants him to do, and doesn’t want to do it. He has to be nagged into it by Deborah. And this is where the warning for us lies: if you are aware of what God’s calling is, then stop dragging your feet, and do it! I speak from personal experience: if you know what God wants you to do, don’t delay!
Barak is such a wussy baby that he says he will only go if Deborah goes with him. More dragging of feet! And Deborah’s response is something no man wants to hear: “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” This is a warning for all men especially. Step up and do your part in the life of the church, otherwise God will take your glory from you, and sell it into the hand of a woman! But for women as well, the broader application stands: if you know what God wants you to do, don’t wait any longer. Get moving.
Then we heard from St Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians. We have been travelling through this letter the past few weeks, and we hopefully know the main theme by now: Christ’s return is at any moment, so watch and wait. But what about our calling? There are two aspects here we can look to. The first is to ourselves; the second to those around us. Our calling is not so complicated and difficult to figure out as we may think: we are to make sure we are growing in the faith, and to make sure we are looking after those around us.
5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
Who am I? A child of light. What is my calling? To keep awake, be sober, put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. That is growing as a Christian. Live in the light; keep a clear head; make sure you are always living in faith and love, guarding your mind with the hope of your salvation. The second aspect is just as simple:
11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Who are the people around you? There is your calling.
I know many people who watch too much international news and get needlessly stressed about things they have no control over. The world is filled with awful things, yes. But God has placed people into those situations too! What about the situation you are in? God has entrusted you with a little; are you faithful in that? Or, as my wife likes to say, everyone wants to save the world, but no-one wants to do the dishes. Where is the influence in your life? Who has God entrusted you with? Who are the eternal souls that you spend your days and weeks with, the ones God instructs you (through his apostle) to encourage and build up? There is your calling.
So our calling can be obvious, and if it is, we must answer immediately, lest God take the glory from us and give it to a woman, like how Barak’s glory was given to Jael and her tent peg. Or, we might need help discerning our calling, and need to simply look at ourselves and those around us to see where it is.
But I said at the beginning that we must understand how Jesus sees us and our calling, and that I would return to that, and now I will.
We are God’s investment. We are like servants who have been given a fabulous amount of money: even the servant who was given one talent was given such an enormous amount of money none of us here would know how to spend it all, and to another he gave two, and yet another five.
It makes perfect sense when we realise why Jesus came to earth. Though he is the Second Person of God, he thought there was something so valuable it was worth humbling himself, coming to earth in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, and taking the punishment for our sins upon himself, suffering the cosmic and eternal consequence for our wickedness in his body. Cast your minds back to when I preached through St Peter’s first letter, where he wrote there:
1:18...you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Your soul is worth more than silver or gold, no matter how much of it is stacked up high like talents or bullion. You are worth nothing less than that of the precious blood Christ. You are the high-flying banker, entrusted with the treasures of heaven, travelling on the private jet of the Holy Spirit to the beautiful places where God wants you to invest, living in the luxury of God’s grace. God has invested in you the precious blood of Christ, and his Holy Spirit, so that you may bring about the eternal returns of the kingdom of heaven. I speak not of Aussie dollars but rather of the power of God working through you for your salvation, and the salvation of those around you.
So I pray you spend this week reflecting on God’s calling on your life. If you have breath today, then he has a plan to use you. There are no surplus Christians. It may be obvious to you; and so consider the example of Barak and answer God swiftly. It may not have been so obvious; and so consider the exhortation of the apostle and look to your soul, and the souls in your immediate circle of influence. But above all, remember the words of your Lord: that you are of great worth, and your contribution to his world is of great worth. So step into your calling with joy and confidence as agents of God.