Only Risk-Takers Grow
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Transcript of a sermon by Rev. Elder Dwayne Johnson, Metropolitan Community Church of Washington DC, November 15, 2020. Video on YouTube.
God, we praise you today for the spiritual gift of courage that rises from our hearts. We pray that you would give us the courage to live the lives you’re calling us to live: spiritually free in you. May the song of encouragement rise in our hearts again and again and again. Amen.
Sixty years ago — on November 14th, 1960—courage took a walk to school. Six year old Ruby Bridges took a walk to her first day of school, but it was not a usual walk. It was not a typical walk. It was a courageous walk. In fact, she was escorted by four federal marshals. All the way to school, she faced the abuse of crowds shouting at her. She was first black student to attend William Frantz elementary school in new Orleans.
Ruby and her parents took a courageous risk that day, that the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling would hold true. That desegregation would hold true and be true for Ruby. That first year attending school, all the white students in her class pulled out. So it was just Ruby and her teacher, and it never got easier. The continued abuse happened throughout that year and the crowds continued to hurl insults. They even showed up one day with a small baby coffin with a black baby doll in the coffin. Ruby talked about the nightmares that caused her. Yet she continued to get up every day and make that courageous walk. The next year, eight black students joined her in class.
The Supreme Court decision gave Ruby and her family an opportunity. It was not an easy opportunity, but it was one they seized courageously.
We, too, have been given opportunities in our lives. We have been given much. What will we do with what we have been given?
What courageous risk will we take?
I had some internal debate about whether to preach a sermon on risk-taking, given what we’re going through right now with the pandemic. So there’s one caution I would like to offer. I’m not suggesting that we take the risk of not physically distancing or not wearing masks. That’s not the kind of risk we’re talking about here. Sometimes there’s a fine line between faith and stupidity, and we believe in science here. So I’m not suggesting that we take our mask off and expect God to protect us from our own stupidity. I’m talking about spiritual risks. I’m talking about moving out of our comfort zones. I’m talking about stepping out in faith that expands our own lives and expands the lives around us. I’m talking about us listening to the deep call and then moving beyond our fears to live that call. That’s what’s happening in our scripture today. We’ve been given much. Will we protect it or risk it?
The land owner in our scripture invites three stewards to take a risk. The land owner gives them money to invest. Two of them invest the money and it bears great interest. Matthew 25 speaks about the landowner coming back and seeing how their risk has paid off and with great promise saying, “Well done, you are good and faithful stewards. Since you were trustworthy in small matters, I will put you in charge of larger affairs. Come, share my joy.”
When we move forward in risky faith, when we move forward towards new possibilities, we have the opportunity to share the joy. The invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to an adventure of faith. Now, Jesus is not saying in this parable that the promises ahead of us will be easy. In fact, there are blocks to the promises, with fear being the primary block.
Fear is a block to this adventure of faith. Fear is a block to joy.
One of the stewards in our story is afraid of risk and buries the money. In so doing, they’re burying the opportunity, burying possibility and burying joy. When the land owner asks, “Why did you bury the money?” The steward responds with three words in verse 25. “I was afraid.” Fear leads to the downfall of the third steward.
Only risk-takers grow.
Jesus taught us this and Jesus was authentic to his own message, growing with risk in his own ministry. Jesus is the one who had no place to lay his head. Yet he stepped out and lived and taught with an open heart. Jesus then called those who found their security in fishing nets to follow him, to put the nets down and to release what little they had for an adventure of faith. That opened the way to new possibilities for themselves and for others.
“Follow me,” Jesus says, “Put down that which is holding you back and move forward with open hands and an open heart.” Step by step, day by day, breath by breath, new opportunities will open. In fact, when you open yourself to all that is ahead, even miracles become possible. “Take a risk with me,” Jesus says, “we will take that risk together.”
Jesus had a choice during the last week of his life. He could have stayed in the relative safety of Galilee, but instead Jesus left the safety of Galilee for the risk of Jerusalem, where he would be seen as disturber of the peace. Jesus took a risk on us. Jesus took a risk on showing us that he would be with us through all seasons and all times. Jesus came to extend unconditional love, which meant sharing and knowing our conditions.
Because of the risks that Jesus took, we can face anything—no matter how difficult — knowing that Jesus, too, has gone through difficult times and is with us during those times, including what we’re experiencing right now.
The call of Jesus is to invest and to invest deeply: to invest our lives, to let go of all that keeps us small and to take on that which will expand us and help expand others. Invest deeply. Care deeply. To take a risk on Jesus is to give our hearts away and to risk everything on the possibilities that God holds for us. Be pro-risk and anti-fear.
Only risk-takers grow.
“To lose is to gain,” says Jesus. He invites us to ponder such a paradox, even while moving forward in Holy ambiguity.
Our view of God influences our willingness to risk. Thus our misconceptions about God distort our actions. We see that at play in our scripture today. Verse 24 has the steward responding to the landowner saying, “Knowing your harshness, you who reap where you did not sow and gather where you did not scatter and fearing your anger, I went off and buried your thousand dollars in the ground. Here is your money back.”
The steward had a distorted perception of what was happening in this scripture: a distorted perception that the land owner was harsh. One thing to be clear about this parable is that the landowner does not represent God. Some have interpreted it this way, and God is therefore viewed as someone who is harsh, ready to send us into eternal punishment. Other commentators make it clear that the land owner really is just a land owner, and we’re going to face people like that in our lives. It will take courage to face cruel and harsh people in our lives. But the land owner is not God.
Our God is a God who created us and believes in us and invites us and calls us worthy. Our God is a God who says “You are worthy of investing your life in things that really matter. Know that you can make a valuable difference in the world by using the gifts that you have been given. So don’t bury your talents. Don’t bury your gifts. Don’t bury your creativity, your ideas, your talents, open yourselves in worthiness and bring that worthiness into the world. Go ahead and take that walk because it will change not only your life, but the life of someone else.”
Only risk-takers grow.
Distorted perceptions cause distorted fear. Reflecting on this scripture, J.M. Buchanan says, “The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is not to risk anything, not to care deeply and profoundly enough about anything to invest deeply, to give your heart away and in the process to risk everything. The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is to play it safe, to live cautiously and prudently.”
Only risk-takers grow.
To grow is our growing edge. In what ways are we being called to risk as individuals? As a congregation, in what ways are we being called risk during this season and this time? Today, we benefit from a risk taken by our Board of Directors several years ago. The Board of Directors took a risk on live stream. Given all the financial challenges and priorities at that time, some wondered “Is this a good investment?” Some wondered “Why now?” We continue to talk about our vision of expanding. Our welcome mat and live stream is one way of doing that. I, for one, am grateful today that the risk the Board made then is paying off. When we had our last in-person worship service on March 15th, we were ready the next week for our first live-stream-only worship service.
We are called to continue to take new opportunities and new risks. One of the things we’re looking at is expanding more and more into what it means to be a global church. That’s a vision that will extend well beyond the pandemic — a vision that will include all globally. This is going to require the risk of new ways of thinking and ministry and being, and yet it is a risk we are called to take.
Only risk-takers grow.
At MCCDC, we are determined to grow through and beyond the moment we’re now living in. Jesus took a risk on us and we are also called to take a risk, to make a positive difference. A risk on truth. A risk on trust. A risk on vision. Entrusting the growing vision inside us to our God, who calls us to expand. A God who calls us to the growing edge and beyond. What will we do with what we have? What is stirring in our hearts today? God is ready to work with that.
Austin and Ashton Samuelson felt called to make a positive difference in the world. If they did not feel called to traditional ministry, they took a moment and they assessed their gifts. They liked to cook and they were also entrepreneurs. They also checked the passions in their hearts. One of their passions was addressing childhood hunger. So in 2014, they took a business risk and opened a taco restaurant. Even though the restaurant business has very, very thin margins; from the very beginning, they made a commitment that for every taco sold, they would donate the funds for another taco to childhood hunger organizations. So far, the impact of their contributions and risk has reached 60 countries.
Are we ready to take a risk that will reach beyond what we can imagine to help address the needs of our hungry world? To help break through isolation and move to opportunity? The invitation of today’s parable is to be pro-risk and anti-fear. To never take a risk is to never rise. All three of the stewards in our scripture today were given the gift of divine generosity. So let us continue to think about what’s stirring in our hearts. What’s moving? What needs to open? What needs to be released? How is fear creating blocks?
This scripture continues to raise important questions. Loretta Ross-Gotta looked at this scripture and invites us to ask these questions:
“What would it be like to trust that the thing you long to do is what God desires for you as well?”
Maybe the desires in our heart are indeed Holy desires that God wants to work through and in. We are worthy to live our God-given desires.“What if you believed that God put the notion in your head in the first place?”
“What would it be like to stop thinking of your heart’s desire as impossible, but rather as totally possible through God’s power?”
Sometimes we hold back because we don’t see how what we want can happen. God takes what seems impossible and makes it possible.
What will we do with the divine generosity extended to each one of us?
Only risk-takers grow.
So let us look well to the growing edge. Amen and amen.
