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Se

WE BELIEVE IN GAMBLING"
‘Ecélesiastes 1:1-11

Matthew 25:14-30

dane 16, 1974 (Father's Day)

. The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most interesting documents in the
eal

7

Bibte.| It's not_used much as a text for preading and it's near the bottom

of the list when Christians are chosing Biblical material to study. In fact,

a rather prominent member of the congregation who shall remain anonymous

expressed some surprise that there was a_book in the Old Testament by that

—e ee |

name.

In any case, there have been a number of efforts down through the centur-

ap

ies to remove Ecclesiastes from the Canon of the Bible and the reason has been

met ee eee
that the author, unknown except that he went under the title "The Preacher,"

seems a little out-of-step with the rest of the Biblical writers.
ee

This author - or editor - was a total realist, perhaps even a pessimist

+o
or fatalist of the "QUE sera-sera" variety.\ In the marvelous prologue @ the

——e

book which I read this morning his basic philosophy is set forth -
(the new Jerusalem Bible translates -)

"A generation goes, a generation comes.
the sun rises, the sun sets.....
All things are wearisome...
What was will be again......
There is nothing new under the sun. *

That really doesn't need much interpretation.\ It's a sentiment that keeps

=e

cropping up in the great and classical literature of the ages:

A well-known line from Macbeth puts it this way:

a

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

to the last syllable of recorded time;

and all our yesterdays have lighted fools

the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

"WE BELIEVE IN GAMBLING -~2~ JUNE 16, 1974
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."} (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5,Line 19)

In our own time, a lot of Titerautre comes up with the same conclusion.
i PD

Life is seen as a “waiting for Godot", but Godot never comes \ a longing

after Shangrila - but Shangrila exists only as a fantasy:\1ife is absurd,

ten od

meaningless.
The preacher ist Ecclesiastes, then, sounds rather relevant if only be-

cause he said things about life that perceptive men have been saying ever

aan |

since.\ In fact, his book describes a man who well might be a kind of contem-
La a me

Aarenianatreie erste

porary prototype:\when all was said and done he really hated lite.\ He was

a successful man} \ "He obtained an excellent education. He drank wine.| He

went into business and became rich.| He married.\He became interested in
a ie ora ire :

horticulture. \ He built a hane. \ He traveled.\ He was elected to high office

in Jerusalem) He had good health, \ He had it nade \ and he hated life." |
eaten esc ier bol see
(Angell, Put Yaur Arms ‘Around ‘the City, P.174}

He sounds very much like the man who said: }"I tried Paim Beach and I

_—

tried Zen.\ I drank the best scotch and I owned a conttnental.| But somehow,

Sienionicins itl iene) Fe naamam tise

nothing seemed to matter very much.”

Or George Sanders, suave and successful actor, who committed suicide in
Perrone | aah

Soot

a Barcelone hotel room several years ago and left a note that reads{ "I'm B ored:

Lense reel

I've lived bng enough."
Now, men have always been pessimistic about life and its possibilities:

but as we Took back through history we see that it has usually been a despair

born of resignation and defeat. \ After all, what did the setf on a feudal

beeen aera —msuee ae anneal

estate in the middle ages have to be optemistic and hopeful about? | Life after

ae . Mebane ead oy

death perhaps, but his expectation level for life in the world was rather

. oe . . . > \
Limited. \ or the Russtan peasant, or the American black in the ghettor | What s

‘MpdaintanbanisliaiiyiZ i tapyiscA RIO

new today ig a despair that seems to result from power and wealth and fluence.

—_—-

A modern theologian identifies it as “Promethean hopelessness" (Moltmann):

baa eal

i.e. the frustration of a man who gets everything he wants - who lives the good

— Ls oad

WE BELIEVE IN GAMBLEING -3- JUNE 16, 1974
life - who has things made - and yet, who still feels empty.

That hits close ta hone. \ All things are relative of course, but in
comparison with our parents ad grandparents: \in cmmparison with almost every-
one in the word, we nave it nage. \ And yet ~ integrety forces us to own up
to moments when we wonder what it ail means - or, in the words of a schmaltzy

= Ce el

pop song, “Is that all there is?"

Well, there ts an alternative to all of that. | there is a lif hiloso-
x . . ow "
phy and life style that sees it all differentiy.\ It i best ‘cana aS it was
a Se So Sen

lived by desus of Nazareth, agu who said things lie (Go sell all that you have

and give to the poor" to a man who sounded like George sanders :\ who_sai said
(‘take up a cross and follows me") ang “it's better to give than to receive’ )

a man who really was outeof step when he suggested that fullness and joy are

Cd See D =o

ere

the result of loving and giving and sacrificing.\ That's still a bit of an
Mii MARNE eet

alien idea,
Lae

Gne time he told a story about a very wealthy man who gave three of his

ee

Set — ce

servants some money md then went away. \ the scholars tell] us that the amounts
were not insignificant: | the first received the equivatent of $10,000, the
second - $5,000, the third - $1,800.) When he returned some time later the

eee

first two had invested in business and doubled their money. THI They were

Laine

handsomely rewarded. \ The third had hid the money under the mattress and
el sa al

bene

returned to his master exactly what he had been given, \ For his efforts -

for his prudence - he was treated as severely as ayone tn the New Testament.

[ne

I am intrigued by two things in that story.\ First, what do you suppose

emia fend
would have happened had one of those first two servants lost the noney?| We
.
have to assume that there was great risk involved - as there always 1s in

_—e

Financial investment. \ We hav to assume that there was at least the possibility

of losing it att \ The riskiness of the venture is magnified by the fact that

it was not their money in te first place and that their master was not known

as a particularly gracious loser. \what wouldhave happened had they gambled

and tost? | I don't know, of course, but I chose to believe that they would not

bei al aie

have been treated as harshly as number three who did not gamble, and theretre

i sen
2c,

"WE BELTEVE IN GAMBLING -4- JUNE 16, 1974

neither won nor tost. \1 think that is what the parable teaches.

Second, I'm intrigued by the severity of the punishment meted aut to this

third servant.\ I'm intrigued because by any measure of fairness he was
a pre dew”

mistrated.\ He had shown himself, after all, to be peedmmen dnd safe and

ee Ty

dependable. \He was no gambler :\ he took no chances ~ he was, according to our

standards, altogether ahirable.\ Yet, as the story concludes he has been
stripped of everything and unceremoniously thrown into the outer darkness.
He didn't gable and_lost.

My growing conviction is that life is boring and dismal when we stop

loving:\when we stop appreciating and loving life itself and other people to

—ane eel

the degree that we will no longer invest or gable \ My growing conviction

baa inl oe

is that our security - our affluence, have taught us to play our cards close

Dee

to the chest:\ to avoid playing poker with life because we might tose.\ And
we end up playing a lonely game of solitaire.

Love is always a gamble ~real love.\ To be hurt in loye:\ to commit
—— eI Tn eel

oneself totally and then hurt is to be wounded so deply that we contemplate

betel — eo

never MERK taking that chance again. \ People sometimes experience that dynamic

indeed

with pets.\ It's not uncommon for a family to refuse to replace Fido when he

dies of old age, becase it hurt so badiy:\they don't want to get that involved
Pam

—c Lideentenemineieninand ——al Latent nal

again.
The terrible pain of gief when a loved-one dies as a product of several

dynamics ~ chief among them our tove.| (x we love hard and deeply, then our

—, _. ed

sorrow will be like that, too. | But it's worth ie) is the way James Angell

i Se nhidhiiahiioeet ee

puts it.

To be hurt professionally - to love life enough to want to do more -
a

ee ee ttaniimin ame aemmeantl

ee aed

is to risk being hurt very badly. \: don't mind sharing with you now that

I've lived with that for six months and it is very painful: and very tempting
inetd,

nl Sd

al
to pull back:\to withdraw; [to not be vulnrab le tam pain by not taking a chance.

To be hurt potitically - to love our country or state or community

_ ty. .
enough to get involved in a campaign - or to run for office ~ % risk being
—e a Oe ae neil mings

terribly hurt.\ And sometimes people who lose say (11 won't de anything like

—

WE BELIEVE IN GAMBLING ~ Ge

le Adio~ JUNE 16, 1974
that again because it hurts too badly." ~ CS eleper™

The late C.=5. Lewis once wrote a paragraph that I have clipped and

keep close at &K hand:
[t. Tove at all is to be vulnerabte.| Love anything and
your heart wilt certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you
want to be sure of keeping it intact, you must give youc heart to no

—

one, not even to an animal.\ Wrap it carefully round with

Fe asieneninthhiael

hobbies, and little luxuries: lavoid all entanglements :\1ock

ei

it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it

| meme miidl a =e

wilt change \ it will not be brokens\ it will become

unbreakable....\ The alternative to tragedy, or at leas@ the
Oe ssmeiinanne cs smmeie dl peitininsiiiairtcetemnrenieimilimins

risk of tragedy, is damnation.\ The only place outside heaven

———. iationammabaameasnipeammnm ania il Cn a

whereyou can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and

al

if
perytubations of love is hell.

Se mine

That sounds to me like what happened to the third servant in desus's

— Ee

story. \To live openly, honestly, and fully is to gable.\ To experience

ae

open, honest, creative,and fully Christian faith is also, I would suggest,

to gamble.

Now, our understanding of faith is not usually related to words léke

elena

Oa ieee
risk and gamble and vulnerabitity.\ Faith, for most of us is assurance, cer~

eee —

tainty; or ecclessiastically the acceptance of certain doctrines and loyalty

to a certain tradition.\ "Faith - Faithful - Faithfulness” KEMAXMAEXRKBATAX
-—_! tl

Pie have become soft, passive words \ A faithfd man is one
rc iiiensammetalll tie

who has stuck to his guns, played his theological, and moral cards close to
— apc CRN | nen

his chest, and most of all has been quiet, serene and peaceful.\ In terms
—ar i, coe EE CENT ed

of what goes for the Christian ethic in our culture the faithful man is the

one who has made a career out of keeping his hands clean, who doesn't do a lot
Deen nial

aeineeneeneentinimed

of things that are regarded as sinful.

|

Jesus was saying that that is all wrong:\ that that is not what faithful-

=o

ness means at alt. \ Jesus was saying that faith means investment - not saying:

WE BELTEVE IN GAMBLING -6- HUNE 16, 1974

ati

gambl@ing - not playing it safe.\ te was saying that a good and faithful
ie Qeweee TE

servant is one who knows how to love the world, and his own community and

——. cc ‘ec areericreerrie
his fellowman enough to invest - commitito take some chances, to become
nm =e — eal —,!

vulnerable. | He was mying that you and I are accountable - not on the basis

pee

of how much we were able to believe - not on the basis of all the evil we

LD

managed to avoid doing - not on the basis of the money in the ground - but
ie Steamed Laie! Cd

very simply, on the degree to which we gabled inlove.

‘aire, Da iad

On the deepest possible ltevel faith is a gambte.\ The fonest man will
ER

ooo

hihi ——

know days when God does mt seem Almighty :\when God's Tove for the world seems

like so much wightul thinking: \when the very existence of God is a dubious

7

PRGKAEEE proposition .\ How do we know? \ How do we know we are right?\ We

don't.\ We have faith. \We take a chance. \ We throw ourselves into the

iene aan aad ao

void and hope.

Meee

One of the most eloquent preachers of the past, 6.A. Studdert-Kennedy -

wrote a bit of prose that I have come to lave because it's truth ts docu-

Spare aiken —

mented in my experience.
"How do I know that God is good? | I don't.

I gamble like a man

—

I bet my life

Upon one side of life's great wag. \ 1 must,

I can't stand out. | I must take sides. | The man
ce de:

Who is neutral in this fight is not
Se ne
A Man.?

' . it . . .
That's where it rests for most of us.\ We (ver ourlives on one side in

———

life's great war"\..We bet our Tives on God.
Jesus toid the story of the three servants to his disciples in the midst

Snel

of the bi t gamble in hi lite.\ It was the last week \ the had just come
iggest g sli We ¥ eae
Troma confrontation with the scribes and phariges in the Temple the die was

cast he had gambled in coming tothe city:\he had gambled again by going to

Ea niael

the tempte.\ And now he was sying to them: {"This is how it is.\ This is what

it means to belong to me - to Tove and commit and to risk it air)

Lasers : ‘rectal a Pay

WE BELIEVE IN GAMBLING -]~- JUNE 16, 1974
And beyond that God, himself, took the greatest gamble of ait. God

loved the world so much that he sent his son, to be born into a peasant
al |

Family, \to live a common lite) to present lis case to the pPople - gambJing

that they would hear and see, or that the whole project would be ignored.

God put his son - his love - at the disposal of humanity:\ and he keeps

Fe nl mm mmmmemicmmer ee

putting it al] on the line, gambling on you and me.

So ~ in life and in faith - let us remember that when we are tempted to

—_——

make our Tittle bargain with lifes\iet us recall that to live is to leve,

and to love is to gamble\ Let us rementer, as we attempt tof faithful, that

—— rs.

God himself, considers us worth taking a chance. AMEN

FATHER, YOUHave given us all we have - even our capacity to believe. In
Jesus Christ you afive called us to invest it ali. Give us the will ~- the

courage. AMEN