He read his text in Swahili first, so others would know the text, and I mostly followed that (mainly because I was reading along in the English). His text was Matthew 25:14-30, the parable of the ten talents.
After reading the text, he really got into it, and worked the crowd and really challenged them. He explained the parable, I understand, then made the application to what we were doing today. Today God has given you all some more resources to invest. What will you do with them? Will you buy them (for as little as $0.50 for the Epistles booklet) and read them and apply them in your lives? Or will you bury them, and wait for your master to come home, and then give your excuses?
It was particularly challenging to think that this man was challenging them to use the resources they had, and they didn't seem that much. He was preaching out of a published Gospel of Matthew. They also have a Gospel of Luke, I think. They just now have the pastoral Epistles, and an AIDS booklet, and alphabet chart, and some story books. It all fit neatly on a short bench, /significantly/ smaller than your nearest Christian bookstore.
If this pastor is challenging his people to invest the spiritual resources they have for eternal benefit, what would he say to us Anglophones, who have the entire Bible in how many translations, and how many commentaries and devotional works besides?
There is no question that our Master gives us different resources, and that it is up to us each to invest them for His good. But if we are to compare what I saw today with what I was raised with, 10 talents v. 5 talents doesn't seem to do it justice. We have been given SOOO much. Are we investing it? Or are we burying it, and preparing to tell our Master that He is the harsh one, and that He shouldn't be mad at us. He has entrusted us with true riches; lets invest them and meet our master with Joy.
