Today I pay for the privilege of working as an academic. It is clinical examination day, and I will be spending about eight hours listening to students to a task that would normally take 15 to 20 minutes crammed down to 7 minutes or so. I have to watch the time even more than on a work day. I will be ruled by a stopwatch.

I dislike this day, for it requires I concentrate continually, and remain fair and even in my judgement. (And this is a time when judgement is required: it is the final medical examination: those who pass will be on the wards in two weeks).

Medical students fear this day. It is when they are tested: they spend months preparing for it. Yet the first command Christ gives us this morning is not to fear.

But this day makes me worry. I should add that one son is sitting his own final examination at the same time: and he needs close to perfect marks to get into the professional course he wants next year. Stress is our companion, worry our constant thought, and fear with us at all times. Welcome to a professional education.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

(Luke 12:32-48 ESV)

The first part of this passage links to yesterday, as we need not fear if we are in the kingdom, because our role, in death, or life, is to build the kingdom. Besides, there is beauty around: not merely in one’s garden and house.

But the second part is important. To those who have much, much is required. Those who are not ignorant will be held to a higher standard, and those who have the ability to learn will be expected to do so, for to choose ignorance is foolishness, and foolishness leads error.

It is worth noting that the foolish chief servant was seen as a tyrant, beating the staff between sampling the wine cellar. But when the master returns, he will be held accountable.

Within the church, this is why leaders need to be tested and proven before they are given the responsibility of a kirk. In this time, you will be unpopular. You will be pressured into heresy. There is a beast slouching to Jerusalem, and it wants to drag as many kirks to perdition with it.

But in the pews, where most of us live, the same thing applies. You are athletic? Beautiful? Intelligent? Musical? Scholarly? Skilled at building, repair, and practical crafts? Good. But those talents do not make you worthy. Becoming skilled at a task where you have natural talents, well done. Using your skills to further the kirk (directly or by financial support) and serve your fellow man, then very well done. For if you have been given much, you will be required to do more.

Those of us with talents can learn from the simple, for they all too often put everything they have into what they do. They work while we are lazy. Let us be wise, learn from each other, and not assume that because we are doing a merely adequate job we are building the kingdom. Our God demands the best from us, not a half hearted attempt at meeting minimum standards.

With talents, with privilege, comes accountability and responsibility. They are linked. And if you are given much, praise God for this, but be aware you will be required to do much more.