Parable of the Talents

It used to be one of my pet peeves when people used the parable about talent stewardship to teach good stewardship of money. That wasn't Jesus' main point -- he was talking about the kingdom of heaven. God has given it to us -- do we hide it under a rug or share it with others? Shove our Bible on a shelf or memorize it and apply it to our lives?

We don't use the wise man/foolish man rock vs. sand parable to teach people that it is sin to build on a sand dune.

I still think people should stress the heavenly kingdom aspect of the talent stewardship parable.

But it got through my thick head recently that it's okay to apply it to monetary stewardship, too -- so long as people are clear about the logic used to make the application. Money, time and strength have a place in the parable, but that place is not the place of the talents. The kingdom of heaven is the talents while my money, time and strength are the feet that took the talents to the banker, the mind that planned a good way to invest it, the guards that kept it safe enroute.
Make the Kingdom the fulcrum of your life, and you will be by nature a good steward of money. Make the latter your fulcrum, and you may miss a chance to further the kingdom as you pinch the pennies.