My text for Sunday is Matthew 25:14-30, variously called the parable of the talents or the parable of the coins or the parable of the gold… something like that.

Reading Barth again, I happened on a passage in I.2 where he refers to this parable. He uses this parable as an illustration of the Church that hears but does not proclaim. Heresy can be a problem in a church, but not proclaiming is just as sinful. The servant who buried his portion from the master was actually called wicked. He refused to trade with his talent in the service and profit of his master. The Church can have purity of doctrine, but if it fails to make proper use of it, it cannot be said to teach pure doctrine.

What good is “pure” doctrine if you don’t proclaim the truth of the Kingdom?