Gifted People
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Readings
For Sundays In Advent, Christmas, And Epiphany
You and I are "gifted" people. We live in a "gifted" country. We gather in a "gifted" institution. Regardless of our relative weaknesses, relative status, and relative talents, we are "gifted" by any reasonable definition of human success. We live in an industrialized nation and our lives are hardly struggling to survive. We enjoy sophisticated imaginations and privileged circumstances. Our talents are many. We do not struggle to survive. We have options -- we can speak the truth; we can grow and mature; we can build ourselves up in love; we can enjoy relationships which can draw upon one another's talents. We can also tear ourselves apart and degenerate into cold, calculated insensitivity.
The author of today's text writes to people like us. It is not always an easy matter to get gifted people to work together for a common good. The more options one has, the less one is dependent on others for the necessities of life. Division and selfish immaturity often impede the work of "gifted" people and make relationships tenuous at best. Aristotle was one of the first to maintain that truth telling is the product of a mature relationship. Certainly one must be quite mature to speak the right truth to the right person at the right time in the right way for the right reasons.
Ellen Goodman, a syndicated columnist, wrote an article about a friend of hers who was always "keeping his options open." It seems that this friend was allergic to making commitments. He viewed life as a huge buffet line. Consequently he compared people who made commitments to the person who filled his plate with rather ordinary fare at the beginning of the line and then when his plate was full came upon all types of interesting food which he liked better. Using that example to illustrate his philosophy of life, Goodman's friend let everyone know that he was "keeping his options open."
Ellen Goodman's evaluation of her friend was that he was always "coming to the end of the line with an empty plate." It is virtually impossible to build anything substantial without commitment. Everything that is worthwhile in life requires the making of a commitment. At some point you just have to take a plunge without always straining to see what lies on down the line. If you don't, you'll always come to the end of the line with an empty plate.
In this world where we tell people to not get over committed, to play it cool, to stay on balance, and to keep their options open, the words of the writer to the Ephesians stick out like a stray horse that's wandered into our living room during a party. "I am a prisoner of the Lord."
It takes a mature person to recognize that placing one's gifts at the disposal of the church is a divine commandment. Unity is not often the desired end of competitive people living in a supply and demand world. Building up the body of Christ through love and humility is the only way to keep a bond of peace. Yet we sometimes do not measure growth as a maintenance process where each gifted part is simply doing its job.
Peter Gomes has reminded us that "growth" is Saint Paul's favorite metaphor.1 From the over-read passage in 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul speaks of mature people putting away childish thoughts, to those who wrote to the Ephesians about growing up into the head of Christ, the body maturing, "growth" seems to be the fundamental metaphor of the early church.
To use the phrase "growth" among gifted people in a church context is a dangerous thing. We have imported the American economic image and called it "the Church Growth Movement." Growth means bigger and biggest. Our conventional understanding limits us. Growth is usually something to do with membership charts, cash portfolios, and future planning graphs.
Growth is not size and competence, according to Holy Scripture. Growth is, to the contrary, a response to grace. Growth, for the Christian, is to pull together, to be consistently using one's gifts in holding together the blessed union of Christ with his church. Growth is to be anchored in love instead of being tossed back and forth like a cork on the ocean waves by every cunning human scheme that promises us a new personal option for our life's career.
Lack of unity among gifted people is a lasting parasite on the Christian landscape. We keep trying to build a world in which divisions are passé, only they will not lie down and go away. From the first century to the present day, immaturity, competitiveness, and arrogance keep popping back up again. We bring all our best gifts and talents to the church and are shocked when they are not always welcomed. Then, most of the time, we wall ourselves off from that which has hurt us. After all, we gifted people do have other options. We can stay at home. We can do something else with our time and talent. We can find calmer, purer, and more appreciative places to spend our gifts. Then, when that arena plays out, we can move on again. Like infants tossed back and forth and blown here and there, we can keep bobbing up and down.
The people of Ephesus had a particularly bad habit. They tried to keep their options for life open by using all types of books of magic. They had books of charms that pretended to tell people how to win lovers, books of magic to tell mariners how to avoid storms, and books of magic to tell one how to find treasure. It was all quackery, based on rabbits' feet and prayers and charms. But they were chained to that kind of humbug, just as surely as some people today are chained to every self-help philosophy that raises its head. Scripture says you can't follow Jesus and keep all those options open or you'll come to the end of your line with an empty plate. You've got to say, "No, thank you," and work for the common good of the whole.
The gifted Ephesians apparently grasped the meaning of maturity in Christ. They couldn't keep all their religious options open. They agreed to give up their superstition. The book of Acts records that they gathered their books and their magic together and made a great bonfire out of them. Scripture (Acts 19:19) says that they counted the price of what they had burned and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver. Now, my friends, metallurgy was advanced in Ephesus in Hellenistic and Roman times. Lead was separated from silver by heating the molten metal in porous material and exposing it to the air. The silver was fired. The silver coins of Ephesus were 98 percent pure silver. Each coin was the equivalent of two to three troy ounces of silver.
Their effort to preserve unity of purpose cost them a great deal, financially. But they moved into a new realm of unity and peace. They grew in stature and oneness.
History records for us some troublesome and catastrophic breakdowns in unity and peace in our own society. Lives can quickly depart from worthy callings and noble purposes when the unity of spirit and the bond of peace are lost.
Charles Sumner was one of the most celebrated congressional opponents of slavery in America. He delivered an "Oration on Lafayette" in which he called Lafayette, the hero of two revolutions, the greatest person of character who ever lived. Perhaps Sumner was correct. In his old age, Lafayette said that he never would have drawn the sword for America had he known that it was to found a government that sanctioned human slavery.
To be certain, those who often achieve unity of spirit and purpose fail to mature enough to grant it to others. Misuse of gifts often tears apart the very institution those gifts founded.
The call for unity in the body of Christ is no small matter. The whole body needs more than a collection of individual talent. It needs growth as each part comes together and does its work.
____________
1. Peter Gomes in "Growing Up," a sermon preached June 4, 1989, in the Memorial Church, Harvard University.
The author of today's text writes to people like us. It is not always an easy matter to get gifted people to work together for a common good. The more options one has, the less one is dependent on others for the necessities of life. Division and selfish immaturity often impede the work of "gifted" people and make relationships tenuous at best. Aristotle was one of the first to maintain that truth telling is the product of a mature relationship. Certainly one must be quite mature to speak the right truth to the right person at the right time in the right way for the right reasons.
Ellen Goodman, a syndicated columnist, wrote an article about a friend of hers who was always "keeping his options open." It seems that this friend was allergic to making commitments. He viewed life as a huge buffet line. Consequently he compared people who made commitments to the person who filled his plate with rather ordinary fare at the beginning of the line and then when his plate was full came upon all types of interesting food which he liked better. Using that example to illustrate his philosophy of life, Goodman's friend let everyone know that he was "keeping his options open."
Ellen Goodman's evaluation of her friend was that he was always "coming to the end of the line with an empty plate." It is virtually impossible to build anything substantial without commitment. Everything that is worthwhile in life requires the making of a commitment. At some point you just have to take a plunge without always straining to see what lies on down the line. If you don't, you'll always come to the end of the line with an empty plate.
In this world where we tell people to not get over committed, to play it cool, to stay on balance, and to keep their options open, the words of the writer to the Ephesians stick out like a stray horse that's wandered into our living room during a party. "I am a prisoner of the Lord."
It takes a mature person to recognize that placing one's gifts at the disposal of the church is a divine commandment. Unity is not often the desired end of competitive people living in a supply and demand world. Building up the body of Christ through love and humility is the only way to keep a bond of peace. Yet we sometimes do not measure growth as a maintenance process where each gifted part is simply doing its job.
Peter Gomes has reminded us that "growth" is Saint Paul's favorite metaphor.1 From the over-read passage in 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul speaks of mature people putting away childish thoughts, to those who wrote to the Ephesians about growing up into the head of Christ, the body maturing, "growth" seems to be the fundamental metaphor of the early church.
To use the phrase "growth" among gifted people in a church context is a dangerous thing. We have imported the American economic image and called it "the Church Growth Movement." Growth means bigger and biggest. Our conventional understanding limits us. Growth is usually something to do with membership charts, cash portfolios, and future planning graphs.
Growth is not size and competence, according to Holy Scripture. Growth is, to the contrary, a response to grace. Growth, for the Christian, is to pull together, to be consistently using one's gifts in holding together the blessed union of Christ with his church. Growth is to be anchored in love instead of being tossed back and forth like a cork on the ocean waves by every cunning human scheme that promises us a new personal option for our life's career.
Lack of unity among gifted people is a lasting parasite on the Christian landscape. We keep trying to build a world in which divisions are passé, only they will not lie down and go away. From the first century to the present day, immaturity, competitiveness, and arrogance keep popping back up again. We bring all our best gifts and talents to the church and are shocked when they are not always welcomed. Then, most of the time, we wall ourselves off from that which has hurt us. After all, we gifted people do have other options. We can stay at home. We can do something else with our time and talent. We can find calmer, purer, and more appreciative places to spend our gifts. Then, when that arena plays out, we can move on again. Like infants tossed back and forth and blown here and there, we can keep bobbing up and down.
The people of Ephesus had a particularly bad habit. They tried to keep their options for life open by using all types of books of magic. They had books of charms that pretended to tell people how to win lovers, books of magic to tell mariners how to avoid storms, and books of magic to tell one how to find treasure. It was all quackery, based on rabbits' feet and prayers and charms. But they were chained to that kind of humbug, just as surely as some people today are chained to every self-help philosophy that raises its head. Scripture says you can't follow Jesus and keep all those options open or you'll come to the end of your line with an empty plate. You've got to say, "No, thank you," and work for the common good of the whole.
The gifted Ephesians apparently grasped the meaning of maturity in Christ. They couldn't keep all their religious options open. They agreed to give up their superstition. The book of Acts records that they gathered their books and their magic together and made a great bonfire out of them. Scripture (Acts 19:19) says that they counted the price of what they had burned and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver. Now, my friends, metallurgy was advanced in Ephesus in Hellenistic and Roman times. Lead was separated from silver by heating the molten metal in porous material and exposing it to the air. The silver was fired. The silver coins of Ephesus were 98 percent pure silver. Each coin was the equivalent of two to three troy ounces of silver.
Their effort to preserve unity of purpose cost them a great deal, financially. But they moved into a new realm of unity and peace. They grew in stature and oneness.
History records for us some troublesome and catastrophic breakdowns in unity and peace in our own society. Lives can quickly depart from worthy callings and noble purposes when the unity of spirit and the bond of peace are lost.
Charles Sumner was one of the most celebrated congressional opponents of slavery in America. He delivered an "Oration on Lafayette" in which he called Lafayette, the hero of two revolutions, the greatest person of character who ever lived. Perhaps Sumner was correct. In his old age, Lafayette said that he never would have drawn the sword for America had he known that it was to found a government that sanctioned human slavery.
To be certain, those who often achieve unity of spirit and purpose fail to mature enough to grant it to others. Misuse of gifts often tears apart the very institution those gifts founded.
The call for unity in the body of Christ is no small matter. The whole body needs more than a collection of individual talent. It needs growth as each part comes together and does its work.
____________
1. Peter Gomes in "Growing Up," a sermon preached June 4, 1989, in the Memorial Church, Harvard University.
