Make a Difference

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

The lessons leading up to the first Sunday in Advent which is in two short weeks have contained echoes of the themes normally found in Advent, namely, waiting and watching; being prepared. Last week the parable of the ten bridesmaids and the warning to be prepared since we don’t know the day or the hour. This week the landowner goes on a trip and the servants know he’ll return, but they don’t know when and they hope to have something to show him when he returns so they set about working with what they’ve been given.
Paul’s Epistles have these themes also with the frightening images of destruction coming suddenly despite the assurances they received from others that all is well. Paul says the Lord will come “like a thief in the night.” He advises his listeners to be ready with a breastplate of faith and love, and a helmet of hope.

These are disturbing images and yet compelling. Paul and his followers expected Jesus to come any day and raise the faithful into the heavens and leave the non believers behind. It’s a belief that continues to this day with stark warnings of apocalyptic destruction, end times and the rescue of the good people and the anguish of those who were not ready.

In Paul’s time as in our own each prediction of the “end times” proves to be wrong. History is full of stories of communities gathered around someone who believes they cracked the code to predict when the actual end was coming only to be foiled. This line of thinking provides great fodder for the movie industry who makes great action movies giving graphic images of the destruction some say is described in the Bible.

After two thousand years of the starts and stops of this form of belief, it might be a good time to reconsider the meaning. I, for one, do not believe that the Creator of the world will destroy it through violence. I believe that such stories can be exploited to create fear and manipulate people who are inclined to believe the stories.

If God were going to destroy the world, there have been plenty of opportunities and reasons to do so. It would appear that the only ones poised to wreak the kind of havoc and destruction of apocalyptic proportion are people themselves. War, genocide, atomic and nuclear weaponry are of human design, not divine.

I think the spiritual truths of such scriptures focus on the realities of life as we live it and the conditions of the worlds in which we find ourselves. Disasters and wars do, in fact come suddenly. Attacks are planned secretly and are carried out by surprise. Even natural disasters can come without warning or prediction. On a personal level, accidents, tragedy and death can come by surprise and catch us unprepared. Moods of fear and anger can catapult a peaceful situation into an attack with disastrous results. In the ancient Hebrew mind these incidents all came from God with people only the instruments. Our thinking today puts the responsibility for most of these violent acts on the people in whom they originate.

Yet, be that as it may, innocent people are still often caught unaware and do need to be prepared in spirit for any eventuality. God comes at these times, not as the originator of the disaster, but as the spirit of courage, strength and vision to help the individuals transcend it.

Let’s take a look at the Gospel. The lesson of the talents is a wonderful parable. It often makes its appearance around the time that most churches are doing their stewardship campaigns. I suppose it’s to inspire us to pledge more.

It might be a way of saying that in order to grow you have to give more. It takes money to make money, that sort of thing. That’s true, I think, for the most part. But these days seem to vindicate the fellow who buried his talent. I find it hard to believe that the one who invested five talents would have a 100% return to produce for his master. Yet again, if everyone invested their five talents at the same time, we might turn things around and prove the parable true in an economic sense. But somehow I don’t think that’s what this parable is about. It uses the investment of money to illustrate the investment of spirit. It’s about engaging in the world and presenting ourselves in service to the world. Talent is a good ambiguous term that can be used as money and also as that part of our characters and spirits that represent the gifts that we have as individuals we are unique and each of us has something to offer the world that no one else does. What a shame if we are not fully ourselves, since the world, our various communities in a smaller sense and even we ourselves in another way, would be the lesser for the lack of our gifts being used to their full potential.

I see the talents given the servants as symbolic of their willingness to be engaged in the world around them. Some people are “out there” really involved and living their faith in action. These people are rewarded in a high quality of relationships and even more than that grow and develop as people. They say “nothing succeeds like success” and being involved in the world around us inspires us to be even more involved and to care even more. Others hide. Some people allow their fear, anger or insecurities to prevent them from being part of the wider society, or even a group of friends. As a result, they suffer from isolation and loneliness that goes deep into the soul. There are endless gradations of this spectrum. Some are world leaders, some are local leaders, some are church leaders, some are people who just show up to help a cause they believe in. Wide varieties of talents invested in different ways, with some having remarkable abilities that bring them to national and international levels, and others on much smaller and anonymous levels. But each person who uses their gifts enjoys the reward that comes from being engaged.

On the first Tuesday of every month I go to a Daytop facility in Mendham. Daytop is a string of drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers for adolescents. I volunteer to lead a discussion meeting with some of the kids. Most of these kids have been placed in the facility through court orders as an alternative to jail or institutions. For many it’s a last chance and most have been addicted to substances from early ages and their chances to make it in the world seem dim, and yet we have to keep trying to reach them.

The first Tuesday of November of course was election day and I went that evening h hoping to be done in time to get home and watch election results. I got there early and sat on a bench near the office waiting until the room where the meeting is held was made ready. There was a young man also on the bench looking nervously at the administrator’s door, jumping each time the door knob rattled. Usually it’s an indication that the kid is in trouble waiting for judgment, but this time as I learned while talking to him, he had just turned 18 and wanted to vote. He was registered in Morristown and hoped the administrator would give permission and arrange a ride for him. After a few minutes and a few door rattles, permission was granted. He was ecstatic and the light in his eye gleamed in a way that is absent from most of the kids. As he was getting to the door to leave I called after him, “Hey, go make a difference!” He turned back to look at me and said “I’m going to.” And he did. When he joined the group later that evening after voting, his smiles were contagious. The other kids felt it and wished they could have voted. They were drawn to his joy and wanted to feel some of their own. Had he stayed in the building that night, hidden his talent, he would have felt the pain of only wishing he had tried. No one would have benefited. But he made an effort and it was rewarded. He grew from the experience, the others in the program grew from it. He did make a difference.

Each of us has talents to offer. What we do with them is our choice. Through faith and effort our lives can be transformed and our transformation can inspire and transform those around us, and even the world in time. If we don’t we might as well be cast in outer darkness where we’ll be tortured by the memories of lost opportunities and sad refrains of “What if...” That’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. But it’s not God that condemns us to that, it’s our own fear of trying. Even if we fail in achieving our goal, the act of trying is where the growth happens.

The world is full of dangers and mishaps. It’s tempting to hide and not risk anything. But the irony is that in not risking, we lose everything that matters anyway. Our spirits dry up, and our integrity suffers.

It’s our ability to be engaged in the world around us with whatever amount of talents we have that prepares us for whatever happens. It is in fact the breastplate of faith and the helmet of hope Paul talks about. Later in the service we’re going to hear about Broadway House and the work they do with people living with AIDS. They’re involved and their work rewards them and those with whom they work.

We are finishing up our stewardship campaign and despite the conditions of the world around us we are doing well and it has to be because our membership is also involved in this church and it’s ministry. Our work here is rewarding to the degree that we are involved and many around us benefit from that work as well.

I do not believe God pushes us out of fear, but invites us in faith to transcend those fears or other limitations to grow into people rich in spirit and witness to those who hide their talents in the ground. Life is rich and full of meaning, joy and fulfillment. God is calling us to enter it. Go and make a difference! Amen.

© 2008 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ