Are we Hiding? Matthew 25: 14-30

Fellow Pilgrims,

One of my favorite movies is Good Will Hunting, as i have shared before. The main character, Will, comes from a broken home. In fact he is an orphan who was raised in foster homes, and his foster dad was a monster, a true monster. His childhood was terrible at best, and he lived with the scars of the abuse.

His life revealed those scars. He got into a lot of trouble. He had been arrested a few times. And he did not stay in a romantic relationship long enough for any true feelings to develop. He was scared and alone and angry. The movie opens in the hallowed halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious colleges, period. It is a math class, and the professor has given his class this amazing math problem, and the professor expected the class to work on it semester long. The class leaves and night falls on the hallways.

The camera pans in on our main character, who is cleaning the floors, but Will finds himself before the board with the math problem, and unlike the students in the class, Will solves the problem in hours, not days, weeks, or months. Will might be an angry, scared soul, but he has this amazing gift, he is brilliant.

But he hides in his fear and anxiety and does not use his gift until help comes. It was not until help came and Will realized that true life only comes from living within his giftedness that Will was able to leave his dungeon of fear and embrace life, true life, holistic life.

I share this story, because all too often we hide in our own fears and anxieties, and we refuse to live within our created purpose. Each of us, as the parable of the gold bags/talents reveals, have been given gifts to use for God's Kingdom. We have a choice. Use those gifts and risk everything, trusting that God gave us those gifts and God will bear fruit. Or we can be like Will and the third servant.

We can hide the gifts in the sand hoping that our apathy and 'safety' will be rewarded.

But what happens to the third servant? God takes his gift and gives it to the one who risked it all and bore amazing fruit. What happened to Will? He was in a prison, one he did not realize, until he broke free and let life enter. If we choose to use our gifts, no matter how small or large, God will reward us with life, abundant life, holistic life.

However if we cower in fear, we remain in our self-created prison, and God will give what we have to those who will use them for His glory. To paraphrase Shakespeare: To use or not to use, that is the question. And the answer is that one brings life and one brings death. Which do we want? Amen.

Shalom,

jerry