Advent 4 2007 | Matthew 1:18-25 | What is the Gift Being Given to you?

A couple of years ago, I opened my email and read with horror that Neal Morse, the brilliant songwriter and singer for the progressive rock band Spock’s Beard was quitting. (Remember, the Spock with the beard was the EVIL Spock.) I wasn’t the only one who was horrified—progheads the world over were tearing their tunics and dumping ashes on their heads, especially since Neal said he was doing it FOR GOD.

From Neal’s perspective, he had been banging his head against the Hollywood music industry brick wall for over ten years and getting nowhere. Sure, he fronted the most popular progressive rock band in contemporary times, but that’s a very small pool of fans, and he was barely scraping by, playing Eagles covers in bars night after night just to stay afloat.

Then one day he headed to Nashville to scare up some work, and stayed with an old girlfriend. As fate would have it, the romance blossomed anew, and she took him to church with her. Neal later said he had never felt more out of place in all his life. But then, as he continued to listen to his girlfriend and the minister, he became aware of all the cynicism and hopelessness he had been living with. With trepidation and a great sense of relief, he lay his broken life before God and asked him to heal it. Neal was baptized, and felt, to his great amazement, truly born again.

Eventually he discerned a call that he believed was from God, a call that he resisted and feared—to use his talents, his music, his livelihood for God. It was, he knew, professional suicide. He was having a hard enough time eking out a living. But the more he pushed it away, the more persistent the call became. He had worked so hard to build up this fragile entity, that was just now beginning to take off, and now, God wanted him to walk away from it all, and do—God knows what? That was crazy, especially with a new wife and a baby on the way. He was terrified.

Muhammad, in our first reading today, no doubt felt even worse. He thought he really WAS crazy. The last thing on earth he wanted to be was a mystic or a poet, or what was worse, a mystical poet! Saying “yes” to God’s call was worse than professional suicide for Muhammad—it drove him to actual suicide, that’s how upset he was. Who in their right minds, after all, wants to be a prophet? The pay is terrible, the hours unpredictable, you’re always ticking people off, no one wants to hear what you have to say, and even your wife scolds you for being so negative. Who would want that kind of life?

And poor Mary—just think of how saying “yes” to God would change her life! She was being asked to bear a child that everyone would see as illegitimate. People would whisper behind her back for the rest of her life. She might even be condemned to die by stoning, as the Law insisted. She might even lose her fiancé over it. “Don’t be afraid,” the angel had told her. Easy for HIM to say. Gabriel wouldn’t have to put up with being ostracized or gossiped about—SHE would. Gabriel wouldn’t have to carry a child to term—SHE would. Gabriel wouldn’t have to face the loss of a husband and the bitter ignomity and shame that would befall her family—SHE would.

Just who does God think he is, bursting into people’s lives, making unreasonable demands, and turning everything upside down? What kind of love is THAT? What kind of faithfulness and care is THAT?

But that is exactly what God does. And we might say, “Poor Muhammad! Or poor Mary!” or even “Poor Neal!” but we are in error if we think that God is unfair only to an unlucky few. The truth is that God is unfair to all of us equally—the unlucky few are the ones that say, “Yes.”

And it is a matter of perspective whether those that say “yes” are the lucky ones or the unlucky ones. In fact, luck probably has very little to do with it. Because the truth is that God has given all of us a gift at our birth—some talent, some way to shine that is uniquely ours.

If we are fortunate enough to have a safe and supportive environment, these gifts become obvious to us—perhaps that is where the luck comes in. But even still, many people discover their gift but never utilize it. Some people see their gifts as more of a curse than a blessing.

Usually, though, our gifts only SEEM like a curse because we’re scared. We’re scared to be who we were born to be, to be who we really are. We’re scared to shine as bright as we are able. We’re scared to be as strong as we actually are. And sometimes we’re scared because, if we ever discover what that gift is, if we ever bring it forward, then maybe someone will expect us to DO something with it. Maybe something big. Maybe something scary. Maybe something—God forbid—IMPORTANT.

Marianne Williamson said it first, but Mandela made it famous: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

It takes courage to shine. It takes courage to let the gift that has been entrusted to us loose upon the world. It takes courage to say “yes” to God. All of us have been asked, but only some of us will ever have the courage to actually do it.

And who is God to go messing up our lives like that, anyway? It’s troublesome, it’s inconvenient, in fact it’s downright rude. But the fact is that we are not here for ourselves alone. We are here for US. We are here for each other. We are here for the planet. We are here for the whole. What has been entrusted to us is not a gift for ourselves alone, but for all. The question is not “who is God to ask me to give up my quiet life?” but who are you to hoard the gift that was meant to bless the world?

God does not ask us to live safe, quiet lives. As C.S. Lewis once wrote of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, “he’s not a safe lion, but he’s GOOD.” Just so, God is NOT safe. Ask Muhammad about that. Ask Mary. Ask Jesus. Ask Martin Luther King, Jr. Ask anyone who has ever said “yes” with their lives. Our God is not a SAFE God. But our God is GOOD.

Our God has given to each one of us a gift, a good gift, that is meant to bless the whole of creation. The story of the Annunciation to Mary, or the calling of Muhammad, is an archetypal one, for Gabriel appears to all of us. We are all of us invited to give birth to divinity, each in our own unique way. And we all of us are empowered to say “yes” or “no.”

But as Neal Morse discovered, saying “yes” is often the scariest thing in the world. He wrestled with his call for months, until finally he gave in, and gave his music to God. And on one fateful day he met with his bandmates during a rehearsal break and told them the news. God was calling him to do a different kind of music. He was leaving the band.

His bandmates were devastated, as indeed were all the fans—all 40,000 of us. There was great anguish, outcry, and gnashing of teeth. Neal had got religion, and there are lots and lots of people that are never going to forgive God for that. But Neal had courage, he took a lot of heat, and he stuck by his call. His next CD was a double album called Testimony, where he told his story of God’s call and his response. Many more Cds followed, each more theologically astute than the last. His most recent CD was called Sola Scriptura, a rock opera based on the life story of Martin Luther. I listened to it over and over this summer as I toured the places where Luther lived and worked and died. And it touched and inspired me as few albums have ever done.

Sure there are lots of fans that are still shaking their heads over Neal’s lyrical direction, but they can’t deny that the music is still as good as it ever was, and as far as I can tell, he hasn’t lost any fans. He has, however, gained a lot of respect—especially mine—for his courage, and his faithfulness to his call, even in the face of outrage and incredulity.

The Advent season always asks hard questions of us, questions that must be asked if we are to remove the barriers we have erected that prevent God’s entering into our lives with power. Most of the barriers, in my experience, are barriers of fear. And we have great reason to fear. God wants to do great things through us. As Meister Eckhart said, “What good does it do me if Mary gave birth to the Christ child fifteen hundred years ago, if I do not give birth to him today?”

We are not all asked to give birth to a child. We are not all asked to be prophets. We are not all asked to be rock stars. But we HAVE all been given a gift, a gift that is ours and not ours; a gift that is meant for the world. The question is, do we have the courage to bring it forth, for our own healing and for the healing of all beings? There is no punishment waiting for you if you do not. And there is plenty of danger waiting if you do. But you will have to live with this question for the rest of your lives: “What am I here for? And did I DO that or not?”

None of us are going to be able to do it—whatever IT is—perfectly. But my prayer is that most of us will have the courage, sometime in our lives, to say “yes.” Let us pray…

Okay, God, you can be a real pain.
You give us life, and then you expect us to DO something with it.
What are you THINKING?
All right, so maybe that’s not such an unreasonable thing after all.
Help us to discern the gift you have given to us,
no matter how small it may seem, or how huge
and give us the courage to bring it forth,
for our sake, for thy sake, and for the sake of the world.
For we ask this in the name of the one who said “yes” to you
Even unto death on a cross, even Jesus Christ. Amen.