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.