Hide it under a bushel? No!
A few weeks ago I sat down and said to myself, ‘let’s do this!’ in reference to starting a blog about my faith and how I perceive it. Since then I have managed to conceptualize a battery of sermons that if I actually put pen to paper -or fingers to keyboard, more likely- I would give St. John Chrysostom a run for his money. If you don’t know who that is: suffice it to say that his collected sermons make for a great surrogate kettlebell. However, I haven’t done this. Haven’t even really started to, if I am being honest. Sure, I created a website and registered a domain. I copy-pasted a sermon I wrote onto that website with some light edits. But until today, I’ve done little more than hunt and peck my way around a couple of concepts that ultimately proved unfulfilling or overwhelming for one reason or another. If you know me, then you are well aware that this is something of a pattern. Don’t get me wrong, I have a tremendous capacity to get things done when I am on a roll. I’ve built communities, led and taught people from all over the world, and found my way back to Christ and His Church when all of the world seemed to be trying to fight against me. Of course, all thanks and credit are ultimately due Him, as it is He who created me with this ability, and the desire to know Him that is planted in our hearts that drove me onwards. But I did make the choice myself to follow that call, take those steps, and proclaim ‘amen!’ when presented with the body and blood of Christ. What I am getting at is that we have to choose to take the steps along the path we are shown, we must not procrastinate, and we certainly should not hide ourselves from what we are called to do, nor should we hide what gifts we are given from the world. Afterall, James’ exhortation in James 4:17 makes it clear that not doing what we know we should be doing misses the mark. "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."
There are probably a lot of us out in the world who struggle with this. Some struggle from a lack of confidence, like Moses, they think they don’t have what it takes. Some worry that they may be ridiculed, persecuted, or lose those close to them, forgetting our Lord, Jesus Christ’s reassuring promise, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12) And of course some of us, myself included, are afraid of that most cruel of fates- being incorrect or embarrassing ourselves in a public space. Heaven forbid, right? The fact is, though, that letting any of these things hold us back falls short of the life our Father wants us to lead.
If the Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen had been worried about what people were thinking or how his words would be taken and decided not to heed the call, what would have happened? If Rev. Billy Graham had not begun the ministry he was moved to do, how many souls would still be lost? If Abraham had not trusted the Lord when he was called to sacrifice Isaac, or Moses had walked away from the Burning Bush and wandered into obscurity, what would have been the impact? If my dear friend, Fr. Ron Stone had not chosen to live the rest of his life as a man of the cloth, how would my life have been changed? There is no telling, aside from the fact that God’s perfect plan of loving goodness would have continued to be carried out no matter what. But His sovereignty should be a thing of comfort and cause for trust in Him, not an excuse to just ‘let go and let God’ to borrow a phrase.
Indeed, like with love, there is a broad swath of scripture dedicated to telling us to ‘take up our crosses daily.’ I’ll pull a couple of my favorites for the sake of discussion. Continuing on from the Beatitudes, Christ tells us, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) The light which is instilled in us by God is a beautiful and wonderful thing, we must not ‘hide it under a bushel!’ No, we’ve got to let it shine. Later, St. Matthew’s account comes in clutch yet again with another of Christ’s many parables. This one is quite a bit longer, though, and paraphrasing loses something, so hold onto your hats. Matthew 25:14-30 reads,
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[a] and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents,[b] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.[c] You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Christ is coming in hot by the end of this one, really. It’s more of an admonishment than simply an instruction. If you read into this, not only will you not get to keep what you were given, you’ll lose it, and much more in time for not taking what you were given by God and using it to be fruitful. One could even make the connection here between this servant and the idea of a ‘lukewarm’ or ‘cool’ christian.
So there it is. What can we do with this? For one, get hot. But not East Tennessee at random points in the middle of winter hot. Hot with the fire of the Holy Spirit, hot with a desire to truly admit and declare that all that we are and all that we have belong to Christ and let our light shine before all, so that they may see our works and come to glorify God.
Standing before a packed sanctuary and addressing a class of around 19 newly-baptized Christians, Fr. David Mary Egno challenged them to not be cool. “Don’t be cool, be on fire with your faith.” He said, “allow your faith to truly be alive in you, let it burn in you and be a bright light in this world.” I’d like to add my own voice to this, but I doubt I could say it better.
We can have a world where all of us, sons and daughters of Almighty God, are so brilliantly visible, that like Valentine, Perpetua and Felicity, Paul, Steven, Andrew, Sebastian, Francis, and so many others we can be living witnesses and bring the light of Christ to the world. At the risk of making it sound simple, all we have to do is put our trust in God to see us through. Remember, that through his faith and trust in Christ, Peter walked on water, and even though he faltered, he called out to our Lord, and was saved.
I hope you’ll join me in this prayer:
“Father, you have given me wonderful gifts, and I am thankful for them. Help me to overcome hesitation and doubt so that -trusting in your guidance- I may go forth and fulfill the task you have set before me. All I am and all I have are yours. Let your will be done through me.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
