I've been thinking a lot about the parable of the talents lately.
We just had a ministry fair at SVCC and it's stirred up some interesting thoughts about the nature of the body of Christ and the individual responsibility of every believer toward ministry.
And i've thought that "talent" might not be limited really to what I've traditionally understood: something a person is good at that's to be used for the glory of God. I think it's that, too, but I think that's an unnecessarily narrow definition and that a talent might be anything in a person's life that God intends to use -- and hiding one's talent in that respect would be standing in the way of his using it, or letting fear stand in the way.
God may not have given me the trials in my life, but he's given me what I've needed to survive them and he's given me opportunity to learn from them and, when necessary, to heal from them. And it strikes me sometimes that Mordecai's words to Esther, "who know but that you have come to [this] position for such a time as this?' may have far broader application. God spared her in order to spare his people. Who knows but that God has brought me through in order to use me to bring others through as well?
So maybe a talent isn't necessarily anything I'm good at or any specific gift God has given me directly. Maybe it's just something in my life he intends to use -- if I'll let him.
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Here's a snippet from a theological reflection paper I turned in for class the other day. The subject was Gospel and Salvation:
One aspect of salvation that has been overlooked, at least in churches I have been in, is the fact that we are saved, ransomed, redeemed, etc, for a purpose. We are not like the Jewish people that Oskar Schindler saved from Auschwitz. Jesus did not die for us because we were not deserving of death. He did not come to save us from the “gas chamber” so that we could return to our lives as cobblers and bankers and grocers and butchers. We were called, and saved, for a reason. Tied to the concept of salvation are the ideas of calling, and of service. God saved Moses so that he would grow up to lead his people. God saved Joseph from death, so that as he was blessed, he would be able to bless his family. God ransomed Israel from Egypt, so that they would be a light to the nations. Even after they turned from him, he refined them in the desert, so that by blessing them, they might bless the world. God redeemed Jonah from the belly of the great fish, so that he could bring Nineveh to repentance. God saves us today so that we might in turn call others to enter into the Kingdom. Scripture is replete with examples of God saving people, or groups of people, and commissioning them to go out.
Imagine a conractor. He uses his own money (and he’s a very wealthy contractor), to buy (or use the word purchase to bring in a Biblical tone) some building materials. He buys concrete for a foundation, wood for a frame, sheetrock for walls. He buys wire and pipes and more wood. He buys nails and glue and carpet and paint. He buys shingles and windows and light switch covers. And then he puts all the stuff he has bought into a big storage shed. All of the pieces sit there and are never put together into a house. A house that might be used by an underprivileged family, or as a shelter for battered women goes unbuilt.
I think that sometimes our churches are like that. We have many members who believe themselves to be saved. But what do they do with that salvation? They sit in pews and complain about the air conditioning or the handicapped people and their singing. To truly experience salvation is to understand that we have been saved for a reason. We are saved, for the sake of the world.
Not exactly Barth or Luther, or even Lucado, but I think it's something worth chewing on.
Yup. I think we get stuck in this mindset of "we're saved" and then brush the sweat from our brows as though the hard part is over -- as though we've done anything at all.
God did all the work to bring us to a position in which we can be of use. Sure it's for the purpose of relationship, but he doesn't only love us. If God loves the entire world enough to sacrifice Christ, yet we the redeemed are content to sit back and watch the rest go literally to hell, what does that say about us? It may say, "you who think you stand, watch that you don't fall."
I think you're right: I think God never intended the posture of the body of Christ to be that of sitting on its collective rump.
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