Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

One of the most vicious lies told about Christians, a lie we sometimes believe ourselves, is that to a be a good Christian we need to cover up who we really are. We need to paint on a little happy face and go through life pretending to be something we are not. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, St. John Chrysostom, who lived in the fourth century and may have been the greatest preacher Christianity has ever produced, taught that each Christian’s goal is to become the person we truly are.

St. Augustine teaches that to be really free is not to be running around and doing anything that comes to mind – that is just being foolish and irresponsible. To be free is to be able to see the difference between what is important and what is not and to be able to use that knowledge to become the kind of person God created you to be. That’s what we mean when we say that knowing Jesus makes you free.

As Jesus’ parable from tonight’s Gospel reading points out, the "master" entrusts each of us with gifts that we are supposed to use for the good of the community around us. We don’t all have the same gifts, but whatever we are given, we are called to use.
It’s not always easy to know what your gifts are. Sometimes it’s easier to figure out what they aren’t. I remember as a kid in grade school working and working to draw a horse. It always ended up looking something like a dog. We would do penmanship exercises where we were supposed to produce long beautiful circular coils. Mine always looked like someone had stomped on them. I took music lessons and came to love music deeply, but I could never really get the music to come out of an instrument the way it was in my heart.

But as I got older I found that I loved teaching. I loved studying something and then figuring out a way to help other people understand it. I loved being in a classroom and I loved helping students outside of class. And people told me that I did a pretty good job at it.

One of the most important signs that you are using a gift God has given you is that you feel close to God when you are using that gift, and the gift tends to make others more aware of God’s goodness. When I’m preparing a class or teaching, I am lifted up. I feel closer to God.

I serve on a board for a group that raises money to support an orphanage in Mexico. One of our board members is an accountant who keeps track of all our funds. As far as I know, he’s only been to the orphanage once. He’s not a carpenter or a plumber who can make the repairs we often need to make. He’s not an organizer or a speaker who can raise the $40,000 or $50,000 a year we have to raise to keep our kids safe, healthy, and well-cared for. But he is a tiger when it comes to protecting our income, expenditures, and accounts. He watches every penny. He knows where it came from and where it goes. He protects and loves those kids and our donors like you wouldn’t believe, but instead of doing it by wielding a hammer or wearing a badge, a way for which he is probably not very well suited, he does it by protecting our accounts. He is using the gifts God gave him to do God’s work, and he grows in his love for God and others as he does it.

Maybe you are lifted up by visiting with lonely or sick people. Maybe you are lifted up by writing or performing music. Maybe you are lifted up by drawing, making signs or posters, putting together a newsletter. Maybe you find yourself closer to God when you are repairing or building. I know a young woman who loves to organize things. She has a gift for administration, and everything works better when she is around. I know another young woman who has a gift for leadership. She walks into a situation and says, "Hey, let’s try this," and the whole group gets focused and heads off to do wonderful and loving things and have fun in the process. I know a woman who works in a high-pressure job processing huge amounts of mail. She’s good at it, but she is especially good at caring for the people she supervises on that job. She knows their needs, their joys, and their sorrows. And everyone who works with her is lifted up by her concern and attention.

Sometimes all we have to bring to the table is our brokenness, our knowledge of what it feels like to be lost, or afraid, or betrayed. I’ve seen incredible things happen when someone just brings those gifts and offers them.

Every year my wife and I help with a healing retreat for people who have been harmed by abortions, either having had one themselves or been close to an abortion in some other way. The retreat helps people to truly accept the forgiveness and love that God offers and to begin to see themselves as lovable again. And I’ve seen these people use the powerful gift they’ve been given – the gift of really knowing what it means to be forgiven and loved – to make an incredible difference in their own lives and the lives of people around them.

We see in the reading from Proverbs the gift that this wonderful woman with the hard work of her "loving hands" is to her family and the whole community. It might not have seemed at first that the humble work she did could be holy. But it was powerful work in building up God’s kingdom.

Don’t be afraid to seek out the gifts that God has given you – you might even try to attend a "called and gifted" weekend. They’ll be having one at St. John’s Feb. 22 and 23. It is a retreat devoted to finding out what gifts God has given you. On our fall retreat at St. Paul’s, we worked through a similar process, and some people gained some real insights into the way that God is working in their lives.

And don’t ever think that God doesn’t have a contribution for you to make. Nobody else can love God in exactly the way that you can. Nor can God love and protect and nurture our poor suffering world through anyone else in exactly the way that God can work through you. My prayer for each of us is that we can come to realize more clearly that God loves and trusts us and calls each of to the joy and fulfillment of a life with a purpose. My prayer is that we will each hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Come, share your master’s joy."


[Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5; 1 Thes 5:1-6; Mt 25:14-30]