Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; Matthew 25:14-29; 1 Samuel 16:6-7; Philippians 4:8-9 Series: 2022
Third sermon in a series on freedom, preached at Bee Creek UMC on January 16, 2022. Pruitt confronts the painful reality that spiritual and natural gifts are not distributed equally (‘life’s not fair’), reading Paul on the diversity of gifts given by one Spirit for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) alongside the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25). He argues that the unfairness only stings if our goal is worldly competition—college, sports, money; but God’s goal is different, and God looks at the heart, not outward stature (Samuel anointing David, 1 Samuel 16). True freedom is being released from the competitive, comparing, fearful mindset (like the servant who buried his talent) to love fully with whatever gifts we’ve been given. Drawing on Bonhoeffer, he locates this freedom in Christian community and Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 4 to dwell on what is true and lovely, closing with a reflection exercise and prayer for release from jealousy.
Illustrations: growing-up-others-better-than-you, mothers-lifes-not-fair, barry-switzer-born-on-third, 10000-hours-elite-athletes, comparing-attendance-and-preaching, looks-like-a-duck
January 16
Freedom in Christ
There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; and there are different ministries and the same Lord; and there are different activities but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good. A word of wisdom is given by the Spirit to one person, a word of knowledge to another according to the same Spirit, faith to still another by the same Spirit, gifts of healing to another in the one Spirit, performance of miracles to another, prophecy to another, the ability to tell spirits apart to another, different kinds of tongues to another, and the interpretation of the tongues to another. All these things are produced by the one and same Spirit who gives what he wants to each person. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
One of the hardest things about growing up is realizing that there are some people who are better at things than you are. There are people who are faster, who are stronger, who have better coordination, who are better at sports than you. There are people who are smarter than you. People who have more symmetrical faces, their hair is perfect, they always seem in better shape. All of these kinds of things. And you get to the point when you realize that it is not fair. It is not fair. Why do they have those things and I don’t? Sometimes, when you’re 10 or 12, and there’s a kid that is faster than you, you know that you are smarter than them or, you know that they may be able to shoot more three-pointers in basketball than you, but you know that you can defend better than they can. But then there’s also those kids that are just better at all the things than you. This becomes more acute in high school and you start getting ready for college applications and things like that. And it’s not fair. There are people who are better at all the athletics than you and get better grades and write better essays and have better connections and always look effortlessly perfect and get into better schools than you. It does not seem fair. It seems like it would be fair if everybody had an equal bucket of talent. The word talent actually comes from the Bible and we’ll get to that in a little bit. But it seems like it would be fair if everyone has this bucket of talent or gifts or stuff that they’re naturally good at and it’s just doled out equally so that if you add up everyone’s gifts, it all equals the same around the world. It’s nice to think about that, but it’s just not true in reality. And at some point, everyone has to come to grips with this fact. As my mother would say, “life’s not fair, Wilson.” This is not fair. Why do they get more than me?
Series Intro
My brothers and sisters, we are continuing our series on freedom on our search for the true freedom that God offers us. A few weeks ago, we talked about the covenant prayer of John Wesley and, and how it offers us a model of freedom. Last week, we were talking about baptism and the freedom Christ offers us from sin; the freedom to love God.
But in what is our freedom located and what does it look? That’s what we’re talking about today: our freedom in Christ. The gifts Christ has given us to live free.
But again, if we look at the world and the different gifts some people receive, it seems like there’s not any freedom here. It seems like we are limited, like we are constrained by our genetics. We’re constrained by our condition. If we were born wealthier, if we were born with more gifts, it would be different. It may seem like life is a genetic lottery: some people have to struggle every day of their life and others are born on third and think they hit a triple, as Barry Switzer said. Life is not fair. It doesn’t seem like we are free in that kind of way. It seems like much of our life is predetermined and outside of our control. We cannot pick our family. We cannot pick the place we are born. We cannot pick our circumstances. Sure, We have some agency on marginal positions here or there. We can choose to practice more. We can choose to study more. We can will ourselves in certain directions, but you can’t will yourself to grow six inches. You can’t will yourself to suddenly be good at something that you’re not. You can practice 10,000 hours and still not be able to throw a football like Aaron Rogers or Tom Brady. You could practice 10,000 hours and still not be able to shoot a basketball like Steph Curry. Doesn’t that seem a bit constrained? In that parable where the word talent comes from, Jesus doesn’t exactly settle the situation. A talent was a unite of weight about 80 lbs., so each talent is about 80 lbs of silver. It is a lot of money in any culture. Here is the parable from Matthew 25
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who was leaving on a trip. He called his servants and handed his possessions over to them. To one he gave five valuable coins, and to another he gave two, and to another he gave one. He gave to each servant according to that servant’s ability. Then he left on his journey. “After the man left, the servant who had five valuable coins took them and went to work doing business with them. He gained five more. In the same way, the one who had two valuable coins gained two more. But the servant who had received the one valuable coin dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. “Now after a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five valuable coins came forward with five additional coins. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five valuable coins. Look, I’ve gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Excellent! You are a good and faithful servant! You’ve been faithful over a little. I’ll put you in charge of much. Come, celebrate with me.’ “The second servant also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two valuable coins. Look, I’ve gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done! You are a good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a little. I’ll put you in charge of much. Come, celebrate with me.’ “Now the one who had received one valuable coin came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man. You harvest grain where you haven’t sown. You gather crops where you haven’t spread seed. So I was afraid. And I hid my valuable coin in the ground. Here, you have what’s yours.’ “His master replied, ‘You evil and lazy servant! You knew that I harvest grain where I haven’t sown and that I gather crops where I haven’t spread seed? In that case, you should have turned my money over to the bankers so that when I returned, you could give me what belonged to me with interest. Therefore, take from him the valuable coin and give it to the one who has ten coins. Those who have much will receive more, and they will have more than they need. But as for those who don’t have much, even the little bit they have will be taken away from them.
What do we do with this? It doesn’t seem fair? The servants aren’t given equal talents. But the question we need to hold on to is what is the goal? What were they asked to do? What are we asked to do?What are we striving for? If the goal of the Christian life is to get into college, it’s unfair that some people have more gifts than others. If the goal of the Christian life is to play varsity sports or to get the highest paying job or to make the most money possible, then yes, this dispersion of talents is deeply unfair. If that is the goal, then we are deeply unfree and deeply constrained in this life. And yet, thanks be to God. That is not our goal. God doesn’t say, “make as much money as you can or else you will go to hell,” right? That’s not in the Bible. Instead, we have this idea of gifts offered to us by Paul in first Corinthians:
There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; and there are different ministries and the same Lord; and there are different activities but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good. A word of wisdom is given by the Spirit to one person, a word of knowledge to another according to the same Spirit, faith to still another by the same Spirit, gifts of healing to another in the one Spirit, performance of miracles to another, prophecy to another, the ability to tell spirits apart to another, different kinds of tongues to another, and the interpretation of the tongues to another. All these things are produced by the one and same Spirit who gives what he wants to each person.
Not everyone has received the same gifts, nor are they given in an equal amount, but they are given as the Spirit wishes. And again, if we are stuck in this mindset of competition, it is not fair. But when we break free of that mindset, when we realize that we are not competing against each other for God’s love, we are free to love fully wherever we are with whatever we have, with whatever talents we have been given. We are also free because even in those moments where we make mistakes, when we don’t fulfill our potential, there is grace and mercy. We are offered gifts to share, not gifts to horde. And so the kids who are faster and stronger, smarter, and funnier, more handsome and more beautiful, their life is their life. The standards that we set as a society to compare ourselves to each other are not the standards of God.
When the prophet Samuel comes to Jesse’s farm, looking for the new king of Israel, by all the standards of the ancient world, by all the standards of the modern world, the oldest son should be king. He is handsome and tall and strong and smart. He looks like a king. He acts like a king. If it looks like a duck and quacks like, it’s a duck. This works for humans, it does not work for God. The oldest so. Looks like he should be king, but he is not. Then the next and the next is they’re all handsome and tall and smart and strong king lik, but no, none of them are enough because God does not look at the side of God, looks at the heart. We have not been given gifts in equal amounts. There is a bucket of heavenly gifts, offered to each of us, but it’s hard to know what we have been given. If we don’t pay attention to who we are.
reflection
I want us to take a little time now to breathe, to pray, to think about what God has offered you.
What has God given me?
How am I using my gifts?
How can I use them more this year.
It is easy to say we’re not comparing ourselves to others. Its easy for me to say that I am not comparing our attendance to other church’s, or my preaching to otehr pastors. It is another thing to put that into practice.
Thanks be to God that we are not left alone. The freedom Christ gives us is the freedom for life together.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,
Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ. What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.
In this we are free together to remind, uplift, encourage, rebuke, hold up and sometimes simply just hold each other when the tribulations of this world are strong.
Thinking back to the parable of the talents, the third servant hid his talent because he was afraid. He was afraid of what would happen. Whenever I find myself in a place of negativity thinking about what others have that I don’t, I am trapped there. I am afraid to do anything there. I am not free. This is not what God offers us. This is not what we are offered together. We are free together to not think of the lack. We are free not to make comparisons but to focus, with Paul in Philippians, on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
In this we are truly free.
Let us be a community that is free to seek Christ together. Let us be free to accept the gifts we have been given and accept that we were not given everything. Let us stop seeking salvation and competition in ourselves. Let us seek God’s gifts together. Let us be grateful for the giftedness of those around us. Let us be grateful for whatever portion God has given us.
Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, thank you for your many gifts. Help us to be satisfied in you and in what you offer us. Help us be free to be ourselves. Release us from jealousy and draw us further into your love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.