John 2: 9,10; I Corinthians 12: 4-11

Refining our talents

Today the New Testament texts in our lectionary reading are very well known but really have nothing to do with each other so there is no use forcing them together to become one message.  However, I would like to take the perspective of one text and take it together with the other.  In John 2 Jesus becomes involved in wine making against His own wishes. His mother basically wants Him to do magic.  He might have resented this, because His powers are for healing, not for tricks.  The steward or master of the banquet is very impressed however.  He tells the bridegroom that “you leave your best wine to the last.”  Of course the bridegroom is not responsible for this, it is Jesus.  I would like to take this idea of “saving the best wine until the end” and using it partially as a lens to look at the question of talents and gifts.
Paul has a problem of arrogance and competition.  There are certain people in the new congregation at Corinth who consider themselves superior to others because of the gifts that they have.  This is not an uncommon occurrence is organization, specifically churches.  It has to do with spiritual gifts for Paul: who is able to show that they are people filled with the Holy Spirit. This can show up in the way they can reach a level of spiritual ecstasy or do acts of healing.  A lot of these gifts you do not see valued much of in the Presbyterian church where the emphasis is on simplicity, order, democracy,  sound thinking and responsibility, not on ecstasy and flamboyance and excitement.   But still there are gifts and talents, things people are good at or achieve or contribute.

I was talking to a friend who talked to me about her church of another denomination and how a number of members think they are morally superior and of a leader standing up and saying to the congregation:” you know how the Bible says we are supposed to accept every and one not look down on them, well we don’t have that.”  It kind of sums up the thing that kills many congregations and organizations that is the feeling of superiority of one member over another.  Fortunately there isn’t much of that in this congregation. This was tearing apart the fabric of Paul’s diverse, multicultural congregation in Corinth.  Today I want to take a look at some of the misconceptions about talents and gifts and replace them with what I Paul might consider correct conceptions.  The first misconception is that gifts and talents in the church and elsewhere have a pecking order.  In other words, that there are certain gifts and talents which are more valuable than others.  We human beings are social and we have a whole range of categories we have to classify people: from race and ethnicity to education to where people live, to how they look and dress and how they speak. The list is long and you are all familiar with it.  Misconception number two states that gifts and talents only occur in the organizations and families we have been a part of, that somehow our experience is unique.  Just by looking at Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we know that this problem is as old as interaction itself.  There have always been pecking orders among humans, including an order of talents and gifts.  The third misconception is that talents and gifts have a price on them.  People with certain talents and gifts are rewarded with a position within a congregation or with a high paying salary within another organization.  Position and salary give us an idea which talents are more valuable.  The fourth misconception is that talent is not like fine wine, that there is shelf life to it.  In another words: when you no longer have your position or your salary dries up, somehow you talents and gifts dry up too.

That brings me to the right conceptions about our talents and gift, whether they are officially “spiritual” or not:  The first right conception is that talent and gift are surprising: sometimes you see a person who has no position in any organization and has never been very high up in any organization and you see them operate with so much creativity or compassion or perseverance that you are just dumbfounded.  Gifts and talents can surprise the one having them and the one benefiting from them.  The second right conception is that the instinct to classify people and look down on them for their skills or gifts or talents or lack of them is an instinct the Bible time and time again tells us to overcome.  These classifications are tools of power and control, not of compassion and grace.  The third right conception is that gifts and talents are priceless. Remember that commercial for a credit card company a few years back where a price is put on several items, but then the experience is presented as “priceless.”  The idea is that the card leads the holder to something priceless.  If our gifts and talents are really God-given, then we cannot put a price or importance on them.  We have no right to do that.  We can only observe whether someone uses her or his gifts and talents or not.  Finally, the fourth right conception is that our talents and gifts can be like the best wine saved until the end of the party.  There are many things we can mention in the natural world that through a process of fermentation become better, from kim chi to wine.  Friends, may you value the gifts and talents of yourself and those around you,  allow yourself and encourage others to use those gifts and talents, fully realize the pricelessness of those talents and gifts God gave all of us for a reason and may you bring out the surprising best in yourself in the years ahead of you. Thanks be to God.