The point is, if I now endorse what I previously rejected, then I am demonstrating that I have no integrity. In fact, my old identity, defined by religious customs, passed away, so that a new God-given identity could come to life. I was crucified with the Anointed. The person I used to be no longer lives. God’s Anointed lives in me; and the bodily life I now live, I live by the same confident trust in God that the “son of God” had. He loved me and gave up his life for my benefit.
Galatians 2:18-20 (Scholars Version
Just so, my friends, you symbolically died to the jurisdiction of the law when you identified yourselves with the crucified body of the Anointed, so that you could be free to commit yourselves to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, in order that we may be productive in the service of God.
Romans 7:4 (Scholars Version
All too often, I believe that we think too narrowly about theological topics. One of those is “resurrection.” We assume:
- There is only one conception of resurrection in the Bible (actually there are multiple!). For more information on that read Bernard Brandon Scott’s book, The Trouble with Resurrection: From Paul to the Fourth Gospel
.
- Resurrection has to do with only a physical, bodily resurrection. Actually, the apostle, Paul, says it is spiritual (for more read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44).
- Resurrection is something that happens only when we die.
In contrast, consider the passages above where Paul is essentially saying, I have died to an old way of life so I can live anew – NOW – being productive for God! Plus, we can also probably all think of times in which we have been spiritually or emotionally “dead” and experienced new life by the empowering grace of God, which allowed us to live for God. These images, too, seem to be resurrection.
Another image of resurrection that happens now while we live on this earth came to mind yesterday as I was contemplating the Children’s Sermon and Rev. Paul Goodrich’s sermon based on the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). God resurrects those talents that we have buried deep within ourselves – those talents that we might not want others to know we have, or talents we have never nurtured at all.
This past Saturday, I met a man who recollected to me how, as a child, he loved listening to the sound of the pedal-steel guitar coming across the airwaves on WSM (aka the Grand Old Opry). He said that he had always wanted to learn to play the instrument. In 1978, after moving to this area (Wichita Falls, Texas), he tried to find someone to teach him locally, but he could find no one.
In his words, “Life happened,” and he became distracted until 1992. He came across the name of a steel guitarist for a band based out of the Dallas / Ft. Worth area. He contacted him and convinced him to give lessons. So, every week for two years, he drove to DFW every Saturday morning for a lesson.
Today, he is productive in the service of the Lord by playing benefit and community concerts. Likewise, he teaches others to play the pedal-steel guitar to help them “resurrect” buried God-given talents for music.
Questions to Ponder:
- What talents lie buried within you?
- Are you purposely hiding that talent or is it a talent yet to be nurtured?
- What is keeping you from letting that talent grow and bloom for the betterment of others and yourself? Remember we are to love our neighbors as OURSELVES!
- How is God already at work in you, trying to make that talent come forth?
(This post was originally posted at http://fumcwf.org/archives/4877 under the title of
“Thoughts for Lent: Buried Talents in Need of Resurrection” on March 28, 2011.)
