God's Feather Bed

I heard the same sermon four times last weekend. Each time, I still found it funny to imagine a person committed to sleeping on the floor because they were too afraid of falling out of their bed. “Risk management,” Pastor Marty called it. We are trained from an early age to play it safe, eliminate risks, be cautious. We are one talent people. He was referring to the parable of the talents, where the master had given each of his three servants varying amounts of his own talents. The first servant was given five talents, the second had two, and the last was given one talent. The first two servants doubled profits for their master, while the last one returned the same one talent—unchanged. (Matthew 25:14-30)

I imagine the one talent person as the disheveled looking individual. Tired from nights of sleeping on the wooden floor next to the big feather bed his master had provided for him. Too afraid of messing up, weighed down with worries beyond his control, burying talents in doubt and insecurity.

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone slept comfortably through the night! Resting in the security of God’s big feather bed. Waking up to new days of opportunity. Free to take risks. Refreshed by life, knowing and trusting that all we are given is gift. Grace-loads of feathers scattered like blessings. “All is given, all is yours,” says the Lord.

Generous God, make us bold and faithful stewards of all you have entrusted us. Free to risk and free to fail; always resting in your care. Amen.

Good or Bad?

Have you ever noticed that movies, cartoons, and fairy tales often make it seem so clear who is the “bad guy” and who is the “good guy”? Think of some examples with me. Take “Home Alone”: Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is the good boy, and Harry and Marv (the burglars) are the bad guys. In “The Lion King,” Simba is the good lion, Scar is the bad lion. From the Brothers Grimm, Snow white is the good girl, and the jealous queen/witch is the bad girl. Simple and straightforward; you are either good, or you’re bad.

But life is not that simple, is it? Is anyone all good or all bad? Are you all good or all bad? Do you always do what is right in thought, word, and deed? Aren’t you both some good and some bad? Sure you probably do some good things and help others sometimes; people are capable of tremendous good. Yet we all have moments when we look to our own needs first, or respond with rudeness to a customer service representative, or spend money carelessly, or act in ways that hurt our bodies or harm the earth. The list can go on. (Maybe, when we think about, none of us is as good as we fool ourselves into thinking.) We do the best we can, but the truth is that we are all far from holy. We are all both good and bad.

All too often we forget this truth, and we try to categories other people as “all good” or “all bad”. We do this more often than we realize. Are Christians “all good” or “all bad”? Are Muslims? Are Palestinians? Is George W. Bush? Is either McCain or Obama all good or all bad? We all live somewhere in the middle, flaws and virtues together. May the Lord forgive our “bad”ness, increase our “good”ness, and open our eyes to see in truth and love.