Are You Sharing What You’ve Been Given?

At our home we’ve put in energy efficient light bulbs almost everywhere we can. The new bulbs use a lot less electricity compared to the old incandescent bulbs. However, at least a few members of our household aren’t enamored with some of the new bulbs because it takes them longer to get to full brightness compared to the old ones which were as bright as they’d get the moment you turned them on. Part of the frustration is when you need light you like it as soon as possible. In the fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel while teaching his disciples Jesus asked a question about light and a lamp.

21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23 Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25 For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

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July 12, 2015
Mark 4:21-25, Are You Sharing What You’ve Been Given?
Pastor Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church

Back in the first century, a few years before the invention of the electric light, lamps were usually small clay containers that held oil and a small wick that burned and gave light. It’s important to remember that when we hear the question Jesus asks: “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand?” You’d never put an oil lamp under a basket where its light would be useless. The word “bed” refers to the reclining couch placed at the side of the dining table. The people then did not sit on straight-backed chairs when eating at the table, but reclined on couches. You really wouldn’t put a lamp with an open flame under a couch made of highly combustible materials; that wouldn’t just be useless it’d be dangerous. So Jesus’ question is rhetorical; everyone who heard him ask this question then or now is supposed to answer, “Of course not. You don’t bring in a lamp when you need light and hide it under a basket and you certainly don’t take an open flame and stick it under your couch! That would be stupid and no help at all. When you need light you like it as soon as possible. The whole idea of bringing in or turning on a light is to let it shine.” If you’re bringing in a lamp it’s because you need light and light needs to be placed where it’s visible and where it will do the most good; where it will fulfill its purpose of illuminating the darkness and making it easier to see.

These sentences in Mark’s Gospel represent the first special instruction to the disciples. Consistent with Jesus’ teaching approach that privileges are to be used for the benefit of others, Jesus tells His disciples that if they have more insight than other people because they’ve been with him, they’re to employ it for the common good. Mark gives us these verses in the middle of two passages that have to do with growing seeds. When we plant seeds in the ground they’re hidden, but once they take root and sprout they grow and become much larger and visible and fulfill their purpose. When Jesus says (Mark 4:22), “For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light;” he’s saying the whole point of his teaching about the kingdom of God is for the disciples to disclose it to others and bring it to light in their lives and in the world. That’s their purpose and ours – we’re to share what we’ve been given.

Jesus then talks about the importance of how we listen in verse 24, Pay attention to what you hear, take notice of what you are hearing, “the measure you give will be the measure you get,” The more carefully we give attention to a person we’re listening to – the more we’ll hear, notice, perceive and understand what she or he is saying. The more carefully we give attention to the Word, the more we’ll hear, notice, perceive and understand. “Use it or lose it” applies not just to our muscles and our mind, but to matters of the Spirit. The way we focus and pay attention to spiritual teaching makes a difference in our capacity to hear it the next time.

Jesus concludes theses verses with an encouragement and a promise that to those who hear, receive, and respond “still more will be given to us.” When he says in verse 25, “For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away;” Jesus isn’t talking about money or material riches. We don’t need Jesus to tell us the rich get richer whether by wise investing or compound interest. What we need to be told is that we grow in understanding our faith and God’s promises as we make the most of and practice the insights that we’ve received. This is the sense in which, “to those who have, more will be given;” If by the grace of God we’ve grown up or are growing up in a Christian home and in a healthy church we’ve been given a gift and a solid foundation on which to build our lives.

The scary second part of the sentence is “and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” Our knowledge of God and our sensitivity and awareness of spiritual matters can die and disappear if through simple indifference and apathy we cease to listen to or seek after God.

As the theologian William Neill noted, “Our conscience becomes blunted, our vision of God is dimmed, our sympathies atrophy, our love grows cold. This is not something that God inflicts upon us. We inflict it on ourselves. Jesus offers us a choice – the way of life or the way of death. It is not a choice that we have to make once and for all. It is a choice we have to make every day of our lives as we respond, or fail to respond, to the challenge of the gospel.”[1]

Are you sharing what you’ve been given is true not just of the gospel and the good things in life, but we can share our trials and tribulations as well in a way that is helpful to other people and gives glory to God. Many of you know Greg and Mary Catherine O’Brien and you know Greg has written a book On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s about being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Jill and I have both read Greg’s book and we heard him speak recently and I asked Greg to share with us for a few minutes this morning. Greg is sharing his faith, hope, and even humor in the midst of what he’s dealing with in a way that’s giving light to others who are coping with this disease.

Sharing at Brewster Baptist Church, 7/12/15 by Greg O’Brien

Isaiah 6:8, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ I prayed that verse many years ago, on many days, at a time when my memory was Harvard sharp, my sense of place as good as Seri’s, and my sense of self, confident to the core. So here I am…The Lord has a way of taking one at their word. Amen.

Scripture tells us we must lose self to gain self—for me, putting on the mind of Christ. The Lord’s mind will not atrophy, as mine is diminishing now on the back nine. There are no more mulligans, no “do-overs.” When God steps in, it’s a powerful event in a life. Loss of self, loss of control is the footpath to Heaven. For this journey, I needed to lose my prized possession, my mind. It used to be my best friend, and now I see no chance for reconciliation. So I’ve learned to speak and write from the heart, the place of the soul. How many times have you heard: “Speak from your heart.” It’s the journey from the cradle to the grave.

My journey has been accelerated by the family tree. My maternal grandfather and my mother died of Alzheimer’s, my paternal uncle died of the disease a few months ago, and before my father’s passing, he was diagnosed with dementia. Now the disease is coming for me. About five years ago, I was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s—accelerated, doctors say, by two serious head injuries. Brain scans, PET scans and a battery of clinical tests have all confirmed the diagnosis. I also carry the Alzheimer’s marker gene APOE4; it appears to be on both sides of the family. So game over, right? Not yet, the Lord has said. “Whom shall I send?”

Along that path, the Lord often reaches us in the quiet, unexpected moments. Alone in my office a year or so ago when my brain froze up, I began screaming at God. I was angry, in full gait rage—spewing F-bombs that should have turned me into a pillar of salt. Moments later, realizing I had to meet with someone, I rushed out to my Jeep, only to find the back left tire as flat as a spatula. The carpet bombing continued… I limped in the car about three miles down winding country roads to Brewster Mobil, in a Tourette’s of swear the entire way. “Got a problem,” I told the attendant abruptly. “Please fix it.” The sympathetic attendant, a kid who had graduated from high school with one of my sons, said dutifully that he’d patch the tire right away—working his pliers to pull out the obstruction that had sent me into chaos. He returned in short order. “You might want to look at this, the culprit,” he told me. I stared intently at the culprit with astonishment. I couldn’t believe what I saw. “Believe it,” he said. The culprit was a small, narrow piece of scrap medal, bent into a cross. A perfect cross. I will hold that moment close to my heart until the day I leave this planet. So here I am…Send me.

“Memory is everything. Without it we are nothing,” observed neuroscientist Eric Kandel, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research on the physiology of the brain’s capacity for memory. Memory is the glue, he said, that binds the mind and provides continuity.

But is memory all that it’s cracked up to be? For example, how big was that fish you caught ten years ago; how long was that home run you hit in high school; and was that prom dress really all that pretty? Our memories are colored with the woulda-coulda-shoulda of life. The place of the heart is the equalizer, the seamless reflection, the part of us that lives forever with God, perfected in Heaven. While memory offers delineating context and perspective, it doesn’t define us. Definition is found in the spirit, in the soul, but one must dig for it. “An unexamined life,” Socrates once said, “is not one worth living.”

So I’ve been digging, forced to dig. Be prepared for the unexpected, I’ve heard the Lord say, and try always to find the hope in it. As Romans 5:5 in the New Testament promises: “Hope does not disappoint.”

Today, I have little short-term memory, a progression of blanks; close to 60 percent of what I take in now is gone in seconds. It is dispiriting to lose a thought in a second, 64,800 seconds a day in an 18-hour period of consciousness; to stand exposed, and yet stand one’s ground, to begin to grasp in fundamental, naked terms, who one really is—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Then there’s the rage on days when I hurl the phone across the room, a perfect strike to the sink, because in the moment I can’t remember how to dial, or when I smash the lawn sprinkler against an oak tree in the backyard because I can’t recall how it works, or in winter when I push open the flaming hot glass door to the family room wood stove barehanded to stoke the fire just because I thought it was a good idea until the skin melts in a second-degree burn, or simply when I cry privately, the tears of a little boy, because I fear that I’m alone, nobody cares, and the innings are starting to fade.

Hey, I’m not stupid, folks, nor are others with dementia; we just have a disease. Death comes to all. While in the natural, we have little rule over time and place, we can choose the attitude as we head through the tunnel to a brighter light. As Leonardo DaVinci observed in the 15th century: “While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” Aren’t we all, if we lift the thin veil of denial?

So, we press on in the shadows of role models. One of the most inspiring to me is a man called “Sweetness.” He taught us legions on the gridiron about perseverance. The late Hall of Fame Chicago Bears legend, Walter Payton, nine times an All Pro, was one of the most prolific running backs in NFL history; he died too young at age 45 of cancer. Toward the end of his extraordinary career, a sports commentator declared on air in full reverence: “Walter Payton has run for more than nine miles!” To which his co-anchor replied intuitively, “Yes, and Payton did that getting knocked down every 4.6 yards, and getting back up again!”

And so it is with chronic illness, good days and bad days. You get knocked down, you get back up. Again and again. You find a way to win—as New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick would insist—on the playing field, on the job, in the home, or in a fight against cancer, heart disease, AIDS, Parkinson’s, Autism, depression, diabetes, dementia, or any number of vile illnesses. Lying down in football, as it is in wrestling, is a position of defeat. That’s not a good place for any of us. As a famed billboard on Boston’s Southeast Expressway proclaimed in the early seventies about Boston Bruin premier center Phil Esposito: “Jesus Saves. But Esposito scores on the rebound!”

There is no rebound with Alzheimer’s. Doctors tell me I’m working off a “cognitive reserve,” a backup tank of inherited intellect that will carry me in cycles for years to come. They tell me to slow down, conserve the tank. It’s lights out, they warn, when the tank goes dry, just as it was for my mother. In laymen’s terms, the “right side” of my brain—the creative, sweet spot—is intact, for the most part, although the writing and communication process now takes exponentially longer. The left side, the area of the brain reserved for executive functions, judgment, balance, continence, short-term memory, financial analysis, and recognition of friends and colleagues, at times, is in a free fall. So I try to stay locked in, as a missile is on target, but “locked in” likewise is a medical disorder in which an individual who cannot speak because of paralysis communicates through a blink of an eye. On days, I find myself between definitions—using every available memory device and strategy, cerebral and handheld, to communicate.

All the darkness in the world, my mother taught me, cannot snuff out a single candle. I know that darkness. It’s a place I call Pluto, in allegorical terms, a reference from my early days as an investigative reporter when I went deep “off-the-record” with sources. “We’re heading out to Pluto,” I would say, “where no one can see you or can hear what is said.”

The Pluto metaphor still works for me, more than ever as I seek the peace of isolation and pursue the urge to drift out as Alzheimer’s overcomes at intervals. Pluto is the perfect place to get lost. Formerly, the ninth planet about 3.1 billion miles from Earth, it is now relegated to “dwarf planet” status. Pluto’s orbit, like Alzheimer’s, is chaotic; its tiny size makes it sensitive to immeasurably small particles of the solar system, hard-to-predict factors that will gradually disrupt an orbit.

The Irish like to say, “Never get mad, get even.” And so, I’m getting even with Alzheimer’s—not for me, but for my children, for you and your children, and for a generation of Baby Boomers, their families and loved ones, who face this demon prowling like Abaddon. And along this serpentine road of faith, hope and humor, I hope to light a candle.

We can all learn from Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, who prophetically said, “Life is no brief candle… It is a sort of splendid torch, which I’ve got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it to future generations.” So burn your candle as brightly as possible. Earnest Hemingway perhaps put it best when he wrote, “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” Be strong in the broken places. Are you ready to be sent? Thank you, God Bless you.”

Greg was a reporter and I’m sure he appreciates that President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into law in July of 1966. The law gave individuals access to records in possession of the federal government. Further amendments to the FOIA were passed in 1996, 2002, and 2003. God believes in freedom of information. God’s presence is revealed in the creation God made and in the Word. Amos 4:13 says, “For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!” The Lord wants everyone to have free access to information about the God of hosts.

In a similar way, we’re to freely share information about God with others. While some people call their faith a private matter, God doesn’t see it that way. Faith is personal, not private. We all have someone in our life with whom we can share the light that we have received. Paul openly shared the details of his faith journey. In John 1:7-9, we hear about John the Baptist, “He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”

In Revelation 1:2, we’re told that John the apostle, “testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.” We wouldn’t have the book of Revelation if John hadn’t shared what he had seen and heard. What might be missed, who might be lost, if we don’t share what we’ve been given? What might happen, who might be found, if we do; if we let our light shine?

The children’s song some of us learned as preschoolers is simple, but what it says is still good to remember: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Won’t let Satan blow it out. I’m gonna let it shine. Won’t let Satan blow it out. I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Let it shine til Jesus comes. I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine til Jesus comes. I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel – NO! I’m gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel – NO! I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Let it shine over the whole wide world, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine over the whole wide world, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Whenever you turn a light on for the rest of your life, every time you do, ask yourself, “Am I letting my light shine?”

Questions for Discussion or Reflection

1. Why do you turn a light on in a room? What does having light do for you?
2. In terms of the light of Christ you’re currently sharing, would you say you’re a 20, 60, 100, or 200 watt bulb or are you burned out? Why would you describe yourself the way you do?
3. What are some practical, tangible ways you can let your light shine more brightly?
4. According to Mark 4:24-25, what is the secret of receiving more from Jesus? Why is how we listen so important?
5. If you look at the parables about seeds, growth, and harvest that precede and follow these verses, what hope does this section of Mark 4 give us when we’re feeling small or insignificant?
6. “Use it or lose it” is a truism when it comes to many aspects of life from exercising our muscles to speaking a foreign language and including matters of the Spirit. What do you think Mark hoped these verses would inspire or motivate in followers of Jesus?

 

[1] William Neil, The Difficult Sayings of Jesus, pages 44-45.