Gordon E. Ellis
July 15, 2007
THERE’S GOLD UNDER THAT RUST!
I love the writings of Alice Walker. She’s best KNOWN, of course, for her novel, The Color Purple, but she’s written a NUMBER of wonderful books and stories. Growing up in the South as an African-American WOMAN, she KNEW her share of POVERTY and ADVERSITY. And ONE reason her stories and novels are so POWERFUL is because they are OFTEN autobiographical. ONE of Alice Walker’s books is called, Meridian. It’s a collection of STORIES about a young African-American girl in the South. And although it’s written in the form of a NOVEL, MANY of the stories are taken RIGHT out Alice Walker’s LIFE.
ONE story in the book is about GOLD. It TELLS how this young girl, Meridian, FINDS a large chunk of VERY heavy metal that’s COVERED with MANY layers of RUST, which Meridian SCRAPES away with a FILE. Well, to her AMAZEMENT, she realizes that it’s a LARGE bar of pure GOLD. SO, she TAKES her gold BAR and rushes HOME with it. When she arrives home, her mother is sitting on the front PORCH, shucking PEAS. Meridian SHOUTS: I’ve found some GOLD! And when she GETS to her mother, she places the heavy BAR into her mother’s LAP.
What are you DOING? MOVE that thing! shouts her mother…. CAN’T you see I’m shucking PEAS here? It’s almost SUPPER time!
But, MA, it’s GOLD? Feel how HEAVY it is! It could make us RICH! Her mother is NOT impressed, and NEITHER is her father. NOR is the REST of her family, nor any of her FRIENDS. Meridian has found something AMAZING and wants to SHARE it with her LOVED ones but, OVER and OVER, they REJECT her. So FINALLY, Meridian puts her gold into a SHOEBOX, and BURIES it under a MAGNOLIA tree in the back YARD. About once-a-WEEK after that, she DIGS it up to LOOK at it. But SOON, it’s less often, and finally she FORGETS about it.
Now, I’m SURE that this story hits home for ALL of us because, at SOME point, ALL of us have experienced the pain of REJECTION. And how AWFUL it FEELS when others don’t BELIEVE in us, and don’t ALLOW us to SHARE the GOOD things that we’ve FOUND, or learned. And it’s ESPECIALLY painful if, like Meridian, we are REJECTED by the people we love MOST: our FAMILY, our FRIENDS, and those who know us BEST.
Well, that’s EXACTLY what happens to JESUS in today’s Scripture Lesson, isn’t it? At His BAPTISM, He RECEIVES the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. And NOW, He has good NEWS to proclaim, and HEALING and HOPE to offer! So of COURSE He wants to share it FIRST with His LOVED ones. SO, He heads HOME to Nazareth! BUT, instead of getting EXCITED, the people there REJECT Jesus, which of course, FORESHADOWS what is to come LATER in His life.
Well, undoubtedly the REASON they REJECT Jesus is because they KNOW Him so well. Isn’t this JOSEPH’S boy? What does HE know about GOD? WHO is HE trying to FOOL? HE’S no smarter than WE are! WHO does He think He IS anyway? You see: sometimes when we KNOW people, or THINK we do, we LIMIT who they can BE, or BECOME. How OFTEN do we hear about the proverbial CHILD in SCHOOL, who gets LABELLED a trouble-maker by a TEACHER, and the label STICKS, so that EVERY teacher thereafter is READY for this young man when he comes into their CLASSROOM? It may BE that he only had ONE bad year, and maybe his FAMILY happened to be going through a DIVORCE that year. But NOW, his reputation PRECEDES him. And pretty SOON, he MIGHT just end up saying what MANY kids end up saying (usually UNconsciously): Well, I’ve got the NAME. I might as well PLAY the GAME. And then, he BECOMES the trouble-maker they THINK he is.
I don’t know: MAYBE it’s part of our human NATURE, because I think we ALL do it sometimes, but VERY often, we RESTRICT people to our OWN narrow understanding of WHO they ARE. It USED to happen to me more than it does NOW, but occasionally I STILL meet someone who USED to know me when I was a CHILD or TEENAGER. INEVITABLY during the conversation, they ask what I do for WORK. And when I TELL them that I’m a MINISTER, 9 times out of 10, they say: YOU? A minister? Is the church getting THAT desperate that the BULLY of the schoolyard becomes a MINISTER? You see: they JUST can’t get BEYOND who I USED to be, even though I haven’t BEEN that person for YEARS. And do you know where it happens to us MOST? HIGH school REUNIONS! DOESN’T it? THINK about it….
Well, friends: I firmly BELIEVE that ALL of us have GOLD within us. ALL of us have TREASURE to share! Furthermore, our LIFE and LOVE and EXPERIENCE will only IMPROVE as we begin SHARING more and more of our GOLD with OTHERS. Our lives may LOOK like chunks of rusting METAL, but they JUST need to be FILED down, and the RUST scraped AWAY! And IF we will DO the work of FILING and SCRAPING, pretty SOON (slowly but surely) EACH of us will SEE that we really DO have something BEAUTIFUL to share, that there really IS GOLD within us. Personally, I’ve never met ANYONE who DIDN’T have GOLD hidden beneath their LAYERS of rust, though sometimes there are MANY layers. But it’s SO well-HIDDEN because MOST of us have faced REJECTION. And WHEN we get rejected a number of times, MOST of us will stop TRYING to share our GOLD, and just BURY it deep WITHIN us. OH, we STILL know it’s THERE, at least for awhile, and OCCASIONALLY it shines THROUGH, but MOSTLY, we just keep it HIDDEN, so that it WON’T be rejected AGAIN. And IF we keep it buried long ENOUGH, we’ll finally FORGET about it, like MERIDIAN did.
Well, Jesus was DIFFERENT, because HE knew how to HANDLE rejection. You see: Jesus did not BURY what He was given to SHARE. HE simply moved ON! If someone wouldn’t LISTEN, He moved ON to the NEXT one! He searched OUT people who WOULD listen, people who WOULD receive His GOODNESS, and people who WOULD accept His TREASURE!
I mentioned EARLIER how Alice Walker’s writing is often AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. And FROM the story of MERIDIAN, it may SOUND as if Alice Walker doesn’t DEAL well with rejection. In REALITY, however, Alice Walker has NEVER just given up and BURIED her treasure. Instead, she’s used her WRITINGS as a way to SHARE her experiences with MULTITUDES of people, MANY of whom find HOPE and strength in READING them. As a result, Alice Walker, at a VERY young age, received a Pulitzer Prize in Literature. SO – ALICE’S response to REJECTION is SIMILAR to that of Jesus. SO, she TOO has made a DIFFERENCE!
Well, friends: AS I look around today, I see a great deal of GOLD sitting before me. SURE, there are some rusty LAYERS covering SOME of it. But don’t you SEE: it JUST needs a little FILING and SCRAPING. DON’T focus on the RUST! Focus on the gold BENEATH the rust. EMBRACE your treasure and SHARE it with OTHERS -- and encourage THEM to share THEIRS with YOU! After all: GOD created EACH of us UNIQUE, EACH of us GIFTED, and EACH of us FULL of possibility! And God calls EACH of us to LET our gifts and talents SHINE, so that WE can HELP God to BRIGHTEN up this DARK and difficult WORLD. And IF people REJECT us -- and REJECT our gifts and talents and good news -- then so BE it! BECAUSE we KNOW that we are LOVED and ACCEPTED by GOD, who is the ONLY one who really MATTERS in the long run, we can IGNORE rejection and CONTINUE shining BRIGHTLY in this world! And as the CHURCH, our TASK is to REMIND people – and to CONVINCE people – that God loves and accepts EACH of us, that God calls EACH of us to SHARE our treasure, and that OUR work is DIVINE. So, don’t KEEP your treasure BURIED! DIG it up! FILE it down! SCRAPE it off! And LET it SHINE as God INTENDED it to SHINE, because this world NEEDS YOUR treasure, YOUR GIFTS and talents, and YOUR unique personhood. Thanks be to God! Amen.