As many of you may know I used to teach 11 to 16-year-olds religious education (unsurprisingly!) and mathematics. At its best, teaching is a profession in which practitioners are expected to bring out the very best in their pupils according to their gifts and talents. Sometimes, however, the language that is used can be highly misleading. When I was teaching in a school in Crewe, the government brought out an initiative called: “Gifted and Talented”. This program was designed to help high achievers in certain subjects excel. The title though, was and is highly misleading. It suggests that there are some pupils who are gifted and talented and others who are not. Now whether you are a child or an adult, know this: you are gifted and talented, ALL of you! Each one of us has a gift and talent from God no matter how modest we might think it may be.

That great pastoral Pope and profound Orthodox biblical teacher, St. Gregory the Great comments thus:

Let him then who has understanding look that he hold not his peace; let him who has affluence not be dead to mercy; let him who has the art of guiding life communicate its use with his neighbour; and him who has the faculty of eloquence intercede with the rich for the poor. For the very least endowment will be reckoned as a talent entrusted for use.

First, though, we have to accept that it is indeed true that each one of us is gifted and talented and confess this, not only to ourselves, but also in a spirit of service to others. To deny this truth is to call God the Great Giver mean and ungenerous or a liar, which is outrageous and palpably false. Sometimes people know that they have a talent from God but like the man in the parable who hid his one talent rather than use it, these suffer condemnation and punishment. We must therefore learn just how serious a matter it is not to use the gifts that God has given us. He gave these to us to be used, not to be buried.

St. John Chrysostom says of this:

Observe that not only he who robs others, or who works evil, is punished with extreme punishment, but also he who does not do good works.

The Gospels are full of injunctions such as these; notably perhaps in St Matthew’s Gospel and chapter 5:

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.  14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

If, then, we conceal our talents and do not use them, maybe even just because we want to be left alone, then we cannot carry on with this course safely. Maybe we believe that to come forward with our talent is an act of arrogance rather than humility, but this is false modesty and deadly. God dismisses outright the excuse that we are too humble to serve. If we reject the gift, we reject the calling and if we reject the calling we disobey God! Too right God is a ‘hard man,’ (so to speak), but only with those who bury their talents. Those who use their gifts given by God for the Kingdom are commended as good and faithful servants. In this case, God’s provision will multiply the gift both for the givers and receivers. A rich harvest is then available for all but a barren and death dealing desert for the ungenerous. These are they who neither plant the seed for grain nor dig the well to water it. Every little they have will be taken away as lifeless.

There remains perhaps one other category of persons who do not use their talents to God’s glory, but perhaps with less blame, due to ignorance or poor self-worth. These are they who claim, genuinely enough in their own thinking, that they have no gift to offer. If this conclusion, habitually reinforced often throughout their lives, comes from a poor sense of self-worth, feeble self-confidence, or even perhaps from a degree of self-loathing, then only good teaching, spiritual counsel and confession can truly open the floodgates of the gift that everyone has from God. Less seriously, sometimes some people just don’t recognise the gift or talent that God has given them. They may either not be aware of the gift at all or, being aware, not realise its value to the kingdom of God. This obstacle to spiritual growth can be removed simply by trusted brothers or sisters in the Christian community helping the person to discover their gifts, put them to work and share them.

What then are the practical implications of this for all of us as members of this Church, as Orthodox Christians? Well, there is a process here which we need to follow and repeat as and when necessary, perhaps even as a regular annual review, a sort of spiritual stock take:

1. First we should pray for God to enlighten our minds concerning the gifts that we do have and how these might be brought to the fore and used to his glory. Let us not neglect to pray for a flowering of this gift and indeed for opportunities we might have through training to strengthen it.  Even what we like naturally can sometimes come to us through application and hard work.

Hear what St Jerome says:

“Many also who are naturally clever and have sharp wit, if they become neglectful, and by disuse spoil that good they have by nature, these do, in comparison of him who being somewhat dull by nature compensates by industry and painstaking his backwardness, lose their natural gift, and see the reward promised them pass away to others.

2. Next we should pray long and hard concerning how God might be calling us to use our gifts and talents in our vocation, our calling to serve God and his Church. Of course, I don’t just mean here as ordained ministers in major or minor orders, I am talking about the calling of all baptised Orthodox Christians to use their God-given gifts in his service. From the body of Christ thus enlightened and energised, we shall also discern amongst us those whom God is calling to serve him in the diaconate and in the priesthood.

3. Having a sense of what we have and how God might be calling us to use it we must then approach our spiritual father or mother, parish priest or team leader for his or her guidance about putting our gift or talent into good effect. It is at this stage that any extra training, ministry or personal support will be necessary in order for our vocation to be as effective as God wills it to be. He cannot do it without us, we cannot do it without Him, and none of us can do it without each other.

So you see, therefore, there is no hiding place, no despondency, no lack of vision that God will finally tolerate. We are put on this good earth to love and serve God and to reach out to others. All of us are called to cooperate in doing this and to each one of us God has given both natural abilities and potentialities of faith to perform works that differ according to our gifts, capacities and temperaments.  All that is required from each of us is to be doers and not just hearers.  We are all gifted and talented, praise God! Let us get on with using what He has given us to his glory.