One night last week I put a dirty dish in the sink, meaning to put it in the dishwasher in a few minutes. I got distracted by the dryer buzzer or the dogs barking or a text message coming through on my phone, who knows? Anyway, I forgot to put the dish in the dishwasher and I ended up in my recliner in the family room. A few minutes later there was a sound of something falling in the kitchen and Scout was nowhere to be seen. I thought she was probably angry about something and, as is her wont when she is displeased, tipped over the trash can. As I entered the kitchen I could see that the trash can was upright, but the blue dish was cracked in half on the floor. Scout had grabbed it out of the sink and then dropped it on the floor. I muttered something I wouldn’t say in front of my mother, picked up the pieces and threw them away.
“People have said that this part of the modern culture is the reason for everything from our divorce rate to our piles of trash. When something breaks, we throw it away.
In ancient Japan, when a ceramic bowl broke, they fixed it. Legend has it that a Japanese shogun was unimpressed with the repair done on a Chinese bowl he had sent to be fixed, so he hired some Japanese craftsmen to find a more beautiful method of mending ceramics. They developed a technique called kintsugi, in which the broken pottery is literally mended with gold dust. Rather than trying to hide the flaws in the broken ceramics, they would highlight them in gold, baring the cracks and scars and adopting them as a part of the ceramic.
The technique became so popular that people may have even begun intentionally smashing bowls and plates in order to have them repaired. The ceramics mended with kintsugi actually became more valuable than they had been before they were broken. It was considered more beautiful because it was broken.”
“Sometimes there’s pain and suffering and brokenness before we get to joy. And sometimes everything has to fall apart to open up space for the new.
Chaos often precedes order. Things tend to get really messy before the new is established. While most of the time incremental change works best, other times bringing about change requires something sweeping, more all-encompassing . And such dramatic change can feel frightening and uncomfortable, it can seem thoughtless and jarring.
Jesus came to heal, and in order to do that he also came to break apart, to break into pieces the thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that were keeping people from reaching back to God, from developing a relationship with God that was whole and holy. But, no surprise here, the disciples don’t get it. Jesus is using these many weeks worth of parables that we have been reading to help us break apart and reform. He knows that is the only way that we will ever be able to take our part in creating heaven on earth.
Today’s Gospel, the Parable of the Talents, gives us a strategy for moving from the “I don’t get it” crowd into the “I got it” crowd. The story tells us a lot about money, how each slave manages his masters’ fortune. But, of course, the meaning of the parable has nothing to do with money and everything to do with talents. You see, the bottom line to Jesus’ message is: live life, take what talents you have been given and do good, don’t live in fear of what might happen, don’t live in fear of brokenness, live in hope of what might happen, in hope of being whole and lovely. For, life happens, stuff happens, some good and some bad, some thrilling and some terrifying, but, if we live our life embracing all of our unique, varied and oh so individual “talents”, if we use them to further the march of creation, then we’ll be ready for whatever comes next.
Think about it. Think about how bushes need to be pruned way back sometimes so that new shoots and leaves have room to sprout. How trees, in order to keep growing need to shed their old, tired, broken bark. Think about how the best way to get your hair to grow long and healthy is to trim it regularly.
Jesus came to earth to shake up the old order, to break it open and create something brand new. On the cross Jesus took all of our brokenness and then walked out of the tomb three days later to give us something altogether new. Jesus defeats brokenness, always, forever. The itinerant preacher from Nazareth takes all of our fear of brokenness, all of our doubt, all of our love of order and all of our hatred for uncertainty and breaks us wide open. Making space for something new and beautiful to be created.
Sometimes there is pain, suffering and brokenness before we get to joy and beauty. Sometimes everything has to fall apart before the new can be born. Sometimes you have to break the bowl so that the gold can shine forth. “
1
http://www.incourage.me/2014/03/broken-things.html
2
Heavily adapted from: Sometimes Everything Has to Fall Apart. Nov 13 2011 www.goodshepbuf.blogspot.com
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