Today’s Scripture Reading (April 3,
2013): Proverbs 10
My new
credit card (I really only have one – and that one is for certain purchases
that are impossible to make without credit card) is currently lost in the
mail. My old credit card expired at the
end of March (three days ago). And now I am simply without. Actually, I have
been without for just over a week already. Recognizing that the cards should
have already come during the month of March, but hadn’t, I made the phone call
to the bank to find out if something had happened, wondering if maybe they just
did not like me anymore. And with that information the bank decided that my
current card needed to be cancelled because the new ones had already been sent
– and should have already been received. Now I would have to wait for a couple
of weeks for the new cards to be delivered to me – incidentally, to be
delivered to me by the same company that failed to deliver my renewal cards to
me. And while the inconvenience is relatively minor, it is still an
inconvenience. It seems that a contract or understanding has been broken.
Solomon (who
is now more clearly identified as the author of this section of the book –
although that identification does not mean that that fact is not debated) now talks
about a lazy messenger. The idea is that when someone is sent on a mission,
there is a purpose for the mission and there is often a need for a swift
return. Almost every wife that I know of (including my own) has stories of
sending the husband off on a mission, and the husband becoming somehow
sidetracked and his return being delayed – and in the delay the mission had
suffered. The Words of the Proverb are actually directed at the sluggard – and
husbands everywhere. Recognize that when you are not punctual in your task you
are responsible for the worried and angry response you will receive on your
return. The response is not their problem, as we so often want to assert – it lays
solely on the one who has not completed the task in a timely manner. This is
simply the way that we are – and a delayed response causes very real discomfort
to the one who commissioned the task.
But there is
also a note toward what Jesus taught regarding our talents. Each of us needs to
recognize that we are messengers. And God has gifted to each of us with abilities
that are necessary for the accomplishment of the task. But in the parable of
the talents, the question was what are you going to do with what has been
entrusted to you. And in the story the response of the master to the lazy
servant is understandable because the lazy servant had been the cause of actual
discomfort in the life of the master.
I love the
way that N. T. Wright speaks of virtue. For Wright, virtue is not just acting in
a good way. He describes it as being able to do myriad of small actions in the
right timing to obtain a good result. No virtuous deed is the result of a
single good action – or intention. It is doing a number of things right to
obtain a right result. He uses as an illustration from the life of the former
South African golf professional Gary Player. He was once told by a journalist
that he had to be the luckiest golfer on the planet, to which Player replied
“Yes I am, and I have noticed that the more I practice, the luckier I get.”
Solomon’s
instruction is that the more that we practice the idea punctuality and the
active use of the gifts that we have been given - especially in the directions
of the purposes of God – the greater the chance that we will exhibit godly
virtue in our lives. The discomfort caused by the servant is anti-virtuous –
and as much as many of us might want to say that a lack of punctuality is just
the way that God has created us – the truth is that such discomfort is totally
avoidable if we will just take care of the task that we have been presented
with.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs
11
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