Here is the end of an interesting parable in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19:
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Then another servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.' "His master replied, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?'" Is Jesus, in this parable of a demanding, difficult nobleman, likening himself to such a man? Well, it seems so - but how?
While dwelling on this idea, it took me awhile to find a reasonable answer - after all, the servant based his analysis of the nobleman on the character of his demands. And the nobleman confirmed the servant's analysis. The problem of likening Jesus' call and this man's demands lies here: What can God extract from me which I have not given him? What can he benefit from in my life, that he did not initiate?
The answer here lies in the way he described the unfaithful servant: wicked. The servant himself was wicked for not acting in accordance to the known nature of his master.
So, again: What can we give God he did not plant in us? What can God receive from our lives he did not first initiate? We can give him exactly that - Everything he did not initiate, and each way of living he did not plant.
While this servant did nothing, we often make the mistake of trying to give God our best, doing the works we think will please God. We like to use gifts, abilities and talents to do something for him he has not asked of us. We even like "having" intimacy with God through prescribed modes or attempts instead of acting in accordance with the nature of our King. This is giving what God did not sow, but in the negative.
We try to give from our good, but the darkness of sin, shame and the corruption of broken communion with Life itself is what our Master demands. Not as an aside, not as a requirement for "The Good Life!", not so we can write bestsellers to help people be more like us. The zeal of his heart for ours; the potential, everlasting quality of bliss that he sees available to us in love consummated; these things unlimited drive the divine author to leave the book open for one more day, to keep writing for blank pages' possibility.
Sin, shame, broken attempts - He demands these things, but did not sow them. The scars on his hands, feet and in his side are not blemishes; they are the reminder that he already gave all. He already took your shame and reaped the decay of death for you. He has taken and reaped, now is the time to deposit and sow the eternal quality of life you have, as he has.
And to the one that has, more will be given.
