One of my favorite films is the 1994 drama, The Shawshank Redemption. It is a movie I think I may have seen 10 or more times. The film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife despite his claims and the truth of his innocence. During his time at the prison, he becomes friends with a fellow inmate, Ellis “Red” Redding, also serving time for murder – a crime he did in fact commit.
Red has become settled in his life within the walls of Shawshank prison, he lives in a state of managed fear from the guards, prison gangs or the long silence in the night when he is alone with his thoughts – yet at the same time operates a contraband business acquiring and selling goods and hard-to-get items to other prisoners. In his own way he is comfortable… safe. He risks little, he gains nothing.
There are two events that shatter his confidence. One is when a friend Brooks Halten, the prisoner librarian, is given parole after almost 60 years in prison. Too quickly they receive word that Brooks has taken his own life, unable to live his redemption and live as a free man in the world – unable to escape the fear which has gripped his life for too long. All of the wonderful gifts that made Brooks beloved among the other prisoners now lie buried along with him.
The other event which shakes Red’s world to the core is when his friend Andy Dufresne escapes. The day before Andy had cryptically made Red promise that when Red was paroled, to go to an obscure field outside Buxton Maine and dig up a box. And then Andy’s last words to Red are You get busy living or you get busy dying.
When Red is paroled, he discovers how deep are his fears that he is an “institutionalized man” and will all too soon follow Brooks Halten’s path to suicide in order to bury himself in life or turn to crime to bury himself in prison. Either way to bury himself and all that he has become – afraid to Hope, afraid to explore, to risk the offer of freedom that his friend Andy has waiting for him outside Buxton Maine.
After work one day Red finds himself staring in the window of a pawn shop. On display are hand guns, a symbol of death and fear, and the means for Red to bury himself. Right next to them are compasses, the means to find true north, a guide to hope and freedom.
Our gospel has many layers, but the one that I would offer to you is the same challenge Andy offered to Red: are you busy living? Engage in using the gifts you were freely given by God – because if you are not, you are busy burying yourself – and you may not even know it.
I think this gospel, like the movie, has a pivotal moment. It is when the Master says to the third servant, “You knew I was a demanding man, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant.” The focus of the question is the third servant’s understanding of the master: “so you knew, did you? Really, did you know anything at all? Look at the other two servants, they knew me. They were not bound up in fear. They knew what they had received was all gift. They knew that I had no desire other than to see them live in the fullness of life. Why did you not realize what they did? Why did you spend your life in fear? Why did you bury what I gave you? Your fear held you prisoner and now cast you deeper in the darkness. Hope set them free.”
The third servant is imprisoned in his misunderstanding of the Master. So many of us are imprisoned because we simply have not taken the time to know God. We have relied on the fears that others have implanted within us. For too many of us God is a grumpy old man, keeping a close ledger of our misdeeds, awaiting for repayment and retribution. Waiting to smite us in a fit of righteous divine anger.
I suspect that John the Apostle faced the same misunderstandings in his time. You see an almost pleading tone in his gospel and his letters: No, no – you’ve got it wrong. God held back nothing from us. He have us his only Son that we might be saved. God counts us as beloved, as his children. God has many rooms prepared for us. God has showered us with gifts. God is love. Place you hope in that, live in the freedom of that true understanding of God. Choose the image of God by which you will live – and then have life to the fullest.
Choose. Red chose the compass. He chose life over death. He chose freedom over burial. All because he had come to truly know his friend Andy, who risked everything for freedom.
What will you choose? If you truly know the Master, truly know Jesus, truly know the Father’s love – you will not bury yourself or your talents, but will love, love and risk to live in Hope.
Hold back nothing of yourself for yourself, that He who gave himself completely to you, may receive you completely (St. Francis of Assisi).
Image credit: Permission to use in not-for-profit settings. (c) 2019 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD