This morning we’re looking at the second of the three Ts,
talents, or gifts. Now Paul’s writing to the church in Corinth, a church that
has so much going for it, but it’s also got lots of issues, like many churches
today. These Corinthian churches come from all kinds of backgrounds and Paul has
some good conversations with them, to teach and encourage them. The people come
from different social backgrounds, some rich, some poor, some slaves, some
free, a few Jewish people and a whole lot of gentiles who often looked down on
the Jewish people, meaning there are insiders and outsiders in the churches.
God pulls them all together in a group of churches where they meet regularly to
worship God and learn more about Jesus who came to set everyone free from their
sins through the cross, but who also brought the kingdom of heaven close; a
kingdom different from Rome and other kingdoms. We get a glimpse of what the
kingdom of heaven is like in the church. This is why Paul sometimes gets pretty
hard on them, because sometimes they give the kingdom of heaven a bad name.
The kingdom of heaven is a place where everyone’s equal and
respected because we’re all created in the image of God. The kingdom of heaven
is a place where people are built up and encouraged, a place shaped by justice
and right living with each other based on loving God and our neighbours. In our
passage this morning, Paul’s talking to them about how the Holy Spirit gives us
gifts to help us build healthy churches. Valerie Nicolet-Anderson writes, “Apparently, their house churches had
plenty of people feeling like they brought something special to the life of the
church: wisdom, knowledge,
faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and
interpretation of tongues.
Because of that diversity of gifts, there seemed to have been some talk among
the Corinthians about whose gift was best.” It seems that some of the people thought they were more
special than the others because of the gifts they have and the others don’t
have. Even in churches, pride sometimes gets in the way of being who Jesus
calls us to be.
Paul reminds them that we do life together as followers of Jesus.
Jesus’ last prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before his death was for unity
among his followers, so it’s ironic that the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives
us to strengthen the church actually become things that they fight about. We’re
in this together, we’re given gifts for the common good,
as Paul writes, to make things better for everyone, not just ourselves. Paul
uses our bodies as an example of how the church works, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts,
but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all
baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or
free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the
body is not made up of one part but of many.”
I love how Paul plays
with this. I imagine Paul
looking at his hand and then writing, “Now if a foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not
belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.
And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the
body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.” Then Paul must have been laughing when
he tells us to imagine a whole body made up of eyes or ears, how ridiculous
that would be. The Holy Spirit gives all different kinds of gifts because the
church is made up of all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds, meaning
we learn, grow and serve in all kinds of different ways.
I love reading and learn
a lot from books, but
I’ve also learned that if someone helps me to actually do something the first
time, I learn it even better. YouTube has thousands of videos that show people
how to do things since many people can’t be bothered to read instructions and because
they learn better from seeing how it’s done. We have members in Bethel that are
really gifted at using words to teach, others who have the wonderful gift of graphic
design to create images and pictures to help us see in pictures what we’re
talking about, while others are able to take the ideas and build clocks to help
us think about time, or find trunks to place our gifts in this morning. Some
can sing or play music to help the truth of scripture soak into our hearts
during worship, while others have voices that resonate in our souls when they
read the Bible, and then there are those who are prayer warriors who support
the ministry of Bethel, while others create cards and write notes to encourage
and bless us.
There are those who do
repairs in our building,
while others connect with the youth or seniors or women or men in deeper
relationships as mentors and friends. Some have the gift of making money and
the gift of generosity to help support the ministries of Bethel so we can work
to help the kingdom of heaven grow, and then those who have the gift of
organization and administration to help everything to run smoothly. Some love
children and help them learn to love Jesus through their love in nursery,
Sunday School, Treasure Seekers. So many gifts, many not mentioned, all given
to bless each other and the ministry of Bethel church so we can grow deeper in
our love and commitment to following Jesus, loving others, serving our
community and learning to share our faith. One thing we need to embrace is
the practice of mentoring each other in the gifts we’ve been given. Too often
we do things ourselves and fail to share our gifts so others can learn how to
use their gifts.
This morning we’ve commissioned a number of people to teach and
lead our children and youth our faith and model how faith works in life. Each of the teachers and leaders have
different gifts that they bring to the table to help our children and youth get
to know Jesus better and to understand life as Jesus does. Some have the gift
of wisdom or knowledge, others have the gifts of listening and compassion, some
have the gifts of laughter and encouragement. All these gifts are needed for
our youth and children to grow to know Jesus.
But the church is not just the youth; there are our seniors, our
singles, our young families, our middle aged folk whose children are beginning
to leave the nest to explore the world, and our young adults who are actively
engaging a world that has changed so quickly over the past 20 years and who are
equipped to navigate it and help us to see the world and its potential through
their eyes and gifts. No matter who
we are or what stage of life we’re in, we’re all on a journey following Jesus
and we all have been given gifts to bless our church and be blessed and build
the kingdom of heaven. Now some have used their gifts so much that they need time
to rest and rejuvenate for a short time and be encouraged and blessed, while others
have an opportunity to explore the potential of your gifts and even learn new
gifts.
Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians, “So Christ himself gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to
equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built
up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge
of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the
fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by
the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the
cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead,
speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature
body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the
whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and
builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Our gifts are given to us to help us grow deeper in love for Jesus, for each
other and to build our community.
The Holy Spirit’s at
work in each of us
and has given different gifts to each one of us. There’s no one here
that doesn’t have a gift from the Holy Spirit, and these gifts should be
celebrated, but more importantly, used to continue building up the church
because they’re given to create unity and a healthy body of Jesus so that the
world will notice and be drawn to Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment