Sermons for the Month

All Gifts For All Good
DATE: January 14th, 2007
SERVICE: Second Sunday after the Epiphany
TEXT: I Corinthians 12:1-11

“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

Let's see how alert we are on this January morning with a bit of pastor, congregation interaction. I'm going to say a name, and I want you to tell me the talent for which that person is known. So, how about Leonardo DaVinci … Frank Sinatra …LeBron James…Steve Jobs? See, with the exception of that last one we all know what these people do; it's a usual thing to refer to the individual talents of people. We commend and admire others who are artistic, musical, athletic and filled with vision, the list could go on and on. Our cultural understanding is that these abilities are the result of genetics and nurture, and that the person who is so blessed will use those talents for his or her personal benefit. Oh, they may be shared with others, but the focus continues to be on that individual.

So, we commend Leonardo DaVinci as an artist, or Frank Sinatra as a singer or LeBron James as an athlete or Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, as a visionary, and emphasize what they have accomplished. But our view of them, and their talents, is constrained, at least from the point of view of the apostle Paul.

Paul introduces a bigger picture, another way to understand talents, or gifts, to the people of Corinth in the portion of his letter to them that we read today. It seems that there was trouble in the new Christian church in Corinth; dissention among the believers was having a negative impact on their ministry.

Keep in mind that Corinth was an important city in Greece, a part of the Roman Empire. The congregation was made up of the many types of people from various ethnic, economic and social backgrounds. So, what they need is a sense of community, especially since they are a particularly gifted group and have this tendency to rank those gifts, making some people more "spiritual" than others, and thus special.

So, Paul makes it clear that the thing that makes Christians both spiritual and special is their public confessions of Jesus as Lord. And, lest that become a source of pride, Paul reminds them that the source of that confession is the Holy Spirit who also activates various gifts and talents in each person.

Although there are many people with many gifts, they have two things in common - the source of those gifts and the purpose of those gifts. The source is the Holy Spirit and the purpose is to enhance the common good. If particular gifts are emphasized as more spiritual, and thus special, the result is envy, pride, dissent, and the common good is not accomplished. But, if all gifts are considered equal, and it's acknowledged that they all come from the same Spirit, the common good is served.

So, the three things to remember are these: we all have gifts; every gift came from the same source; the purpose of all of those gifts is the same, to produce what's good for everyone. It's easy, I think, to see how this principle applies to the church. Certainly it's true that a church's potential is directly related to how well we live out the truth that we all have gifts that come from God and are intended to be used for the common good.

Does everyone here recognize his or her gifts? Are we using them so that we - all of us - grow in faith and in relationship with God? Does the sharing of our gifts enhance our fellowship with one another? Are we reaching out into the world with them?

Our focus on Stephen Ministry today offers one example of how Spirit-given gifts of caring, listening, supporting, praying offered to a person who is hurting serves the common good. As the logo reminds us, this ministry is Christ caring for people through people. What is needed, of course, are the people to give, and to receive, that caring.

One author wrote that the church has enormous frozen assets in its members, gifts that the Spirit has activated but are not being used. Isn't verse 6 from today's reading a good one to ponder, "…there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone."

I like to think about activating a credit card; you call, give some information, and just like that you have thousands of dollars in purchasing ability that you may or may not choose to use. Well, God activates gifts in us; they are turned on, so to speak, available for use, but free will dictates that we decide whether or not to do so, and for what purpose.

That brings us, then, to an interesting idea to ponder. As I said, it's easy to see how Paul's words apply to the Christian church and its ministry; indeed that's the context in which they were written. But, is this a concept that is just for the church? Are the types of gifts limited? Or, can we legitimately expand this idea to people like those who I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon, the artists and musicians and athletes and visionaries of the world?

What would it be like if, instead of viewing their gifts as the product of genetics and nurture we - and they - saw them as coming directly from God, from the Spirit? And, what if, instead of using them for their personal benefit and the entertainment of others, they saw one purpose only for their gifts - to enhance the common good? No one is any more special or gifted than anyone else, but we all have gifts that serve the same purpose, the good of humanity. What might that mean for their lives and for the world?

Granted, it's hard to imagine, since we are so accustomed to creating stars and heroes, and rewarding them with accolades and funds. But, I can't help but wonder if this is what God had in mind for us. I'm fairly certain that what God did not have in mind is represented in a story titled "Monuments" told by Charles Allen.

It's an account of a man who evidently did not see his gifts as coming from the Spirit, nor as having the purpose of enhancing the common good. He did have gifts, evidently, because by sheer determination he went from being a lowly hired hand to amass a considerable fortune as a farmer.

But, he stepped on people along the way and had no friends, and was estranged from family. When his wife died he had an elaborate statue built in her memory, hiring a sculptor to design a monument which showed both her and him at opposite ends of a love seat. He was so pleased with this that he commissioned two more statues, one of himself kneeling at her grave, and another of her kneeling as his future gravesite. He spent at least a quarter million dollars on the monuments to himself and his wife.

Yet, whenever someone from the town would suggest that he support a community project - a park, a swimming pool for the children, a hospital - he would say that he did not owe the town anything.

The ironic end of the story is that the monuments are sinking into the Kansas soil and will soon be gone, sad reminders of a self-centered life. As for the man, who died at age 92, only one person grieved his loss, and that was the tombstone salesman. (1)

That's a story that gets our attention with its dramatic twist, and the fact is that most of us do not identify with such a person. It's true, we probably are not like him, yet there is that part of each one of us that is inclined either not to identify the gifts that God has given us - saying we have none - or not identify what gifts we have as coming from God. We then forget the purpose of those gifts. We may not be building monuments to ourselves, but on the other hand we may not be doing what we can to create and enhance the common good.

So, we need a reminder that God activates ALL gifts in EVERYONE for the COMMON GOOD. It's certainly true in the church, and could be true in a broader sense too. God activates gifts in us for the sake of good, for the sake of the world. That may not involve monuments, but it is monumental.

AMEN

(1) Stories for the Heart, compiled by Alice Gray, "The Monument" by Charles Allen, pgs. 77-78, 1996 by Questar Publishers, Inc.

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