Well despite being inside we still had many "outdoor" attributes to our worship service - a participatory Thanksgiving for baptism, communal communion and some interaction during the sermon. So enjoy these written portion as we explored what are spiritual gifts are together, based on the 2nd lesson for today, Ephesians 4:1-16.
Enjoy!
What are
your gifts? Occasionally I hear from
people that they feel like they have no gifts, sometimes I feel that way
myself. We see Olympic athletes with so much talent, or people who are so
passionate about whether to eat at or boycott a fast food chain that doesn’t
even exist in Connecticut, that we feel inadequate as a result – that we are
not athletic enough to make it to the Olympics or we are not passionate enough
about a certain political topic that we are willing to quit our jobs to spend all
our time on social media to organize protest or rallies.
But we still
do have gifts. So what are your
gifts? What makes you stand out from
others? What is a talent that you have? You may not be the best in the world at it,
but you enjoy doing it. What is a
passion that you have? What is something
that you can do or talk about for hours?
Take a moment and write some of those gifts or talents down on the
notecard in your bulletin. Maybe it is a
personal quality that you have – people always say that you are funny or smart
or caring or always make them feel welcome and at home. Those qualities are gifts as well, because
not everyone has those same personality qualities.
Now here is
the hard part – how can you use those gifts to do God’s will in the world? Let’s brainstorm a little together.
Time of sharing our gifts – thoughts
on how to use those to care for God’s world. Have people write down a way to
use that to do ministry.
We each have
been given different gifts by God because we are each called to do different
jobs in Christ. Some of us are called to
be apostles – someone who is sent out to do God’s will in this world. Some are prophets – people who speak the word
of God to others, even when it is hard to hear or hard to say. Some of us are called to be evangelist –
people who share the good news of Jesus with the world. Others are pastors – literally a feeder of
others, someone who feeds others both physically and spiritually. And yet others of us are called to be
teachers – those who instruct others about God. And that is just the short list
from our reading from Ephesians today.
There are still disciples – follower of Jesus, deacons who are servants
of Christ, visionary who see where Christ is leading us and can help point the
way, administrators who help us implement tasks effectively. And the list goes on.
And we are
given gifts by God with different callings because we are not all meant to be
the same – we are not all meant to agree all the time or to all like the same
style of worship or to like the same color of carpet in the sanctuary or all
the other minor disagreements that many congregations fight over. But we are all called for the same
purpose: “To use our gifts to equip the
saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (NRSV)
We do this for the greater good and for
our own personal good because as we equip other saints, other believers, in
doing God’s ministry, we are also deepening our own faith. We are called to continue our work until: “we
all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be
mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
(NLT)
So what are your gifts? And how can you use those gifts to equip the
saints, yourself included, for God’s work?
Keep that notecard with you – put it on your fridge or the bathroom
mirror or your computer or phone, in your purse or car – somewhere that you
will see frequently so that you can be reminded that you have been given gifts
by God and that you are called to use them in God’s world.
