Sermons

Sermon Delivered at Christ Church

The Weekend of May 19th & 20th

“Spiritual Gifts, Part II”

Message delivered by Paul A. Johnson

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Anybody here like to do puzzles?  Raise your hand if you like doing puzzles.  Some people really find puzzles to be fun.  I don’t do puzzles too often, but last week during the 11 o’clock service I led children’s chapel, and we did puzzle.  We put this one together…a Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle.

                You see, about a month ago Penny Sellers, our Minister of Christian Formation, asked me if I would lead last Sunday’s children’s chapel.  And since children’s chapel is the worship of the Church, and since I am a priest charged with leading the worship of the Church, I said that of course I would.  “Good,” Penny said, “because someone told me that you’ve led children’s chapel tons of time before, and that it’s something you’ve done a lot.  And besides, there’ll probably be only a few kids there.”

                Now while there are many things I have done here at Christ Church, in all actuality, one of the things I had never done until 11 o’clock last Sunday was lead children’s chapel.  So last week, someone who has never led children’s chapel did so for the very first time for just a “few kids”—twenty-six—and the three adults who kindly stayed behind to help.

                Now even though I hadn’t done this before, I was ready.  I had my plan—a three page plan.  I had what I thought was a pretty good teaching device.  We were going to do this puzzle; and we’d talk about how just as every piece of the puzzle is different and special, so God has made each of us different and special; and just as the puzzle needs every piece to be whole, each of us is needed to make God’s kingdom whole.  And y’all, that’s not bad.  That’s pretty good.  I had it figured out all ahead of time--that step by step, we would go through this lesson, and say our prayers, and do everything we’re supposed to do for children’s chapel to be children’s chapel.

                I’m going to do children’s chapel again sometime because the children were darling.  They were very well-behaved, and sweet, and beautiful, and eager, and they share well, and watch out for one another.  Our kids were exactly the way we want them to be. 

But it’s been a long time since I’ve been with a room full of three and four year olds.  I had forgotten that you can ask a question, and they might answer it…but then they might tell you their dog’s name, or what they had for breakfast.  Which is fine, because that’s important when you’re three or four and someone dressed like Jesus is sitting with you in chapel.  But it’s a reminder that a three year old’s understanding of order is different from an adult’s understanding of order.  So that if you’re leading children’s chapel, you better be able to dance lightly and go with the flow…the problem being that anyone who knows me very much at all would probably not use those two phrases first to describe me.

                But we got to work, and quickly moved towards the high point of our worship celebration:  the putting together of the puzzle.  So I handed out the pieces to all the kids, and we found a piece and put it on the carpet; and we started to find the piece that went with it; and we’ve all sort coagulated around the puzzle, and are huddled over it; and they’re doing fine. 

But I began to get real sweaty--because I’m looking at this thing, and for the life of me I can’t figure out how to put this puzzle together.  I mean, I’m a forty-five year old man with a masters degree and seventeen years experience in the ordained ministry, and I am utterly befuddled by a twenty-four piece Thomas the Tank engine puzzle.  I’m convincing myself that without the performance anxiety that comes from being surrounded by twenty-six children I could solve the problem of Thomas.  But that’s not my situation.  I’m not putting together a puzzle at home.  I’m leading children’s chapel.  My plans are dissolving before my eyes.  I’m a liturgical Casey Jones, with Thomas about to skip the track…

…When all of a sudden the six and seven year olds in the group took upon themselves the mantle of puzzle-putting-together leadership; the younger ones followed; (“Out of the way, old man!”) and piece by piece, Thomas was made complete.  And I did my best to explain what the whole lesson meant.

                We said our prayers, and we sang some songs, we solved one child’s problem of the lost sticker, and mostly everybody got back to their parents in one piece.  It may have even been good worship…what I experienced as a liturgical mosh pit may have been great fun for a three year old.  

But here’s what doing children’s chapel last week reminded me…there are a whole lot of people who do a whole lot better job leading children’s chapel than I do, or who at least seem to do it easier than I do; and I am grateful for them.  (And all of us with kids in chapel today, you should be, too.)  Children’s Chapel reminded me that God has made it so that I do some things really well; and God has made it so that other people do really well things that I don’t.  And that all of us sharing all the gifts makes the kingdom bigger.  That’s God’s spiritual economy of spiritual gifts. 

We’re teaching on spiritual gifts these weeks.  Spiritual gifts are a spiritual truth.  They are the special abilities God gives each one of us for the purpose of serving the Church and the world.  That’s the most basic definition I can give.

God is generous, and all of us have received these gifts to serve.  That’s what Hillary spoke on last week.  It doesn’t make a difference how old or young we are; it doesn’t make a difference where we think we are on the spiritual maturity scale; it doesn’t make a difference how educated we are; or how wealthy we are; and it doesn’t make a difference whether we know what our gifts are or not.  None of that matters.  Spiritual gifts just are, and while none of us have all of them, all of us have been given some of them. 

We’ve all been given gifts, and all of the gifts matter.  For the body of Christ to be whole, we need them all; they all matter

Because the kingdom of God is kind of like a puzzle…God makes every piece different and unique; no piece of a puzzle is the same as another piece.  But for the puzzle to be complete, every piece is necessary.

Scripture tells that story…different people given different gifts to move the story of salvation forward.  And the truth revealed in both scripture and the Christian tradition is not that God calls the equipped; it’s that God equips the called.  Moses; Deborah; Amos; Ruth; Paul; Lydia; Matthew; the woman at the well whose name we don’t know; the centurion who knew nothing of the Hebrew tradition, but whose faith became a model for all who follow…none of those we mentioned in that litany a few minutes ago were qualified to be the heroes they became.  But God qualified them.  God took each one, and equipped them to serve the world and build up the body as God intended.

Now sometimes, God was very direct with these characters.  With Moses, and Deborah, and Paul and others, God spoke very directly.

But if we’re not getting that same kind of direct communication from the Lord, how might we know what gifts God has given us?

First, we remember that we discover our gifts; we don’t create them.  They come from God, not us.

Second, let’s remember that our spiritual gifts may mirror our professional lives, but they may not.  I know an excellent CPA with the gift of financial administration.  But I also know an excellent attorney who has the gift of teaching; an excellent middle school teacher with the gift of discernment; a CEO with the gift of shepherding; a homemaker with the gift of craftsmanship.  We may do what we do for a living very well, but our gifts may be completely different from our professions.

With those two things in mind, it may be that our gifts are revealed in any of these four places in our lives:

What kind of service gives us pleasure or joy?

Where do we experience some sense of pleasure?  Because often pleasure comes when serving in our area of giftedness.  Now, “pleasure” is not exactly the right word.  Other words may work better.  But what I mean here is that when we’re serving according to the gifts God has given us, often it just feels right; there is simply a sense of “this is what I’m supposed to be doing.” It’s like in baseball, or golf, or tennis…when you hit the ball on the sweet spot.  It feels good and it feels right.  So where those places are in our lives where our service builds us up, that may be an area of giftedness.

How does God keep prodding us?

Secondly, where is it that we have been prodded to serve in a particular way?  In a conversation earlier this week on this topic someone used the stronger word “poking.”  Looking at our lives, where is it that God seems to keep poking us, making us restless; those places where it seems as if God is saying “this is the path you must walk.” It’s the experience of being able to do none other.  It’s like the story of Jonah, who runs, and runs, and runs, but even in the belly of a fish can’t escape God’s prodding to prophesy.  So looking at our lives, where are those places we are compelled to stand forth and serve; where we can’t imagine not doing?  “Can’t imagine not working with the youth; can’t imagine not helping host CARITAS; can’t imagine not taking my turn running the computer at worship; can’t imagine not praying for the people on the prayer list; can’t imagine not stopping to give a word of encouragement to someone feeling hopeless.” Find our “can’t imagine nots” in life, and we may have found how God has gifted us.

Where have our acts of service borne fruit?

A third sign we are serving according to the gifts we’ve been given is that our service bears fruit.  It gets results.  Somehow, some way, the body is built up and the world is served.  When it is that our actions unite rather than divide; build people up rather than tear them down; move towards “yes” rather than “no”…when those things happen, when our actions bear that kind of fruit, then that’s a sign that we are serving as God calls us to serve.

In what situations does God seem to place us?

And if all else fails, we try this:  We look where we’ve been.  We look at the places God has taken us.  God gives us each of us gifts; and these gifts have been given for the purpose of service; and because God is not wasteful, the Lord places us in positions to serve.  If when we review our lives we notice that we are regularly standing before a classroom; or next to someone’s hospital bed; or being with those less fortunate than ourselves; or that whenever people come to our house they stay real late…when we look closely at the circumstances we keep finding ourselves in, maybe that’s evidence of how God has equipped us to serve. 

Now maybe after these few words you can step back and say “I’m glad you said all that, Paul, because now I recognize the spiritual gifts God has given me.” But maybe after all these words, we can’t.  Maybe it’s still not clear.  That happens.

Try different acts of service until God’s intent is revealed.

Well, there’s one other way to discover the unique way God has gifted us and called us to serve…it’s to hoist our anchor, and sail into deep water; it’s to get out of our seat, give it a try, whatever “it” might be.  To be open and willing, to persevere and take a risk; to be willing to be surprised, since surprises and discovery go together; to trust that in God’s time it will be made clear, and to do so remembering that God makes no junk; that every piece of the puzzle matters; and that as surely God calls us, God equips us.  Because the Holy Spirit does not drop us, ever.

We are surrounded by so much, and look so good.  But I think that sometimes we wonder whether we’re any good at anything.  I really do think we wonder that a lot.  Well, we are because God has made us that way.

  God has given me special abilities to serve; and you; and you; and you; and everybody…some of us, I am grateful to say, with the godly ability to lead children’s chapel and help our littlest ones grow in wisdom, and stature, and faith, and discipleship.  These kids are going to grow up and visit us in the nursing home; or become missionary doctors; or seminary professors; or faithful businessmen and women who treat their clients justly because some of us here use our God-given gifts to lead their chapel services.  And with all that going on, someone else, somewhere else, is serving as God has gifted them.  That’s how spiritual gifts work, and why we’re teaching on them.

I am convinced that deep down, we all want to be useful.  We all want to serve.  We all want people at our funerals to talk more about what we gave than what we took.  And because these things are true, that’s why we’re spending some time these weeks imagining how God has gifted us…to equip the saints for ministry, for building up the Body of Christ and serving the world, to live into the full stature—the full stature—of Jesus Christ that is offered to us.