"Gifts and God with us" - Sermon for 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who energizes us to work in the world.

            It was my birthday on Monday, it was a great day, I went out to lunch with Sarah at Café Brule and got my free birthday cupcake, Decadent Chocolate Raspberry. We often watch a program on Food Network called Worst Cooks in America and last season there was a guy whose signature dish was meatloaf shaped into a teddy bear. And so, for my birthday I asked if I could have that, and it was amazing and then some awesome Blueberry Cobbler that Sarah made. I also got some wonderful gifts, some hand soap and mugs, new gloves, a cast iron Dutch Oven, and a little Dinosaur egg toy and some water bottle cleaning brushes.

            Gifts are a thing that we talk about all the time, last week I asked the kids about their Christmas gifts at Sunday School and Confirmation, one kid at Sunday School said he got a RC Car, I miss heard him and at first thought that he had gotten a Cigar, and thought, well, that’s an odd gift for a 4^th grader. The weeks after Christmas we often talk about what gifts we received and gave. After our birthday’s we make lists of what we all received, we bring house warming gifts, when someone hosts a part we often bring them a gift. At graduations, weddings, anniversaries, we give gifts to people.

            We also talk about gifts a lot when it comes to Physical Ability. When we watch sports programing we often hear talk about oh they have a special gift for this game, they were born with an innate physical gift. The gift of speed, the gift of strength, the gift of height.

            In our text from 1 Corinthians today, which we will be looking at for the next few weeks leading to Lent. We see Paul talking to the people of Corinth, it a new congregation that he has started, all of Christianity is only 30 years old at this point, and well, after he leaves from starting the church, they find themselves floundering a little bit. They don’t really understand what to do, or how they fit with each other. How does this whole church thing work?

            And so Paul writes to them, and here gives them some encouragement. You have gifts to be the church. He writes “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. … All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.”

            Each one of you has a gift, a gift given by God, a spiritual gift for the benefit of all, for the common good as Paul says.

            We each have those gifts, maybe you have the gift of speaking and you use it to read the lessons on Sunday mornings, or the gift of encouragement that you use during fellowship time before or after church, or when you see someone around town, or the gift of management that you use at council, or the gift of teaching used during Sunday School or VBS. The gift of welcome, of saying to someone new, you are indeed welcome here.

            We each have gifts, whether we know them or not, whether we see them or not. Paul’s says, “but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” Everyone has a gift. Each of you have a gift, something that God has given you to then give to all. It’s hard to see it sometimes, we don’t see our own gifts, and we really need to work at telling others when we see their gifts. We need to go to people and tell them, “You are good at welcoming, you should sign-up to be a greeter.” “You are really good at talking to people, want to come with me to visit the care center when we bring communion after service once a month?” “You are always ready to step up to help with the youth, you should help with VBS or Sunday School.” “You really know your way around tools, when we organize a clean-up repair day you should come help.”

            We each have gifts, and we need to tell each other what they are. But, there’s another reason that we often don’t use our gifts, it’s the issue of feeling like we aren’t good at them. Maybe we know that we can be good at greeting, but we don’t know how, or we feel like we’ll screw it up. Maybe we just feel like we are unable to use our gift.

            Let’s go back to our line from Paul, “but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”  The same God, yes, we all receive these gifts from God. All of them in everyone, yes, we all have these gifts from God, everyone of us. But, right there in the middle is a rather important line. “Who activates all of them in everyone.” The word in Greek can also be seen as energizes. It’s a word that implies activating, but then continuing to work in that place. God is energizing us to use the gifts that we have been given. God is not just walking up to us and flipping the switch of spiritual gift, but God is energizing us, plugging into us, giving us not just the ability, but the power to use these gifts.

            God is with you when you use your gifts, God is with you when you welcome, God is with you when you visit, God is with you when you read, God is with you when you lead, God is with you when you bake, or shovel, or clean, or encourage, or teach. Whatever your gift, you don’t do it alone, God is with you.

            It’s the name of our congregation, Immanuel, God with us, it the basis of our faith, our God who walks with us on this earth and has become one of us, even to the point of dying on the cross. The one who is with us, and through his actions on the cross and in his resurrection promises that he will always be with us here on earth, and again when he draws us to himself in eternal life. God is with us. Let’s act like it and use our God given gifts for the benefit of the world and all those who dwell here. Amen.