Preached June 5, 2016
So the other day, I walked into the Abbey super excited. And I said, "Debra, guess what?!" And she was like, "what?!" "There are rock hyrax in the new African Grasslands exhibit at the zoo!" And she kind of just looked at me, so I thought maybe she didn’t understand. And so I continued, "Rock hyrax, Debra! That's the same as rock badgers, just like I preached about!" And she was like, "Yes, Chris, I know. You have explained rock badgers to me extensively. But I do have one question: are you ever going to preach just, like, a normal sermon?"
So, just for Debra, today you get a normal sermon. And if you're bored or fall asleep or something, it's on her. In all seriousness, sometimes relatively straightforward ideas call for relatively straightforward sermons. Now, don't get me wrong. Paul, the writer of the scripture we heard today is never simple. But I think there are some things about how Paul talks about gifts that actually are pretty clear.
First, Paul tells us that gifts are from God. All the gifts or skills or aptitudes or talents that that you might possess are gifts from God. That's pretty simple, right?
Second, different people have different gifts. The commentators on Paul note that whenever he talks about gifts, he is always sure to mention that different people have different gifts AND no one gift is better than another. All gifts are equally valuable.
I remember one time I was talking to my friend Brad Tharpe. He is an ordained American Baptist pastor, and I met him at a bioethics conference when he and I were both administrators in academia. We were in this weird position of both being the non-faculty Assistant Directors of bioethics programs, so we were essentially in charge of handling all the administrative stuff that the faculty really didn't want to deal with. And while we both enjoyed the people we worked with, well, it was kind of a thankless job. It was a detail-heavy, administratively labyrinthine, thankless job - that he and I were both amazing at. Because we have the gift of administration. Paul actually names administration as a gift in 1 Corinthians.
Well, one day we were commiserating over lunch about how thankless and boring this gift of administration was. And Brad told me that in seminary he did all this research on Paul's use of the word administration, convinced that it maybe had some secret meaning in Greek that made it really awesome. Like other gifts we might have preferred: maybe prophecy. Or wisdom. Or healing. But, he told me, it turns out that, nope, it's just good old administration. Or government. But that doesn't sound very inspiring either.
But Paul would not have appreciate conversation because to Paul all of the different kinds of gifts were from God, they were equally valuable, and all of them were needed for the good of the community. Borg & Crossan in their book on Paul write that for Paul, when he talks about "life in Christ," it is always a communal matter. You can hear in our reading today and other places in Paul’s letters about the different members of Christ's body. And he says that just as the parts of one's literal body have different functions, so we, the members of Christ's body, have different gifts. We are all different, and we all have something to contribute. We all have gifts that we need to share to live in Christian community with each other.
And so I have a question for you: Have you discerned your gifts for this community? What is the gift that you have to share here?
- Is it offering people hospitality at the Farmer's Market on Saturdays?
- Leading a small group?
- Do you feel called to journey with people who are struggling as part of our pastoral care team?
- Are you a real wizard with an SOS pad and can wash dishes after worship?
- Can you sing or play an instrument in the Music Guild?
- Teach children in our one-room schoolhouse?
- Brew beer when we enter phrase three of Urban Abbey?
... Okay, that last might not be allowed, but maybe one day. Anyway, I’m asking you to dream, discern, ask a good friend what your gifts are, and then ask God how you can share them with this community. Maybe you will see a way you can serve that we haven't even imagined yet. But think about it. Pray about it. Because your gifts are all unique, and all equally valuable, and we need all of them to be the world-changing community God is calling us to be.
I want to close with a quote from Marianne Williams. And it is especially for any of us in this room who might feel uncomfortable naming and claiming our gifts.
Hear this good news:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine…We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
May we have the courage to shine together.
May it be so.
Amen.
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