Gifts of the Church

We don’t have to doubt that Martin Luther King is a called man. One of my favorite pictures of him is a icon, with him with a halo. All cultures recognize how important he was and that he had a heart to serve God.

He dedicated his life to what God told him to do.

Is. 49 is the second servant song. It spells out what the perfect servant does. Last week, in the first servant song – the bible said that a servant was a very gentle person, who loved peace, and who fought for justice, and who went in the world to make sure righteousness was done.

Today the servant says that he was called before birth, and given the gift of speaking up on behalf of the lord.

I just got my email from president obama, reminding us about Monday as a day of service, and to participate in services, but to also make sure that I worked on behalf of others on Monday. Marking this day with something useful.

In Hebrew, holy is the word qadeesha. Pure, holy saint, set apart. But it is not used with all of the baggage that we attach to it.

If I say that this cup is to be used solely for the pastor to drink out of, it is a holy cup, not because of who drinks out of it, but because it has been given purpose and meaning.

It is just like all of the other cups that it was made with, it will melt, it can be destroyed, it can be broken. It can be misused, it can be used for the wrong purpose.

But it is still holy – because it has a job to fulfill.
Nithqadash shmakh – means let the name of God be holy or set apart.

God cannot be misused, or destroyed, or broken. God is set apart from our lives. And yet God is also a part of our lives, our misuse, our brokenness.

But God continually tries to make things right, to bring things back to God, to bring reconciliation.

That is why God needs holy servants. Servants who understand that they are set apart for a special purpose, they have something to do. The will of God.

Isaiah talks about that work, but so does Paul in Corinthians. Paul set about on a journey all throughout Greece and parts of Europe and aisia visiting churches. Asking them to give from what they had in order to help the widows of Jerusalem. He soon learned that not only was each congregation different. But that they each received his message differently depending on what was going on. Some gave cheerfully and willingly to the cause, and others gave an excuse for why they could not give.

That gave birth to his letters to these congregations, addressing those issues in order to make them into missional communities who understood their mission and purpose. Which is to serve God through jesus Christ. Which is to be jesus Christ for those who don’t know that God is at work in the world.
Today we read the introduction of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. And yes he had to write two letters, they were a particularly troublesome group of people, with lots of problems that needed to be addressed. But we read both of those letters, in hopes that we can learn from their mistakes.

The greeting is pretty standard, I greet you in the name of jesus Christ. But Paul starts out right from the bat reminding them that are holy people. Called to be saints, sanctified in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? And what difference does that make in our behavior?

Paul also acknowledges that fact that they have gifts, the gifts of knowledge, speech and wisdom. What does that mean for them. The presence of gifts in a community means that God is present in that community and that god has commissioned or set aside that community for a certain purpose.

In the coming weeks Paul will talk a lot about spiritual gifts in the coming weeks. Gifts are a sign of being called by god for a certain purpose. But Paul also makes it clear that these gifts are not ours to use for our personal glory, that they are our to hold and use together in community. The body of Christ is an community not a person. When god speaks of the servant he is speaking of a community and a man. The two have to go hand in hand. In the coming weeks, we will speak more about gifts, but I do want to point out
That Paul points out that because Corinth has gifts, because the holy spirit is with them, they have to strength to get through anything that stand in the way of them fully serving God.

We will also learn that the things that Paul points out today as gifts, are really the problems that Paul is trying to address. They have knowledge but they know too much, they have speech, but they use it for the wrong things.

In our lives, it is not a matter of whether any of us are called, or whether we have to gifts to live out that call – but it is always a question of how we are using them. Are we using them to further God’s will or our own?
“It all started with two questions put to me by my grandmother during one of
our family’s regular Sunday afternoon visits with her in the nursing home where
she spent the last 3 years of her life. She was always glad to see us. There
were smiles and hugs all around every Sunday. But once in a while she would let
her guard down and tell us just how difficult life had become for her. Grandma
had outlived her husband and two of her sons, and she was bedridden. One day
she said to me, “Why doesn’t God let me die?” That was the first question.
Naively, I said what many of us have said in response to questions like that;
“Maybe God has something more for you to do.” These words would prove to be
prophetic. Years later I would recognize that moment as the beginning of what
was to be a great change in my life.
“The second question was much less dramatic than the first. Grandma simply
asked, “What did the preacher say in church today?” We had to admit that we
didn’t know, because we hadn’t been in church that day. We knew that we didn’t
dare tell her any stories, because the pastor called on her regularly and she
was sure to find out the truth. We went to worship the following Sunday, and
every Sunday after that, so that we could give Grandma accurate reports about
the content of the services. Sometimes we actually took notes during the sermon
so that we wouldn’t forget what the preacher said.
“This went on for about a year, and as the Sundays passed we found ourselves
more and more drawn to the gospel message. One day, my wife and I both realized
that we were going to worship for ourselves, because we wanted to go, and not
just so we could give a good report to Granma. We became excited about god and
the church. It was a genuine conversion experience for both of us. Christ
became real to us for the first time in our lives. Grandma didn’t have to pump
us to tell her about church anymore. We shared without being asked, because we
couldn’t help ourselves.
“That’s how it all started, but that was only the beginning. God wasn’t
finished with me yet. A few months later, at the end of the ordination service
at Annual Conference, the Bishop invited everyone who felt called into ordained
ministry to come forward to the altar. I had a very strong feeling that I ought
to go. It felt like someone was tugging at me, urging me to go. I didn’t
understand what was happening to me. My father and I had just purchased a
business together. It was no time to be thinking of a career change, so I
overruled the feeling. I remember literally hanging onto my chair to prevent
myself from going forward.” [Lectionary Stories: 40 Tellable Tales for Cycle A
by John Sumwalt]
Well you can imagine how this story ends. Once God starts knocking on your
door for one thing or another, God can be pretty persistent and Stephen Groves,
the man in the story, did in the end get both a college and seminary degree and
become an ordained pastor. But what I liked about his story was that it wasn’t
only about his calling. It also was about the struggle his grandmother was
having the discern what God was doing in her life and how with a simple question
she planted a seed in her grandson that would have an impact on many people.

It is a very simple story, but with a question we all have to ask ourselves, why is God doing this in my life, and what does God intend for me to get out of it. And when I see God, how will I respond.
Just a few days ago, a friend of mine asked me that question, where is god in this, I made the mistake of frowning and saying I am not sure. She reminded me that I was a pastor, and should be able to answer that. I have been wrestling with that question every since, I am a pastor, so I know God is always there – but its been something to think of how am I responding. Am I set apart or set upon? Am I being obedient, or spoiled? We have to answer that question as people, but most importantly as a church. What does it mean for us to be the body of Christ? What is our mission and purpose, and how to we live it out in our every day lives?
We wukk undoubtedly hear many words of king today and tomorrow. But let us most importqnt see the spirit of king and live accordingly. King fought for justice for black people, and when that wasn’t enough he fought for justice for all poor people, and when that wasn’t enough he started to define and redefine the meaning of poor people, and it was just at that moment that someone thought he was meddling too much and they killed him. And yet he faithfully followed the words of Isaiah 49 God says it is too light a thing that you should be my servant and to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to resotre the survivors of isreal, I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.
How do we let out light shine?