Materials
The Body of Christ Series
The Ministry of Spiritual Gifts
1 Peter 4:7-11
by R. Todd Bouldin
This
is the last in a three part series in which we have been discovering some
familiar but perhaps forgotten truths about the Body of Christ, the church.
The first week we saw that the church is made up of sinners and strangers
of all types, and one of the most significant contributions the church
can make to society is its hospitality. Last week, we discovered that
the spiritual blessings we have in Christ are experienced and realized
as we live together in God’s community called the church. Today, we remind ourselves that the church is a community of mission where every Christian is graced by God with gifts for service and ministry to The Body and for the world.
Prayer: “O God, by Your Holy Spirit, open our eyes to the amazing gifts we have received: the gift of today, the gift of people to love, the gift of loving people through the gifts You have given us. In the Name of our Savior who is living and ministering through us, amen.
The Apostle Peter begins our passage today by saying, “The end of all things is near.” For some, like the persecuted church that received this letter, this is good news. If you are struggling through a hard time, if you hate your job, or if you are near the end of your treatment, it is encouraging to know the end is near. For others, though, this sounds a bit ominous and discouraging to hear they are near the end. If you are in love, if you are moving away, if you have to leave your job, it makes you sad to know the end has come. All things come to an end: bad things, good things, dull things, beautiful things, and especially all living things. Anything that doesn’t come to an end is not a creation, but a god. The end of all created things is near. Maybe even nearer than we think.
So what is Peter’s next thought? Does he then say, “So hurry up, use your gifts, and get something significant accomplished?” No. Peter says, “So take the day seriously. With discipline and prayer.” It’s another way of saying, “Pay attention to the day you have.” This is why our congregation is going to spend the next month of June focusing on prayer. Sometimes we humans find it easier to rush into ministry – just do something – than first being in the presence of God where we are filled with discernment and power for ministry and spiritual growth. Ministry begins and ends in prayer. When you want your life to matter, or for our church to matter, the most important thing we can do always is to pray.
The end is near. All you have is today. So pray. Serve one another with your gifts. Today. God’s calling on our lives is always focused on the present tense. The question is not who God is calling you to become. Forget about becoming. The question is who God has called you to be, and what has He called you to do and gifted you to do today? The gifts God have given you are not about the future – they are about today. The end may be nearer than you think.
Knowing that the end is near brings things into focus. If you’ve ever been seriously ill or near death, you understand how that experience can cause you to really center in on the things that are important to you. Almost always, it means loving the people in your life. It is no surprise then that Peter would say, “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
Before we can even begin to talk about your gift as a musician, lawyer, butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, we have to remember that the primary gift of God is people to love. There’s no more important gift that you can give to The Body than your love. Today. These may not be the people you wanted to love, or dream of loving. You may not know these people very well. They may not even be your kind of people. But here we are – the gift of God in your life. Some of us are really hard to love, but God asks you to love everyone, even with their multitude of sins. In the words of the author Anne Lamott, “You can tell that you have pretty much recreated God in your own image when you discover that He hates the same people you do.” Love embraces all of a person, even their sinful parts. That is how God loves us. Real love has to cover a multitude of sins.
The only way you can receive the gift of community in your life is to love the community that you have been given rather than searching for the perfect community you want to choose. You don’t have time to find a better group of people to love. The end of all things is near. Your calling is to love the people you have. Love the family you have, the friends you have, the church you have. While it is still called today.
How do we show this love? Notice that Peter does not tell us that we have to feel loving toward each other. The Bible does not describe love as a feeling, but always as a way of serving each other. “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”
Each of you have been uniquely gifted to serve. Some of you are gifted to work with numbers and computers, and others to manage people and take leadership. Some are gifted to speak and write words eloquently, and others communicate through music or visual arts. Some are good at welcoming visitors, and some are good at running sound equipment. Some work well under stress, and others are gifted to spend time in quiet places. Some love teaching children and teenagers. Some of us, well . . . Each person has gifts that are vital to us.
The point Peter is making to us today is that there may be a variety of gifts but all of them are given for the purpose of serving the community in the day you have. You can never, ever value your gifts for their instrumental function, and certainly not for their egotistical function. You can only value them for their communal function – for how they serve the Body of Christ. You can’t even think of them as belonging to you. They are gifts for loving and serving the people God has given you. So your gifts belong to the Body of Christ. If you don’t use them for the community, you are stealing from Christ.
Our gifts are the means by which we experience the gracious love of God among us and for us. Christ now becomes present to each of us and to the world through the many gifts of the church. Listen as Peter continues, “Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God.
Whoever serves must do so with the strength God supplies.” How do the people around you hear the word of God? In your words. How do they experience The God who washes feet? In your service. Your gifts become almost sacramental because they are tangible ways for others to experience grace. In fact, in Greek, the same word means “grace” or “gift.” They are interchangeable because God graces you with gifts to bring His grace to others.
How do you find your gift? Well, these gifts are spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are discerned spiritually – that is, through prayer, through other’s affirmation, through listening to God. It is not just a matter of filling a function or taking a survey. God makes all His gifts available to His people to meet the needs of His people -- so you never know what The Spirit might be doing in your life. You have to listen and pray to know. But beyond this, ask yourself one question: What brings you a great sense of joy when you do it?
What leaves you feeling more energized when you finish it than when you began it? Where do you notice that you really have an effect? Frederick Buechner has written that our calling in life is where our joy meets the world’s deep need. Our call comes at the intersection of the things that bring us joy, and the needs our world or The Body has. I do not believe that God is calling this church to anything that He has nor or will not gift us to do, and God has gifted us for everything that He wants us to do. We should not wring our hands over what we do not have – I believe that God has given us everything that He wants us to be – Today.
The purpose of all gifts, according to Peter, is “so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.” In religious things? No, in all things. In just things at church? No, in all things. In just really important things? No, in all things. Our calling is to glorify God in everything when we are doing what we were designed by our Creator to do.
When you start doing the things God has gifted you to do, you will find great joy and others will be blessed even when you don’t intend it. One of the most significant lessons I have learned during this past year is how God works through me to bless others when I am doing what He created me to do -- when I resist that, or find myself doing something other than that, I find myself depressed, drained and even hating my work or ministry. When you are using the gifts God has given you, you may have to work hard, but the blessing to others will come more easily than you expect because The Spirit is the one working through you, and you will know you are using the gift of God in your life when other people say to you, “You have such wonderful gifts” or “You bless my life.” If no one is saying that about you, it means you are either not using your gift or you are not paying attention.
God is not asking you to offer someone else’s gift – You do not discern your gifts by looking at others and applying their gifts. You pray and find your joy, and I promise you will bless all the people you are given to love. The Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel has written about “the hesitation before birth.” Some people, he says, waste all their days, hesitating, waiting for life to begin at the next stage. You may be thinking you would like to contribute more to The Body here, but you will have to wait for when life is less hectic, or for when you really feel prepared.
Nothing gives less glory to God than hesitation. The end is near. Tomorrow will bring its own calling and new opportunities to use God’s gift. Today’s calling is enough to fill our hearts with joy and to meet your world’s great needs.
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