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Spiritual Gifts

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Sermon preached on 19th January 2025 based on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and John 2:1-11

Receiving a gift can be very exciting. Maybe we only have to look back a few weeks to Christmas Day, or a Christmas Day from your childhood, and waking up to find all those presents under the tree. Wondering which ones might be yours.

When you opened them though, I wonder what your reaction was. The best ones drew amazement, that you’d received the very thing you’d wished for and had been thinking about since at least September!

Or maybe you were surprised and unsure about what the gift actually was or did, so you need time to think about it?

Or even opening it and immediately setting it aside, perhaps it would do as a donation for a raffle prize, or to a charity shop, but importantly to remember to say thank you to the person who gave it to you.

Now what if we were to do the same with the gifts that we receive from God through the Holy Spirit? Putting them to use straight away, setting them aside through fear and uncertainty or rejecting them all together.

Our passage today from Corinthians talks about us being pagans, people without God, easily led astray by worthless enticements and trickery. Like the magicians in the court of Pharoah we might have viewed our gospel reading concerning the turning of water into wine as a magic trick.

Until we realise that despite his reluctance to begin his ministry with a somewhat unusual miracle, Jesus was indeed ready to show us what gifts he possessed… and which his mother already knew about!

Perhaps also, the disciples, who had only just recently thrown everything over to follow this man were reassured that God was indeed with Jesus and that the Holy Spirit was a living gift to enable these things to happen and to reveal his glory in order to strengthen their belief in him.

What about ourselves then? Well, we know that God has known us since before we were in the womb, knitting us together to become the people we are. So, he would be very aware of the strength of our characters, and the abilities we have, even if we’re not quite aware of them always. He would know the inherent skills we display and the skills that lie in our sub-conscious, waiting to be activated.

Did you notice though that there is one gift of the Spirit that is given to everyone – the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. This underpins the Christian faith and is the thing that unites not only Christians with a desire to serve others, and to insist on the dignity of every individual, but also can be found in many other faiths and religions around the world. Perhaps showing God’s ultimate sovereignty because he has ultimately activated them in everyone.

Then we come to individual gifts, those wise men and women among us who know how to act for the best and guide us to do good. A gift subtly different from having great knowledge as viewers of University Challenge and Only Connect will verify.

Those people who encourage us in our faith and our own sense of belief, whether we are able to work miracles or to speak out about choices being made on our behalf? The skills to communicate and teach or to solve problems that will benefit everyone.

And within each of these gifts there are subtleties – the gift of the surgeon’s skill to save lives, equally as valuable as the hand held in the act of friendship and love that can comfort and offer healing.

All of these are produced through the gift of the Spirit and may be given to us as and when they are needed in our lives.

So how do we respond? It is with great joy and excitement and an inner confidence that this is who we are meant to be. Or with uncertainty, unsure how to use the gift that you’ve been presented with something that you don’t believe you have the skills or capacity to be able to deal with. Or even that you dismiss the gift, certain that it’s not meant for you because you already know what’s what?

 What it all boils down to is ‘do you believe this?’ Is God through the Holy Spirit able to discern for us the paths we should take through life and equip us with the necessary skills to do so?

This very question is being asked in this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The exact question that Jesus asked Martha before bring Lazarus out of the tomb alive again. ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

Or our signature doubter, Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe”. Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Recognising our common belief and the fact that God, though the Holy Spirit has given each and every person a gift that can be used to bring us together, is a challenge as well as an invitation to deepen connection and belonging and to live faithfully as disciples of Christ.

Perhaps then as we shortly share our common belief in the words of the Creed, we will remember that it comes from the Latin word credo, meaning ‘I believe and trust’.

And try to remember, as St. Jerome once said, ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’. Amen

Ambitious for God

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Big Ambitions

When your ambition is big then your efforts should be even bigger – Anon

Evening reflection based on Romans 15:14-29

When you were younger, what were your ambitions, your hopes and dreams? I know I spent hours riding my imaginary horse around our garden, over gymkhana fences of upturned buckets and bamboo canes, dreaming that I was appearing on the Horse of the Year show (the one programme in the year I was allowed to stay up late for) as a famous show jumper.

We recently ran a series of School Prayer Spaces at St James’ school and one of the spaces, Tardis Prayers, was a chance to wonder what we might be doing in 10, 20 or even 40 years’ time. The concept of such a huge time scale was daunting for some, but all of the children gave a bit of thought to what they hoped for.

I was expecting a lot of desires for becoming famous celebrities, and we did get our share of that – the famous footballers, dancers, singers, rappers and You Tubers (you’ll have to look that up if you’re not sure what it involves) and of course there were plenty of the more traditional careers of becoming a teacher, policeman, lawyers, engineers or vets. Then there were the more unusual and unlikely roles – to be the President of America or the Queen, and my particular favourite, to be a parrot trainer and to own a parrot.

However, there were others that thought more about the type of people they wanted to be – a person who helps homeless people, to help end world hunger and all wars, to be caring and loving – summed up in one request, ‘To God. I love the world. Please help us to be kind and in peace and together.’ We even had one potential Missionary named Chloe. She said, ‘When I am older I would like to travel around the world to poor countries like Haiti. I would like to go and help them and do church sessions. I would really like to see Daphne, my sponsored child’.

What all of this did show was that even our youngest members of society have ambitions and I think it’s true that most people regardless of their age, want to know what their purpose is in life and how they are going to achieve it. In his letter to the people of Rome, Paul is explaining that he has found just that and he lays out a path for others to discover theirs.

Paul had huge ambitions for mission. He knew very clearly that his mission was to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish sections of society, and the wider groups of people out of that small area in the Middle East. A mission that stretched across the Mediterranean region as far as we know to Spain. The edges of the known world to some extent

To personally take the gospel where people had never heard it, where Christ had never been named and it was not the same one given to everyone. Paul was called to stay in Jerusalem, Apollos was a build on other’s foundations kind of disciple, a bit like one of our Tardis prayers which was to take Bill Gates place to own Microsoft. In addition this was a new development for Paul, to go to these new uninformed people and places because at the beginning he had spent a lot of time in Jewish synagogues, teaching church leader, but now, at this point in his life he had narrowed his ambition down to a specific ministry focus, like a funnel that had started broad.

How though, do you know specifically what God’s purpose is for us? Well we should notice that Paul grounds his purpose in what God has declared as his own purpose through the Scriptures,

Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, but as it is written,

‘Those who have never been told of him shall see,
and those who have never heard of him shall understand.

Many people though whilst trying to figure out the will of God for their own lives, haven’t stopped to ask what God’s purpose is in the world. We could be the best teacher, the best lawyer, the best volunteer in the world, all great ambitions, but are their agendas the same as God’s agenda? We can be very sensitive to the needs of the world, wanting to make a difference, to relieve suffering, and that is a good ambition, but the greatest need in the world is for people to hear about Jesus, because eternal suffering would be an even greater form of suffering.

What Paul was being called to do may not be what we are called to do, but we can try to identify what it is by sensing the gifts of the Holy Spirit within us, and whatever the gifts are that we have to interpret them in the light of the bigger picture of God’s purposes stated in his word – to get the gospel to the ends of the earth!

So let’s do all we can to be ready to say, ‘Yes, Here I am Lord, let my ambitions be your ambitions, your purpose be my purpose. Reveal to me the specific calling you have for me to further your kingdom and whatever I’m good at, whatever gifts I’ve been given, and help me to use them well for your glory’.

Amen

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The Beehive Church

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Collaborative Honey Bees

Collaborative Honey Bees

Having just finished and handed in one of my final portfolios, it has given me an opportunity to reflect on the sort of ministry I would hope to engage with in the future – and it’s all to do with bees! Now before you succumb to an image of a wild apiarist reverend roaming the parish bedecked in a wide-brimmed veil touting honey as a cure-all, think instead about collaboration.

We have much to learn about working together collaboratively, and by that I don’t mean working well as a team under the authority and  expertise of a ‘good’ leader. No indeed, because for so long we have had a hierarchical model of leadership in the Church, where decisions are filtered downwards and authority is shared amongst those deemed to be ‘worthy’ or competent; but it doesn’t have to be like that.

The fact is we already have the ultimate authority in God, and collaborative ministry is nowhere better demonstrated than through the Holy Trinity, which acts as an example of synergy, the whole being greater than the parts and yet each part is distinctive and committed to working together both internally as well as externally

One true leader

One true leader

True collaboration can only take place when we place God at the pinnacle of the leadership tree, and when every ministry that is revealed through the gifts or charisms imparted by the Holy Spirit to each person are equally esteemed and valued. These gifts are all undoubtedly diverse, but the leader that facilitates opportunities for all to be heard, establishes lines of communications between different groups and safeguards accountability, while at the same time recognising that others may be better equipped to undertake various tasks is surely one that will succeed in fulfilling their primary role of reminding the community whose initiative they need to follow and who the source of their mission and unity is.

Not an easy task for someone whose personality tends towards natural introversion, who will often carry out a task independently to simply get it done quickly. However, over the last few years I have been introduced to more and more examples of collaborative ministry and have come to realise just how important it is; and above all I truly believe that in order to progress the work that God asks us to undertake, we need to use Christ as our example and the Holy Spirit as our guide,

What then has this to do with bees? Well the writer Tolstoy spent a lot of time musing philosophically about the collaborative nature of bees within a beehive, often comparing it to the Christian church, not always in a kind way. However, what we can learn from honeybees is that they collaborate together almost unconsciously to ensure that the colony not only survives but thrives.

The fruits of the hive

The fruits of the hive

Foraging bees will continuously collect nectar, often being led to new sources by any one of its apparent insignificant members, whose dance can influence the rest of the hive to venture to new and plentiful supplies, whilst the worker bees use this raw material to construct complex precise honeycombs all without the need for supervisors, each contributing a small piece of beeswax before moving aside to allow a co-worker to add their contribution. At the same time the bees respect nature by giving back to their habitat the gift of pollination.

Admittedly the drone bees could be considered the lotharios of the bee world, but hey-ho it takes all sorts; and at the very centre of the hive is the queen bee, without whom the colony would not survive and yet who selflessly gives herself to ensure the next generation of bees is produced and nurtured*.

What then of the product of this collaboration – surely there is nothing sweeter than being prepared to share with others the glorious fruits of all this shared ministry.  It’s just a thought, but maybe the ‘beehive church’ is one that we could all be striving toward. Why not let me know what you think?

The collaborative church

The collaborative church

*Within this analogy, God the creator is wholly represented through all of his creation, whilst the Holy Spirit provides the wisdom, energy and drive. At the centre is Christ, the selfless example of whom the minister is called to represent and emulate.

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