Did You Find Your Gift?

Did You Get Your Gift?    

I Corinthians 12:1-11

     In our Gospel lesson for today, we are told about the first sign that Jesus did.  He changed water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana.  As a result, he manifested His glory and his disciples believed in Him.  They saw something in Jesus that they hadn’t seen before.  It was a sign that He was something special and the number of followers grew.  In our Epistle lesson for today, we heard about how God continues to grow His church among us now.  Instead of miraculous signs and wonders, God uses the people of the church to carry out the work of building one another up and building up the number of believers.  St. Paul, God’s special apostle to the Gentiles, wrote to the Corinthians, the Romans and the Ephesians about how this was going to be done.  Our text for today is part of a letter to the church in Corinth where Paul explains how God works in us for the good of the church for the benefit of all.

     The church in Corinth was a troubled church.  They didn’t seem to understand how faith in Christ has an impact on the way they lived their lives.  They had a hard time letting go of the worldly ways that had ruled their lives before.  In addition to teaching them about the proper way to receive the Lord’s Supper, he also wanted to instruct them about spiritual gifts and how those gifts were to be used for the common good.  These gifts come from the Holy Spirit.  He wants to make it clear to them that the work of the Spirit is very important in their lives.  In verse three we hear, “No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, “Jesus is accursed! And no one can say, ”Jesus Christ is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit.”  New Testament scholars feel that this was the first creed in the Christian Church.  When someone was ready to become a part of the church, they would make a profession of their faith.  The profession of faith was, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” 

     When one would come to faith, in addition to the faith to proclaim Jesus is Lord, you would receive certain gifts from the Holy Spirit to be used for the good of all.  He continues by saying that there are varieties of gifts.  There are many gifts but they all come from the same Spirit.  In these verses and others in Paul’s writings we have some examples of the kind of gifts the Spirit gives.  Here he mentions wisdom, knowledge, and faith.  Wisdom is given to some to be able to understand the mysteries of God as we heard a couple of weeks ago.  God’s messages to us in the Bible are not always clear and we all benefit from the special ability that some have to make these difficult things easier to understand.    Knowledge is the gift to be able to transfer the mysteries of God into practical application.  Some have the gift to be able to see and apply the message of God into everyday situations.  The church benefits from that gift as people see how God works in their lives.  The gift of faith here means the special ability to move ahead with confidence especially when others see only difficulty.  This is a confidence in God’s promises to be with us and  direct us.  We all should have that to some degree but others have been given that particular gift to be able to say “Yes we can,” when others are saying, “It’s too hard.”  Without those people with extraordinary faith, the church could get mired in simply keeping things the way they have always been because that is the easy, comfortable way and those are usually the churches that are dying.

     The other gifts that were mentioned were important to the early church because they were signs of God’s presence and that this was truly the time of the Messiah.  As God’s revelation of His will in the Scriptures was made known through the sacred writers, the need for the sign gifts was no longer there.  Of that group, only prophecy, in the sense of speaking for God, and the discerning of true and false spirits are still needed in the church today.

     In later verses of this same chapter 12, Paul mentions  that the Spirit gives gifts to some to be apostles, prophets, teachers, for miracles, healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.  In Romans he adds, ministering, exhorting, ruling, showing mercy and in I Peter we hear about showing charity, hospitality and serving.  All of these back up the statement that there are varieties of gifts that the Spirit gives for the common good, for the building up of the church. 

     There is a very important point made in verse seven that touches the life of everyone here.  “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  Did you catch my emphasis?  Each one of you in the church is given at least one spiritual gift for the good of all.  That leads us to the question, “Have you found your gift and are you putting it to use.”

     Christmas wasn’t that long ago.  Think for a moment how bad you would feel if you bought someone a special gift and found out that the receiver of the gift put it in the closet and never used it.  You picked out what you thought would be the ideal gift for that person.  You were sure that they would use that gift and maybe even use it to help others.  Now the gift was being wasted.  What an ungrateful person they would be to ignore such a carefully chosen gift!  That’s just the way it is with you when you do not use the gift or gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to you for the good of the church.  God, in His wisdom, has gifted each of you and given you the responsibility to see that His work is done.  To not use your gifts is to hinder the work of God’s church here on earth. 

     The story is told of a man who came to the pastor and asked about joining the church.  He had just moved to the area and wanted establish membership somewhere.  He had one request though.  He said, “I want to join the church but I don’t want to have any jobs or responsibilities.  I am very busy and I don’t have time for any church work.”  The pastor said that he could understand his concern but he told the man that he was probably looking into the wrong church.  He gave the man directions to a church that was a few blocks away that might suit his needs a little better.  The man thanked the pastor and went to look for the other church.  He followed the directions and  found a run-down, boarded-up building that looked like it at one time had been a church.  If the people of the church are not willing to use their gifts, their special talents and abilities for the good of the church, the church might as well be boarded up and left to decay. 

     The question might be asked then, “If I have some gift, how can I find what that gift is and how can I put it to use.”  The first step would be to become familiar with what the Scriptures say about them in I Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and I Peter 4.  Then experiment with as many of the gifts as possible.  Try different things.  Try speaking to someone about Jesus, try teaching, try serving on a committee, try singing in the choir and the list could go on.  Be patient and try things out.  The next step would be to examine your feelings about what you tried.  Did you enjoy what you were doing?  Did you see that others were helped by what you did?  Did others recognize that you were successful?  Did they see that you have a gift for that kind of work?  You might be surprised what your gift really is.  The important thing is that you find your gift and use it for the common good.  You see yourself serving the Lord who gave His life for you in order to bring you back to God and save you from eternal punishment.  Too often in our modesty we say that we don’t have any special gifts but our text for today says just the opposite.  The manifestations of the Spirit are given to everyone.

     The last verse of the text then summarizes this by giving us one more statement about the way the Spirit distributes the gifts.  “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills.”  It is the Spirit’s decision who is to receive what gift.  They are not given out on the basis of merit.  You don’t earn special gifts because of your good works or good intentions.  Just as all you have is a gift from God, just as your salvation is a gift from God, so the spiritual gifts that God chooses to give you come out of His grace.  In fact the Greek word that is translated “gifts” in these verses is from the same word family as the word “grace”.  What a blessing it is that that distribution of gifts is in the hands of the Holy Spirit,  That then removes any possibility for complaint, envy or boasting.  The gifts I have to do God’s work are gifts from the Spirit.  The gifts that someone else has are also from the Spirit.  He has given them as He wills out of His divine wisdom.  It is up to each one of you to use the gifts that you have been given.  The end result then will be that the body of Christ, the Church here on earth will be built up, will be strengthened and then can grow.  Don’t waste the gift you have been given.  Find it, develop it, and use it for the glory of God and the benefit of the Body of Christ, the Church.  May God grant you the strength and the willingness to serve Him with your spiritual gifts.  Amen

Rev. Gerald Matzke

January 20, 2013

The Mystery Is Solved

The Mystery is Solved                                             

 Ephesians 3:1-12

      Most people like to try and solve mysteries.  There is a sense of accomplishment when you have been able to solve a mystery. One of the largest sections of most libraries is devoted to mystery novels.  The popularity of mystery movies or TV shows indicates that people like to become involved even as spectators in solving a great mystery.  We even instill that in our little children when we are playing with them and we try to hide one of their toys.  Instantly you have all the elements of a mystery.  Something is unknown and you follow some problem solving steps to reveal the truth.  When the truth is found, those who have been searching are relieved and at the same time they feel a little bit of pride in being able to solve the mystery of the disappearing toy. 

     Today we are celebrating Epiphany.  It is often called the Gentile Christmas and in fact there are some Christians around the world who consider this their Christmas.  As you heard in the Gospel reading, it commemorates the coming of the Wise Men, or Magi, to worship the Christ Child.  They brought Him gifts fit for a king, which is what He truly is.  Their journey was somewhat of mystery for them.  They didn’t know where to find this new-born king although they were following a mysterious star.  The logical place would be in the palace of the king.  It wasn’t until Herod the king consulted with those who were familiar with the Scriptures that the Wise Men were directed to Bethlehem.  Then their mystery was solved.  But the mystery surrounding the birth of this child was far from being solved completely.  That was going to take some time.  There had been some clues all along about what this child was to be and how He was going to be the Savior but the full scope of that information was still a mystery to many people.  As we think about this mystery today, may you be given the power of the Holy Spirit in the Word to be able to completely understand the truth about this Child and why He came to earth and what it means for you today and into the future.

     From the words to Adam and Eve in paradise after the fall into sin, God began to reveal clues about His plan for the rescue of His special creation, mankind.  He said something about the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman but it probably didn’t make much sense to them at the time.  Down through the ages the clues were given through the prophets that help God’s people to see a little bit more about the One who would be called the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ.  From Isaiah’s prophecies we hear things like, “with His stripes we are healed,” or “like a lamb being led to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth”  or even the words that Herod heard from his advisors, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little among the tribes of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient times.”  When you put all those clues together you will find that this child born of Mary would fit all the descriptions. 

     Like so many other mysteries, this one was misunderstood by many people of that day.  The Children of Israel had considered themselves God’s chosen people.  When the Messiah would come, He would make of them a great nation.  There were times in their history when they were a great nation but because of their sin, their rebellion against God and their stubbornness, they were punished.  Their hope was always for that Messiah to come and make them a great nation again.  When Jesus was born, it was in a time when the chosen people were under the rule of the Roman government, a situation that they saw as unacceptable.  For them the Messiah meant one who would rescue them and drive out the Romans and establish for them a great nation again.  They were ignoring the clues.  The identity of the Messiah was still a mystery for them.  That the Messiah would be for anyone else in the world was not even a consideration.  He would be their Messiah for political reasons and no one else would be included.

     Do you see what happened?  They ignored the clues and as a result they were thrown off the right track.  They would never be able to solved the mystery of God’s plan for salvation because they were looking for the wrong things.  That should sound familiar.  That still happens today as people forget what God has told them in His Word and start to make up their own way to God.  His plan of salvation is deemed too unreasonable and instead they turn to finding personal fulfillment.  If I can reach my spiritual goals, then I will be truly fulfilled in this life and somehow that will carry over to the life to come, whatever that might be.  Many world religions have been following that kind of path for centuries but in recent years those same kind of ideas have become very popular in our society.  The true plan of salvation from eternal punishment in hell remains a mystery to many people.

     As we hear in our text from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the mystery has been solved.  In these twelve verses in this version, the word mystery is used four times.  Paul recognizes that there are many people who still don’t understand the mystery of God’s love in Christ Jesus and that the grace of God is for all people, Jews and Gentiles alike.

       In a good mystery novel there is often a surprise ending.  Only at the end is the mystery solved and the truth is revealed. That will be the way it is for many people who have refused to follow the clues and put them all together.  If they did, they would see from the testimony of the prophets and apostles that Jesus was the Messiah who came to offer Himself as the substitute for all people under the Law and then offer Himself again as the sacrifice for the their sins.  He was, as John the Baptist proclaimed, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  He was the One by whose stripes we are healed.

       The blessing of that great work is for all people.  That was somewhat of a mystery even to Jesus’ followers.  They had a hard time understanding that the blessings of forgiveness and eternal salvation were for all people, including the Gentiles, the non-Jews.  That was the essence of Paul’s message.  Some Gentiles were no doubt led to believe that the Messiah was not for them.  Paul writes to the Gentiles in Ephesus that indeed, he was given the grace to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.  He continued by adding, “This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. 

     On this Epiphany Sunday, when we remember the visit of the Wise Men, the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, for all people is especially emphasized. We don’t know exactly where these Wise Men came from but they had some knowledge of the Jews and their writings.  They knew that an unusual star meant the birth of a king.  Their gifts were the kinds of things that you would give to a king.  We don’t know anything more about them and what they did after they went back without telling Herod about their experience with the Child who was truly the King.  But we can be impressed that these Gentile Wise Men from afar were led by the Spirit to worship Jesus and in so doing they fulfilled the prophecies that spoke of the coming of people from other lands who would not be turned away.  The Messiah was for them as well. It is that mystery that was revealed by Paul to his Gentile readers to help them to see that God’s plan of salvation was for them as well.  There are still people in our world today who are deceived by the devil into thinking that there is some other way to get to heaven.  Whether it is by good works, by following the proper discipline or by reaching a state of ultimate personal fulfillment, it all leads to eternal punishment. 

     Jesus came to bring life and the mystery that has been revealed to us through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit is that salvation comes by God’s grace, because of what Jesus did for us through His perfect life and His suffering, death and resurrection and it becomes ours by faith which is worked in us by the Holy Spirit who works in us through the Word and the Sacrament, the Means of Grace.  There are still those in our world for whom this is still a mystery.  For us who believe, the mystery has been solved.  It is now our privilege to help those around us see how the mystery is solved in Christ.  Epiphany means to shine forth.  As the people of God, you have the privilege to let Jesus shine forth in your life in order to unlock the mysteries of God in the lives of people all around you.  The mystery is solved.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke
Epiphany 2013