The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke

 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 

 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and  said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 

 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and  God has visited his people!” 

And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. (Luke 7:11-17)

                                      ————————————————-

A woman had lost a dear  child, a lovely little girl, and was, as you might imagine, brokenhearted. She was crazy with grief, as she sat beside her child’s deathbed.

A neighbour, taking pity on her told her of a miracle man who could raise even the dead, and suggested she go to him. Which she did.

She told the man her story, and he listened with compassion, and wept with her, and asked how he could help her. She said, “Give me back my child.”

He looked at her with pity, and said that yes, he could bring back her child, if she would go to every house in her village, and find which had not lost a loved one. If she could find a home where a loved one had not been lost, he would restore her child to life.

She went and knocked on every door, and found not one family that had not had experienced the grief that she was experiencing.

Death is a part of us all.

Isn’t it?

Jesus, we are told, was on a journey to Nain, with his disciples, and came upon a funeral procession for a young man, his mother’s only child, and since she was a widow, her only support. This boy was her treasure.

The procession may have been going on further, to the cemetery of rock tombs between Nain and the next village of Endor. That cemetery is still there.

Jesus, seeing the woman’s grief, and being filled with compassion for her, went to the bier. It was not a coffin. They were not used in the east. Very often a long wicker basket would be used for carrying the body to the grave.

Jesus reached out to the woman, reassuring her, “Do not weep,” he said.

The he touched the  bier, and the bearers stood still – what a dramatic moment – and he said, “ Young man, I say to you arise, “  and the young man sat up.

Alive!

Imagine that woman’s relief.

Imagine the effect on the mourners, those carrying the bier, the large crowd that had gathered around.

They were all amazed– wouldn’t you be?

“A great prophet had risen among us. God has  visited his people,” they said.

Now there are historical accounts which tell of ancient graves being opened, and sometimes it was obvious that that person had been buried alive. Thought to be dead, but buried alive!

This happened in parts of Europe, and often in Palestine.

The lack of proper medical training, the religious rules about burying the deceased person before a certain time had elapsed, contributed  to this.

It may have been that the young man in this story was in a catatonic trance, or coma, and thought to be dead.

Raising this young man from the dead may have been a miracle of diagnosis.

Whatever version you prefer, he was miraculously saved from death.

Miracles happen all the time.

Miracles have happened in your life. 

You may not have known it at the time, but look back and I am sure you will see moments when God touched your life, or the lives of those dear to you.

Because they are not dramatic – no choirs of angels, or bearded healers in long robes – doesn’t mean that miracles do not happen.

Then again, there are those who say when a miracle happens, it’s merely coincidence.  Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple said, that might be so, but when you pray,  coincidences happen more often.

I met a young woman once, the girl friend of a friend of mine, who had devoted ten years of her life to looking after her mother, affected with Alzheimer’s Disease.

She dressed, and washed, and cleaned, and entertained, and fed and nursed her mother for all that time until her mom died.

I asked her how had managed to do all that for so long, and she just said, “She was my mother.”

If anyone asked for a miracle there, it would be that her mother would be well.

And that would have been preferable.

But that daughter wouldn’t have traded those ten years for anything.

She felt gifted to be able to minister to her mom that way.

One little miracle was that her mom had retained her cognition, and had known her for a longer period than she would,  had she been in a nursing home.

Another little miracle was that that young woman had an understanding boss who let her work flexible hours, so she could be with her mother.

Another miracle, and she would attest to this was that she didn’t consider herself to be a particularly empathetic person. She found a well of love and empathy within herself, that if her mother had never been ill, she would not have found.

She would tell you today that she was a more whole person after that ten years than she was before.

She didn’t hear God talking to her.

She didn’t find superhuman strength – she was often exhausted.

But God was with her in that time and she accomplished more than she could ask or imagine.

As the people who saw Jesus raise that man from the dead said,

“God has visited his people.”

He visited her!

What can we do to share in such wondrous works?

Do we have to lay hands on people?

It might help.

Do we have to anoint people?

I am told that it helps greatly,

But perhaps all we have to do is to be open to feeling God working in us, and see, and remark upon, the miracles that he does in our life, and in the lives of others.

Perhaps we have to stop praying to win the lottery, and marvel at how he has provided for us.

Luke tells this story which happened in a place where Elisha had performed a similar miracle, to show us that God was in Jesus, as much as –  nay –  much more than –  he was in the ancient prophets.

That God was once again showing Himself to His people – in a man named Jesus, Son if God.

We may not have the power that was in Jesus, but we can also be part of God visiting His people, now in this time, and this era, and even in this village – and even – dare I say it, in our own family.

In fact I would say it should begin there – in our own family.

I will tell you of a miracle I personally witnessed.

I used to lead worship services at Albright Manor, Beamsville, and one of the volunteer ladies asked me to visit her husband who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had been given only a few weeks to live.

She asked me to visit him in hospital, which I did, and also when he was home.

She told me that he wouldn’t accept he was that sick and she wanted me to help him prepare to die.

That’s a hard thing to do for someone who is sure he isn’t going to die.

I did visit though, and prayed with him, even though he wasn’t a bit interested, and so I mostly talked and prayed with his wife.

She told me a lot about her family, her grown up children, and little grandchildren, and one day she confided to me that her husband, while a good father and grandfather, had been a miserable husband – my words  –  not hers. 

She said that he never had a nice word for her. In fact he constantly put her down, and talked to her in a very derogatory way.

She had gotten used to it, but she was worried about him. What would happen to his soul, after him being such a mean man to his wife all those years.

I said to her that she should talk to him about it. She should say something like, “ I know you haven’t meant to, but the way you have always spoken to me has hurt me tremendously all these years.”

The next week, she told me that she had done just that, and he had been so moved to hear that, that he cried. He asked her to forgive him. He said, ‘’You know what a mouth I have. I can’t help it.”

Not only that, but he didn’t die of pancreatic cancer. He lived through that Christmas, and for most of the next year, a good twelve months after that dread prognosis, and died of something entirely different.

And that twelve months was the happiest his wife had been in all their marriage.

Some people would say that he had been healed of pancreatic cancer, and that was the miracle.

I would demur. I say the change in him after over forty years of marriage, and the year of happiness his wife experienced was the miracle.

There is nothing to stop God visiting His people in their home, you know.

Amen.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without ashepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶ Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. ⁷ As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,^[a] drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give .(Mt. 9:3-10:23)          

                                   ———————————————–

Do you remember the upheaval caused by the murder of a black man, George Floyd, and others, killed  in police actions because  of their colour, their ethnicity, their lowly place in society, the world was  forced to see the injustice, and trapped feelings of a suffering people – something it had been blind to until then, and to act. 

What will it take to change the way things are in the world?

When I was a little boy, I went to visit my uncle Bob. He had a fine henhouse, and a flock of chickens roosting in it.  And this day he showed me a chicken  that he had just bought and was going to place in the hen house with the others.

I went with him and watched as he opened up the hatch, and revealed the chickens sitting on the perch, in a row, next to each other.

He leaned in and moved some of the chickens along the perch and then took the new arrival and placed it  between two others on the perch. Or I should say he tried. 

The birds closed rank and the new bird was squeezed out, and it happened again and again, no chicken was willing to give up its position  – its rank ifyou like – signified by its place on that perch. and he finally put the new bird right at the far end of the perch. The not so nice section?

The perch was plenty long enough for many hens, but those stubborn chickens didn’t want to give up their little piece of real estate.

Keep that story in mind for a minute:

My first job in Canada in 1967 was with an encyclopedia company as the office manager.  My boss was an American from St. Louis Missouri, a nice guy, big and bluff, and good natured. He went by ‘Woody.’

The subject of race came up and he told me that on one occasion, the blacks from the poor part of town in St. Louis began to march toward the white part of town, and had to cross a bridge.   He said, ” We weren’t going to allow them to cross that bridge so we got our weapons and went to stop them.

” Were they violent?” I asked.

“No,” he said, ” But we weren’t going to give them the chance.”

” Then what was the problem with them demonstrating?’

“They wanted my job!, ” he said, vehemently.

I said, ” They didn’t want your job, they just wanted an equal chance at getting a job.”

He laughed at my naivety. He didn’t see that point of view at all.

I was getting paid a hundred dollars a week, and he was getting five hundred dollars a week and in 1967 that was a lot of money. So you might think he would be a smart guy.

But when it came to race he was about as smart as uncle Bob’s chickens.

In our  contemporary version of the Gospel, we read that Jesus looked at the crowd and was moved with compassion for them. He was moved to the very depth of his being.

He was moved to compassion by  the world’s pain. He was moved to compassion for the sick. He was moved to compassion for those with no hope. 

The common people were desperately longing for God – why else wouldthey follow Jesus in such great numbers? – And the pillars of orthodox religion  of his day had nothing to offer them.

People were ruled and exploited  by the Romans.   And exploited by the religious rulers.

They were at the bottom of the rung in that society. And no hope of any relief.

They were at the end of the perch, you might say.

Does it remind you of the situation in our society today?  Of those who are at the bottom of the pecking order and are exploited, or worse still ignored, by those above?  

And are so because of their colour, their education or lack of it. Their religious dress. Their difficulty with the language.  Their uncultured accent?? Their address?

There have been conferences over the years, where national and international leaders have gotten together to try and solve the problems that exist because of  prejudice, and the realisation that having so many disenfranchised people could be dangerous for society.

I remember a promise to eradicate world poverty by –  was it 2010?  It required, among other things, massive donations of money, lifting of tariffs, help and encouragement to improve weak  economies.

The Secretary General of the UN has asked where is that help that was so generously promised? 

Precious little has been forthcoming.

Why? Because helping others means that we have to sacrifice a little of what we have. And our leaders think we can’t handle that: that we don’t want to be moved along the perch.

We feel sorry for disadvantaged people . We pray for them of course.

And prayer is good. It indicates our concern.

But you know, prayer without good works is dead.

Martin Luther had a friend who was in the same mind about Christian faith as he was. His friend was also a monk. They came to an agreement. Luther would go into the world and battle for Reformation, while the friend would stay in the monastery and uphold Luther with prayer.  So that’s what they did.

But one night, the friend had a dream. He saw a huge field of corn, as big as the world, and one solitary man was trying to reap all that corn. He saw  the reaper’s face. It was Luther.  Luther’s friend saw the truth in a flash. He was meant to be down there with him, labouring in the harvest.

As we heard in today’s Gospel, this was something that  Jesus’s disciples had to do.  Jesus was sending them out to bring in the harvest.  

The harvest was – and is –  all those untold numbers of people who needed God in their lives;  who needed healing;  who were like lost sheep.  

There are some who can do nothing else but pray, for life may have rendered them physically or financially helpless. But for most of us, prayer is not enough. 

The men chosen by Jesus to go out into the countryside, telling of the coming of the kingdom of God, were ordinary men. They had no wealth, no position, no academic background, no social advantages.

You see, Jesus isn’t looking for extra-ordinary people. He is looking for ordinary people who are willing to be used to do extra-ordinary things.

God is always looking for hands to use. God is always saying. “Whom shall I send?”

Jesus had called these twelve men to go into the world as his apostles.  They would not be representing themselves. They would  represent him.  Nor would they be bringing their own messages. Representing Jesus they  would bring his message.

I often hear people talking about their faith in a way which tells you more about them than about the Jesus they are supposed to represent.

There are religious people who will  tell you they are for or against birth control, or abortion, or gay rights, or women priests, or dancing, or kneeling, or standing for prayer, or waving their hands while they sing hymns, or long sermons, or church ritual – all the things that they like or dislike and which define them and their ‘faith’  –  but who have somehow forgotten the compassion, caring,  and loving, that is expected from apostles.  

And that’s us. Because we  are –  his apostles.  

Believe it.

As an apostle we don’t do what we want to do, we try to do  what he would do.

Like we need to be fascinated with Jesus rather than with ourselves.

God is looking out for us, so we can take our eye off that particular ball and look out for someone else, can’t we?

Several years ago, conductor Eugene Ormandy was leading the Philadelphia Orchestra.  It doesn’t matter what they were playing. Certainly not Mozart, perhaps Stravinsky. But at  any rate, he was giving all of himself to it.  He was putting energy  into it. To the degree that he dislocated his shoulder! 

Conducting!!

He dislocated his shoulder conducting an orchestra??

Gerrouttahere!

I read that and asked myself the question: Have I ever dislocated anything by working so hard for Jesus? 

He gave his life, working for me?

You know what I mean? .

I wonder what it takes.

I wonder how we get that fire of the Holy Spirit inside of us so that we just can’t stop doing stuff for our Lord;  just full of energy  trying to be like him.  

Dislocating something.

It’s got to be about motivation, do you think?  .

Fear motivates people. Some people, anyway.

I heard a story about a young man who took a shortcut through a cemetery one dark night, and fell into an open grave.

He tried to climb out, scrabbling at the sides with his hands, but couldn’t make it., He tried shouting, but no-one heard him. He decided to sit down in a corner and wait for daylight.

A little while later another person cut through the graveyard and fell into the same open grave. This man, like the first, tried to climb out, using his fingernails and toes, to try and get a grip in the soil, but slipping back.  

The first man, sitting there in the dark, heard the newcomer trying to get out, as he had, and said, “You’ll never get out of here.”

But he did!

Fear was a real motivator, there, wasn’t it/?

But fear doesn’t always work, it seems.  

Think about it: We have been threatened with Hell for centuries: devils with pitchforks, pushing us into a lake of fire ,for ever and ever. But it doesn’t seem to have made much difference to the way people live. Does it? 

People just don’t seem to fear the hereafter, as horrible as it sounds.

So we can  forget fear .

So what can motivate us?

What about compassion? 

Jesus’ heart wept for the people  who followed him.

I think when I first saw a picture of a starving child, in Biafra, decades ago,  my heart wept. I think the first time I read about women and children being deliberately killed in war, my heart wept. I think the first time I  read about families being headed by nine year-old children in Africa, because both parents had died from AIDS, my heart wept.

But there is so much of it, pictures in the papers, on television, news stories of millions threatened by starvation – the sheer numbers boggle the mind, that my heart can’t weep any more.

We can’t take it any more, and we pass by on the other side.

What is needed is a new motivation. Not the pictures of starving children used in TV ads,  but a heartfelt compassion, and a love, and a desire to bring healing.  

We need a vision of that vast harvest, and Jesus out there doing it all by himself, and a realisation that he needs each and everyone ofus out there with him.

We have received freely. We are called to give freely.

And every time we do that, we move this world closer to the day when the kingdom of God will come on earth  –  the time when His will is done here, as it is in Heaven.

Where there will be no hatred, no fear, no discrimination, just love!

Amen.

 Ficus Christians                            

I once  read that 63% of all Canadians are taking some sort of supplement. Most take vitamins; but herbs, and other medications are being taken by people who want to be healthy, have younger-looking skin, maintain their youth, do away with aches and pains and so on.

Some of these supplements are beneficial, and some may not be, and we should check with our  physician before taking them. 

But what does it profit a person to be physically fit if they are spiritually sick?

Some physically fit people commit suicide. Not too many sick people do. They know the value of life.

Plenty of  physically fit people live unhappy lives.

Many physically fit people get into trouble. (You don’t see too many people in wheelchairs being wheeled into court.) 

Being physically fit is fine, but it’s more important to be spiritually fit.

To keep ourselves spiritually fit, we need to stay connected to Christ through attending church regularly, daily prayer, bible reading, meditation, self-examination, Christian fellowship and so on.

It’s called  ‘abiding in Christ.’  

The evangelist John tells us that  when we abide in Christ  we find ourselves loving God and loving others. Others that we might not have loved normally.   

In fact he says, “ Those who say they love God and yet hate their brothers or sisters are liars. If you can’t love those whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?’”

The only way to become a loving person is by abiding in Him and being fed by Him. 

I have had a ficus plant for a long time. It has been there.  Barely. Although I dutifully watered it, and turned the pot around weekly, it never grew. It looked the same after fifteen years as the day I bought it.  Then I saw my wife using a product on her outdoor plants, called Miracle Grow. I tried feeding my ficus plant with it, and all of a sudden it began to grow like Topsy. We had to cut it back using garden clippers. It looked like it might take over the house.   

All the time I was just watering it, it was starving.  But once it was fed, there was no holding it back.

It’s easy to be a ficus kind of Christian, isn’t it?   Just kind of ‘there.’ Doing nothing. Just ‘there.’

I know Christians like that, as I am sure you do.

We all need to be fed don’t we?  

Because the truth is that God doesn’t need ‘ficus Christians’. He needs Christians who want to grow, and he offers to feed us with the spiritual food that will enable us to grow, and be fruitful.   

And that, my brothers and sisters, is the meaning of life. Christian life, that is. 

Amen.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to John

Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

[“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”] (John 14:8-17, (25-27)

                  —————————————————-

How would you like to go to someone else’s birthday party and you get the gifts?  That would be something wouldn’t it?   Usually, you sit around while the  birthday boy or girl open their presents and oooh and ahhh as they do it, not really interested, until they come to yours, and you watch their face to see if their delight is real or feigned.

But to be the one who got the gift. That would be some birthday party.

Well, in the church, that’s what happens. On the church’s birthday, we get the gifts!

The way it began,  on the first Pentecost Day, two thousand or so years ago, the disciples were in that upper room. They had been meeting there to pray and sing hymns, waiting for………well they were not quite sure what they were waiting for ….when……… Crash, Bang. Alcazam!!  the Holy Spirit burst into the room with the sound of a mighty wind, with tongues of flame racing around until those tongues of fire settled, one on the head of each person there.

So far as I can see, no-one came forward to blow out the flames and sing Happy Birthday.

But that’s how the first gifts, on the birthday of the church were delivered.

The disciples were so excited with the gifts they received, that they rushed outside, and began to prophecy – to tell everyone about God. And His Son Jesus. And about his glorious resurrection.

And using one of the gifts they had received – the gift of tongues, we are told that  they excitedly told about Jesus, and his saving power, in the languages of everyone there.

What pandemonium there must have been.  People thought they were drunk – they were so excited – and so uninhibited.

I wonder if anyone during a service, has thought, at any time, “Oh I just wish I could go up there to that lectern and tell people how good I feel about having Jesus as my friend and Saviour,”  but was too inhibited to do it.

I wonder if anyone has been so excited about their life in Christ that they have wanted to just grab a stranger and tell them, “Guess what?  I am so happy in Christ, I just have to tell someone!!”  

Well, those people who followed Jesus had similar inhibitions, but they lost them once the Spirit entered into them, and they just couldn’t keep themselves still, or quiet. They just had to get up and do their thing. And let people know!

And this wasn’t something entirely new.  It had been going on for a long time.    The Old Testament has stories that tell us about God placing His Spirit and the gifts that went along with it into the hearts of many people over the centuries.

For example, some time after leaving Egypt, the people of Israel have left Sinai, and they are out in the desert.  Some people are complaining to Moses about the diet.  Manna may be heavenly food, but it can get monotonous. They remember  the meat, fish and vegetables they enjoyed in Egypt.   They crave meat.  This grumbling begins to spread, and Moses, feeling like the foster-father of these burdensome people tells God about it.

He asks: “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?  And “ I can’t handle all this  alone.” He complains, “ The burden is too heavy.  I would rather die than continue in this misery.”

God tells him to delegate.  He tells Moses to gather seventy of the elders together, and  God will take “some of the spirit that is on Moses and put it on them. ”  They will share the burden, and the authority with Moses.

Moses gathers the seventy, and God sends His Spirit upon the “seventy” and they   are so blown away with the gift of the Spirit that they begin to prophesy.

They are excited as we hear today, that Peter and the others were, and they just can’t help but tell everyone about God’s love for them.

For the record, a flock of quail soon lands in the camp and the people find plenty of meat to eat.

There are other accounts of people receiving the Spirit of God, in the centuries after that episode, but after a time, that sort of spiritual fervor just seems to fade away as people become more wrapped up in their own lives, and everyday battles.  Temple worship becomes routine. People pay lip service to the law, sacrificing as they should, but living sinfully the rest of the time.

Does that ring a bell?

And the time came when the voice of the Lord wasn’t heard in Israel any more.

Until  Jesus.

Jesus showed how people could be close to God once again; how the  barriers erected by sin and hypocrisy  would be broken down    –  by his death on the cross.

And as we read in John’s Gospel, Jesus, wanting the whole world to know God anew,  breathed his spirit into the disciples and sent them out to tell about it. 

And so, we are now celebrating that triumphant day when the Spirit came down in majestic power onto those followers and they received the gifts reserved for them.

You know, we all have gifts, given by the Spirit.  We all have great potential just waiting to be tapped.     There is greatness in every one of us.

Don’t believe me?

There was a thirty-eight year old who made her living scrubbing floors. She  would go to the movies and sigh, as she watched a beautiful actress, “If only I had her looks.” She would listen to a singer and moan, “If only I had her voice.” Then one day someone gave her a copy of the book The Magic of  Believing

She stopped comparing herself with actresses and singers. She stopped crying about what she didn’t have, and started to concentrate on the gift she did have – she remembered that in high school she had the reputation of being the funniest girl around. She began to turn her liabilities – her looks, her scratchy voice, her untamed hair – into assets, and within a few years Phyllis Diller was making a million dollars a year.

Now I am not suggesting that model is one we could all follow. I use the example of Phyllis Diller to show what can be done when we are freed from the things that inhibit us, and prevent us from reaching our full potential as Christians.

Today is the birthday of the church, and each birthday we are reminded that at this birthday party it is us who get the gifts, the gifts that contain such promise for our lives. 

What are they? 

Well there are many gifts that have been identified as coming from God, but here are some of them:

                  the gift of teaching,

   - the gift of discernment,

   - the gift of exhortation

   - the gift of hospitality

   - the gift of intercession

   - the gift of the word of wisdom

   - the gift of prophecy

   - the gift of faith

   - the gift of administration

   - the gift of helping

-         and the gift of mercy.

You can probably name others. The gift of tongues, the gift of healing, and so on.           That’s the list, but where are they?   Have you got any one of them?   Have you? 

You know, when I was just a kid, along with a bunch of other kids I went to a birthday party for  one of our little friends.  We all took gifts of course. This was wartime, so the gifts were not expensive. Nothing like the gifts you would see at a child’s birthday today. But the big surprise was that my pal’s mother had prepared a little gift for each of us, his friends. That was unusual at the time.

 
We ate our sandwiches, and our Jell-O, and sang Happy Birthday as he blew out the candles, and watched as he opened his gifts, and then we got to get ours.

 
The only trouble was, I was at the end of the line, and the gifts ran out before I got mine. 

 

They were not much really. My pal’s mother couldn’t afford to spend more than a few pennies on each one, but I was truly disappointed. 

It wasn’t the gift. It was the feeling of being left out, that hurt. 

I don’t want you to be left out. I know what it feels like. I want you to get everything that’s coming to you. 

I want you to have whatever gift God has wrapped up for you. 

But first, what have we done with the gifts we have already been given?   

We might have a great voice. We might have the sort of nature that can brighten the darkest day. We might have a gift for crafts, or sewing, or fixing things. Or for teaching.

How have we used the gifts we have been given already?

Have we used our voice to sing in the choir? Taken time to be with people who need cheering up? Offered our services when something needed making, or fixing?  Taught in Sunday School?

And have we acknowledged that such gifts come from  God? 

I read just the other day about a man who had a gift for finance. You know those people, don’t you? They can run down a list of figures and add them so easily, without need of a calculator. They can look at a set of financial statements and know what the health of the company is. Well, this man had that gift. 

Did he think it came from God? Of course not.  Did he use it to help people? No of course not. 

He used it to help himself – to other people’s money. 

 

He is now in jail. 

You have been given gifts. Accept them. Give thanks for them. Use them properly, and acknowledge where they came from, and God will bless you with more. 

You know, there is a saying about gifts. A gift is nothing unless it contains something of the giver. 

If the giver is not in the gift it isn’t a real gift. 

Jesus was a gift from God, and I think we all agree that God was in His Son in a remarkable way.   That’s why the gift of Jesus has made such a difference in this world. 

And we too can make a difference, because the gifts we receive are multiplied a hundred fold when they are used to make a difference in the lives of others. 

I wonder if after a sermon has  ended, [and the organist is playing a few moments of music,] I wonder if you would take those few moments to reflect on the gifts you have been already given. 

And I wonder if you would reflect also on whether you have used those gifts for His glory? Which really means to help others. 

I wonder if you might then open your heart to receiving more of the gifts of the Spirit, so you can serve him even better? 

And I know that when your heart is ready, He will just fill it up. 

And when you empty it serving others, He’ll just fill it up again. And again. 

That’s what is meant by the gift that keeps on giving.

Thank you Lord.