Knowing and using our Spiritual Gifts to live a life of purpose- Eph 4

 

Ephesians 4:1-16; Matthew 25:14-30

I recently watched an interesting series on Netflix called “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones”. The idea behind the show is that there are these communities around the world where there are many more people living to 100 (and older) than in other places. Often these 100-year-olds are still quite active and don’t seem to be dealing with as much dementia as might be expected. There are a lot of interesting lessons we can learn from these communities. Often these people have gardens and walk a fair amount. So, they have a fair amount of daily low-impact activity. They also tend to have strong communities and friendships.

Something else they noticed was that they had was a sense of purpose. They have a sense of why they wake up in the morning.

I don’t think it’s all that important to live to be 100. I think it’s more important to focus on living in the Kingdom of God. But, I think this does tell us something important about how God has made human beings. Human beings flourish when we have a purpose.

The purpose of the Christian life is to love and serve God and grow more like Christ as we do so. That is our general calling as Christians. That is what we vow at our baptism. As Christians, we all share that purpose. But that purpose takes a particular expression when we look at individuals.

Within our general calling we have a particular expression of our calling that matches us as individuals. Someone like Thomas Aquinas strengthened the church through his teaching. His writings allowed the church to think carefully about God, and to explain the beliefs of the church. Mother Theresa built up the church by serving the poor, which she believed was to serve Christ in disguise. John Wesley was a gifted preacher and evangelist who called many to passionately follow Christ. His brother, Charles Wesley, was a gifted musician who wrote over 6500 hymns, and we still sing many of them- Like, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. Fanny Crosby wrote more than 8000 hymns, including “Blessed Assurance”.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a gifted theologian who spoke out against the evils of Naziism which had entranced many of the German churches in his day.  Amy Carmichael opened an orphanage and founded a mission in India where she served for 55 years.  George Herbert and John Donne were both priests and profound poets. Patrick was a missionary and bishop to Ireland and planted churches across the country where he was once a slave.  Julian of Norwich was a mystic who dedicated herself to a life of solitude and prayer and wrote down her visions, which is actually the earliest writing we have of a woman in English . Benedict founded communities of monks and is considered the founder of western monasticism.  William Wilberforce worked in the political arena to end slavery in the British Empire. 

This is not the most balanced list, and maybe it is a bit of a dramatic list, but my main point is just to show that these people served God intensely, but in quite different ways. So, while we are all Christians, and we are all called to love and serve God and to grow into Christ-likeness, that will also look quite different for specific individuals.

At Pentecost the church received a special filling of the Holy Spirit, God came to live inside these people in a new and unique way. This began a new age in the life of God’s people. Part of receiving the Holy Spirit meant that members of the church were empowered in particular ways for the sake of serving God in the Church’s mission. These are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us in these particular ways. They build up the Church, and help with the Church’s mission.

Paul talks about the spiritual gifts in Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28-30; and Ephesians 4:11-16. When we look at these passages we notice that he constantly uses the image of a body. Different parts of the body have different abilities. The eyes see. The ears hear, and so on. When each part of the body is serving the whole, the body is healthy and functions properly.

It is a good image to use for the church- the church is called the body of Christ. The Church is still doing Christ’s actions in the world. St. Teresa of Avila once said, 

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

The Church, empowered by the Spirit, continues the work of Christ on earth.  It is a “differentiated unity”. There are different abilities all used for the unity and mission of the whole.

When we, as individuals, are all free to use our gifts in the church, then we become a much more healthy community. Imagine eyes trying to be hands, and hands trying to be feet, and feet trying to be tongues. It becomes chaos quite quickly. But, when each part of the body knows its function, they can work together towards a task, and the body can flourish as all the parts work together doing what they were designed to do.

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul says, 

“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts…”

 What are these spiritual gifts we are supposed to desire? There are many different kinds of spiritual gifts and it doesn’t seem like Paul had a set list of gifts. He gives different lists in different places (Romans 12:6–8; 1 Corinthians 12:8–10; 1 Corinthians 12:28–30; Ephesians 4:11) So, what he seems to be doing by giving these lists is he is giving us examples of the kinds of gifts the Spirit gives God’s people.

When we say that these are “gifts” we mean that you don’t get to say which ones you get. It is the free choice of the Holy Spirit to distribute these gifts to the church. And it seems to be the case that this is often an empowerment of an ability God created in us. God’s grace is added to our natural ability. We have natural talents that the Holy Spirit then enhances.

So, all of you have a spiritual gift. As a Christian, the Holy Spirit has empowered you in a particular way, as a part of the Body of Christ, to do the work of Christ in this world. … This gift is intimately related to your calling. Your calling is the work that God has given you to do in this world. The pastor and writer Frederick Buechner has said 

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”.

 When we use our gift, and our gift finds it’s place in the world, we feel a deep gladness that comes from feeling that we are connected to our purpose.

Sometimes we can be really confused about what our spiritual gift is, and that makes it very hard to know what your calling is. This is a very normal situation. Many of us have questions about this. What can happen when we don’t know our gift, however, is that we might end up being very involved in ministries that don’t fit our gift. We want to be helpful, so we end up doing things to be helpful, but we aren’t using our gift and so the "deep gladness" doesn’t come. And that can be exhausting.  Often, we don’t know how to say “no” to being a part of that ministry because we don’t know our spiritual gift which would allow us to say “yes” to the ministry God is actually calling us to. Mother Theresa had to know what to say “no” to so that she could say “yes” to her true calling.

When we are involved in ministries that match our spiritual gift, we will often find ourselves enlivened- the deep gladness comes. We might be tired at times, but there is also a deep gladness that bubbles up in us. Our lives seem to obtain a sense of purpose. And this is why I started with the TV show that visits these blue zones where people are joyfully living to 100 and beyond. We are made by God to live with purpose. Identifying your spiritual gift is a very important part of understanding your purpose. It is a very important part of understanding your part in God’s story.

I don’t know if you all know this, but Dayna Mazzuca has written a book called the “5 Navigators: Aligning with your God-given Spiritual Gift”, which uses the spiritual gifts list from Ephesians- Teacher, Pastor, Evangelist, Apostle, and Prophet. Last year I helped her with a workshop based on this book, and I found it incredibly helpful. So, if you are interested in learning what your spiritual gift is, she has very generously offered to guide us through a couple sessions at St. Leonard’s. And I really hope you will take part in that opportunity.

When we hear the word “stewardship”, we so often think about money, and that is part of stewardship, but it is bigger than that. Stewardship is about how we use our lives. If we don’t identify our spiritual gift, and use it for the mission of the church, we are in danger of burying our talent, and not putting it to use. And that is a sad situation, because not only does the mission of the church miss out on what you have to offer, but you also miss out on the "deep gladness" that comes with knowing your God-given purpose. AMEN