Beautiful Gifts

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us (Romans 12:3-6). Contemporary Testimony: God the Spirit lavishes gifts on the church in astonishing variety-prophecy, encouragement, healing, teaching, service, tongues, discernment-equipping each member to build up the body of Christ and to serve our neighbors (29). The gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church are beautiful. Eugene Peterson reaches for this when he paraphrases Romans 12:6-8 this way,  "If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face" (The Message). We have lost this beauty partly because we spend too much time figuring out what gifts we have. Spiritual Gift courses tend to complicate the matter. And sometimes like the Corinthians, we imagine that our gifts are more important than someone else's. Unfortunately, when we do that, what we are really driving at is this: "I am more important than you are." Then, there is the theological tradition which asserts the gifts were only for the early church, to get her moving. Once she was rolling, they were fazed out. All these things have caused us to miss the main thing which our confession states so poetically: God the Spirit lavishes gifts on the church in astonishing variety- … -equipping each member to build up the body of Christ and to serve our neighbors (29). When asked why his church did not have a spiritual gift course, one modern mega-church leader responded with, "I tell people to get busy serving; trust the Holy Spirit to bring you to that place where you are needed. Just start." I've always appreciated that approach. The point of the Spirit's gifts is not "what are they?" but "why are they given?" & "how am I using them?". 'What gift do I have?' is only of secondary importance. These gifts are jewels through which the grace of Jesus flows, like raindrops through which light refracts and reflects to create a rainbow. The Holy Spirit desires to use us to serve the church and our neighbours, thereby giving glory to God. That is why Paul begins, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought". When we recognize that we are instruments the Holy Spirit uses to do God's work, much grace will flow to the world. When our conversations about the gifts focus on 'me', they will lose their beauty. However, when we trust the Holy Spirit to lead us in our Christian life, these gifts will display the full beauty of God's grace. Occasionally, we might lengthen our breath prayer just a tad, "Come, Holy Spirit, shine through me."