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<\/a>1 Corinthians 12:1-13<\/b><\/h3>\nHave you ever wanted to be a superhero?<\/p>\n
I wrote a novel when I was in college about a guy name Tom Noone who wanted to be a superhero named Zolton \u2013 but that\u2019s a different story!<\/p>\n
Growing up, I liked the Hulk, among other superheroes.\u00a0 My favorite villain was the Hulk\u2019s nemesis, the Leader.\u00a0 The Leader had also been belted by gamma ray but instead of it making him green and strong, it made him green and smart, and he had this enormously tall forehead.<\/p>\n
But in reality, there are no real superheroes.\u00a0 A few years ago, I watched a few episodes of \u201cWho Wants to be a Superhero?\u201d\u00a0 It was really a pretty lame reality TV show, hosted by Stan Lee, the creator of the Hulk, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.\u00a0 But the people who were competing to be a superhero were just very ordinary people.<\/p>\n
Ordinary people may not make good superheroes, but they are exactly the kind of people to whom God gives His spiritual gifts.\u00a0 While God doesn\u2019t give us superhero powers, He does give to His people supernatural gifts, and He expects us to use them.\u00a0 What else would we expect from a God who has given Himself to us and has made us His Temple?<\/p>\n
Whenever we consider the spiritual gifts that God gives to His people, we should always start with His greatest gift and the one from which all of the other gifts come.\u00a0 That greatest gift is God Himself, and He is the giver of every good gift.\u00a0 Out of His love for us, the Father gave us the Son.\u00a0 Out of love, the Father and the Son give us the Holy Spirit, by whom God dwells in us and with us.\u00a0 God knows what\u2019s best for us, and what\u2019s best for us is being united to Him.\u00a0 Being with God, union with God, is therefore our ultimate goal.<\/p>\n
Have you ever just wanted to be with a particular person: a spouse, child, or friend?\u00a0 As a kid, my Grandpa Jones was someone like this for me.\u00a0 He made mundane things like going to the grocery store and running errands seem like magical fun.\u00a0 Being with God should be like this to us.\u00a0 To have God give us Himself in increasing measure: that\u2019s what our lives are all about!\u00a0 All of His other gifts are to bring us to God and life in His kingdom.<\/p>\n
If you have the Holy Spirit, then you have THE gift of God \u2013 which is God Himself.\u00a0 St. Paul teaches that if you have God Himself through the Holy Spirit, then you also have God\u2019s spiritual gifts.\u00a0 God, the good giver, never comes to us empty-handed, which reminds me of other grandparents: Grandma and Grandpa Erlandson.\u00a0 Whenever they visited us, I remember them bringing homemade candy and G.I. Joe stuff.\u00a0 Like my grandparents, when God comes to us, He comes bringing His good gifts.<\/p>\n
If God has shared His life with us, and His salvation, then He\u2019s also shared His work and His ministry, something that Paul speaks about all the time.\u00a0 This is the same Lord who dared to entrust His ministry to 12 average guys who were often ignorant and confused, and to one like Paul, who breathed out murderous threats upon His Body.<\/p>\n
If we are the Body of Jesus Christ, then we are His ministers on earth.\u00a0 He will give<\/i> us, through His grace, all that we need to do His will and to be His ministers, for whatever God has called you to do He will equip you to do.\u00a0 You therefore have God\u2019s spiritual gifts to be His ministers<\/p>\n
If you are baptized into the Church, which is the Body of Christ, and you live like Jesus<\/p>\n
Christ is Lord, then you definitely have spiritual gifts.\u00a0 Spiritual gifts aren\u2019t just for priests and pastors, and they\u2019re not just for Billy Graham and the Pope.<\/p>\n
We aren\u2019t given superhero powers, but we are<\/i> given supernatural gifts.\u00a0 In I Corinthians 12 Paul seems to be talking primarily about the extraordinary \u201ccharismatic\u201d gifts.\u00a0 But in reality, all of God\u2019s gifts are \u201ccharismatic,\u201d<\/i> for all of them are gifts<\/i> or charisms<\/i> (from the Greek word for \u201cgift\u201d) that God has given us so that the Body of Christ on earth, the Church, can minister as Jesus Christ to the world.\u00a0 God has given each of you His spiritual gifts, but when they are seen as being extraordinary, we\u2019re tempted to think we don\u2019t have them, especially if we look only at the extraordinary \u201ccharismatic\u201d gifts, which we may not have.<\/p>\n
What if we called God\u2019s spiritual gifts \u201cabilities, talents, competencies\u201d?\u00a0 Of course they\u2019re gifts<\/i>, but sometimes that word gives us the wrong impression of what God has given us and how we are to use them.\u00a0 In verse 6 Paul calls the gifts \u201cactivities,\u201d suggesting that God\u2019s gifts and His ministries are much more common and sometimes ordinary (to the human eye) than we sometimes imagine.<\/p>\n
The spiritual life is all around us because the earth is the Lord\u2019s and because we have the Holy Spirit in us. The spiritual gifts are found wherever<\/i> the Spirit is found, not just in a few and not just in miraculous ways.\u00a0 Normally, the Holy Spirit, like the wind, is invisible.\u00a0 For example, at baptism, one who has no spiritual insight would think nothing spiritual or important has happened, and yet God acts in a mighty way in baptism.<\/p>\n
You have spiritual gifts: you just may not recognize them because you may be looking for the wrong gifts in the wrong way.\u00a0 To find God\u2019s spiritual gifts, look for where God\u2019s will is being done.\u00a0 Look for where God\u2019s kingdom and ministry are.\u00a0 Look for wherever the people of God faithfully use whatever<\/i> God has given them: this is where you will find God\u2019s spiritual gifts.<\/p>\n
It might help you to realize that the call to use your spiritual gifts is a call to use something you already have by identifying some of the quieter, not so glamorous gifts.\u00a0 There are the gifts of home repair (I can tell you now: I don\u2019t have this one!) and house cleaning.\u00a0 There are the gifts of cooking, mentoring, listening, encouragement, and many others. I don\u2019t want to minimize the spiritual gifts that are particularly mentioned in the New Testament, but I do want to suggest that there are more gifts out there and that they are more \u201cnatural\u201d than we often assume.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve been given God\u2019s good gifts because He loves you and wants you to share in His life.\u00a0 But He also wants (and commands) you to lovingly use them for the good others.\u00a0 It\u2019s important, therefore, to remember why you have been given such exquisite gifts.\u00a0 You might give a member of a primitive tribe the wonderful gift of a Cadillac version of the latest generation of notebook computers, loaded with an enormous bundle of software.\u00a0 But if he doesn\u2019t know what it\u2019s for or how to use it, it\u2019s not much good to him or anyone else.<\/p>\n
In verse 7 Paul reminds us that \u201cthe manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.\u201d\u00a0 We are to use the good gifts that God gives us \u2013 all of His spiritual gifts, however simple or humble they may be \u2013 for the good of God\u2019s people.\u00a0 This is one of the reasons God gave Himself to you and gave you His gifts.<\/p>\n
In using God\u2019s gifts for the good of His people, you become like Him.\u00a0 You should therefore use His spiritual gifts, not out of mere duty, but out love and generosity, and out of the joy of sharing what God has first given us.\u00a0 I love the fact that in Greek the word for grace<\/i> (\u201cxaris\u201d) is related to the word for joy<\/i> (\u201cxara,\u201d) for God\u2019s gifts bring us joy both in receiving and in giving them.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>God has given each of you His amazing spiritual gifts.<\/p>\n
To receive God\u2019s good gifts and not to share them would be to be like a 5 year old at his birthday party, surrounded by a double-layer chocolate cake and homemade vanilla ice cream, and surrounded by all his friends and family \u2013 and then presuming to eat the cake and ice cream all by himself!<\/p>\n
But to receive God\u2019s spiritual gifts joyfully and use them for the good of God\u2019s people \u2013 this is what being a Christian is all about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gifts of God, given for the people of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0 Father, I thank You especially for Your love which You have shown me by the gift of Your Son and the gift of Your Holy Spirit, by whom I am able to confess that Jesus is Lord.\u00a0 Thank You for Your excellent gifts to me: may You stir them up within me so that I am may be brought closer to You for the benefit of my own soul and so that I may be provoked to share them and share You by using them for the good others.\u00a0\u00a0 Amen.<\/b><\/p>\n
Point for Meditation:<\/b><\/p>\n
Make a list of the spiritual gifts you have.\u00a0 You might want to take a spiritual gifts inventory, or you might find it more profitable to meditate on the talents, abilities, and experiences that God has given you to equip you for laboring in His ministry.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n
Resolution:\u00a0 I resolve to meditate on (or recognize) one spiritual gift that God has given to me and to practice putting it to use today or this week.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a9 2013 Fr. Charles Erlandson<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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