My brothers and sisters, today we have heard part of the letter from the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Corinth.
And what the Apostle Paul had to say to the Corinthians is very important for those of us gathered here today. Paul talks about the gifts that the Spirit offers to each one of us.
When we think about the gifts that the Spirit offers us, we must remember that the most important gift of the Spirit is our common belief that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. This belief and our faith in it is the thing that holds us together as the Body of Christ, in spite of all of the differences that might otherwise separate us.
Probably most of us here today have received a gift card of some sort as a gift at one time or another.
If the Apostle Paul had known about gift cards, he might tell us that the Holy Spirit is the one who distributes all sorts of gift cards among us—all different—and the Spirit knows best how to distribute these gift cards—which gifts fit which people.
But—there’s one problem with a gift card. The card is no good unless it has been activated. The person who gives you the gift makes sure that the card will work before giving it to you. And in Paul’s example, this is what God does when it comes to the gifts that the Holy Spirit has distributed among us. God activates our gift cards, so that we are able to use our gifts.
And then, God invites us to use our God given gifts for the common good, for the building up of this Body of Christ, and especially for the good of the world, so that God’s love can become activated in the world around us as we use our gifts to love and serve one another and those in need around us.
The Holy Spirit has blessed the people of this congregation with many gifts, and God has activated these gifts in us and invited us to use them for the good of those around us and for God’s glory.
During 2012, here at St Peter’s, we took God up on the invitation to use our gifts, and we’ll hear more about what we’ve done as a congregation in our congregational meeting—how we’ve used our gifts to help one another and also to take God’s love out into the world for the common good.
Now we’ve entered into a new year. Some of us have discovered that we’ve received new gift cards, or we’ve found that the Holy Spirit has graciously replenished our old gift cards so that we can continue to use them for God’s glory.
Meanwhile, God continues to invite us to use our gifts in God’s service, for the common good. So I exhort you, my brothers and sisters, to take God’s invitation seriously and to use your God given gifts to God’s glory and for the common good throughout this new year, with thanksgiving for God’s generous and abundant love to each one of us. Amen.