orld2321AFC052623 – The Gift of Gifts
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1 Corinthians 12:3-7 – 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Acts 2:2-4 – 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
John 20:21-22 – 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
“Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift.” Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. (↔ Music Link) I have used that quote about Giver and Gift in these posts at least forty times over the years. It is one of the most important things we should know and also one of the least remembered or carried out. Even though we know that God is good, we gloss over the fact that everything we are and everything we have are HIS GIFTS. Life itself is a precious Gift because it is Holy as a Gift from God. It is our most important treasure because it is given to us expressly for the purpose of giving it away, and how well we do that is all that will matter at the moment our life ends. How could something that important be so easily forgotten or ignored? “Out of sight, out of mind.” Is that any way to respond to the One who Loves us regardless of how we fail to return that Love?
There are so many stories of unrequited Love. That kind of situation is something most of us have experienced. We call it a crush or an infatuation, and it is always pretty one-sided because the object of our affections is not known to us or hasn’t been open with us – they might not even know who we are! Sadly, that’s how we treat God sometimes. We don’t open up to him. We reckon we can hide what we think or say or do. Sometimes the Love we reserve for God is kept in a tidy little box like “brown-paper packages tied up with string” – except we don’t open the box until we have a problem for God to fix. We (again) forget that Jesus did not have a World view. He has an ETERNAL view, and knows the outcome of our willingness or unwillingness to accept his Gifts. Honestly, would we be able to recognize his Gifts?
Considering Life as the first of God’s Gifts, the next gift we should certainly recall is Jesus – “he gave his only begotten son.” Jesus gave his human Life for us so that we could have access to Heaven. That’s where we’d all like to end up, so Jesus made it a bit easier by giving us the Holy Spirit. Already we have listed four astonishing Gifts which none of us deserved but we still got all of them in all their fullness even though we often cannot see that. Some of the folks in the world live as though they have an infatuation for God – something akin to an enchantment. They still receive his Gifts. Some of the folks in the world completely ignore God, and some vigorously oppose him. They still receive his Gifts. In our first Key Verse today, The Apostle Paul says there are a variety of Gifts, Services, and Activities and all of them originate in, and are given Life by, God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. That leads us to the second Key Verse and the fourth of the Great Gifts we just listed.
The Advent of the Holy Spirit is the birthday of the Church. We recall that glorious event 
at the feast of Pentecost (May 28th), and in honor of her birthday, the Church gives us a Gift. This Gift, the Holy Spirit, is the center of all creation. It is the Spirit who moved across the waters. It is the Spirit who moves within our hearts to make our bodies a Temple for the Lord. All other gifts come to us, work in us, and enliven us for the purpose of loving and serving God by loving and serving the Body of Christ which is the Gift given to The World for salvation “as the Spirit gave them ability.” As described in “Words from the Son of the Preacher,”(↔ Learning Link) we find that we are “giving more than you can hold // to sullen hands of death incarnate // blindly waving God away.” What should we be holding then? Sometimes it is helpful to have a little list of God’s Graces. Let’s try to fit one in here. We can start with the Letter of James.
James 1:17-18 – 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. BOOM! It’s all from God for God. The Apostle Paul gives three lists. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (See Galatians 5:22-23).
Then he says 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. (See Romans 12:6-8).
7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. (See 1 Corinthians 12:7-10). Jpeg?
In all of these, the Greek work for Gift is χάρις (charis) {khar’-ece} – the same root for words like charisma, charismatic, and charism. The word means an undeserved Gift, a Gift of Grace, and the list above is only a partial list. I’ll choose just one as an example, then put a summary of this list. The example I choose is “leader.”
The Gift given to leaders is diligence – the successful leader is careful, persistent, thorough, and works hard at developing expertise in her/his sphere of responsibility. Their goal is to serve as the revitalizing source of empowerment for others. In this we see that with this Gift – as with all Gifts – there is an additional implied charism. Leaders can’t lead without followers, and being a follower is a wonderful charism! Prophecy, speaking the message of God, is given in proportion to faith, and faith requires preaching so the Word can be heard. We see they are all interconnected and can more easily recognize that every Gift in the multitude of Gifts is essential, because why? Because God says so! Why does he say so? It’s a GIFT! So, here’s a list from the passages from the Epistles of The Apostle Paul:
The Apostle Paul’s List of Gifts: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, generosity, diligence, cheerfulness; wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues.
To all of these I would also add all of the graphic arts and all the performing arts. Painting, sculpting, poetry, drama, symphonies, ditties, ballet, gymnastics – gosh! That’s a lot! All of them are Gifts from God through the Holy Spirit. The list from the Epistles are Gifts to and for the Church. There we have access to God directly through the Sacraments We have the Gift of Worship. (Seek the Lord while he may be found.) But all the other Gifts I listed can also be used to honor and glorify God. That’s how to honor the Giver by accepting the Gift – USE IT FOR HIS GLORY. And so many of you are Gifted beyond measure! ALL of you have multiple Gifts, so that you can glorify God in multiple ways. Through the Prophet Joel, God promised to send his Spirit:
Joel 2:28-29 –
28 Then afterward
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
“Lord send out your Spirit and renew the face of the Earth.”
I want to mention one more fantabulous Gift: DEATH. Wha-a-a-a-a-t? Let me show you how that works. St. Francis wrote a canticle – a hymn or chant of praise to God – called 
The Canticle of Creatures. It has 14 verses. Verse 12 brings us this thought: “Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no one living can escape.” Hank Williams Sr. put it this way: “No matter how I struggle or strive, I’ll never get out of this world alive.” (↔ Music Link) Someone asked Hank, “How do you write all of those sad songs?” Hank answered, “Hell boy, you can’t just write ’em, you gotta live ’em, and remember this, everybody loves to feel sorry for themselves.” Well, there’s no doubt that death does bring us sorrow, and some of us think it’s the cause of much evil. Truth be told, it’s the outcome of evil, but it’s a good outcome because, for the one who dies, it’s the end of their chances to be evil.
We spend a lot of time and energy avoiding Sister Death, and we’d rather she’d call on someone else – like maybe someone that isn’t a loved-one. When somebody loves somebody, they don’t want the other one to be the “first to go.” Somewhere beyond the sunset (↔ Music Link) on the far side of Jordan’s Banks (↔ Music Link) we will meet the Lord in the same moment as our last breath. There we will receive the completion of THE great Gift, the eternal AMEN sung by the Angels and Saints – the Gift of Love in the Everlasting Love of The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now that is something I most definitely do NOT want to avoid! God has given us the Gift of Gifts, and the greatest Gift of all of them is the opportunity to spend eternity with him. What a Gift that is. Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
