Clik here to view.
Sermon preached on 19th January 2025 based on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and John 2:1-11
Receiving a gift can be very exciting. Maybe we only have to look back a few weeks to Christmas Day, or a Christmas Day from your childhood, and waking up to find all those presents under the tree. Wondering which ones might be yours.
When you opened them though, I wonder what your reaction was. The best ones drew amazement, that you’d received the very thing you’d wished for and had been thinking about since at least September!
Or maybe you were surprised and unsure about what the gift actually was or did, so you need time to think about it?
Or even opening it and immediately setting it aside, perhaps it would do as a donation for a raffle prize, or to a charity shop, but importantly to remember to say thank you to the person who gave it to you.
Now what if we were to do the same with the gifts that we receive from God through the Holy Spirit? Putting them to use straight away, setting them aside through fear and uncertainty or rejecting them all together.
Our passage today from Corinthians talks about us being pagans, people without God, easily led astray by worthless enticements and trickery. Like the magicians in the court of Pharoah we might have viewed our gospel reading concerning the turning of water into wine as a magic trick.
Until we realise that despite his reluctance to begin his ministry with a somewhat unusual miracle, Jesus was indeed ready to show us what gifts he possessed… and which his mother already knew about!
Perhaps also, the disciples, who had only just recently thrown everything over to follow this man were reassured that God was indeed with Jesus and that the Holy Spirit was a living gift to enable these things to happen and to reveal his glory in order to strengthen their belief in him.
What about ourselves then? Well, we know that God has known us since before we were in the womb, knitting us together to become the people we are. So, he would be very aware of the strength of our characters, and the abilities we have, even if we’re not quite aware of them always. He would know the inherent skills we display and the skills that lie in our sub-conscious, waiting to be activated.
Did you notice though that there is one gift of the Spirit that is given to everyone – the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. This underpins the Christian faith and is the thing that unites not only Christians with a desire to serve others, and to insist on the dignity of every individual, but also can be found in many other faiths and religions around the world. Perhaps showing God’s ultimate sovereignty because he has ultimately activated them in everyone.
Then we come to individual gifts, those wise men and women among us who know how to act for the best and guide us to do good. A gift subtly different from having great knowledge as viewers of University Challenge and Only Connect will verify.
Those people who encourage us in our faith and our own sense of belief, whether we are able to work miracles or to speak out about choices being made on our behalf? The skills to communicate and teach or to solve problems that will benefit everyone.
And within each of these gifts there are subtleties – the gift of the surgeon’s skill to save lives, equally as valuable as the hand held in the act of friendship and love that can comfort and offer healing.
All of these are produced through the gift of the Spirit and may be given to us as and when they are needed in our lives.
So how do we respond? It is with great joy and excitement and an inner confidence that this is who we are meant to be. Or with uncertainty, unsure how to use the gift that you’ve been presented with something that you don’t believe you have the skills or capacity to be able to deal with. Or even that you dismiss the gift, certain that it’s not meant for you because you already know what’s what?
What it all boils down to is ‘do you believe this?’ Is God through the Holy Spirit able to discern for us the paths we should take through life and equip us with the necessary skills to do so?
This very question is being asked in this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The exact question that Jesus asked Martha before bring Lazarus out of the tomb alive again. ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’
Or our signature doubter, Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe”. Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Recognising our common belief and the fact that God, though the Holy Spirit has given each and every person a gift that can be used to bring us together, is a challenge as well as an invitation to deepen connection and belonging and to live faithfully as disciples of Christ.
Perhaps then as we shortly share our common belief in the words of the Creed, we will remember that it comes from the Latin word credo, meaning ‘I believe and trust’.
And try to remember, as St. Jerome once said, ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’. Amen