During Eastertide (April 20-June 8), we are discerning how God wants each of us to work and serve in the world AND discerning our pledges of time, talent, and money that we will make to serve and contribute to our collective ministry in the year ahead.
Here is our mantra for the season:
• God has given me a gift of my own.
• I don’t have to do it all.
• We have what we need.
• Using our gifts is filled with joy.
Sometimes when we read from the letters of the New Testament, I think, “you know, this is just poorly written.” Even scholars will tell you it’s a poor form of ancient Greek. Granted, we are over-reading some else’s mail that was not originally intended for us, in translation, nearly two millennia later. I just think that when the early Church canonized this correspondence into scripture, we all would have benefited from a really good editor.
Which is part of why I am thrilled when we read passages like 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. Both chapters are beautiful meditations on how to live a Christian life, both individually and in community. We would do well to meditate and reflect on them regularly, repeatedly, daily.
And both of them focus on the fact that each one of us has a unique combination of gifts (talents) and ideally, when we gather in community, our collective talents all work in coordination and harmony with one another. Paul writes of it as if we were all a part of the body. Some of us are hands, some are feet, some are eyes, ears, brains, hearts, and so forth. We all have unique purposes, as God has poured out divine grace into each one of us. Our job is to figure out how to live fully and purposefully into the grace of these talents.
And what that means is that NONE of us has to do it ALL. What freedom! The point is to lean into our joy, our unique talents and share them fully and abundantly. And then let other people do the work that is theirs to do — not ours.
This was Good News then and it’s still Good News for us now.
On Sunday, we’ll continue our Discernment/Stewardship discussion in worship — with a post-worship discussion. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, please check out our current Stewardship info here.
I look forward to singing, praying and reflecting with you all this Sunday.
In faith,
Kent
Eastertide & Stewardship Season Themes:
May 4th – Intro to Discernment, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15
May 11th – God has given me a gift of my own, 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11
May 18th – I don’t have to do it all, Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
May 25th – We have what we need, Ephesians 4: 11-14
June 1st – Celebrating our high school seniors, church school teachers
June 8th – Using my gifts is filled with joy, Galatians 5:22-23
Image credit: https://faithworks.life/personal-revival-part-of-a-body/
