"Please, no gifts" Sermon for Sunday 23 August 2020
SERMON FOR SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem
The Rev. Carrie Ballenger
"Please, no gifts"
I’ve long been a fan of listening to audiobooks and
podcasts, and these 6 months of social isolation have only fed this habit. I
listen while doing household chores, I listen while knitting, I listen while walking
to the store for groceries. Sometimes I even listen while sleeping, if I forget
to remove my earphones before bed!
One of my recent favorite discoveries is a podcast
called “I Said No Gifts.” The premise is that the host brings celebrities onto
the show for an interview, and in the invitation he tells them clearly: “Whatever
you do: DON’T bring a gift.” Maybe you’ve received an invitation like this to a
birthday, or a Christmas party, or perhaps a second wedding. “You are invited” it
will say in fancy lettering at the top. But at the bottom, in smaller print, it
will say: “Please, no gifts.”
Of course, in every episode of this podcast called “I Said
No Gifts”, the guest brings a gift.
And in every episode, the host dramatically scolds the
guest for disobeying him.
“Now, I remember clearly that when I invited you to
come on this show, I said no gifts. And here you are, holding some kind of box wrapped
in shiny paper. Is this a gift for me?! Should I open it?”
The gifts—which are always odd, unnecessary,
ridiculous, or re-gifted—are then opened.
Always, there is good conversation.
Always, there are laughs.
And always, in spite of the show’s title, there are
gifts.
Now what, you may wonder, does this have to do with
our Scripture readings for the day?
It seems to me that if we consider today’s passage
from the Book of Romans chapter 12, reading from today’s context of quarantine,
virtual school, church, and work, travel restrictions, economic distress, and
political upheaval, with great changes and new challenges coming at us every
day, it’s clear that there are many things this rich text could offer us. In
fact, I think one could preach an entire sermon on nearly every word of these 8
verses!
But this week, there are three small words that jump
out at me from this text. They are right there, at the beginning of verse 6
where it says:
“We have gifts.”
WE…have gifts.
Now, the Apostle Paul was writing to the Romans just
before he was to set out for Jerusalem. This entire letter is rich with meaning
but seems to convey one primary message overall: that salvation comes through
faith in Jesus Christ alone.
I’m always so curious to know what was going on in the
communities Paul wrote to. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the church council
minutes from Corinth, from Thessaloniki, from Rome? We can’t know exactly what precipitated
these letters, but it’s not too hard to imagine what was going on. The early
Christians were often persecuted from the outside, and at the same time they
were often eating themselves up from the inside. Greed, political differences, theological
disagreements, family disputes, division of every kind started to develop as
the communities grew. In the case of the Romans, there was a dispute among them
over whether Gentile converts to Christianity must first become Jews and be circumcised.
And Paul writes to them to say, essentially: Cut it
out! This is not who we are. They should know us by our love, not by our wars!
We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by orthodoxy or purity
or heritage or status in the community.
Furthermore, says Paul: We NEED each other.
As it is written:
“For as in one body we have many members, and not all
the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in
Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”
And then, those 3 words that jumped out at me this
week:
“We have gifts.”
We have gifts, dear people: Not only on the special days.
Not only for the good times. Not only for when we have lots of faith. Not only
for when the church pews are packed with people. Not only for when our bank
account is full.
By the grace of God, we have gifts: for the tough
times. For times of persecution and strife. For times of confusion. For times of distress,
both personal and national.
We have gifts for when we are struggling with technology,
with loneliness, with depression, with illness.
Yes, even for a global pandemic, WE HAVE GIFTS. We are
gifted.
I imagine you may not feel gifted for this particular
time. I confess that in March of this year, I did not think I had gifts for being
a virtual preacher and pastor. In fact, the only so-called gift I really had at
that time was a bad attitude! But here we are, 6 months later: helped along by
friends and church members who are indeed gifted in technology and social
media, our little Redeemer Church in Jerusalem has not been cancelled, but has
continued to reach across borders and oceans and time zones and cultures to
spread the Good News in a brand new way.
Thanks be to God, we have gifts!
Hear that again:
WE have gifts.
Paul reminds the Romans (and us) that as the baptized
we are engrafted into the one Body of Christ. We are one body, and yet we embody
many diverse gifts:
Some are gifted with at prophecy, and some as
teachers,
Some are exhorters, and some are givers
Some are diligent workers.
Some are compassionate, and some are cheerful.
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of gifts.
Here’s what I’ve learned during the last 6 months:
Some of you are gifted encouragers who have reached
out to neighbors, family, friends (and to me!) with words of inspiration and
appreciation.
Some of you are creatives who have found amazing ways
to meet the needs of your families and communities during this strange time.
Some of you are gifted in prayer, and have faithfully lifted
up the sick, caregivers, and the grieving to a loving God who listens.
Some of you are healers, political leaders, agitators,
bread bakers, and mask makers.
Wow—do we ever have gifts! Thanks be to God.
As these months of COVID stretch on to a second half
year (and likely beyond) you may feel stretched as well. You may not feel you
have the energy, much less the gifts, to survive and thrive during this time.
And you probably don’t, all by yourself.
But WE do, together. We, who are one body in Christ,
have diverse, beautiful, bountiful gifts.
We have the gifts we need.
And we have gifts the world needs right now.
We are abundantly gifted with what a broken and hurting
world is hungry for, all of them flowing from greatest gift of all: the love,
mercy, grace, and forgiveness given to all freely through the cross of Jesus
Christ. We sinners have often said “Please, no gifts” and still, we have this gift,
this radical love and acceptance, freely given, no strings attached.
Theologian Henri Nouwen had this to say about gifts
and giftedness:
"A
gift only becomes a gift when it is received; and nothing we have to give —
wealth, talents, competence, or just beauty — will ever be recognized as a true
gift until someone opens his or her hands or heart to accept them. This all
suggests that if we want others to grow — that is to discover their potential
and capacities, to experience that they have something to live and work for —
we should first of all be able to recognize their gifts and be willing to
receive them. For people only become fully human when they are received and
accepted."
Hear that again: people only become
fully human when they are received and accepted.
It occurs to me that this is exactly
what God has done for us through the cross of Christ: through his love we have
been received and accepted as we are, and therefore have become fully human.
And now, we are sent to live in the
freedom of that love,
Freed to use our God-given gifts in the
service of our neighbor and toward the goal of the Kingdom.
And—maybe most importantly to say in
relation to our Romans passage for today—we are sent to receive the gifts of
others. Because, as Henri Nouwen reminds us, people only become fully human
when they are received and accepted. I would go so far as to say that the church
only becomes fully human—only becomes fully The Body—when all our diverse gifts
and identities are received and accepted, welcomed and put to use for the
upbuilding of the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.
Dear siblings in Christ:
The world is so strange and unusual
right now.
2020 seems to keep throwing challenge
after challenge at us.
But we are strong! We are resilient.
And we have gifts.
So go into this week, ready for
whatever it may bring, knowing you are loved. You are forgiven. And you are
gifted, for such a time as this.
May the peace of God which passes all
understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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