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“We Have Different Gifts
Romans 12:4-8

 

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost—September 3, 2017

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Couples who are going to be married often register for gifts at various stores.  These days, this is a very advanced, computerized and web-based procedure.  Wedding guest from all across the country can log on, to see exactly what the couple wants, and what has already been purchased by others. That way, they don’t get ten toasters, or six crystal cake plates, but what they really need for their life together.

Paul writes in today’s Epistle Reading from Romans, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”  God, you see, also has a “gift registry.”  In his infinite wisdom, he gives to his Church and its various members all the gifts that we need for OUR life together.

We are not deserving of any good gift from God.  As we confessed a few moments ago in our Liturgy: “We are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment.”  Because of our sins against God and his will, we deserve not good gifts from him, but punishment, death, and damnation. 

Paul says in Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God.”  That is the most important gift that God in his grace has bestowed upon you.  The gift of forgiveness in his Son, and the gift of faith to trust in him for salvation.

Peter says, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”  By his perfect life and sacrificial death, Jesus Christ fulfilled God’s law for you, and suffered himself the penalty for all your sins.  As Paul says in Ephesians, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. . .  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”  In Christ YOU have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God.”  That is the most important gift that God in his grace has bestowed upon you.  The gift of forgiveness in his Son, and the gift of faith to trust in him for salvation.

God grants this most important gift, of salvation and faith, THROUGH his gifts of the Word and Sacraments.  Every worship service is like Christmas, where we receive wonderful gifts from our heavenly Father.  That’s what worship primarily is, God bestowing his gifts upon his people, through the reading and proclamation of the Word, and the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion.  In God’s gift registry, those are the greatest, most important gifts, which he showers down upon you: salvation, faith, Word, Sacrament.

You may have heard it said that no two snowflakes are alike.  A professor of physics at Caltech actually did the math and concludes, “It’s unlikely that any two [snowflakes], out of all those made over the entire history of the planet, have ever looked completely alike.”

It is very much the same with the members of Christ’s Church.  As Paul says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”  All of us possess the gifts of salvation, faith, Word, and Sacrament.  But, like the unique snowflakes that God creates, he also gives to each one of us individually a unique, special combination of other gifts.  Paul puts it this way in 1st Corinthians: “Each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.”

In today’s Epistle Reading, Paul lists some of those gifts which God grants us: “If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

Gifts such as these which you receive from God are not given to you for yourself.  As Paul says in 1st Corinthians: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

So, the gifts that you receive are given to you because God, in his great gift registry, sees that these gifts are needed in his Church, needed in our world, needed by the people you encounter in your life.  You are God’s instrument.  God is working through you to bestow these gifts upon humanity.  Peter puts it this way: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

Paul deliberately uses an oxymoron in today’s reading to make a point.  An oxymoron is a figure of speech that is inherently contradictory, like “genuine imitation,” “seriously funny,” “clearly confusing.”   See if you can detect Paul’s intentional oxymoron: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.”

Paul is writing this letter the congregation at Rome, which had members with both Jewish and Gentle backgrounds.  For both, the sacrifices they once offered, before becoming Christians, consisted of slaughtered animals.  So, the intentional oxymoron in that verse, which would have jumped out to those who first read it, is the phrase “living sacrifices.”   “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.” 

With that intentional oxymoron, Paul makes a powerful point: As a Christian you are to offer up to the Lord not dead animals—as they did in both Old Testament times and pagan temples—but offer up the Lord your very self as a HUMAN sacrifice, a LIVING human sacrifice.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”   “Bodies” in this verse means not just to our physical bodies but your entire being, your whole life.  The Good News Bible translates, “Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice.”

Offer yourself as a “living sacrifice” first of all by giving your heart, your devotion, your love to Jesus.  Offer yourself as a “living sacrifice” with your prayer and praise, your worship here in the Lord’s house.  Offer yourself as a “living sacrifice” by coming before the Lord at his altar, to worship him by receiving from him his own body and blood, sacrificed for you.  As today’s Gradual from Psalm 116 says, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?  I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”

Offer yourself as a “living sacrifice” by giving of yourself, your time, your talents, your treasure, to the work of Christ’s Church. But, it’s not only what we consider to be the “religious” aspects of our lives that are a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord.

As we observe Labor Day, it’s important to remember what Paul says in Colossians about your work in this work: “WHATEVER you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. . .  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  The daily work that God has given you is more than just a way to earn a living.  Your work in the world is part of you being a “living sacrifice” for the Lord, his way of bestowing upon humanity, through you, the gifts that you possess.  That means any honest occupation is actually a Christian good work, “holy and pleasing to God.”  Martin Luther put it this way: “The maid sweeping down the stairs is doing a holy work, just as much as the preacher in the pulpit.”  “WHATEVER you do, work at it with all your heart. . .  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

And all the self-sacrifices you make for your spouse and children, they also are part of being a “living sacrifice” for the Lord.  Next time you are doing laundry, or fixing supper, or mowing the lawn, or changing a diaper, remember that all these things are not just mundane chores but actually Christian good works, “holy and pleasing to God,” all part of you being a “living sacrifice” for the Lord.  “WHATEVER you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.”  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.”

Why sacrifice yourself for the sake others, for the sake of your spouse and children?  “In view of God’s mercy.”  All your self-sacrifices are really sacrifices of thanksgiving to the Lord, “in view of God’s mercy.” The Apostle John puts it very simply: “We love because he first loved us.”  We serve because Christ our Lord came to this earth, “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  We offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God because “he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 

God calls you to make yourself a “living sacrifice,” not just here at church, but in the home, the field, the classroom, the construction site, the office, the playground, the backyard. In God’s eyes, all of these places are really cathedrals, where you, with your daily life and work and service to others, offer yourself to him as a “living sacrifice,” “holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.”

That is the point of today’s Epistle Reading: By your Baptism into Christ, God has taken your entire existence and claimed it for himself. He has claimed your soul as his own, setting it free from the burden and guilt of sin. But, more than just your soul, God has also claimed your entire being, your physical body, your intellect, your daily life, your gifts and talents, all that you are and have, as his own, that you may use it all to live out your days upon earth as a “living sacrifice” for him.

Amen.

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