Listening to God: You Are Gifted

We have different gifts according to the grace given us…. Romans 12.6

“I don’t have any spiritual gifts,” she said.  She was one of my more active church members and it surprised me to hear her say this. “What do you mean you don’t have any gifts?” I asked her.  She explained, “I’m not a teacher.  I’d never preach.  I can’t run meetings and I’ve never prayed a prayer where anybody got healed.”

This was a woman who, with her husband, raised five of her own children and one more adopted son. (All of whom were successful adults.)  She knew her way around a kitchen and opened her home often to friends and family for meals. She was intelligent, charming,  and an interesting conversationalist: a  winsome example of Christian personhood. But she was, by her own estimation, ungifted.

We had to talk.  I tried to explain – using the illustrations above – that she was hardly at all in the camp of the untalented.  In fact, I said, the scriptures are pretty clear that we’re all gifted people.  Gifts come from God and what he gives to me isn’t what he gives to you.  But we’re all gifted in our own way.  “And you, of all people,” I said with emphasis, “are blessed more than others.  Just look at what you’ve done already for God’s kingdom!”

She protested humbly.  “Spiritual gifts in the Bible are things like preaching and teaching and healing, aren’t they?” she asked.  I nodded.  “Of course.  But I don’t believe for a minute,” I quickly added, “that they’re the only gifts God gives; they are some among plenty of others.   Any talent, any skill we use to share God’s love or to bring God’s joy to someone else is from the Spirit.  Look what you have meant to your family.  Look what you are to your friends and your church!”

She said she’d think about what I said.  I left the conversation satisfied that whether or not she ever sees herself as gifted, she is.  And God is using her even now in some pretty productive ways.  Still, my prayer is that she will hear God’s thoughts on the matter and she’ll find some confidence in herself.

Sometimes our self-confidence isn’t what it ought to be when it comes to giftedness.  Or we have too narrow a view of what gifts are.  Could it be that we’re just not listening?  Because God is pretty clear about this much:  We all are gifted according to his marvelous grace.

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Listening to God: Who is My Neighbor?

Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? – Luke 10:36

The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is Jesus’ response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”  It’s a good ethical question.  The godly are commanded in Leviticus 19.18 to love their neighbor.  But a neighbor is usually defined geographically.  So, how far does one go in considering who to love? Across the street?  Same village? Those who speak your language, share your culture, look like you? How big is one’s neighborhood?

The man who posed the question was a religious professional – an “expert in the law.” He first asked Jesus how to receive eternal life.  Jesus asked him what was written in the Law and when the man said to love God and love one’s neighbor, Jesus said that was all he had to do.  But when the man wanted more clarity by asking who his neighbor was, he probably didn’t expect Jesus to get so personal.  Jesus told him a story.

Once upon a time a man was beaten and robbed and left for dead along the road.  When a priest (a religious professional) saw the man, he ignored him.  When a Levite (another religious professional) saw the man, he ignored him, too.  Then a simple man from Samaria passed by and took care of him.  He even went so far as to pay for his care out of his own pocket.  “Of the three men, who was the neighbor to the man who had been beaten and robbed?”  Jesus asked.

And the man responded, “The one who had mercy on him.”

“Well, there you go,” said Jesus, in so many words.

I’m sure the “expert in the law” was sorry he asked the second question.  Jesus not only used “experts” like him as bad examples in the parable, and a Samaritan as a good example (See Lk. 9:51 -55 for context), he finally threw responsibility back upon the man himself.  “Don’t ask me to tell you who to love,” Jesus might well have said.  “Ask the next person you see who needs your help.  Ask him if you’re his neighbor.”  Jesus says that love isn’t passive; it’s active.  It doesn’t wait for a definition; it acts upon opportunity.

So, who is your neighbor?  Don’t ask Jesus.  He says you already know the answer to that one.  And if you’re still dithering, the guy standing next to you knows.

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Listening to God: Don’t Change the Story

[C]ontend for the faith once given to the saints.… [B]uild yourselves up in your most holy faith.  — Jude 3, 20.

The one-chapter epistle of Jude was written to encourage Christians to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”  (v.3) There were false teachers in the church who promoted a corrupted brand of the gospel.  Their message did not square with what had already been laid down as true and, more importantly, licensed immoral behavior.

Don’t listen to them, Jude says.  They are godless people who preach only to justify their own immorality and they want you to join them in their dissipated ways.  Nothing good comes of this, Jude says.

The epistle of Jude is as clear as anything else in the New Testament on how faith influences behavior.  Give the false teachers their due:  they knew the traditional gospel of Jesus Christ could never allow them to behave immorally.  So they changed the story (Jesus isn’t God so I don’t have to listen to him) … and now they can!

Spinning the story line of the Christian message, slightly or significantly, has long been an attractive temptation for people who want God’s support for whatever it is they want to do.  Often, you don’t even have to change the gospel, you just emphasize some parts to the exclusion of others.

The win-at-all-costs athlete who prints on his shoes, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” will pretty much ignore passages about the last being first and the weak being strong.  The hot-tempered man who likes to point out the anger of Jesus when he upset the tables in the temple often ignores words about self-control and kind words.  The rich woman who thinks God has blessed her so she can live a comfortable life conveniently overlooks passages that say riches are given to some to help those who have little.

Jude’s words to “contend for the faith once given” are often called upon for faithfulness to orthodoxy which is not to be dismissed as unimportant.   But the tenor of the letter is about believing alike not so we all have the same ancient beliefs but so we all have the same godly virtues.

Jude writes to keep the same faith as “once delivered to the saints” because what one believes has a bearing on how one behaves.  And since the world will always see how we behave before they ask what we believe, believing rightly is not irrelevant.  Indeed, it is where a life that becomes the gospel begins.

So contend for it, Jude says, and build yourself up in it.

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Listening to God: Asking For Directions

I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. – I Corinthians 3:6

I’ve never been much of a “my church is the best church for everyone” pastor. Nor have I ever thought that I’m the best spiritual director/pastor for every Christian.  I’ve long found comfort and wisdom in Paul’s words (see above) to the Corinthians about spreading the responsibility around.   Churches are places where people ought to grow in their life with God, of course.  And pastors are people called by God to give leadership – by word and deed – in spiritual matters.

But it’s abundantly clear that no one church, and no one pastor, can possibly serve the spiritual needs of every believer.  So, in concert with Paul, I’ve come to look at my work and the ministries of my churches as suited for a particular segment of the market among spiritual seekers.  We’re all at different milestones in our spiritual journey and have different needs.  I, and my churches, can serve some believers, but it’s apparently bad ecclesiology to think we’re suited for all.

So I have also tried to be smart (and humble) enough to recognize that churches and sermons besides mine could also offer spiritual direction in ways mine could not.  Indeed, a Christian just might, on my watch, leave my church for perfectly good spiritual reasons.  Or join my church for the same.  In either event, it is God who gives the growth and who deserves any real credit.

I had a conversation the other day with an old friend who is pondering a change of church membership.  She has a long history with her present church.  But life circumstances and her own sensitivity to God is leading her to think about a move.  “What did I think?” she asked me.

I told her what I have already written above.  I also wrote that I didn’t think decisions like that ought to be made hastily.  I even suggested that a certain amount of anguish, suffering and cost/benefit analysis ought to accompany such a decision.  (I am not a fan of flighty church-hopping.)  Still, I didn’t think finding another church, if done for the purpose of one’s spiritual growth, was always a bad idea.

Of course, I also said that once a person decides to join a new church, he or she ought to give themselves wholeheartedly to the service of Christ through that church.  Don’t change churches just to be fed, I said. Change churches so you can be a better servant, too.

My friend is still thinking about it.  And I don’t know if she’ll stay or go.  But I do trust that she and God will work things out for the best.  Because no matter where you go, if you followed God to get there, you are where you ought to be.

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