Today is a great American religious holiday.  Those who can afford it have made the pilgrimage.  The rest of us will watch it on the screen.  We know the rituals well.  There is the gathering.  There is the food.  There is the ceremony; the well defined space; the familiar shape and markings that identify place.  Oh, yeah, there’s a football game, too.

There is some research to suggest that the single most shared event in our American life is the annual Super Bowl game.  Hardly anyone watches it alone.  Whether we are at the neighborhood place where everybody knows your name, or at a party with family and friends, we tend to gather in community for this shared American ritual.  If we aren’t talking about the game tomorrow, we’ll be talking about the commercials.  It may just be, at least this year, that the Inauguration of our new President outperforms the Super Bowl in the common experience category.  But I’m not sure about that.

The Apostle Paul, in the realm of Empire in the first century Roman world had achieved the nearly impossible.  In an era with no communication media save for the spoken and written word, he had brought together diverse people around common experience.  That experience was sharing in the good news of Jesus Chris, the implications of which were that all were welcome to eat and drink and share alike at the table of the Lord, and all had equal status in the life of the community.  No VIP seats at the table.  No VIP status in the community.

This radical work of unifying diverse groups of people around the common life of Christ and creating communities outside the normal social order of the day was so upsetting to the values of Empire that Rome had imprisoned Paul.  But his work is not stopped.  His letters go forth, pleading with the churches to themselves be caught up in the life and work of Christ.

“I beg you, lead a life worth of the calling to which you have been called.”  What is the life to which we have been called?  The word Paul most uses to describe it is unity.  And the passage we heard read this morning first describes attitudes that one must maintain to fulfill this calling; then describes the basis upon which this unity is built; and finally asserts that there are God given gifts whose very purpose is to build up and maintain the unity to which Christ followers are called.

Humility, gentleness, patience, love … these are the attitudes or virtues for which Paul insistes we are to strive if we are to fulfill this calling.

Next Paul asserts the basis for this unity:  One body.  One spirit.  One calling.  One Lord.  One faith.  One God, who is parent of all.

And then Paul begins to speak of the gifts that are given so that unity of God’s purpose can be maintained within a diverse human community.

This long time later, as the church has taken on more and more trappings of institution, it is hard for us to remember the purpose to which we are called, because we forget that the church was constituted by the Holy Spirit as a living, breathing, organic body to continue the living presence of Christ in the world.  Our purpose is to be a community through which we are called and equipped to love the world as God loves the world, to care for others as God cares for them, to do the work of Christ as taught by the stories of the gospels, to bring the whole world into communion with God, who is in all and through all.

How is it not humbling to know ourselves called to such big, important, sacred work?  How shall I, with my petty personal preferences, and my insecurities, and my pride, and my selfishness – how shall I ever participate in something so big, so important, so meaningful?

That’s what spiritual gifts are for.  So that it is possible for me to participate in this and be saved from my petty selfish prideful insecure self.  God gives gifts exactly so that each of us, in our uniqueness, in our own personal way can fulfill a role that contributes to common purpose without erasing the uniqueness of our identity.

Paul asserts that gifts are given for two primary purposes:  to build up the body so that the ministry of Christ is extended and expanded – effective ministry.  Secondly, gifts are given so that serving in ministry through our gifts becomes an avenue of growth to Christian maturity – effective discipleship.

Gifts are talked about in other places in the New Testament as well.  Romans 12:3 and following, I Corinthians 12:1 and following, Peter 4:7 and following.

A few words about what spiritual gifts are and what they are not.  They are not acquired skills.  We do not decide to gain these gifts.  They are given, and we are to discipline ourselves to receive them and exercise them.

The gifts are not given to benefit us, but so that we might work to benefit others.

Naturally talented football players are wonderful; but their natural abilities mean nothing if they are not gifted with the capacity to play for the benefit and well being of the whole team.  Any coach knows that the way to craft that capacity is dependent on the unique experiences and personality of every player, but that honoring that uniqueness can build a very effective team able to achieve common goals.

There is nothing magical or supernatural about Spiritual gifts.  They are an avenue for service crafted out of the material and circumstances of our lives – dropped into our consciousness with the awareness that they have a purpose.

Our childhood experiences, our natural personality inclinations, our education, our trials and tribulations and occasions of pain and suffering, our material blessings and natural talents can all constitute the stuff out of which God crafts a gift.

The ushers are going to give you a hand-out with a list of most of the spiritual gifts that are spoken about in the New Testament, along with some of the qualities that are usually evident in persons with those gifts.

The title of this sermon is “What Are My Spiritual Gifts.”  By way of answering that question, I’m going to tell you about a couple of gifts that I know myself to possess, and for which I am grateful.  And I’m going to share with you a couple that I don’t possess.  As soon as you hear, you’ll realize you already knew this, if you know me at all.

Many of you may know that there are a variety of testing instruments that have been designed to assess spiritual gifts.  I’ve completed any number of those, and on every one I’ve ever taken the number one gift that surfaces is, you guessed it, “Administration.”

And the one at which I consistently score low, and which most bugs me, is “mercy.”  I just don’t go to empathic responses naturally and easily.  I’m an administrator.  I don’t empathize.  I fix.

Now, it is important to recognize that not having this as my particular role in the life of the church does not mean that I am incapable of mercy or empathy.  It means that in the body as a whole, this is not the role God has gifted nor called me to play.  Indeed, many others in this body possess this gift in abundance.  And your empathizing and my fixing work nicely together to bring unity and peace.

[There is another of my gifts which is less aligned with my natural personality, and which truly came as a surprise to me as I grew into my pastoral role.  I began believing that I was gifted only for teaching in terms of conveying knowledge for its own sake.  I thought, initially, that an academic role was more appropriate for me for this reason, and did not know if I should plan for a career in pastoral ministry.  But over time, and through experience, it became evident to me that I was somewhat gifted for the role of teacher/pastor, which has to do with long term commitments to people’s spiritual growth, and a capacity to care for the whole person.]

Another gift on which I consistently score high is leadership.  And on the one called “helping,” I pretty much strike out.  But I am married to someone with the gift of helping.  So if I lead, and he helps, we can accomplish a great deal.  The churches we serve always see the evidence of this – but helpers work behind the scenes by nature, and don’t like attention drawn to what they are doing.  So you don’t always know about all the help I get!

Gifts are for two purposes, remember.  To build up the body’s effectiveness for the ministry of Christ and to grow us up into mature disciples.  Part of maturity is learning to appreciate other’s gifts and your own, and the marvelous way in which they can work together.

It is freeing and empowering to claim your gifts.  And the church is absolutely energized when ministries are undertaken by people who are truly gifted for them.  Then the unity of purpose and effectiveness of mission really emerges.

Next week, we’re going to talk about matching gifts with ministries.

This week, there’s home work.  Take home the hand out, read it, work with it, pray about it – talk about it with your friends.  See if when you come next week, you can come with an idea of what your gifts are.  If not – we’ll have ways for you to continue to discern and explore.

I can’t wait to find out:  “what are your spiritual gifts?”