Water into wine – finding our giftedness
Romans 21:6-12
John 2
A small boy was asked on a television variety show if he attended Sunday
school. When he said he did, he was asked, "What are you learning?"
"Last
week," came the reply, "our lesson was about when Jesus went to a
wedding
and made water into wine." "And what did you learn from that
story?" After
thinking for a moment, the lad answered, "If you're having a wedding, make
sure Jesus is there!"
Just as Jesus turned water into wine, it's fairly safe to assume that he
wants to take our lives and turn them from a dull and uninspiring drink into
something that is full, colourful that gladdens people's hearts and gives life
to a party. And I wonder as we look at
our church over the years, not just here but nationally, whether we imagine a
glass of pale water, or a full glass of aromatic red wine?
I don't believe I have yet been part of the perfect church, and indeed
if I were to go to it I am sure I would spoil it, but I wouldn't mind belonging
to the kind of fellowship which Paul paints a picture of in Romans 12. It is a place of brotherly
affection-Philadelphia-where Christians experience the same kind of love as can
be found in a family. It is a place of
rejoicing with those who rejoice, and weeping with those who weep. Is a place to be yourself in other words,
where God can minister to you through the life and experience of others. It is a place of wine, not water. The church remains a wonderfully distinctive
place where volunteers come from all walks of life and from all age groups and
join together. You will not find that
in any other context. It is a wonderful
chance for human beings to become open to each other within the love of
God. It is a far cry from what I have
sometimes heard in churches where people have come up to me with some
suggestion for the church and said, "As a consumer in the pew I'd like to
suggest this or that." Consumers don't tend to do much weeping with those
who weep or rejoicing with those who rejoice.
They tend to be more concerned about their own weeping and rejoicing.
What Paul wants us to realise is that far from being consumers we are
those who have been given gifts, gifts above our own talents, gifts given by
God to each person specifically for building up his church. They are not just
natural talents but supernatural gifts.
So the question is: what gifts can we look for? What gifts can we ask God for?
welcomed their is a huge listed in the Bible and here they are.
1. Prophecy 228 1 5.lnterpretation
2. Service
225
of tongues 235
3. Teaching
127 16. Apostle 207
4. Exhortation
153 17. Helps 224
5. Giving
92 18. Administration 155
6. Leadership
162 19. Evangelist 173
7. Mercy
223 20. Pastor 142
8. Wisdom
220 21. Celibacy 63
9. Knowledge
218 22. Voluntary poverty 96
10. Faith 158 23. Martyrdom 67
11. Healing. 238 24. Hospitaiity 69
12. Miracles 237 25. Missionary 204
13. Discerning 26. Intercession 74
of spirits 102 27. Exorcism 103
14. Tongues 232
So God calls us by his
grace to find our own giftedness. To
find the ways in which we can turn water into wine. But we face two problems.
The first is cynicism. When we
see other gifted people if we are honest we are sometimes prone to trying to
undermine their gifts because we may feel threatened by them. How often have you found yourself saying
something like, "Well, he did that well, but he's not much good
at..."? And secretly we often
prefer it gifted people do not prosper so well. We rejoice at those who weep.
After all, if we see their gifts in operation then it sometimes challenges us about what we are doing in our
service for God. And that can be
uncomfortable.
But the second problem is
much more common and much more insidious.
It is a lack of confidence that God could have anything for us to do
that all. When we see people being used
by God in fruitful ways, it can make us worry about our seeming lack of
gift. We weep at those who
rejoice. I must admit to feeling
intimidated at the start of my ministry by the challenges of bringing God's
grace to people in situations I had not encountered before. But I have been ministered to by the grace
of people here, who have been able to use their gifts of encouragement, insight,
hospitality to support me. And as that
has happened then my own celebration of the gifts God has given me through his
grace has been able to prosper.
No Christian in the
church is without a gift. No one in
this room, Paul says, has not been given something which can build up the body
of Christ. Life is short, but God's
gifts are many. Can we respond to his
gracious love in the way we open our lives to do his will? Noone in this church, no matter how we feel
about our gifts or lack of them, needs to be only a consumer. We can be something far more wonderful than
that for God.
One day
a partiallydeaf boy came home from school with a note. It suggested that his
parents take him out of school. The note said that the boy was “too stupid to
learn.
When
the boy’s mother read the note, she said, “My son Tom isn’t ‘too stupid to
learn.’ I’ll teach him myself.”
When
Tom died many years later, the people of our nation paid tribute to him by
turning off the nation’s lights. which he had invented, for one full minute.
Thomas
Edison invented not only the light bulb we read by, but also the motion picture
we watch and the record player we listen to. He has over one thousand patents
to his credit.
No one is too stupid to
learn what God has for them to give.
May we realize what he is calling each of us to do here at Christ
Church, and may we see our own lives changing from water into wine for his
glory.