St. Augustine’s
2nd Epiphany
Year C
A common dictionary definition of ‘gift’ is that it is
“something given voluntarily
without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or
make a gesture of assistance.”
Does that sound like a good definition to you? Does
something seem to be missing?
What the dictionary definition does not quite get to is
that even though we say a gift is something given voluntarily without the
expectation of payment in return, gift-giving is an act that is embedded in
complex social conventions. There are rules about gift giving. Lots of rules. This makes gift-giving a fascinating thing
for sociologists to study. You learn a
lot about a culture by its gift-giving practices.
Take Christmas for example, which is a national
observance of a time for gift-giving in the U.S.—and so it is more complex than
gift-giving around birthday.
Think about it:
There may be different tiers of gift giving. The lowest tier might be those you know but
there is no expectation of gift-exchange.
Maybe they get a candy cane if you happen to have one on you. The next tier might be the people close
enough to you that they get a Christmas card.
Co-workers might get something—maybe not because you like them, but
because some of them will give you a little something and you do not want to be
the scrooge of the office. Good friends
and family perhaps start the next tier.
These gifts typically involve more thought, more money—hence the
relative value of the relationships are monetarily expressed.
So that’s one aspect of it, the tiered system of
giving. There are also perceptions about
how to measure the value of a gift by how much thought is put into it. For instance, a book specially chosen for us
by someone may register as more meaningful than a gift card. We think that gift-card giver may have just
given up when they got to us.
But the social rules about gift-giving are nowhere quite
so visible as when those rules are broken, or an unforeseen circumstance throws
a wrench in your holiday.
For instance, imagine the reaction if you give the
paper-girl something five times more expensive than your own child. Or your personal assistant gets something
nicer than your spouse. People might
assume the gifts represent a set of implications about the nature of those
relationships. Parents, y’all know this
if there are situations in which one sibling thinks another sibling got more or
better gifts.
And, some of my students told me a story about how they
were going to have a get-together and a gift exchange. All is well until one of the guests called
and said “hey, can my roommate come, too?”
Well, they didn’t want to be inhospitable, so they said yes. But this interloper, by virtue of coming into
the circle of friends close enough to get each other gifts, needed to now get
something. Because it would be rude to
go through the ceremony of gift exchange—and that’s a ceremony, right? There is a way these things are done—and not
give something to this
interloper. So you rewrap that gift you
got from someone else the day before, or you go through the closet and find
that wedding gift from seven years ago that you never opened. By the way, Laura and I have never done this.
And it is difficult to overthrow the social scripts
around gift-giving. I know; I tried it
one year by asking family to donate to worthy causes in my name. It didn’t go over well. Gift-giving is complicated. So much is symbolically communicated through
the practice. How much more so when we
try to make sense of spiritual gifts—the topic of our lesson from Paul’s letter
to the Corinthians.
Just as gifts we give are thought to signal relative
importance in relationship, and just as those who are considered ‘gifted’ are
thought to have an ability that lifts the individual above others, the Corinthians
placed a high value on ecstatic speech.
This is because the population of Corinth placed a high value on those
abilities in the pagan rituals of the time, and this carried over into the
church in Corinth as folks converted. As
a result, people who were either speaking in tongues or prophesying were
possibly exhibiting some toxic levels of self-importance in a community already
plagued by division and hostility toward each other. They—and others—probably
saw themselves as uniquely inspired by God, and as such they could interrupt
the community at worship, or run roughshod over others while taking places of
greater importance.
Paul ain’t having it, and in today’s lesson he begins his
argument—not a dispassionate teaching, but an argument—about the gifts given by
God through the Spirit: how and why they are given, how to tell their value,
and more importantly that the nature of their bestowal shows us how to value
those who manifest them.
And there are three main points to pull out from the
reading today:
First: every person who confesses Jesus as Lord has been
gifted by the Holy Spirit, as it is only by the spirit that such a confession
can be made. This might seem like a
small matter, to merely utter the words “Jesus is Lord.” It might be hard to appreciate this in a
religiously pluralistic society, but imagine what it means to be gifted with
the grace and courage necessary to confess Jesus as Lord when “Caesar is Lord”
was the reigning cry of the people. This
first gift of the Holy Spirit was for
the first Christians the strength to utter the truth that was also treason in
the world around them.
Second: Spiritual gifts are to be used for the common
good. The Holy Spirit gives to us the
measure of our gifts not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the entire
community of faith. The exercise of
these gifts may bring us joy, but they are not meant for us to use for our own
enrichment, nor are they to be treated as a private inheritance to horde in
secret.
Third: These spiritual gifts are meant for all, and given
to all, each and every one of us, and all of our gifts are equally activated by
the grace of God as God chooses. The
implications spin out as Paul continues his argument. Next week’s reading will make the point that
we all make up the body of Christ, and no part, no matter how small, no matter
how maligned their contribution may be, is expendable. [For the whole of Paul's argument, see 1Cor 12-14.]
This passage speaks to us today, as well. I began by
talking about how social convention governs our sense of gift-giving and
receiving. How might we put those
conventions in conversation with Paul? A
few things come to mind.
Whereas we weigh our
relationships to find the appropriate level of giving that is socially
acceptable, and we may be continually gauging the appropriate way to
reciprocate on a gift we receive, we find something different in God. Our relationship with God is not one of an
apathetic God only deigning to give us attention when we show an interest. The first gift of God is one we experience as
God’s love for us, and a sense of place in the relationship. God’s love is not earned. God gives love
lavishly and freely, not reciprocally.
And actually, our turning into our relationship with God is only the
first conscious receiving of a gift. Our
very existence is a gift prior to our knowledge of God. Thanks be to God!
Let us not disparage the small
gifts when we witness or seek larger gifts.
Our gifts in ministry find their source in God, and that which is
God-given is never a small matter. Paul
tells us elsewhere that God works all things to the good, and the sort of
goodness God is capable of has reach far beyond our own vision. Let us be pleased to know that there is
goodness we may only see in part, and greatness yet to come from our exercise
of spiritual gifts.
Lastly, our gifts are not
trophies and trinkets or collectibles meant for pristine packaging placed on shelves
and walls. Anything so freely given to
everyone cannot be a collector’s item.
They are not meant to be left in the closet collecting dust because we
do not see the value. That really weird gift may be just the thing the world
needs to see your joy and God’s love. God loves you regardless, but these gifts are
meant for the world to see. So break the
package, take your gifts out, and let’s go play!
No comments:
Post a Comment