Preached at St. Martin’s in-the-Field, Severna Park
January 19, 2024: Second Sunday After Epiphany, Year C
Sometimes when I get a really familiar Bible text, I like to look at it through an unfamiliar lens. Usually I go to a different translation. Sometimes I even look at several translations side by side. If I notice that one particular word is translated three different ways, I go to the Greek text to see what I can find. Our original Greek texts are fascinating because there is no punctuation to shape the text. So much is left up to the imagination of the translator. Every time we read the Holy Scriptures in this place, we are reading it through the lens of imagination. Skilled imagination, yes, but imagination all the same.
When I looked at our passage from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians this week, and I came across the familiar gifts of the Spirit, I decided to read it through the lens of the Message translation. I want to share with you how someone else imagined this sacred text:
God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful…
What I love about this translation is the focus on God. God’s gifts, God’s ministries, God’s power, God’s timing… and all of it pointing to God’s abundance. “Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!”
Wow, wow!
What a refreshing message of generosity and joy. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit to all kinds of people! I love the picture these words paint of a God who lavishes us with gifts—like the extravagant sewer who throws seed all over the place, even the places it’s least likely to grow. God just never runs out of love, never runs out of gifts to give.
And God doesn’t give everyone the same gift. God is not Oprah shouting, “You get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car!” No… God gives a variety of gifts. And “the variety is wonderful.” God loves variety. God shows up in variety. Variety and abundance go hand-in-hand.
When I was a missionary in French speaking West Africa, one of my students, Alexis, exuded joy in all things. I remember the first week I arrived, I was staying at a retreat center for a revival. This was not the Claggett Center, mind you. I remember finding bugs in my beans and rice and thinking, at least they are cooked! At this precise moment Alexis sat down across from me with a huge grin and exclaimed in English: “Sister Lauren! Enjoy your meal!” His joy spread about him like a ripple effect wherever he went.
One day I visited Alexis at his home, a single room with a dirt floor, cement walls, a bed and a bucket. On the wall, Alexis had a giant poster of various fruits and vegetables. Above the cornucopia of food were the English words: “Variety is the spice of life!” The juxtaposition of rich abundance in the simplest of homes, coupled with English words in a French speaking country—it stuck with me. It felt like a window into the Kingdom of God. It is obviously still emblazoned in my mind and on my heart.
And when I read about the variety of God’s gifts, I think of that poster on that wall belonging to that student. I think about how God’s variety can take us by surprise. I think about how God’s idea of variety is so much broader than our minds can comprehend. I think about the rich abundance of God scattered extravagantly in places few people would call rich. I think about Alexis sharing his joy so eagerly, knowing that joy really belonged to God, and thus that joy would never run out.
It’s so easy for us to be lulled into a mentality of scarcity rather than abundance. I struggle with it every day. The very real pressures of caring for our children, ourselves and our parents—we want the best for these people we love, and that takes so much time, energy and money. The more I think about the size of the task, the more I feel like it’s all on my shoulders. I think, ‘How am I going to do this?’ and I forget to let God in.
We can have a scarcity mentality at church, too. Every single year, we have to fund raise for our salaries, our bills, our programming and our dreams for this community. And, as far as I can tell, every year our pledges are short of our goal. We scale back, we ask for more, we lose sleep, and if we’re not careful, our fear of scarcity can overshadow our faith in God’s provision.
I’m not suggesting we throw our hands up in the air, spend beyond our means, and trust God to sort it all with God’s abundance.
But I am suggesting that we not forget God’s abundance. I am suggesting that we lean into our faith in God’s provision. I am suggesting that we pray fervently for God to show up in ways only God can—with a variety of gifts that take us by surprise.
If we forget to ask God to show us the way—if we forget to spend time with God every day, praying for wisdom as we discern a way forward WITH God… not on our own, but with God!—we just might miss out on the abundance right in front of us.
Friends, I know this might sound elementary, but if you are struggling to see the abundance of God, meditate on this scripture this week. I don’t mean you should sit down and read this passage of scripture over and over again, though that practice is a good one. But get out into the world and reflect on this passage.
Go to the grocery store and notice the people around you, thinking: Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.
Or maybe while you’re sitting in traffic you can think: All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful.
Let these words seep into your heart and your mind. Let them be the lens through which you see the world. So that even when you are bombarded with messages of scarcity and fear, you will know the truth of God’s abundance.
May you be open to the gifts God longs to bestow on you, and may you discover every day that the variety is wonderful.
Amen.
lauren laughs 