Stewardship -Talents

We were blessed this morning to see installed before us this day the elected and appointed officers of the church.  Those people who are chosen by you to do some of the very particular ministries of the church.  We are grateful to them for the ministry they have offered and will continue to pray for them in the coming year.

However, it is too easy to see and assume that it is only they who have ministries in the church, gifts and talents that would be of benefit. But we are told that we all have gifts to offer.

In the book of Romans, we can read “We have gifts that differ according to the grace that is given to us; prophesy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

Each of us have been given gifts by God’s grace.  Gifts that are not meant to please ourselves and benefit our own purposes, though they often do this as well, but gifts that we are meant to be stewards of.  For all that we are given, comes from God, and we are stewards of those gifts.  And like everything we are stewards of we are meant to act as representatives of God when we use them.

I had a friend in seminary who had a job in stem cell research.  One could easily think of this as a secular job, in a very secular field.  However, for my friend it was a ministry…working there he could use the talents that God gave him for God’s work.  Each time they began their work the small group of people he worked with gathered, from different backgrounds, different faiths, to pray over those tiny stem cells and ask for God’s blessing and guidance.

There are those here who may have thought singing is a Sunday morning ministry and just a hobby that some people have.  Whereas I have seen people gathered round a beloved dying woman to sing her favorite and soon to be final hymns.  They sang her to her eternal rest.  Music as ministry, rather than simply something you enjoy individually.

There are those who are accountants who may wonder how their gifts can be a ministry.  Well treasurer is the obvious thought, but as one who goes to an accountant each tax season...let me tell you, there can be a significant amount of pastoral care that can go into personal accounting.

Perhaps you believe that you don’t have any particular gifts or talents?  That you are simply someone who believes and that is enough.  Well, let me ask you this.

What is it that you do, anything…that brings your heart joy…that makes your soul sing.

God has planted that seed in you for a reason, no matter what it is, nor how big or small or how impressive.

Because it isn’t always the BIG things that are needed…and who decides what is a big thing anyway!  It isn’t always the most remarkable gifts that are given to all.

After all Paul tells us specifically about people’s gifts not only as leaders and prophets, but also those who are able to encourage and exhort …those whose gifts lay in their compassion, the ability they possess to listen to people and help them feel worthy and loved.

To be a good steward of the talents that you have been given you first need to recognise that they have worth.  Which isn’t something that you can tell by looking at others and what their talents are, rather it is by looking within and by looking to God.  We each are blessed with gifts and talents, and their value cannot be judged by what we think others will think.

There is a kid’s movie about Moses, called Prince of Egypt and throughout most of it we find Moses unable to discern his own gifts and worth, even when shown the burning bush!  The words of wisdom that he is given are “how can you judge someone’s worth in wealth or strength or size? You must look with heaven’s eyes.”

The simple gift of making great coffee could be the very gift that is needed.   The gifts God gives us come in all shapes and sizes, blessings each and every one.  As long as we use each of the gifts that God gives us, to God’s own glory and in ways that God would call us to.  Then we are good stewards, responsibly tending what God has given with the authority and confidence of the one who give gifts to us all.

Then we are practicing Stewardship, the stewardship of our talents.

amen