{"id":118,"date":"2019-01-20T21:01:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T21:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=118"},"modified":"2019-01-20T21:01:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T21:01:05","slug":"second-sunday-after-epiphany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/01\/20\/second-sunday-after-epiphany\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Sunday after Epiphany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1 Corinthians 12:1-11<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nwere planning on meeting as a congregation this morning, but now we will meet\nas a congregation, to receive the reports of our Church officers and leaders,\nnext Sunday. For some of you such a meeting may not seem very exciting. I mean,\nwhat is there really to be said? Whatever was done we can see, and if we can\u2019t,\nwell, it\u2019s over, finished? Some of you may feel this way, but I assure you\nthere is a lot more to this meeting than a rehashing of the past. I\u2019ve heard it\nsaid that the past directs the future. While this is not always true, a\ncongregation that has a vision for the future or a plan for the future will, by\nits actions, point to its vision and show a direction for its future. I\nencourage all of you to read the reports when they are available, attend the\nmeeting and listen to next Sunday\u2019s discussions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis something else to be found in those reports, besides the organized\ndescription of past events, these events represent the gifts of our\ncongregation, the gifts of the Spirit held by many of our members. What we do\nas a congregation and what we do as individuals within the congregation is very\noften motivated by the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to us. Important as\nthis is, I would guess that most of us, have not really thought this through or\neven given much thought to the gifts that have been given to us. But groups in our\nchurch have given this some thought: For example, the Outreach Committee would\nnot agree to provide meals for the residents of St. Mary\u2019s shelter if it did\nnot believe that we had enough gifted cooks and willing cooks and drivers to\nmake sure that we can provide the correct quantity of healthy and tasty food at\nthe proper times for this shelter. Likewise, the men of St. Peter\u2019s and the Fellowship\nCommittee would not plan to have the event \u201cMen Who Cook\u201d if they did not\nbelieve that we would have enough quality cooks among our men to be able to\nprovide good food for the interested members of the congregation. There seems\nto be a pattern; we like to cook, serve people and eat. But we do other things;\nwe have men and women talented in building and fixing things and the Property\nCommittee gets them together or take on tasks as individuals and groups to keep\nSt. Peter\u2019s in good shape. And look at our choir and Music and Worship\nCommittee and all that they do to lift up our spiritual lives through music and\nliturgy using their gifts and depending on the gifts of others. Paul wrote to\nthe Corinthians that \u201ceach is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.<\/strong>\u201d The gifts of our\ncongregation given by the Holy Spirit vary as widely as the list of gifts provided\nin our reading from 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11, and these gifts are all for the\ncommon good. Here at St. Peter\u2019s we have excellent writers who write articles\nand sometimes temple talks, we have musically gifted members who sing in the\nchoir and individually, we have those gifted with the skills for teaching, and we\nhave creative people in the arts of the Spirit who prepare worship and\ndevotional opportunities, all of these people in addition to others display\ntheir gifts of the Holy Spirit for our benefit and the benefit of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nan important thing that I have learned over the years, is that the Holy Spirit\nprovides all the gifts needed in each place, where the Holy Spirit has planted\nthe ministry of Jesus Christ. It doesn\u2019t always seem that way, but that is not\nfor lack of the Holy Spirit\u2019s gifts, but for the reluctance of those who have\nbeen given these gifts to acknowledge them and to use them to the Glory of God.\nAgain, we have amazingly gifted people here at St. Peter\u2019s; most of them share\ntheir gifts willingly, but some are shy and some do not come to church with\nregularity and so do not share their gifts with the church. What are your\ngifts? What are your God given gifts? And keep this in mind, all of the talents\nthat you have come from God. Have you used your Spirit given gifts here at St.\nPeter\u2019s or to the glory of God elsewhere? If you have not used your gifts other\nthan for your own wellbeing, why? What are you afraid of? Does joy and the\nsuccess of our ministry scare you that much? Or, are too busy, or you lazy, or\njust don\u2019t care?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPhiladelphia Eagles lost last week, but they came close to a victory, in spite\nof their injuries and against a higher ranked opponent, because all of the\nplayers worked together, employing their skills and gifts (limited as they\nwere); except for a few mistakes, we would be looking forward to another game\nthis afternoon. It could be said that the Eagles won the Super Bowl last year,\nfor the same reason, but with less mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\nconstantly being questioned about our church deficit; most of you worry about\nwhy others are not giving enough; I ask each of you sit down and look at your\nown offering totals, to see if you are doing all that you can. And then look at\nyour spiritual gifts, your talents and skills and ask yourselves where could\nyou best help the church with its ministry and maintenance and community\nactivity. The weather is against us today, but that doesn\u2019t mean that the Lord\nhasn\u2019t provided us with all that we need. It frustrates me that everyone is not\nhere today to hear my sermon and so hear God\u2019s word, but I have to accept that\nthe message will be carried out by you to those who are not here today, maybe\nsome will read the sermon on facebook, maybe on the church website. You are a\ngifted people; St. Peter\u2019s is a gifted congregation; it shows; maybe we can\nmake it show even more.\n\n\n\n\n\nfffff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ffff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ We were planning on meeting as a congregation this morning, but now we will meet as a congregation, to receive the reports of our Church officers and leaders, next Sunday. For some of Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}