Daily Prayer

You Are My Gift

7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Eph 4:7-16 (NLT)

Okay! Okay! As a pastor I suppose I could easily be tempted to see myself as some sort of special “gift” to each of you.  You know. Lifted up – placed there on a pedestal before all the world. Given to you by Christ himself, nevertheless. There certainly are problems with such a vision, though, which I do not need to point out to any of you. For one thing, there aren’t enough pedestals to go around. And, if all us clergy were really God’s gift to you, then we would probably start bickering among ourselves about which one of us is the better “gift”, over and against each other (hummmm, there’s probably some of that going on right now – pedestal or no pedestal). With a world full of clergy like that, I have suspicions that God’s kingdom (at least here on earth) would be in serious trouble.

However, there is something to this being “called” as a gift to the Church, which has nothing to do with pedestals or position or power, but has everything to do with responsibility. There is an awesome accountability, to God and to all God’s people, that is inherent in the office of pastor; to be faithful proclaimers of God’s Word and trustworthy leaders in our congregations, or in whatever place of ministry in which we serve. It’s about a life whose sole allegiance is to the eternal God, and one that is spent consistently seeking the guidance of the Spirit in all that we do and say. I suppose that such can be viewed as a gift to the Church; but, it comes with the heavy burdens of reliability, trustworthiness, dependability and complete honesty. In short, it means being devoted to being as Christ-like as we humanly can. A tremendous feat for anyone.

Yet, the truth of the matter is that we all are (or should be) evangelists and teachers to one another. No single person – clergy, layperson, apostle, teacher, or evangelist – has cornered the market on God knowledge to themselves. Our God is just too great and mysterious for that to be. We are all on this faith journey together; all deeply needing one another through whom to grow; allowing the Spirit to move and shape us together as committed persons to our Lord.

In short, we ALL are the gifts to Christ’s Church, and to each other. We all have something to share with and teach each other, as we seek to mature in our faith and to draw ever closer to our Creator.

Whoever I am, O Lord - pastor, artist, medical worker, teacher or businessperson - in the depths of my spirit I realize my call to worship you and to proclaim your Word to all the world. Place me not above others, but fill me with your Spirit this day, that my life may be one of serving others, as I grow in my own faith through them. Empower me to be the "gift" that you would have me be to all whom I encounter on my daily walk of life.

Amen.

Rev. Michael Kirchhoff