Spiritual Gifts: Our Spiritual DNA

Our church congregation (McMinnville Covenant Church) has started a two-month-long emphasis on spiritual gifts. Our pastors are preaching and leading worship with that emphasis in mind, and our small groups are exploring the topic. I’ve done this before: the scriptural passage from 1 Corinthians 12 is rather familiar. It’s used in either talking about spiritual gifts or likening the Christian Church (and all its scattered, dispersed congregations) to a Body. A Body of Broken Bones, in the words of Thomas Merton, deeply in need of healing, a body of fractured bones in need of being set in order.

I guess that these two things have a lot in common, really. Our spiritual gifts exemplify the way we flesh out our part or function in the Body of Christ. Our spiritual gift is our particular gene on the whole DNA genetic code of the Body of Christ. Our human DNA is made up of billions of genetic markers, genes along the many strands of chromosomes. I would liken our spiritual gifts to one of those genes that carry the biological information that leads to the specialization/specification of a particular body part, particular body tissue that performs a particular function for the mutual benefit of the entire body. Our spiritual gift is that specific purpose or function for which we are designed by God, to fulfill a unique, particular, and specific work in the Body of Christ, which is the Church. But not just for the edification of believers and fellow sojourners with whom we agree. No, much more we are given specific gifts for the redemption and health of the whole earth. Earth: meaning both Nature and World. Nature: meaning God’s Creation of the natural world including the environment and ecosystems that balance the interrelationships between plants and animals, fungi and protists. World: meaning Humanity’s creation of societies, civilizations and cultures in cooperation with or rebellion against God’s intended purposes and Will.

Today our pastor used the image of a beautifully wrapped gift. It lay on our altar: wrapped in spangled gold and silver paper, bound by gilded thread and bow. It looked like the kind of gift you’d eagerly open first, or expectantly save for last. Yet what if you gave such a gift to someone dearly beloved: an aunt or grandmother you wished to especially honor and they decided not to open it, not to actually receive and use the gift hidden within? How your heart would ache with rejection and sorrow.

Our pastor reminded us that Gifts are given in order to be opened. Opened and put to use. God has carefully—essentially even—given us gifts that are at the center of our being. They are at the center of our identity and character, making up the spiritual DNA of our souls. We are given at least one gift to be developed like a gift of paint brushes, paints and canvass. Such spiritual gifts are useless lying within a box. But taken out and held within the hand of the painter, they begin to bring color, form, mystery and marvel to those who will behold the painting that is generated. Each painting is impossible without the brushes, oils and canvass. Our spiritual gifts are just such tools or instruments. Our gifts or talents are meant to be seen and utilized, for what use is a Sundial in the Shade? (as Ben Franklin once quipped). God’s gifts are carefully chosen according to how He has shaped us. Our gifts are unique. We are each one of a kind. Are we using our gift precisely as God would like it used for the best benefit of all other people?

We aren’t just supposed to look at the pretty ribbon and crisp paper on the outside of the box. We must (our sanctification depends upon it) unwrap our gift and employ it for God’s glory and the world’s most desperate needs.

Perhaps the question for each of us is this: is there a gift that God has given us that we have left unwrapped, adorning the living-room coffee table of our lives? Perhaps we think that the wrapping paper, ribbon and bow are just “too nice” to unwrap or rip apart. We need to realize that the gift is inside. The wrapping is just for show, for the presentation of the gift. WE MUST GET ON WITH IT! Rip away the glitz of that giddy reception, the magic and mushiness of that moment it touched our fingertips, and we felt the heft of it in our hands. The paper must come off! The ribbon be discarded! And then we must use it. Let it get worn, dented, scuffed, dirtied, torn, used and abused in service (oops, …um … at least used real well).
God’s spiritual gift to us is tied in with our calling, our vocation. Perhaps we first recognize that gift or set of gifts when we first perceive God’s calling to us in our vocation. In the best of all possible worlds, God’s vocalization is our vocation. God’s calling is our life’s work, gift, purpose and finally, consummation.