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Sermon January 16, 2022
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
The Second Sunday After the Epiphany Year C
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi2_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__January_16__2021
Video: https://youtu.be/rCb_tbdZ8Tk
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 1 Corinthians 12:4
Please be seated
Recently I’ve been gathering via Zoom with other clergy on Tuesday afternoons to discuss the upcoming Sunday’s lectionary and to share our thoughts and what we think we might preach on. I find it so helpful to hear what others are thinking and it also helps me start thinking about the upcoming Sunday sermon.
This past Tuesday, one of the members suggested that the reading from 1 Corinthians about various spiritual gifts was well represented in the new Disney movie, Encanto.
As I told you before, over the holiday, I watched plenty of movies. I love animated movies, so Encanto was one I watched. The word Encanto means charmed in Spanish or I’d even say enchanted.
You also know I read The New York Times and on Friday there was an article about the popularity of this movie, especially its soundtrack. The songs were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. You may know his name from his musical Hamilton or Into the Heights. You can definitely tell the songs from the movie were written by him in many cases.
Well, one song in particular, We Don’t Talk About Bruno is a Tik Tok hit, and the soundtrack topped the US Billboard charts, knocking the singer Adele’s recording off the top. In other words, it is quite a hit!
And the movie is all about gifts and the right use of gifts. Seems for thousands of years we humans have grappled with this notion and understanding of gifts, especially spiritual gifts.
In our reading today, Paul is writing to the Corinthians. They’ve gotten the use of spiritual gifts all wrong. They’ve decided that some gifts, such as speaking in tongues or glossolalia is the most important spiritual gift and those with that gift are more important than everyone.
Paul disabuses them of that notion, putting glossolalia towards the bottom of the list of spiritual gifts. Paul also emphasizes in verse 7 that we are all given spiritual gifts, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Every single one of us has gifts given by the Spirit.
Now, I don’t want to give anything away about the movie Encanto but here are some things I think the movie highlights about gifts.
Like I’ve already said, each one of us has gifts and we do not all have the same gift. We need the variety to be a fully functioning community at its best
Sometimes we don’t see the spiritual gifts of someone at first. Or we overvalue some spiritual gifts and miss out. We must remember that all gifts from each of us are needed for our worshipping and missioning community. We must be sure to value and welcome the spiritual gifts of each of us.
We must be sure to acknowledge that when someone is no longer with us, their spiritual gifts are missing from our community. We mourn their loss. We are grateful for what they gave. We must acknowledge that our community will change since they, with their spiritual gifts, are no longer with us.
We must also welcome the spiritual gifts of those who come into our community. We must celebrate those gifts and be grateful for them. We must acknowledge that our community will change with the addition of their gifts.
That’s the challenge, sometimes, the changes that come when a person leaves or joins our community.
There is a right-use of spiritual gifts. Sometimes we lean so heavily on a person…use their spiritual gifts too much, that we pigeon-hole them. We can stifle a person’s spiritual gifts if we aren’t careful, because we get it in our heads how their spiritual gifts should be used within our community.
In the movie Encanto we also see how a gift has been misunderstood and therefore, the person with the gift has been misunderstood. Hence the song, We Don’t Talk About Bruno.
Spiritual gifts are to be used for the common good. Our use of our spiritual gifts builds up the community. They make us a better community. Using our spiritual gifts requires us to be in community with each other; otherwise, how will we know if we are operating for the common good? We are in our worshiping community and in the Word of God, continually discerning how our spiritual gifts can be used for the common good…for the good of everyone.
And I know that this pandemic time has changed things. Another really important gift that I believe we do not fully acknowledge, is the gift of our presence. And during this pandemic time, our presence may only be possible through technology rather than in person. It is presence and a precious gift nonetheless. If no one came on a Sunday, we wouldn’t have worship, would we? So please remember that you with your spiritual gifts and presence on a Sunday morning is an amazing gift.
I like that this reading comes at the beginning of the year. It reminds us to take stock of our spiritual gifts and how we are using them and how our worshiping community is using them. Have we been pigeon-holed and the true breadth and depth of our spiritual gifts has been stifled? Have our spiritual gifts been overused or not quite used in the right way? Are the ways you are participating in our parish life right now, giving you joy and satisfaction that you are doing God’s will?
Thank you for your spiritual gifts, which are the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. May we as Nativity and St. Stephens rightly use them.
Amen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encanto_(film)
How Disney Created the Hit Single https://nyti.ms/3I9k6l2
