Are you a re-gifter?

 Now: about things relating to the spirit’s work, my brothers and sisters, I don’t want you to remain uninformed… To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Cor 12:1, 7)

We just finished the twelve days of Christmas, and I’m curious…did any of you re-gift anything? I did a Google search, and found several etiquette websites with articles like “Nine rules for regifting” and “The Seven Simple Rules of Regifting” and “Five Things that Are OK to Regift, and Five Things that Are Not.” All of this—and even the term re-gifting—thanks to a 1995 episode of Seinfeld.

Paul in today’s reading from Corinthians is telling us that, where the works of the Spirit are concerned, a sort of holy regifting is not only OK, it’s what is actually required of us! So what is it that we are to be regifting? What is the spirit’s work?

Paul’s teaching on the work of the spirit makes it clear he’s not just talking about simply “lip service” like speaking in tongues or evangelizing in the streets; Rather, he is referring to work that is an affirmation of faith involving our entire life in commitment and trust. Paul categorizes this work into three kinds: "spiritual gifts", "services,"  and "activities." Here’s N.T. Wright’s translation of this passage on the work of the Spirit: “4There are different types of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit; 5there are different types of service, but the same Lord; 6and there are different types of activity, but it is the same God who operates all of them in everyone. 7The point of the spirit being revealed in each one is so that all may benefit.”

The point of the spirit being revealed in each one of us is so that all may benefit…Paul was writing to the Corinthians because they were arguing about who was most important, about which gifts mattered the most. And you can see where they got this idea—even today, we talk about someone being “gifted” and by that we imply that they have some ability that puts them above, makes them better, than everyone else. Our culture says that we should hold up those who are gifted with business savvy, or athletic prowess, or musical talent as idols to be emulated, if not almost at times even worshipped. 

But Paul says not so with the work of the Spirit; there is no hierarchy. First of all, we are talking about gifts! It doesn’t make any sense for someone to boast about a gift that was given to them, as if it were their own doing. Second: the power of God is so pervasive, God’s desire to be always and everywhere present in our lives, that there are gifts of every kind—God’s love is all-encompassing and has a universe-filling variety of expressions. There is no hierarchy.  Third, and just as important: we are given these gifts by God not for ourselves, but for the benefit of all…we are given these gifts so that we can in fact re-gift them. 

Think about the story of Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana from today’s Gospel. In the Gospel of John, this scene marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and, as a kick-off story, it seems a little strange, almost mundane, doesn’t it? It’s almost like a parlor trick, turning water into wine. But that everyday-ness is part of the point, I think—God’s abundant grace, God’s desire for us to turn to God and to find God everywhere and to find in God the source of all life and joy—spills out into this relatively ordinary life event—this wedding. God’s glory fills all the spaces and places in our lives—extraordinary and ordinary. Jesus didn’t start his ministry with a fireworks display from the roof of the Temple in Jerusalem, but by standing around in the background with family and friends at somebody else’s party. And the gift he provided was just some good wine. How ungrateful the hosts would have been to claim that this gift from Jesus made them better than everyone else? And how selfish, how against the entire purpose of the gift, if, rather than sharing the wine with everyone, they had instead kept it hidden for themselves in the cellar. Jesus gave the wine to be shared by all.

Finally, as Paul says, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Every single one of you is gifted—gifted by the Holy Spirit. Not as a reward for holiness, not a sign of approval from God like a gold star at the top of your English theme, but so that you can be regifters in providing blessings and services and activities that God is providing for the needs of our community and the needs of the world. All your gifts, Paul says, are activated by God for a purpose.

Our entire life is a fabric woven of gifts given and gifts received. From our mothers who labored to give us birth, from teachers and nurses, from grocery story works and gas station attendants, from loved ones and strangers unknown and unseen, and from the gift of life from our Savior Jesus—we live each moment wrapped in a tapestry of giving and receiving. We do not even know what gifts the God has given us to share until we try and we risk using them. My prayer for us all this week is that, whether in a moment of kind service to a stranger, or in deciding to be a reader in worship, or in joining our ministers of care group that provides friendship and hope to the homebound, or in helping at our mobile pantry next Saturday…in any of countless number of ways, each of us will find ourselves called to some new work of the Spirit, and join more fully in God’s holy task of regifting.