Are You Sharing Your Gifts God Gave You?

Homily 10 13 2013
28th Sunday OT - C

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There was a young man named Jacob who started off in life with questionable character. Catching his brother Esau in a weak moment, Jacob traded a bowl of soup for Esau's birthright.

Later tricking his father, Jacob passed himself off as Esau and stole the family blessing.

Is it any wonder the name Jacob means "deceiver"?

Forced to leave home because Esau had threatened to kill him, Jacob set off for his Uncle Laban's house. On the way, Jacob had a personal encounter with God one night in a dream.

This visitation had such a dramatic impact upon Jacob that when he awoke he vowed to give God a tenth of all God prospered him with from that day forward.

Going back to the beginning of our story, how could God use a man of Jacob's character to accomplish his purposes on earth? Remember that God chose Jacob to father the twelve tribes of Israel and to continue the lineage through which the Messiah would eventually come.

What did God see in Jacob's heart that was worth saving despite his weaknesses?

A generous heart.

God saw that Jacob would honor Him with his treasures, that he would be a faithful and regular steward of God's blessings. Steward-ship of time and Talent reminds us that the same God will honor the generosity of our heart when we are faithful in the support of the ministries of our Church.

There are three areas of steward-ship: time, talents and treasure. Accepting the Biblical model of returning 10% of the "first fruits" to the Lord, we attempt to utilize at least 10% of our time for prayer, reflection, and works of mercy and ministry.

Here is the average American weekly schedule of 168 hours: working -- 50 hours, sleeping (45), eating (15), watching TV (12), socializing (6), shopping (5), movies/reading (4), hobbies (3), sports/exercise(2),religious or stewardship activities (1) hour which is only .6% of the weekly time while the Stewardship target is 16 hours.

By the age of 50, the average American will have spent 11 years in front of a television!.

Our individual talents are difficult to fit into a tithing model of returning 10% to the Lord, but in true Christian humility we recognize that the gifts that are uniquely ours are not to be "hidden under a bushel," nor to be used solely for our own satisfaction and profit.

Rather, our talents are to be used to glorify the Giver by using them wherever they are needed, in our parish or in the wider community.

How might we exercise stewardship?

1. By actively participating in one or more ministries in the parish like one of the Adult Education Programs, being involved in Altar Society or the Knights of Coloumbus, being a lector, or Eucharistic Minister, or usher, or musician.
2. By using our special skills and training in fixing things in the church, parish hall, rectory and the parish grounds.
3. By inviting friends and neighbors and by assisting shut-ins to join us at Mass in our parish church.
4. By actively participating in the liturgy by loudly reciting prayers, singing songs and behaving reverently in the church.
5. By spending our time and talents in the family, and by training our children in prayer life (spending daily at least 10 minutes in prayer and Bible reading) and teaching them Christian behavior, prayers and basics of our faith.

Approach Servant Hood With Survival In Mind...

A man from out east had always dreamed of owning a cattle ranch and had finally saved enough money to buy his dream spread in Wyoming. His best friend flew out to visit and asked, "So, what's the name of your ranch?" His buddy told him that he had a really hard time coming up with a name that he liked. He and his wife couldn't agree on what to call it so they settled on, "The Double R Lazy L Triple Horseshoe Bar-7 Lucky Diamond Ranch."

His friend was really impressed and then asked, "So where are all the cows?" To which the new rancher replied, "We had quite a few...but none of them survived the branding!"

As we gather for our parish ministry fair this weekend, we focus this weekend focusing on some ways that we can improve our service of time and talent and, I want to suggest that it's possible to get so caught up in what we call our spiritual gifts that we might not survive servant-hood.

The key is not so much to identify what we have...but to use what we've been given. 1 Peter 4:10: "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

Every Christian has been gifted for ministry with different talents. Purposeful stewardship involves using all these talents to serve others and glorify Christ. "Talents" means both our natural abilities and supernatural, spiritual gifts. God wants us to use our natural abilities and spiritual gifts to serve others and glorify Christ. If we would do so, we must follow three steps.

Conclusion: The Purposeful Stewardship of Talents requires that we work to discover, develop and deploy our talents for the service of Christ and others. Are we using our talents for the ministry of Christ? Our Ministry Fair this week is a big invitation to look at possibilities of service and using your gifts. You're all invited!

jjl

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