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There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people. The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. (1 Corinthians 12: 4-7)

When you cook a meal, do you like to follow a recipe? There are many wonderful cooks who enjoy pulling out a recipe and working through its details in order to put together a magnificent dish, confident that if all the  instructions are followed, the result will win over any who try it. Or are you a cook who likes to work off the cuff, blending together various ingredients, spices, inspirations and techniques in order to make something completely new and, by the way, delicious. Perhaps, however, you fall somewhere in between. You like to pull out a recipe, yet as you  read through the ingredients and techniques it recommends, you wonder to yourself, “Hmmm. I wonder what this would taste like if I cut the amount of onions in half and sautéed a cup of chopped fennel into the recipe instead?” These little tweaks, you imagine, will make the resulting dish more interesting. Or, maybe you fall into another group who doesn’t get cooking at all, won’t open a cookbook, and finds chopping and braising and stirring and baking all to be tedious concepts. For you, food is an end product you eat, whether prepared by a loved one, or ordered at a local restaurant. To keep the cooking metaphor for one more moment, “Variety is the spice of life” as they say.

Thank goodness we all are different. One thing I believe and have expressed on numerous occasions is that the world would be a boring place if we all were the same, having the same talents, tastes and interests. I think the same idea extends into the church. Thank goodness God has made us as individuals, each of us having our own interests, our own talents, our own passions, our own identities, our own ideas about what is fun and what is important. These differences are a strength for the church, because it allows us to fill in the gaps, to cover areas where one person’s talents end and another’s begins. As we move toward the season of Pentecost, we become more conscious of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is the Spirit who animates our faith, who brings the Gospel to life in our hearts, and it is the Spirit who pushes and prods us to share our faith, active in our daily lives. St. Paul understood very well that each Christian is an individual, yet each Christian is a valuable asset for the whole body of Christ, which is the church. Paul saw that we each are different, with differing gifts used in differing ways. Yet, Paul says, “The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all.” In truth, we will look at our Christian faith differently, will live our Christian lives differently, will serve Christ differently. Yet, as Paul tells us, it is the same God working in us, using the different ways we serve, who will cause the church to flourish and the mission of the church to succeed. But we cannot miss the greater point. As God’s gift of life and salvation come to us, God’s call comes to us as well. That call is an expectation that we will use the talents, passions and time we are given to serve “for the good of all.”