WELCOME TO TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH

Pastor’s Pondering October 2022

 

1 Corinthians 12: “4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

 

Ever notice when we meet someone we ask their name, what they do, where they are from but never “So, what’s your gift?”  Perhaps it’s because we don’t consider gifts as something worth talking about?  But I’ll ask anyway, So, what’s your gift?

When we consider our gifts, we often think we need to learn them but quite often we forget that we have the very gifts within us already.  We all have been blessed with gifts in the spiritual and practical realm as well as the ability to give gifts.  Trinity is a generous congregation in it’s giving: from what we give to the Synod, thru TLCW, in Missionary Support, in our own separate designated giving, all these things outside of our normal tithing to our church from BoCo Backpacks to 2nd Harvest.  Indeed this church is a giving community, and we do so not out of obligation but out of thankfulness for what we ourselves have so freely been given.  And though money is important, it is the people, you and me, who make Trinity what it is today.  We are called to act faithfully and can give faithfully of our time, talents and finances because we trust in God’s generosity in our lives. Jesus makes a promise in his words to the disciples and to us, John 10:10 “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  And Paul reminds us in Philippians 4: 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” With those promises we can “Live generously”, as the Thrivent saying goes “in every way,” and as Paul writes in that letter to the community of Corinth, “Poor ourselves, we bring wealth to many; penniless, we own the world.”

 

Martin Luther states in the explanation of the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer “Give us this day our Daily Bread”: Daily bread includes everything needed for this life, such as food and clothing, home and property work and income a devoted family, an orderly community, good government favorable weather, peace and health a good name, and true friends and neighbors.” 1968 The Small Catechism by Martin Luther In Contemporary English Copyrite ã1960, 1968 Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis and Fortress Press, Philadephia

It's clear that everything we have, according to Brother Martin, comes from God and continues to provide us with everything thus every good gift is given freely by God.

 

As we begin this Autumn season and prepare for talking about Stewardship, let us prayerfully consider seriously how God has blessed each of us freely and can use us for the purpose to which God is calling us as members of Trinity and the gifts we have so that Trinity can continue in its present ministries and to ones that God may be calling us to in the coming year.