We had planned for this hot Dominican day for over a year. Our team of twelve youth, and four adults had met together, prayed together, made crafts, raised funds, written skits, put together costumes and been commissioned by the Diocese of Maine to do our work. We were a group that was prepared and called to do this short term mission. That said, our first day of our long expected VBS was a disaster. The skits didn’t work, neither the kids from the DR nor the team from Maine understood the Spanish script that Angela and I had prepared. As we gathered together after cleaning up the church from all the VBS related debris there was a sense of failure in the air. Having a team where only Angela and I spoke Spanish was a problem. We simply didn’t know how we could communicate the message of God to this group of children. We didn’t know how we could carry out our mission which we had been so convinced we were called to.

So we prayed, and we talked, and after a long and difficult discussion, we decided that we would shake things up for the next day. Instead of following our pre-made scripts we would have one member who was a gifted story-teller tell the Bible Story in English. That way the team of youth from Maine would know what to do and be better able to act and take part in the script. The only problem with this plan was that Angela and I had to translate the story on the spot for the 100-plus children. Both Angela and I were nervous. Neither of us had ever served as official translators before. We didn’t trust our vocabulary or our grammar skills, but we believed that if God had called us to this place to lead a VBS this was what we had to do.

The next day the children packed into the small sanctuary while the sun beat down on the tin-roof, and VBS began. Together we sang and prayed, and then the skit began. Our story-teller began to talk, telling the story in short increments with breaks for us to translate. Angela immediately began translating. At the second break she looked at me, not knowing what words to use and I jumped in, translating the next few sections until I reached a point where I was confused. The amazing thing that happened that day, and the next three days, is we were never lost for words. God provided us with all the Spanish we needed and as a result VBS was a fantastic success. God gave our team every gift that we needed to lead that VBS, a story-teller, gifted actors, translation, and a sense of humor. While we all felt overwhelmed and inadequate on that first day, it turned out that God was watching over us and giving us all we needed to live into our calling and ministry.

The Apostle Paul writes about this very thing in the start of his letter to the Church in Corinth. In these first nine verses Paul refers to the Corinthians as being the saints of God who have been enriched by God with every spiritual gift necessary for them to live their life as the holy people of God.

Many of us hear the words saint, spiritual gift, called, and are convinced they simply don’t apply to us. For far too many, these words apply to a select few people, not to every day Christians. But Paul makes it clear in his letter to the Church in Corinth that each and every one of these words does apply to us.

Just like the Corinthian Church which Paul was writing to we too are a people called by God, enriched by God, empowered by God. In Baptism we are adopted into God’s family, we are granted the forgiveness of sins, we are shown grace and love which we cannot earn, we are united with Christ and the Church and we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit which leads and empowers throughout our lives. In the Eucharist we encounter Christ week in and week out, nourishing us, healing us, accepting us, calling us to serve others as he has served us. In Bible study we meet the living Word of God which enriches us, guides us, and gives us a deeper knowledge of our faith. In prayer we are invited to communicate with our very Creator and Redeemer and thus find ourselves surrounded by God’s loving, abiding presence . Through all of this and more God enriches each and every baptized person with gifts, gifts such as the ability to work on a youth house, deal with budgets, prepare the altar, pray, study the Bible, talk to friends about Jesus, teach children the Bible, reach out to those in need.

Along with the Corinthians to whom Paul wrote we are a group called together to rejoice in who God has made us. We are a people called to join together in praise and thanksgiving to the Giver of all good gifts. We are a people called to shine forth with the radiance of Christ. It sounds like a lofty calling, it sounds like something that doesn’t apply, but it DOES APPLY TO YOU AND ME just as it applied to every member of the Corinthian church to whom Paul wrote.

Think for a moment about your gifts. Think for a moment about those things that give you life and bring you closer to Jesus, closer to your family and friends. Think for a moment about all the ministries that reach out to so many at this parish and in this community. Come to the parish meeting today and hear the GOOD NEWS of what God is doing through you, the saints of God gathered in Plymouth, MI. God has empowered us, God has called us, God has made us saints through baptism and called us to be the light of Christ in the world. Try for just a moment to let that reality sink in. You are a saint, you are called, you are empowered to be the light of Christ.

With that sure and certain knowledge deep within you ponder for just a moment how God might be calling you to use your gifts all the more. What is your calling? What is your part in this incredible journey of discipleship and servant-hood. There is no quick answer to this question just as there was no quick answer for that group of missionaries from Maine that summer day as we tried to figure out how to fix our VBS. There is no quick answer to this question just as Paul gave no quick answer to the Corinthians but spent 16 chapters working with them and then following it all up with a second letter when things still weren’t working well. But the fact is God has given us all we need. God has called us to do incredible, life changing things. God desires to use us, you and me, to be a light to the world, that we may, in the words of our opening prayer "shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth."

At the end of that week of VBS in the Dominican Republic the team of teenagers and adults realized beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had equipped us, God had called us, God had set us apart as saints to do ministry in Christ’s name. That didn’t mean that our time or calling was easy or even that we always knew what we were doing. Translating like that was anything but a comfortable experience for me. But God was faithful. God did not leave me or any member of our team. God did not abandon us. Instead God used that team to teach 100 children, to build a 50,000 dollar bakery, and to bring Good News to the little town of Jalonga. God used us to shine.

My friends, sisters and brothers, fellow saints, may we too realize this in our lives, God is with us, God is calling us, God has equipped us. Now let us go forth to be light in the world, to be the saints of God, to be who we were called to be.

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