Transcript
To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Please be seated.
I forgot to put my sermon back in the correct order. I’m sorry about that y’all. Awkward pause. Awkward silence. Isn’t there a character from Saturday Night Live that says, “Talk am so amongst yourselves.” There we go.
Often today, Pentecost is referred to as the birthday of the church. It is when the Holy Spirit comes down upon the disciples and gives them their Christian authority, fulfilling Jesus’s promise to empower his followers and to launch the global mission of the church. The presence of the Holy Spirit transforms the disciples from a frightened, hidden, fractured group into a bold public community. They begin baptizing and preaching the word of Christ. And as that well-known reading from Acts points out, they preach in every language so all may hear and know and understand.
Thus the birthday of the church when the church those who believe Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. Those who believe we are called to love God and love our neighbors and love ourselves. Those who believe God is worthy of praise and prayer and worship because God gives us grace and mercy and unconditional love, not to mention our own very existence. This is when the church is born.
Some churches will even have birthday cake. Sorry to disappoint. We don’t. I like to save the birthday cake for all saints and in gathering Sunday. So come back in October for or November for that.
Also, I suspect a lot of preachers will be preaching about gifts about presents given from God to each of us. It’s what I’m preaching on, which is what the second passage from First Corinthians is about. Each of us has been given gifts from the spirit. Not a single one of us was skipped or missed or overlooked. And every single gift we have directly from God, from the spirit.
In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul lists nine gifts of the spirit. Things the spirit gives to each of us. Utterance of wisdom, utterance of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues. And while these may seem a bit abstract or even slightly unrealistic in today’s world, like working of miracles, they are gifts given to us from God.
Perhaps that is another reason why we could argue that today is like a birthday because it celebrates gifts that we receive. No, the gifts of the spirit are not usually wrapped up in shiny paper with a bow on top, but they are gifts. I say this a lot. You’ve heard me say it. It’s a core tenant of my faith.
As Christians, each of us are made in the image of God. But does that mean that we are exact replicas of God, like clones or xeroxed copies, but more like a reflection? may be slightly distorted, not the whole picture. As such, our gifts are part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Because every gift we have is given from God, who also has each of these gifts in God. By being made in the image, we become pieces of God. And when we put all our gifts together, when we combine everything into one, then we are even more aligned with God.
As Paul writes, just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. So it is with God. We are many. We have many gifts and together we are one body like the one God.
Taking all of this into account, it is safe to say the only way we can really get a whole lot closer to God, closer to a more exact replica of God, is through community, is through being a congregation. people who bringing each of their individual gifts come together and work towards the common goal of praising and worshiping a god who is the very reason why we exist in the first place and by we I mean individually and communally Carol or Steven or Rob or Ellen and St. John’s church which means the church this church only becomes fully itself when we each of us all of us share our gifts with one another. We need each other’s gifts, each other’s perspectives, each other’s wisdom and compassion and creativity and faith brought together, offered to one another as a way to offer God’s presence, a fuller presence of God to the world. These are gifts of singing, teaching, cooking, and organizing, praying, visiting, welcoming, listening, serving in the choir, at the altar, during Sunday school, at fellowship events, with outreach projects to the sick and desolate, maybe quietly behind the scenes, or very publicly at the front door, directly involving scripture and theology and spirituality, or more involving business and administration on the vestri with financial gifts. showing up when someone needs help. Being present when someone needs presence, simply being who you are, equipped with a gift that fits a need that we most certainly have.
And on the flip side, perhaps some of us aren’t quite sure what our gifts are or where they fit. And that’s also okay. We will certainly help you figure what those out those gifts. We got you. Because yes, there is a place for you here. There is a need for your gifts, for what you have, what you can offer, and who you are.
That reading from first Corinthians remind us no one is overlooked by the spirit. Every single one of us has a gift, a gift from a loving God to be shared with one another. Just as God’s love is shared with all. And here’s the thing, our gifts are not for self-promotion or personal boasting, they are given by a God who loves as an act of love to each of us. So we may use our gifts to show love. Love toward one another and toward the church and back toward God. Together as the body of Christ, we fully reflect God more beautifully, more faithfully. when we bring our whole selves, including our gifts.
And perhaps that is the true birthday present of Pentecost. Not simply that the spirit came down upon the church once, but that the spirit is still moving among us now, calling each of us to bring what we have to offer who we are, and to become together the living body of Christ. Today is Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came down upon us and ignited the fire within us that are the gifts God has given to each of us. Happy Pentecost to y’all. Amen.