Today we celebrate the birth of the Church, the day the Holy
Spirit descended upon the apostles and disciples gathered in the upper room,
with manifestations of sound, and fire, and various languages spoken.
It is a common practice, and in years past we have done this
here at Reconciler, for the gospel or the acts passage to be read in different
Languages. This highlights one aspect of
the meaning of Pentecost, that what God was doing in Jesus Christ was something
for all, that in God becoming a Jew, God was coming near to all humanity, and
God wished to meet us in our linguistic and cultural diversity. Each heard the Good news of God’s wonderful
works in their own language. The
universal aspect of this day.
What I wish to focus on today is the meaning and nature of
the Spirit being in us and empowering us, for the purpose of manifesting and
witnessing to what God began and continues to do in Jesus Christ, that is to
focus on how the Holy Spirit is needed for us to be the Body of Christ.
The Spirit descends and gives utterance. The Holy Spirit when it descended made
possible what was otherwise possible that the disciples of Jesus spoke in
languages they didn’t know so that people could hear from God in a way familiar
to them.
There was a trend for a while in in some congregations and
promoted by denominational leadership for members of congregations to undergo a
Spiritual gift assessment. These assessments
where supposed to tell one what was the gift of the Spirit, or “spiritual gift”
one had. Those who promoted this
appealed to this passage in Corinthians.
I think the intentions of these assessments were in the right place. As Christians this aspect of the Christian
life is often underdeveloped, the Holy Spirit and having an awareness of the
power of the Spirit in one’s daily life or interaction with other Christians
and in worship has been often lacking.
However, my recollection is that these assessments weren’t
much different from a personality test.
That is what they evaluated wasn’t something Spiritual meaning of the
holy Spirit, but matching up one’s personality with the various list of Gifts
of the Holy Spirit listed in various places in Paul’s writing.
Yet, this view doesn’t quite agree with what we find in the
Acts account of the day of Pentecost, the point the being that filled with the
Spirit and given the gift of speaking other languages was something Galilean Jews
would have had no ability or inclination to begin speaking in all these (to
them) foreign languages. Also, in our
Corinthian’s passage Paul’s emphasis isn’t on some heightening of the native abilities
of the Christian, but Paul’s emphasis is on the will and action of the Holy
Spirit. The point is that what one is
given one is base on the will and empowerment of the Holy Spirit and not on
inclination or native ability.
But that isn’t all.
Paul is also using the idea of spiritual gifts to speak of unity and
diversity of the Church the Body of Christ.
In this sense a Spiritual Gift is that which binds you to other members
of the Body of Christ. Spiritual
giftedness is the means of the unity in diversity of the Church. The gift you have from the Spirit is that
which you serve and which binds you to other members of the body of
Christ. Your giftedness is part of your
being brought into the body of Christ through Baptism.
This was the good thing about those assessments they sought to get people to think of their
connection and service to the Body of Christ, and its local manifestation in
their local congregation.
Yet also, this giftedness is about giving witness to what
God inaugurated in Jesus Christ. Or to
put it another way The spirit and the gifts from the Spirit empower us and bind
us together as the body of Christ. This spiritual reality of the Body of Christ
is also the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The gift s of the spirit allow us to function as the Body of
Christ, a unity like all biological bodies that is also a diversity. It is this Spiritual unity in diversity of
the gifts that shows the world what the age to come will be like.
What gift have you received from the Spirit? What do you
find in the presence of other members of the Body of Christ, which binds you to
them and also serves other members of the Body in a way that is both unique to
you and gives life to you, other members of the Body and the world?
If you are sitting with this and fearful that maybe you’ve
missed out or that you are spiritual enough. Don’t worry. Rest in that you have the Holy Spirit. Ask God
and the Spirit to reveal to you this gift that you have been given. Wait on God, be still. You don’t drum it up,
and be prepared for the unexpected. This
is from the Holy Spirit, the gift will be something that is both you and yet
beyond yourself and which takes you beyond who you think you are. Be open to whatever the Spirit will bring
you, be open to the movement of the Spirit that is like the wind that you know
through its effects in you but don’t know where it is coming from or where it
is going. Wait upon God and see where in your desires and in your hear flows
life that doesn’t come from you but gives you life and enlivens those around
you. The spirit has come, it rest upon
each us, maybe not in visible flame, but the Spirit through Baptism has rested
upon each of us, and the Spirit has given you a gift that isn’t for you alone
for you but for the Body of Christ and so from each of us may flow a stream of
living water for the life of the world. Amen
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