May 31, 2020
Gifts of the Spirit
- Acts 2:1-4
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
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Gifts of the Spirit
sermon by Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
Acts 2:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 12:4-13
May 31, 2020
Remember how I said I preached my first Easter sermon this year? Well I was all ready to say the same thing about Pentecost today, but fortunately I went back to my sermon files and found out that I preached a Pentecost sermon in 2016. Cha-ching I thought, I can just update an old sermon and use it again today. Unfortunately, that rarely works, and although it was a good sermon, it was not really appropriate for this difficult and confusing time of pandemic and unrest in our country.
I wrote my first draft of this sermon on Thursday. Thursday is always sermon writing day because Fridays are supposed to be my sabbath.
And then George Floyd was murdered by a policeman who put a knee to his neck for 9 minutes. And then I went to bed on Friday night and woke up on Saturday and knew I had to rewrite the sermon to address the issue of black men and women dying because of the color of their skin. This issue is obviously bigger than a sermon, but the words and the images of Pentecost are powerful for what has happened in the last few days.
On Pentecost, a Jewish Festival, the disciples are gathered in a room and hear the sound of a violent wind. That word “wind” in Hebrew and Greek can also be translated as air or breath. The breath of God’s Spirit filled the entire house where the disciples were sitting. Breath. A sign of life. And yet George Floyd could not breathe because he had a knee on his neck for 9 minutes.
And flames, divided tongues of fire, rested on each of the disciples. Fires, tear gas, stores on fire, looting and divided tongues. Fire. Another image of Pentecost. And the color red to represent the flames. The color we associate with anger. So much anger for years of years of oppression and racial injustice.
We know the Pentecost text and the story of the new church that followed it. We know the Holy Spirit showed up and changed the lives of the people in the room. The winds of change stirred the people in the room that day, but it didn’t just stir them up to stay there among themselves. It blew them out into the world around them.
And when the Holy Spirit moves we are able to hear the language of people all around us. That’s the next 16 verses of Acts 2 that were not read this morning. The Holy Spirit is with us today burning like a hot flame and blowing like the wind, to open our ears to hear and try to understand the people around us. The Holy Spirit is blowing among us, it is there to spark a fire within us, and to send us out. To send us out to hear the voices that go unheard among us. The Spirit, the wind, the breath of God, invites us to move beyond hearing and understanding to action – to be the hands and feet and voice of God in our communities. To share the story of Jesus to a very broken world.
I often compare the Spirit to a leaf blower. I don’t know about you, but I can’t control one very well. When I use one, the debris I am trying to blow away just keeps blowing leaves and pollen and pinecones all over the place. Wind, or a leaf blower, can be helpful. But it is not tame. It is hard to control. It blows where it may.
The Spirit is a gift that is difficult to control, and it blows us places we might not choose to go on our own. The prayer of the church is “come, Holy Spirit, come.” But on Pentecost the Holy Spirit showed up as a violent wind. When we pray for the Holy Spirit to come, we need to buckle up and get ready for the ride, knowing we will be pushed in directions that will make us very uncomfortable. And I believe that is what the Holy Spirit is doing right now in our country.
We also need to be aware that the Spirit will land on the most unexpected people. And it will play havoc with our control issues and make us question our direction as a country and as a church and as a denomination.
In a time when our world seems so out of control, the gifts of the Spirit that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians may not seem very important. But with our prayer, “come Holy Spirit, come,” it is more important now than ever. Because no matter how wonderful we think we are functioning as a church in a time of crisis after crisis, we need to pray for the Spirit to work through us. No matter how much money we give to the budget or to our mission partners, we have to pray that the Spirit will use our gifts. And no matter how well we think we are functioning we need to pray that the Spirit will focus our gifts on what is most important now.
We have been lifting up the most vulnerable among us each and every week in our prayers – the sick, the hungry, those without jobs, the homeless. And although the most vulnerable among us are often people of color, we have not honestly dealt with that reality. The racist structures and systems on which our country were built, and which continue to harm people of color need our deep attention. We must combine our strengths and weakness and gifts together to make some kind of lasting change.
I have seen this congregation use its gifts over and over again in these last few months. We have not just been a group of people gathered in a room waiting to see what can be done. Shoot, we’re not even gathered in the same room, and yet the Spirit is working through us and using our gifts for the work of the church and challenging us to witness to Kingdom living.
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4-6)
It is the same God who turns on the power, who activates the spiritual gifts in each of us. In all of us. And to each – not just some, but to each – is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
In the last 12 weeks many of you have stepped up to help us with worship, taught us new technologies, delivered meals, called folks in the congregation, made administrative decisions, and begun an assistance fund. The list could go on and on. We all have gifts. They are God given gifts. And when the Holy Spirit moves among us, those gifts are amplified, activated, powered up, and they become more. Gifts like wisdom, healing, prophecy, and discernment – the gifts that are needed so much now.
And Paul reminds us that our gifts are activated by God for the common good. The common good. Not just so we can take care of each other, as important as that is. Those Spirit given gifts, and how they have been used, have been different during these days of viral pandemic. And they will have to be different as we confront our history of racism and discrimination in the United States.
I will close now with words from ELCA pastor Tiffany Chaney whose words I have used in much of this sermon today:
“As you go out into the unique places God sends you, may the passion of peace ignite a fire in you. May the winds of joy lift you off your feet. May the passion of unity light you into action. May the winds of love blow through your communities. May the fire of the Holy Spirit ignite you to speak life to a broken world. May the winds of the Holy Spirit lead you to break down boundaries that divide.
God of wind and fire, embolden us this day to receive your power through your word. Give us strength and courage to proclaim your love as a call for justice for those who are dying to receive it.” Amen.
Resources: “Pentecost Power Up,” Marci Glass, a sermon preached on May 14, 2016 and published in the blog “Glass Overflowing.” “Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired,” by Rev. Tiffany C. Chaney, revtifc.wordpress.com