All
the Gifts We Need
Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris
May 15, 2005
Scripture:
Acts 2:1-17 and 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-13
For the first four centuries
of the Christian Church, there were just two big festival celebration
days in the year: Easter and Pentecost. (the Resurrection of Christ
and the outpouring the Holy Spirit; Easter and Pentecost)
Over time, Christmas was
added and grew in importance. Eventually many of the church’s
feast days were taken over by popular custom and materialism, Santa
Claus and the Easter Bunny rivaling any remaining faith understandings
of those holy days. Yet Pentecost has remained uniquely a holy day
of the church. Have you ever seen a Pentecost greeting card? What
might it say? “Have a wild Pentecost!” “Fasten your
seat belts!” “Hold on to your hats!—It’s Pentecost!”
“It’s that pesky Spirit again!” “Time for
the fire retardant helmet—the tongues of fire are back!”
No. Not a big seller. Not
a lot of popular appeal. I think we should be grateful. Pentecost
remains an observance of the church and nothing can contain or tame
or trivialize its power.
What happens on this day
is awesome, in the true sense of that word, full of awe. God chooses
to pour upon us the full power and potential of the Holy Spirit, just
as the Scriptures and Jesus had promised, pouring out all the gifts
of the Spirit with reckless abandon. Here, says God. I’m giving
you these gifts. They’re free. There’s enough for everyone
- wisdom and knowledge, faith and healing, working miracles, discernment,
understanding, prophecy. All these gifts I am pouring out upon you,
my people. Receive them. Live them. And in this way the Body of Christ
on earth, my church, will have life and have it abundantly.
“There are
varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit,” Paul told his church
in Corinth. And all these gifts are given to you abundantly “for
the common good.” Whichever gifts you are given is part of the
indispensable whole that God is bringing into being in the church.
This is the ecology of Pentecost, a whole interlocking, interconnected,
inter-related organic living system of gifts. All together they give
life to the church. All together they serve to advance Christ’s
kingdom. All together they enable us—as a whole church—to
preach and teach and heal and witness God’s love to this world.
(continued...)
"All
the Gifts We Need" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, May 15,
2005
Think about how Paul says it, for a moment. He doesn’t say: some
people get gifts but not others. No. He says “each.” Each
is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Another
translation says: “In each of us the Spirit is seen to be at work
for some useful purpose.”
It
didn’t just happen once, on that first day we call Pentecost,
centuries ago. It happens whenever we gather in Jesus’ name. The
Spirit is present, lavishly doling out those gifts, to each and every
one.
This
morning, we focus on our confirmands, these ten kids who have worked
hard to present themselves before God and this congregation this morning.
In your mind’s eye just for a moment, scan back and see that this
same thing is going on in churches all over the country, all over the
world. Young people who have been studying and praying and practicing
their faith and growing into their faith are saying: I’m here.
I’m ready. I believe that God has given me a gift to serve the
church. We can trust that this happening, that the church of Jesus Christ
is being renewed this very morning by all these kids because we can
see: Joey, Michael, Gretchen, Katya, Dylan, Kristin, Conor, Brittany,
JP and Peter.
These
are ten great, special kids. We know them. We love them. Each gifted
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You
know, sometimes the older folks among us—that means all of us
who are older than our confirmands—we worry sometimes, don’t
we, about the future of the church, of our church. We worry that there
aren’t enough people or that people aren’t involved enough
or whatever. The Spirit of God is speaking to us this morning and to
that place of worry within us. God is saying: look, people. Open your
eyes. Look at these kids. Look at the people around you here. Look in
the mirror. I have poured out, I am pouring out, I will continue forever
to pour out my Spirit upon you, on each of you, and you will be empowered
to rise up and be my people, from generation to generation.
One
time in some workshop I went to on church growth and renewal, a speaker
said something I have never forgotten. People were moaning and groaning
about not enough members, not enough money, not enough workers, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah …That speaker fixed her eye on us and said:
“Stop worrying. You have all the gifts you need. We have all the
gifts we need.”
Well
I’ll confess to you that it took me quite some time to believe
that to be true. I wrote it down in my notes, but I didn’t really
believe at first. I thought: “easy for you to say. You’re
a consultant. I’m a working pastor. I deal in reality!”
But those words just kept coming to mind, especially when I would feel
in any way discouraged and start to worry. “We have all the gifts
we need.”
(continued...)
"All
the Gifts We Need" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, May 15,
2005
She was teaching me, she was giving me the gift of learning how to
live in the ecology of Pentecost. “We have all the gifts we
need.” The Spirit has poured out, is pouring out, will pour
out all the gifts we need. Each has been gifted for the common good.
She was teaching the gift of trust. She was teaching the gift of faith.
You
know, as Methodists, we know that God cares about the world as much
as the church, that these gifts are given not just for use within
these four walls, but out there. And sometimes, it takes your breath
away.
I
want to share with you a true story of something that happened just
last Sunday about gifts of faith and trust and wisdom and discernment
and working miracles. When I got to church last Sunday, early, there
was already a message on the voicemail from a mother in the upper
peninsula of Michigan worried sick about her son. She is a United
Methodist and she found our number and called to see if we could help
out her son who was at the police station. We didn’t have more
details at that point, but Brad followed up and here’s what
happened. It’s all true.
Nathan
was college graduate who had come out to California some time back
with $2000 and a dream of a new life out here. But he has a rare form
of schizophrenia. When he ran out of money, he ran out of his meds
and he was on the street for a few months, out of contact with his
family or anyone who knew him until last Sunday, when somehow he had
an inkling that it was Mother’s Day. He went up to a stranger’s
door and knocked. An East Indian woman answered and there he was—dirty,
smelly, scary, no doubt. But his first question to her was: “Is
this Mother’s Day?” Something in that question drew her
in. She invited him inside and fed him and let him phone his mother.
He asked for a safe place to stay and the only place she could think
of was the police station so she took him there. The first officer
on duty did a psych test and determined that he was not in danger
and felt that he couldn’t hold him, so he was about to go when
the next officer on duty came in.
Officer
Morton, the second hero of our story, quickly assessed the situation
and made the choice to do more. He took Nathan to the pharmacy and
vouched for his mother’s credit card number so that Nathan could
get his medication. Then he personally took Nathan to United Airlines
and again vouched for the credit card payment to buy Nathan a ticket
home. Then, because Nathan had no ID, walked him through every step
of security and onto the plane, where he got him seated and then reassured
the pilot and crew that he was not a danger to anyone.
Nathan
flew to Chicago and his mother and grandmother drove down from the
Upper Peninsula and met him at the airport. Because he was so emaciated
and weak, the United crew took the extra trouble of putting him in
a wheel chair and rolled him out to his waiting family. His mother
called us back the next morning to say: “My baby is home.”
(continued...)
"All
the Gifts We Need" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, May 15,
2005
A
story, a true story, show us the Spirit’s gifts of discernment,
trust, faith and the working of miracles, poured out and then received
and used for the common good. To each of us, God has given a gift
to be used for the common good. God has poured out, is pouring out,
will pour out, all the gifts we need. It’s here before our
very eyes in an East Indian woman, Officer Morton, and a United
crew. It’s here in the faces of these ten confirmands who
are already sharing their gifts as actors and singers and crucifers
and acolytes and in service on Big Sunday. It’s here, in each
one of us. We cannot now know all that God has in mind for them,
for us, for our church, for this community.
But
we surely need not worry, not now or ever. For through the Holy
Spirit, God gives us power this day: power for life, power for service,
power for trust, power for ministry, power for faith, power for
love. We have all the gifts we need.
Thanks
be to God. AMEN.
Notes:
With gratitude to Sue Mallory for teaching me: “We have all the
gifts we need.”
Fleming Rutledge. “The Apostolic Flame.” In The Bible and
the New York Times. Eerdmanns. Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1998.
© Patricia Farris, 2005. Permission is given for brief quotation
with attribution. All other rights reserved.
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