May 27, 2007

by The Rev. Constance Jones

I Corinthians 12:4-13

Now there are varieties of gifts,
but it is the same Spirit that breathes life in to them.

Some people are given the gift to make beautiful things with their hands –
from wood or fabric, paint or stone, flowers or paper.
Inside the artist may reside peace, or turmoil, or a quest for something beyond reach,
but their hands are animated by the Spirit of God,
and their art opens a window for the rest of us into the heart of God.

To some is given the Spirit’s gift of administration.
They do what most of us do badly –
they prioritize, organize, categorize, and bring blessed order
out of a home, a business, a church, a charity.
They deploy and support others in doing good things in this world.

Yet others are given the gift to understand how things work,
to invent them, manufacture or operate them, or fix them.
They may work with hands and tools, a computer keyboard, or abstractions.
They make possible the world of technology.

To some people is given the gift of the proper and restrained use of force,
in law-enforcement perhaps, or the armed forces.
Under the rule of law and with peace and tranquility as their goal,
they accept a charge from the rest of us to bear arms,
yet to use them as little as possible,
to employ coercion when necessary for the sake of the common good.
Their gift carries a great risk, for they use moral discernment every day,
and may be called to put lives in jeopardy.
On this Memorial Day weekend,
we especially honor this gift of the Spirit for the common good.

Some have the gift to work in the health sciences.
They have brilliant, intuitive minds,
or steady hands, or compassionate touch, or they have a gift for starting IVs.
Some of them file insurance claims right the first time, and remember your name.
They are touched by the Spirit of God.

Some have special talent to sing or to play guitar,
others to dance or play basketball, still others to grow roses.
Their talent is from God,
and when they gladden our hearts, they glorify God.

Some follow an ancient calling to buy and sell things,
engaging in honest commerce to provide things people need.

Others have the Spirit’s gift to make good things to eat,
remembering that our heavenly Father does not want us to be hungry.

Still others record and remember the past,
for to remember is always to participate in the mind of God.

There are those gifted in writing and speaking,
who tell stories or analyze them.
Their gift is from the God of the word, who gives us communication.

There are others who exercise the Spirit’s gift of shepherding.
They comfort those who mourn, or bury the dead with dignity.

Judges are exercising God’s gift when their judge fairly; and so are gentle caregivers, cheerful clerks, and unselfish public servants.

Blessed indeed by the Spirit are those who suffer illness and ageing with patience,
being not bitter, but more and more translucent to the Spirit of God within them.

It is the Holy Spirit of God who animates all these gifts,
and hundreds of others you might name.
When we exercise them for the common good and to the glory of God,
we are one, and we are participants in the life of God, here on earth.

There is nowhere the Holy Spirit of God cannot be.
It is in the air and the fire and the water
of everything that is alive and good and of God.
The Holy Spirit speaks every language and intimately knows every culture.
The Spirit lives in the space
between what we consider sacred and what we think of as everyday.
The Holy Spirit is as old as the first day of Creation,
when it moved over the face of the waters of the deep.
It is as new as today’s act of mercy or tomorrow’s bright ray of hope.

The Holy Spirit cannot be predicted, defined, or contained.
It will always surprise you.
The Spirit is embedded in tradition and the oldest of practices and stories,
and in what is new and holy as well.
The Spirit is male and female alike.
It is holy and mystical and silent one moment,
and dances with delight the next.
As you cannot see the wind, you cannot see the Spirit,
but you can feel its breeze as it passes.
The Spirit needs no translator.
It is more evident in experience than analysis.
There is nowhere that you can flee
that the Holy Spirit of God cannot find you and animate you.

There is a branch of theology
devoted to the study of this third person of the Trinity,
called “pneumatology” – the pneuma part referring to air and breathing.
You can lure pneumatologists into arguing about this:
Was the Spirit of God present at Creation?
Or was the Spirit sent by Christ after his Ascension,
to make the gathered disciples into a church?
They will say Yes to both questions.
If you made the Book of Acts into a play (and what a play it would be),
you’d have to cast the Holy Spirit as the lead actor.
But the Spirit would be looking over your shoulder as you wrote the play.

There are varieties of gifts and callings,
varieties of talents, expressions, and places in life.
But whenever they lean in a God-ward direction,
especially in unexpected ways,
the Holy Spirit is there, with the breath of life and power and love.
The Holy Spirit is our escort into eternal life, I am quite sure.

Take a deep breath,
and breathe in the air in this holy place,
on a day filled with sacred possibility.
On the breath out again, breathe a prayer
that God will animate those particular gifts the Spirit has given you,
and send you out into the world rejoicing in a whole new world. Amen.

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