“Pentecost and the Gift of the Spirit” by the Rev. Don Wahlig, May 28, 2023, Year A / Pentecost – Acts 2:1-21 or Numbers 11:24-30 • Psalm 104:24-34, 35b • 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 or Acts 2:1-21 • John 20:19-23 or John 7:37-39

THEME: Embrace all our gifts from the Spirit and use them in cooperation with others to do Jesus’ will. 

 

If you are a sports fan, you know this is a very special time of year. Soccer is the sport I love most. This afternoon over in England, the Premier League season comes to a dramatic conclusion. Teams at the top of the league are fighting tooth and nail for places in next year’s European club competitions. Teams at the bottom of the league are fighting to avoid being relegated to a lower division.

Here in the US, Major League Soccer and Baseball are both well under way. In basketball and ice hockey, the playoffs are in full swing and the finals are right around the corner. Yes, indeed, this is a very good time to be a sports fan.  In all these sports, I have noticed a common theme. The most successful teams are not the ones who rely on one or two superstars. The very best teams are the ones who play well together, whose members all bring different gifts and talents. Through a combination of good coaching, team spirit and personal humility, they use their talents to support and complement each other. In that way, the whole team succeeds because they play well together.

That is exactly the point Paul is making to the Corinthian Christians. The problem in Corinth is that some in the church are claiming that their gifts are superior to others. They are competing, instead of cooperating. As a result, they are divided by conflict.

In response, Paul makes three points. First, Paul points out that spiritual gifts come in different varieties. They are not all the same in everyone. Different people have different gifts, and that is not an accident. It is God’s design.

Second, all spiritual gifts come from the same place. The Holy Spirit is the source of them all. We receive the Spirit in baptism.  It works in us throughout our lives, drawing us closer to God and our neighbors as we develop our gifts.

Finally, all spiritual gifts have the same purpose. They are meant to be used for the common good. That is how Christians serve Jesus as Lord. That was where the Corinthians were missing the boat. They knew they had each been given spiritual gifts and they knew their gifts were different. But some were insisting that their gifts were superior to others and, therefore, more important. 

Instead of using their gifts for the common good to serve Jesus better, they were using their gifts to set themselves apart from others. By elevating their own individual status, they were failing to collectively serve Jesus.  To reorient their priorities, Paul uses the metaphor of the body. He says, “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. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

The body functions best when all its members work together. In other words, it’s like a good sports team. The team is at its best when the individual members are each contributing, doing what each one does best, and working together to help others contribute what they do best. The same is true for you and me in this family of faith. But there are two challenges. 

First, we may be more like those Corinthians than we think. We understand and use our own gifts best. As a result, we are sometimes tempted to think of others’ gifts as less important than our own. If I think I have the gift of proclamation, for example, I may be tempted to think that is the most important gift of all. The same could be true of those whose gifts are, say, teaching or mission work or caring for others. 

These are all gifts of the Spirit to be used to serve Jesus, but when we begin to compare them and rank them as more important or more faithful than the gifts of others, we begin to walk down the road toward conflict and division. And that only weakens our witness to Christ.  Thinking too highly of our spiritual gifts is one danger. The second danger we face is thinking of our gifts too lightly, or not at all. I daresay, this may be the greater danger. 

Whether we understand it or not, God has given each of us specific spiritual gifts. We may have been born with these gifts. We may have developed them throughout our lives. However we have come to possess them, their origin is the Holy Spirit and their intended use is to serve our Lord Jesus Christ.

But that begs a question. How do we know what spiritual gifts we have been given? Well, there are any number of tests and online surveys, but let me caution you. They are all far too narrow in their definition of what constitutes a spiritual gift. In truth, the variety of spiritual gifts is far wider and more extensive than even the list Paul offers. A spiritual gift is a talent, skill, or passion that comes to us through the Spirit in order to be used for Jesus’ mission.

Maybe you love to cook or entertain. Maybe you enjoy reading aloud. Maybe you have work experience law or finance, or medicine or education, or the military. Maybe you love to care for children or the elderly.

Maybe you love writing, or singing, or drawing, or administration, or organization. You may not think of these things as gifts of the Spirit, but they are. God wants you to use them for Jesus’ mission, and not hide them away in a closet. 

Here is my experience of overlooking God’s spiritual gifts. After 20 years of working in sales and marketing, I followed God’s lead into ministry. When I finally made that commitment and enrolled in seminary, I assumed I had wasted all those years of experience, not to mention an expensive MBA, because none of it would be important for ministry. Or so I thought. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I gradually discovered that all my education and experience – everything I learned and all the skills and passions I developed in the world of business – are not just relevant to ministry, they are essential. 

When I arrived here seven and a half years ago, I came to understand with stunning clarity that, in my education and experience, God had been working through the Holy Spirit to prepare me for ministry here. The same is true for you. No matter what you have been doing with your life up until now, and no matter what your skills and passions are, God has been preparing you for ministry here in this place. You have been given these gifts through the Holy Spirit. You can be sure they are useful for building up Christ’s mission through his church at Silver Spring. 

The question is, will we use them that way?

I’ll close with a story. Nicolo Paganini was born in Genoa, Italy in the late 1700s. At the age of seven, he began studying the violin. By the time he was a teenager, his talent had surpassed even his most accomplished teachers. By his 18^th birthday, he was principal violinist of his state orchestra. It wasn’t long before his fame spread throughout Europe. He used his extraordinary gift to entertain Popes, princes, and Kings. When he died, he willed his favorite violin to Genoa, the city of his birth. The gift came with a stipulation that it never be played again.

That stipulation was both unfortunate and unwise. As long as a wooden string instrument is played, it shows little wear and remains capable of producing the most magnificent tones. But if it is set aside and remains untouched, it begins to decay.

The magnificent power and resonance of this once exquisite violin is gone. The worm-eaten wood continues to decay in silence. It is a symbolic reminder that our spiritual gifts, if left unused and withdrawn from service to others, lose their meaning. You may not be a virtuoso violinist, but you have most certainly been given other talents, interests, and skills. You can be sure of three things. 

First, your gifts are different from those of others. Second, no matter how much they differ, all gifts come from God through the Spirit. And, in God’s eyes, your gifts are every bit as valuable and important as the gifts God has given others.

Most important, we are members of Team Jesus. God intends us to use our gifts to support and complement those of our teammates in order to serve Christ. 

That is what makes Team Jesus great. 



It is how we build up his church.

May it be so.