Wednesday, June 29, 2011
June 12, 2011 - Pentecost
Several years ago, there was a movie called Splash. Any of you remember it? It starred Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, and I'll be honest: I don't remember all that much about the plot of the movie, except that he was a human, and she was a mermaid who somehow was able to come out of the ocean and live on dry land. What I do remember of this movie is this one scene where Tom Hanks brings Daryl Hannah a gift. It's a big box, beautifully wrapped, all tied up with a big shiny bow. He hands it to her, and she is over the moon, gushing, thanking him, telling him that it's beautiful, that she loves it... and finally he says to her, “Aren't you going to open it?”
See, she didn't realize that there was more to the gift. She didn't realize that she needed to open it – that there was more inside for her to see, to use.
The second lesson from 1st Corinthians, with all its talk about gifts, reminds me of that scene. The apostle Paul, great church planter & letter writer that he was, first wrote these words to the church in Corinth, a church that was in the middle of a whole bunch of struggle and conflict and turmoil with each other. Now apparently what was going on there as that people were fighting about who had the more important spiritual gift. They'd argue back & forth, competing with each other. I imagine it like this, “My gift's better than your gift...” Everyone wanted to be important, everyone wanted to rank higher than someone else. And so Paul writes them this letter, to help straighten this & a whole lot of other issues out.
But when we read this letter today, I don't think that's so much our problem. I don't generally hear people lording it over each other, putting their own gifts in first place. No, we're more like the mermaid in that scene from Splash. If we even realize we've been given a gift, many of us haven't quite realized that we're supposed to open it! We don't seem to get that there's more to it than just pretty wrapping paper and a big bow – that the gifts we have were meant to be opened up and used, not just sit around on the shelf and look good. And just as often, we don't recognize the gifts we've been given as gifts that come from God. Because our spiritual gifts are kind of like the air we breathe, or if you're a mermaid, like the water you swim in. It's always been there, it's so much a part of you that you never give it a second thought. It comes so naturally that you'd be surprised to know that other people think it's a gift. It's just what you do.
What Paul wants those early Christians to know, though, in the middle of all of their battling about who has what gifts and which gifts are the most important, is that all of them are important. The Holy Spirit gives each of the believers a gift – on purpose! This is what Paul says: “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. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Then he lists all sorts of spiritual gifts – the utterance of wisdom and knowledge, the gifts of faith, of healing, of miracles; prophecy, the discernment of spirits, the speaking of different tongues, the interpretation of those tongues – this isn't an exhaustive list, mind you – just a sampling, and I suspect they were the ones that they were in contention over... but each of these gifts was given by the Spirit, who activates them and allots them as she chooses – but each person is given a gift, and each gift is expected to be used for the good of all.
I think that's still Paul's message for us today. Even if our issues about our spiritual gifts are different, I think if Paul was writing us this letter – or emailing or Facebooking it to us (I don't think Paul would be able to use Twitter though – he's way too much of a run-on-sentence kind of guy!) - he would say to us – from the youngest to the most senior among us, “The Spirit has given you a gift. Some of you are handymen (or women), some of you are teachers. Some are leaders, some work behind the scenes. Some are musicians, some are writers, some are organizers. Some of you like to work in the dirt, others would rather use your heads. '...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. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
Do you hear that, people of God? Each of us has a gift, something special given to us by the Holy Spirit, something that is a unique combination of our talents and abilities and personalities and that God-piece that the Spirit stirs up and activates in us. And you know what else? God has given us, right here, in all the people of St. John's, all the gifts that we need to do the work that God has called this congregation to do. God has given us just the right people with just the right gifts so that we can carry out God's mission for us right now – to lift each other up and support one another as we reach out into the world to share and live the good news of God's kingdom coming near, breaking into our world as we speak! Those gifts are in you and in me and in the people sitting in front of you, next to you, behind you. They're in our littlest Sunday schooler, in our confirmands, in our high school seniors who are graduating and going into the world. They're in parents and empty-nesters and those who have long since been retired. The Spirit has given us all the gifts we need to do the work of God in this church and beyond. So don't just sit there admiring the pretty package and the beautiful bow. It's a gift meant to be used. The church and the world need you to use it – it's for the common good. Can you hear the Spirit? “Aren't you going to open it?”
Amen.
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