The Gifts of the Spirit: Acts 2: 1-12; I Cor. 12: 4-13
Not long after I moved into my house on Waverland Drive here in Macon, a family member, who is going to remain nameless, gave me a Christmas gift. It was a large box wrapped in gorgeous paper and bows. I was supremely excited for what this gift could be. With a big grin, excited about getting something more than a gift card, I tore off the paper, and there it was…a leaf blower. And not just any leaf blower…one that required a special mix of gasoline to operate. I couldn’t help but notice that a gas can was not included. Some items sold separately. I had a regular yard service at that time, so the gift went into my hallway closet until by some magical occurrence it walked itself to the church yard sale.
Sometimes we receive really big, overwhelming gifts, and we simply sit there asking, “What do I do with this?” On Pentecost we celebrate that God gave us the big gift—the Holy Spirit, our guide, our comforter, our Savior dwelling with us and in us. Just as the early disciples discovered, the Holy Spirit gives power, strength, conviction to follow God, to speak the truth, and to live Christ-like in this life.
But then we read in First Corinthians that we have other gifts as well, and here things get a bit more complicated. I guess the simplest way to understand this is to ask two questions: what are spiritual gifts, and what do we do with them? First Corinthians tells us right at the beginning that there are many gifts but one Spirit who is the source. That would be God dwelling in us as the Holy Spirit. “God works,” we are told, “in different ways, but is the same God who does the work in all of us.” This work within us is seen in the gifts we possess.
We are given this definition, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us, so we can help each other.” A spiritual gift is both a talent or ability coupled with a calling or a push to share that gift in some way. Some are given the ability to speak in wisdom, while some are given the ability of knowledge. The simplest way to describe these two is to say that knowledge is knowing what to do and wisdom is knowing how to do it. We are also told some have faith, and some have the gift of healing.
Others have the gift of prophecy while some have discernment. Another set of gifts going hand in hand is that of speaking in tongues and the interpretation thereof. In each of our lives there are many gifts. This is not an exhaustive list. Some have a gift for planning and organization. Some have a gift for teaching, and others for sharing music and arts. Others are gifted in leadership and strength. There are many, many gifts of the Spirit, and each one of us has some kind of gift to further God’s kingdom.
We are called to use this gifts as God gives them. If you have the skill and ability, use it! Our gifts are meant to show Christ and Christ’s love in this world, of furthering the work of God, and equipping the church to lead in our communities and nation. It’s much like the light we receive from Christ, we must let it shine. Hide it under a bushel—no! Don’t let Satan blow it out! This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.
Letting our light shine means we use our gifts routinely and for Godly purposes. Sometimes that looks at caring for one another. Many of you have been calling and checking in on one another, have encouraged and reached out in marvelous ways to keep our members connected and reminded that there is a body of Christ who loves them. Shining our light and using our gifts also means we have to take daring and challenging stands for what is right. In our modern society we must confront racism, bigotry, and hatred. We must say that kneeling on the throat of a black man until he suffocates to death with depraved indifference is wrong.
We see this two part way of the light of Christ and sharing of gifts even in the early church. Acts 2, near the end, says the apostles sold all they had and cared for one another as they were able—especially the poor, widows, and orphans. But over and over in Acts we hear the record of the apostles speaking out. They preached Christ’s love and grace, redemption, and a new way of faith that saw beyond all the complex rules and hierarchy of old religions. Instead, all that mattered was a relationship with a loving Savior, “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.”
One of the fastest ways to solve our problems is to stop looking at the inherent differences we see and to start seeing all of the people around us as either children of God or God’s creation. When the apostles received the Holy Spirit, they went out and spoke and preached. Logic would say that they would speak only in their own known language, likely Aramaic or some regional dialect. But everyone who heard their preaching they spoke in other languages and all who were gathered heard the message of God’s love in his or her own native language, whether from Judea, Mesopotamia, Asia, Egypt, Arabic nations,…all heard a language they understood.
God broke down the differences that day. There was neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, all the different people heard about how they, too, could be God’s beloved. Knowledge teaches us that no matter where we come from, we are all human; faith teaches us to treat one another with Christ-like love accordingly. Faith teaches us that we must believe God has a plan for all and for every neighbor; healing means we put our calling to work. Prophecy said we must stand for justice and God’s truth; discernment tells us who needs to hear. Speaking in tongues is God’s language of grace to the world; interpretation means we must help the world to know and understand. There are many gifts, all of them designed to give us the best witness of God’s love if we use them.
Sometimes we are given a gift we don’t understand. That Christmas several years ago, I stood, holding the box of the leaf blower. I shook it a bit, glanced at the directions, and promptly hid it away. That next fall, I regretted not learning how to work the thing when my yard became covered by leaves and debris from the changing season. God gives us gifts which are meant to be used, to break down walls of difference that keep us from one another and keep others from knowing the love of Christ. “For 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.” There are many, many gifts, but one Spirit, and since God has equipped us, we should be ready for God to call us.