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| Brooks Memorial UMC |
Several weeks back I was asked to fill in for my friend Rev. Terry Huffer as she headed off to Annual Conference on June 8th. I checked my calendar and since I was available, I let her know it wouldn't be a problem.
Then, I started seeking a Scripture passage for the day and realized it was Pentecost Sunday. Wow! I've not preached on a Pentecost Sunday before. Cool! That became exciting and a little nerve wracking as I listened to the movement of the Holy Spirit guide and direct my sermon message. (You may ask why "nerve wracking".... and you'll see when you read the sermon. But, I'll simply say that I am one to take risks in my teaching and speaking opportunities, especially when I sense the leading to go there. Yet, even in those leadings, there is nervousness.)
Since the worship leader wasn't going to be there, I took the opportunity to use my WO 510 education and I picked out the songs for the service too. In his absence, I would also be leading the songs, but I'm okay with making a 'joyful noise unto the Lord'.
What follows on this blog post is the sermon in written form. Though it wasn't given 100% to the written form, it is close enough to give you an idea of what was shared. I will also include some pictures.
I chose the 1 Corinthians 12 passage from the Lectionary (I enjoy preaching from the Lectionary, especially when I'm visiting another church) and read from
The Message. Though the passage was 3b-13, I read 1-13 since it's difficult to distinguish the verses in
The Message.
This was my 2nd time to Brooks Memorial and I had a wonderful time with the congregation. Some folks were out of town and one member was in the hospital. We may have been a small group gathered to share the Word and in fellowship, but we were there. If I counted correctly, there were 13 there, plus me... so 14. Several times I was told that there was one woman there who was 101 years old and if she can make it to church, the rest of us don't have an excuse. That made me smile. It was impressive.
Without further ado, today's sermon preached at Brooks Memorial UMC in Lupton City:
Sharing
the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Brooks Memorial
UMC
June 8, 2014
Pentecost Sunday
Good morning.
This morning's Scripture reading will be read from The Message. Hear God's
Word:
1
Corinthians 12:3-13
The Message (MSG)
Spiritual
Gifts
12 1-3 What I
want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our
lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed
and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one
phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because
everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our
intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using
your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt
anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is
Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all
originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere;
but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are
in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given
something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone
benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of
people! The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common
origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who
gets what, and when.
12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by
looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs,
cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s
exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye
to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own
shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he
has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action
when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body,
refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink.
The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek,
slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more
comprehensive.
LEADER: This
is the Word of God for the people of God.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
Today
is Pentecost Sunday. It's an appropriate
day to talk about the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. What is the significance of Pentecost Sunday
to the church? In Acts 2:1-5, we read:
" 2 When
the day of Pentecost had come, they [disciples/apostles] were all together in
one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven
there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire
house where they were sitting. 3 Divided
tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability."
(NRSV)
The
Holy Spirit came upon the believers and gifted them. As you read on in Acts 2, you see that new
believers are converted to the faith, they were baptized, they devoted
themselves to the teachings and fellowship, and they praised God together. This was the beginning of the church. Pentecost Sunday is a celebration of the
birth of the church.
Rueben
Job, a retired Bishop in the United Methodist Church, writes this about
Pentecost in A Guide To Prayer For All
Who Seek God: "Through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost God in Christ
became available to every believer.
Christians now had firsthand experience with God in Christ. From Pentecost on, the good news was not held
only by a select few who had been with Jesus, felt his hand upon their lives,
and sought to follow him throughout the earthly days. Now everyone could experience that touch of
the Savior's hand; everyone could know the healing and saving presence of Jesus
Christ. No Christian need ever walk
alone, for now God was present with every believer who chose to accept this
holy presence." (217)
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are for each and every
believer. Now, that's a twist on a
birthday celebration, isn't it? At
birthdays we are supposed to bring a gift to the recipient. But, on the birthday of the church, it is the
Holy Spirit who is giving out the gifts.
Let's look at the gifts again mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12: wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the
sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, and tongues. If you look at different versions of the
Bible, you will find different wording.
There are also at least three other main Scripture passages that list spiritual
gifts (Romans 12:3-8 and Ephesians 4:1-16 and 1 Corinthians 12:28).
When you look at the gifts listed,
do you recognize one that you've received?
Maybe that's not something you've thought about before. Or, maybe you have. Sometimes we don't recognize the gifts given
to us and it takes someone pointing it out to us. Or we might take a spiritual gift inventory
to see how we have been gifted.
What is unique about the gifts of
the Holy Spirit is that they are indeed supposed to be given to the church and
used in community. In Ephesians 4:11-13
we learn the purpose behind the gifts: "11 The
gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to
equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full
stature of Christ." (NRSV)
We have received these gifts to equip the saints for
ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
Therefore, we can give to the church, to the community as we celebrate
the birthday of the church. It's a
birthday celebration in which the Holy Spirit equips us to give back to
others. Now, that's a celebration.
Ann Weems is a poet, a writer, a worship
designer. She wrote "Happy
Birthday, Church!" for Pentecost Sunday.
As you listen to her story, note the parts that bother you and the parts
that resonate within you.
"HAPPY
BIRTHDAY, CHURCH!" in Reaching For Rainbows by Ann Weems
There was once a church that had only party rooms:
the Session's Party Room, the Music Party Room, the Feasting Party Room, the Do
Justice Party Room, the Love Mercy Party Room, the Touch Lepers Party Room. In the center of the building was a large
round room with an altar and a cross: God's Party Room.
There
was in the church an air of festivity and brightness that could not be
denied. The people outside the church
pointed their fingers and shook their heads: "Something should be done
about that church." They were
especially upset when they saw that the members wore party hats and smiles both
inside and outside the church.
Other
congregations came to take a look and were shocked when they saw this church
having so much fun during a worship service, snapping their fingers and
dancing.
"Sacrilegious,"
screamed the crowd. But the people in the
church just smiled at them and went right on doing things like taking people in
wheelchairs to the park and playing ball with them.
When
everybody else was collecting canned goods for the poor, this church bought
pizza and marched right into dingy, dirty, paint-peeling apartments and sat
down to eat with the tenants.
They
held picnics for the old folks home, and old men ran races while the
congregation stamped their feet in applause.
It was at one of those picnics that some of them members climbed up on
the roof and shouted: "Good news!"
"Now
we can get them for disturbing the peace," said one of the outsiders. The police arrived with sirens, ready for the
arrest, and came out two hours later wearing party hats and smiles.
One
Sunday afternoon, the entire congregation met at the jail and passed out
flowers to the prisoners. The following
week after bread and wine and much laughter at the Lord's table, the people
went to the hospital and asked to see the dying patients. They held their hands and mopped their brows
and spoke to them of life.
"Disgraceful!"
shouted the crowd. "They must be
stopped." So the crowd appealed to
the governing body of the denomination, and this committee of respected church
people went to see for themselves.
"Do
you deny the charges of heresy?" asked the committee. "Do you deny that you've mocked the
church and the Lord?" The people of
the church looked into the stern red faces and smiled at them. They held out their hands to the committee
and led them to the Birthday Cake Party Room.
There on a table sat a large cake decorated beautifully in doves
descending and red flames and words that red: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHURCH! The people began cutting cake and blowing up
balloons and handing out party hats to the committee members.
"Wait! Wait!" cried the chairperson. "Can't you take anything
seriously?"
"Yes,"
said the people. "We take our commitment
to the Lord very seriously indeed."
"You
don't take it seriously at all," interrupted the chairperson in loud voice
and red face. "You have parties and
wear silly hats and blow up balloons and sing and dance and have fun. Do you call that commitment?"
The
people smiled at the chairperson and asked him if he'd like a glass of
wine. The chairperson hit his fist on
the table. "I don't want wine, and
I don't want birthday cake. We're here
to reprimand you. We're here to show you
that you're wrong. Can't you be
serious?"
"We
are," said the people. "We're
asking you to take communion with us."
"With
birthday cake?" screamed the chairperson.
"Outrageous!"
"Outrageous? We ask you to sit at our table and sup with
us. God gave the Holy Spirit to
believers, and that is something to celebrate!
It's an occasion for a party. We
are celebrants of the gift of Life. We
are community. We are God's church. Why are your faces red when we are trying to
do justice and love mercy? Why do you
shake your fists at us when we are trying to discover the hurting and begin he
healing? We are overjoyed that we can be
the church, a community of people, who are many, yet one--who are different, but
who walk together and welcome any who would walk with us. When we weep there is someone to weep with us
and to affirm us and to take us to a party.
When we see injustices, we must be about God's business of freeing the
oppressed. When we are faithless, we
have God's promise of forgiveness. Isn't
it remarkable that we can be God's good news?
Is it any wonder we have a church full of party rooms? There is so much love to celebrate!"
The
committee stared at the people, and the people moved closer to them and put
their arms around them. The committee
chairperson stepped up to the table and sliced a piece of birthday cake, took a
bite, and laughed out loud. He began
slicing and passing it out.
When
the wine was poured and the hands were held, the chairperson raised his glass
and said: "There is so much Love to celebrate! Happy Birthday, Church!"
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
As we prepare to celebrate
communion, we might ask ourselves: "What is the Holy Spirit saying to me
today about my spiritual gifts? Is there
something I need to celebrate? Or is
there something I need to confess?"
The answer may be both.
As we come to the table today, let
us remember that Christ gave his life for us so that we might be free. We celebrate that freedom today in humble,
yet joyful thankfulness, recognizing that the Holy Spirit has gifted us to
share the love of Christ in community.
After you have taken the bread and
the cup, there are baskets at the end of the communion rail with bubbles and
birthday mints to remind you that today is a celebration of the church. If you would like to take one, you may.
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Blessings on your journey,
Debra
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| happy birthday package prop |
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| bubbles in Holy Spirit dove and flame colors |
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| happy birthday mints |
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| inside the bulletin (order of worship) |
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| bulletin cover |
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| wearing red for Pentecost Sunday |
NOTE: I found a creative way to use Ann Weem's
Happy Birthday, Church! by engaging multiple folks. Click on the link and you will see the PDF that engages choir, narrator, etc. I simply read it (with as much inflection and emotion as possible.) I got the idea to use this story from
Textweek.com. This is where I go for many of my preaching and teaching resources.
NOTE: The story can be found in
Reaching for Rainbows: Resources for Creative Worship, which is available for free download ebook or audio by clicking
here.
NOTE: For those following my story and realizing that I am not yet ordained, I thought I would assure you that the elements used in today's communion service were consecrated in advance by the Rev. Terry Huffer. Therefore, what I offered was more akin to extended table to the congregation. Not that anyone was wondering... but in case. Yes, we followed the rules and regulations.
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