Instruments in the sypmphony of God's grace

Isaiah 43:1-3

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. ²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. ³For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.

This is a long passage and I want you to hear it first as a whole. The Bible is one story, about God’s love for us and the twists and turns that takes. It’s also a bunch of stories, each with its own integrity. So I want to talk about this whole story before we dive in. We read earlier about how Saul was an approving witness when Stephen was executed. We also read that he was a leader in the persecution that drove Christians out of Jerusalem. Here we continue the strange story of Saul.

Acts 9:1-9

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ²and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

³Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ⁵He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, ¹²and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”

¹³But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; ¹⁴and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” ¹⁵But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

¹⁷So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” ²¹All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” ²²Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

²³After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; ²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. ²⁶When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

²⁷But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. ³⁰When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. ³¹Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

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Now that you’ve heard the whole story, I want to focus on one part of it, but without losing the whole story we’ve just read. As I’ve read and reread this passage the word that keeps tugging at me is “instrument.” Maybe the first time you read or hear this passage the word doesn’t make much of an impression. Can you remember where the word “instrument” comes up in the passage?

            The Lord is talking to a disciple named Ananias. God tells him to go to Judas’s house and there he’ll find a man named Saul, who is praying. Saul will be expecting Ananias and Ananias is supposed to lay hands on Saul so he can get his sight back.

            Ananias is taken aback. Saul is the biggest enemy of the church right now. He’s in Damascus to arrest disciples of Jesus and take them to the chief priests in Jerusalem. God tells Ananias: “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

            That word, “instrument” has been tugging at me all week, and even before. And then it broke open for me in a whole new way through God’s amazing gift of music. Maggie and I went to see Pink Martini on Friday as part of Jazz Fest. If you don’t know Pink Martini, you really should. They’re incredibly eclectic. During the concert on Friday they sang in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian and Croatian. Most of their songs are jazz with female lead vocals. Some are new renditions of old favorites and others are original. One piece was basically straight up classical music with a violin and guitar. The band on stage included a trumpet, trombone, violin, cello, piano, upright bass, guitar and two drum sets as well as tambourines and such. The concert as a whole blew me away and opened my heart and mind in some ways I’m not at the bottom of yet, to say the least.

            The part of the show that’s related to our passage was a song called U Plavu Zoru, which means “At Blue Dawn” in Croatian. The song starts out with an unbelievable cello solo. Unbelievable, not because it is technically difficult, though I’m sure it is, but because it’s so emotionally intense. For that moment the cello is the whole world. It’s speaking right to your heart and all you can do is listen totally captivated.

            As the piece moves on, the cello takes on a rhythm that reminds you of a train, because the song is about a train taking the singer far away from someone she loves. Then the cello steps out of the spotlight and becomes just a sound effect of a train running on its tracks. The other instruments take over and the cello disappears completely to make way for the rest of the band. That piece and the show as a whole made me think a lot about what it means to be an instrument.

            What is an instrument? Usually we think of musical instruments, but we can also think about scientific instruments like test tubes and stirring rods. We can think about architectural instruments like a straight edge and compass for drawing buildings not yet built. An instrument is something that someone uses for a purpose; it is a tool.

            So if Saul is God’s chosen instrument to proclaim the gospel, especially to gentiles and people in power, that means that God will use Saul for that purpose. And even though Saul is the author of a quarter of the New Testament, it is not about him. He is a servant in a bigger story. Sometimes, like the cello solo, he is the central voice. His teaching and preaching ministry was important, and even early on, he was the target of criticism and persecution. But even when he’s the center of a community or a book, the story isn’t his. He is an instrument, not the composer.

            As I think about this passage and about instruments, I think also about the lesser-known characters in this story. As far as I know, this is the only time we hear about Ananias. But at a time when the world was turned upside down and everything was dark for Saul, Ananias is the one who brought healing and hope. Ananias was the one who first welcomed Saul to the community of disciples, who restored his sight and baptized him into the body of Christ.

Barnabas made a brief appearance earlier when he sold a field and gave the proceeds to the church. Here he appears as Saul’s way in to the community in Jerusalem. We don’t know how he and Paul met, but Barnabas believed him and helped convince other leaders he could be trusted. Paul and Barnabas end up traveling together to spread the good news. Ananias and Barnabas don’t have huge parts in the symphony of faith, but without their roles, without them as instruments of God’s grace, the song wouldn’t be the same.

            The community of faith is like an orchestra. Each instrument is important, but it is the sound of the whole thing that matters most. For the whole orchestra to sound good, every musician has to practice on their own with dedication and they have to play their heart out on stage. At the same time, they also have to put the whole ahead of themselves. They need to merge their sound with that of their neighbors. Sometimes they have to hold themselves back so their neighbor’s sound will come through more clearly. Sometimes, they have to be totally silent for the sake of the overall effect, though even in silence, they are part of the composition.

Women warriors, 1.13.13

Do me a favor and open your pew Bibles to the front, to the table of contents. The last few weeks we’ve been reading from the New Testament, from the books of Luke and Matthew. Find those in the table of contents.

We’ve been talking about Jesus these last few weeks. We’ve been talking about how God sent his son Jesus into the world to be born as a baby in Bethlehem. Last week we talked about how wise men from a far away place came to Bethlehem to see Jesus, the new King of Israel. Today, we’re going back in time, back to a time before Jesus. Back to a time before Israel was dominated by Rome, before the Roman Empire even existed, before Israel had a king, before Israel was really a nation.

            Long ago, God’s people Israel were slaves in Egypt. God saw their suffering, saw the way their Egyptian masters oppressed them, saw their sorrow and decided to do something. God sent Moses to lead the people out of slavery into a new future. Moses did just that. He led the people of Israel out of Egypt into the desert. We find that story in the Book of Exodus.

Moses led them through the desert for forty years. In those forty years God fed them with bread from heaven. God gave them commandments and laws that would teach them to be God’s holy nation of priests. Laws that protected the poor and weak. Laws that protected the land and organized worship. God gave them laws to build a just society. We learn the laws and stories of building a nation in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Those years in the desert taught the people to trust God.

Finally, after forty years of wandering through the desert, God brought the people to the border of the land of Canaan, the land we know today as Palestine and Israel. God told Moses that he wouldn’t be the one to lead Israel into their new home; that was Joshua’s job. So Moses spent some time preparing the people for a new life in a new land.

The Book of Deuteronomy is a series of sermons in which Moses warns the people about the dangers of stability, the dangers of having their own land. Even though they’ve been wandering for years, looking forward to God’s promise of a land of their own, Moses knows that having what we want can be dangerous.

Once the people are settled in a good place and become prosperous, it will be tempting to believe that they have achieved this on their own. It will be easy for them to get comfortable and to forget that everything they have comes from God. It will be easy for them to say, “Look at these beautiful houses and all the crops we’ve worked so hard for. Aren’t we something special?” Moses warns them to remember God, and to remember the righteous laws God taught them.

Moses dies right at the border of the Promised Land and his second in command, Joshua takes over. You’ll notice that the next book is called Joshua and it tells the story of how Joshua led the people into the land and started to conquer it. Under God’s direction, Joshua and the leaders of the people divide the land into territory for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. At that point, each of the tribes basically go their own way to their own land and get on with the business of settling into a new life in their land.

The Book of Judges continues the story. In Judges we see the people trip up. Time after time they turn away from God and start worshiping the gods of the nations around them. Each time this happens God allows them to be defeated by their neighbors and they suffer. When they cry out to God in their trouble, God sends a leader to bring them back to the right path and to free them from oppression. These leaders were called judges.

What we notice in the Book of Judges is that Israel isn’t really a nation as we think of it now. It was really a collection of tribes. Each tribe had some organization and some leaders, but the whole nation wasn’t really organized. At different times in the book different enemies take center stage. In this part of the book the Canaanites are the focus of concern. As with most stories in Judges, this one starts with the people turning away from God. Let’s listen for God’s voice as Sally begins the story.

Judges 4:1-16

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. ²So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim. ³Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years. ⁴At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. ⁵She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.

⁶She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. ⁷I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’” ⁸Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” ⁹And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

¹⁰Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and ten thousand warriors went up behind him; and Deborah went up with him. ¹¹Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the other Kenites, that is, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had encamped as far away as Elon-bezaanannim, which is near Kedesh. ¹²When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, ¹³Sisera called out all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the troops who were with him, from Harosheth-ha-goiim to the Wadi Kishon.

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day on which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. The Lord is indeed going out before you.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand warriors following him. ¹⁵And the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his army into a panic before Barak; Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot, ¹⁶while Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-ha-goiim. All the army of Sisera fell by the sword; no one was left.

Judges 4:17-24

¹⁷Now Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. ¹⁹Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. ²⁰He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anybody comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’”

²¹But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, until it went down into the ground—he was lying fast asleep from weariness—and he died. ²²Then, as Barak came in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went into her tent; and there was Sisera lying dead, with the tent peg in his temple. ²³So on that day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites. ²⁴Then the hand of the Israelites bore harder and harder on King Jabin of Canaan, until they destroyed King Jabin of Canaan.

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            The next time someone tells you the Bible says women should home and be quiet, you can think about this passage. The Bible doesn’t say one thing about women or men or violence or government. The Bible is a bunch of different stories in a bunch of different books written over hundreds of years. At the same time, the Bible is a meaningful whole because it tells God’s story.

It is a complicated story because our relationship with God is complicated. Sometimes we listen to God and follow; other times we turn away and go our own way. There are different messages in scripture because different situations call for different ways of living. Sometimes courage in the face of oppression is what we need. Other times we need to be gentle.

It’s also complicated because even though the Bible tells God’s story and was guided by the Holy Spirit, it was written by human beings and also reflects the limits of its writers. In the time of the Bible women were not equal. The Bible reflects the sexism shared by ancient societies. We haven’t conquered sexism yet, but we’re making progress. Even though the Bible is often used to justify limiting women, God created men and women different and yet equal. Even with all the inequality in the world and in the beliefs of the biblical writers, God’s calling for women still shines through.

The lesson to take away from this story for your life today is not that conflict should be solved with a tent peg and a hammer. Instead, take home the lesson that God sometimes, even often calls surprising people to do surprising things. Deborah was a prophetess, a woman in a sexist culture whose job was to share God’s voice with the people. She was also in charge of settling disputes and working out justice in Israel’s community life. That’s a surprising leadership role for a woman in that time. But it’s even more surprising that she would be part of leading Israel into battle.

Jael wasn’t even an Israelite. Her people knew Israel and the Canaanites. Maybe they profited from the oppression of Israel or maybe they were offended by it. Maybe some of both. The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about why she decided to kill Sisera. We aren’t allowed into her thought process. What we know is that this mighty man who led the powerful and oppressive Canaanite army was defeated by a woman.

That’s how God does things sometimes. On the outside there’s no reason Jael would be part of God’s plan to save Israel. We don’t know if she had a relationship with God. But God chose her to finish the job Deborah started.

If God can use a woman like Deborah to start a war for freedom and a woman like Jael to assassinate the big bad guy, God can use you for something special. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re too weak or too scared or too dumb or too young or too old. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not good enough. Maybe most of all, don’t let the negative voice inside you tell you what you can’t do.

The truth is none of us is good enough, but by God’s grace we are all redeemed for freedom and service. Sometimes our fears and shortcomings, or our beliefs about our shortcomings keep us from doing something great. Other times our pride or sense of entitlement gets in the way of the humility that lets God work through us.

You are not too good to need God. You are not too bad for God to love you. You do not need to be limited by your age or your sex or your history. God can use your gifts for something surprising if you let him.

For years religion has taught that women are not equal. Some churches still believe that. And there are places in the Bible that talk about things women shouldn’t do. But the big picture we see in scripture is of a God who reaches out to surprising people and leads them to do amazing things. In this case it’s a woman living in a tent named Jael who strikes down an oppressive ruler. In the Christmas story it’s a poor woman named Mary who has the courage to say yes to God’s incredible plan even at the risk of being rejected by her family and culture.

I don’t know what God has planned for you. Maybe you’ve been feeling a calling inside you to something new, something surprising and exciting but a little scary. Maybe you’ve doubted that calling because part of you doesn’t think you’re capable of great things. Maybe you doubt that calling because you grew up hearing that women weren’t supposed to do x, y, or z. Maybe you heard from a parent or a lover or a spouse that you weren’t worth listening too, that you were weak or stupid or ugly.

Those voices are lies. God’s voice is the truth. God’s voice speaks in the stillness of you heart, in the murmur of a child, in the sound of music or the whisper of the wind. Close your eyes and listen. God says to you: “I love you. I forgive you. I welcome you. I have made you special and wonderful. I have given you gifts and perspectives and abilities that no one else has. I want you to nurture those gifts. I want you to use your experience and your imagination to make the world a little bit better. I want you to stand up for justice, to comfort the hurting, to reach out to those who feel alone. I will be with you; you are not alone. You are my beloved daughter, my beloved son. Together we can do wonderful things.”

Thanks be to God.

"Community: Growing together in faith," 11.18.12

Ephesians 4:17-32

¹⁷Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰That is not the way you learned Christ!

²¹For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²²You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. ²⁵So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.

²⁶Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and do not make room for the devil. ²⁸Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. ²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³²and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

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            When you think about Jesus, what are some characteristics that come to mind?

            Do you have a favorite story about Jesus that shows some of those traits?

            The church is the body of Christ in the world. In this passage Paul talks about how God gives gifts to the church to help the saints, that means all of us, grow into maturity. When Paul talks about saints he’s not talking about Christian superstars, special Christians who reach a different level of faith than the rest of us. He’s talking about all Christians, all people who follow Jesus. He’s talking about all of us becoming more mature in our faith. He goes a step further too. Paul says that maturity means “the measure of the full stature of Christ.”

            If you’re scratching your head about that phrase, you’re not alone. What Paul means is that as we grow in faith our goal is to be more and more like Jesus. We just talked about some of the most important things about Jesus, so our goal is show more of those traits as we become more mature. Growing in our faith doesn’t just mean learning the Bible better or praying more. It mostly means getting stronger in our trust in God, being more loving, more forgiving, more compassionate, and learning to be a healing presence in the world.

            That sounds challenging, but it also makes sense. I want to be more compassionate. I want to be more forgiving; I want to be more loving; I want to get better at putting other people first, and I bet you do too.

            So while it can be challenging to mature in those ways, we want to do it. We also have the church to help us grow. In fact, a big part of the church’s purpose is to help us grow, to help us be more like Jesus.

So how can the church help us be more compassionate?

How can the church help us be more loving?

            How can the church guide us to be more forgiving?

The things we’ve just identified are for all of us to do as a church. As a church, as the body of Christ, we help each other to grow in faith and maturity. As brothers and sisters we help each other become more like Christ.

living by the Spirit, 6.12

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

^3bNo one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. ⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

¹²For 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. ¹³For 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.

Acts 2:1-21

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes ¹¹Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
¹⁷  ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
     that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
          and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
     and your young men shall see visions,
          and your old men shall dream dreams.
¹⁸  Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
          in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
               and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹  And I will show portents in the heaven above
          and signs on the earth below,
               blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰  The sun shall be turned to darkness
          and the moon to blood,
               before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

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            We’ve got two passages about the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate Pentecost as the church’s birthday, because it was really the Holy Spirit that made the church what it became. At his last supper with his disciples Jesus told them that he would send the Spirit to comfort and guide them. Jesus told them that by the Spirit’s power they would do even greater things than he did. The risen Jesus tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit came to lead them out in ministry.

            So the disciples prayed and worshiped and waited in Jerusalem. On Pentecost they were together and the Spirit finally came. Often we have to really pay attention to notice the Spirit, but that day there was nothing subtle about it. The Spirit came like wind and fire and filled the room. The Spirit filled the disciples with power and gave them the ability to speak other languages.

            With that power the disciples went out into the streets and started sharing the good news. They started talking about what God had done, how God loved everyone deeply and welcomed all kinds of people into community. The Spirit stayed with those disciples and gave them the courage to share their faith not only in Jerusalem, but throughout the wider area and across the seas. The Spirit gave the disciples power to heal the sick and drive out demons. The Spirit allowed regular people to stand up to powerful leaders in the name of Jesus.

            And the Spirit wasn’t just with those first disciples; the Spirit filled each new believer who heard God’s word. The Spirit guided the church as a few believers grew to thousands of disciples gathered in hundreds of house churches throughout the Middle East.

The Spirit still guides the church today as we continue Christ’s ministry. The Spirit guides big churches and small churches. The Spirit guides Baptists and Presbyterians and Catholics. The Spirit guides the whole church because there is truly only one church. Every church has its own personality, just like every individual Christian has his or her own personality, but with all our differences, we are one in Christ.

That’s what Paul is getting at in the piece of the letter to the Corinthians we read a few minutes ago. The Holy Spirit gives each believer different gifts: gifts of healing, teaching, wisdom, understanding and so on. But as different as God’s gifts are, and as different as we are, God’s Spirit is the same. God gave Lisa powerful gifts of music. God gave Mary and Amanda gifts of financial wisdom. God gave Mildred the gift of faithful persistence. God gave Jim spiritual wisdom and the list goes on and on. Everyone here has gifts from God. God’s gifts are so varied and generous that many of us have gifts we haven’t even discovered yet.

Paul connects those spiritual gifts to baptism, because the prophets and John and Jesus all talked about how Jesus would send the Holy Spirit as a baptism for believers. So it’s appropriate that we talk about the Holy Spirit as we baptize a new Christian today. Oliver is part of a long line of faithful Christians. Dick and Doris, and Beverly all paved the way for Lisa’s vibrant faith, and this part of Christ’s church called Beacon Presbyterian has supported Lisa and Tony as they started and grew their family.

Today Oliver not only becomes part of his family’s story at Beacon, he becomes part of the body of Christ. That body includes men and women around the world who are different in every imaginable way. And yet that body is one body because it is Christ’s body. That body is led and guided by one Spirit because it is God’s Holy Spirit. With all our gifts and differences and disagreements, we are one body in Christ. Today Oliver becomes part of that one body where he will discover and share his unique gifts. Wherever Oliver goes, wherever each of us goes, God’s blessing and calling goes with us.

Paul talks about how the diversity of gifts are all part of Christ’s one body. That story goes both ways. The body of Christ is diverse with many members but one body, and the body is one but reaches out in every direction. The story of Acts is the story of that one body reaching out in new directions. When the Holy Spirit first filled the disciples, they immediately started speaking in other languages so all kinds of different people could hear the message of Jesus.

God still does the same thing in other ways. Some of us have been blessed with the ability to speak other languages literally. But God has also equipped all of us with different experiences that help us to reach out to different kinds of people today. Your life, your work, your unique story gives you a style, a language, that God can use to reach the people you come across in a way others can’t. God uses your words and actions to reach out to others with the love of Jesus.

Baptism and faith are not just about coming together to worship. They are not just about the story we have built here at this building on the corner of Cumberland and Cedar over the last hundred and thirty some years. Faith is about reaching out with God’s love today too. Whatever the future holds for this building and this congregation, God can use our witness to touch others with the good news that God is love and that love has no limit.

People in this community need to hear that message. They need to hear and see it in different ways, through the word proclaimed, through lives lived full of grace, through care for those in need. Some may connect with Christ’s message through art, some through music, some through the presence of Christians in the everyday lives of this community, through how we treat others when we shop and clean and drive.

People in your life, in your neighborhood, in your workplaces need to hear and see the message of God’s love too. God has given each of us the gift of the Spirit, the baptism into Christ’s body not just for ourselves but for others too. You have a language that only you can speak; you have a story that only you can tell. God wants to use your life and your story to continue the amazing story of Jesus until all creation is finally reconciled to God in love.

Thanks be to God.

Gifts in the body

Luke 4:14-21
14Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

1 Corinthians 12:12-31
12For 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. 13For 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.

14Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.

17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
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Do you ever get fed up with someone at work? Maybe they have this really annoying habit that drives you nuts. Maybe they haven’t perfected their manners yet. Or maybe their concept of reality is so different from yours that you can’t even understand what they’re thinking .

Life in community is hard because we’re all different, and frankly, we’re pretty peculiar. It’s often hard for us to understand each other; sometimes it’s hard to put up with others, let alone enjoy their company. Our culture tells us to value diversity, but it’s much more comfortable to be around people who think and act in ways we understand.

Paul reminds us that our differences are a strength, not a weakness. We aren’t different to make life difficult or even interesting. We’re different because the church and the world need many different things. We have different interests and skills and ways of doing things because all of those differences are useful in some way for building up God’s kingdom and making the world a better place.

We often worry about how much time our kids spend playing video games, and rightly so. The data for how many hours a day are spent in front of a screen with guns blazing is truly alarming and there are significant risks to too much of this kind of pastime, to say nothing about how many other things often get neglected. But a recent study revealed that surgeons who played three hours a week of video games had better skills in laparoscopic surgery. God can turn even something we usually think of as a waste of time into an asset for serving others, and God can turn all of our differences and peculiarities into ministry.

When people find out that I am a paramedic they often say, “Wow, I could never do what you do.” I’m glad for that. First of all, it makes it much easier for me to find work, but more importantly there are thousands of jobs out there that other people are doing that I wouldn’t be able to do.