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“Cheers! Here’s to the Holy Spirit!” Rev. Melissa St. Clair, 6/8/14

“Cheers! Here’s to the Holy Spirit!”

A sermon preached at

Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Fort Collins, CO

by the Rev. Melissa St. Clair

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

June 8, 2014

Paul has a problem.  The dear people of the church at Corinth are fighting again.  They, at times, find themselves at odds with Paul, the father of their faith.  But mostly they seem to be at odds with one another.  And Paul doesn’t hesitate to point that out.  His entire letter is an argument for unity that honors distinctiveness and diversity; for the formation and up-building of a mature faith that leaves no one out,[1] not for the sake of cooperation, but because this union is fundamental to our identity as Jesus-followers.

This Pentecost Sunday, as we celebrate the gift of the Spirit, we read a portion of Paul’s letter that reminds the church that while there are many gifts it’s the same Spirit that activates them all.

READ 1 CORINTHIANS 12:3b-13

The issue in the church at Corinth was the way people were using these spiritual gifts to elevate themselves above one another.  It probably wasn’t everyone.  It probably wasn’t a huge parade or anything.  I wonder if it was sort of like Face-bragging, which is officially defined as the act of using a social networking site in order to show off or impress others with material items and/or fun activities. May include status updates, comments, or most often, pictures.[2]

In other words, something that most of us have done at some point or another – although hopefully not with the intention of making others feel less-than.  That’s what was upsetting Paul, those feelings of greater than and less than.  That’s what incited him to unleash the letter.

I wonder if the issue in the Church today isn’t the one Paul wrestled with – those who boast about their great spiritual gifts at the expense of others – but rather, that we’d fumble to talk about a spiritual bone in our body.  It’s not because we don’t have them.  Maybe it’s because we don’t want to seem like we’re boasting.  Maybe it’s because we haven’t really had much time or bandwidth to think about ourselves as spiritual beings lately. Maybe it’s because we feel profoundly un-gifted, at least as far as any of the gifts Paul named are concerned – the utterance of wisdom and knowledge; healing; working of miracles; prophecy; discernment of spirits; various kinds of tongues; the interpretation of tongues.

But these aren’t the Spirit’s only gifts. If we page back through the story of our Judeo-Christian faith, we see numerous lists of things the Spirit bestows upon God’s people.  There are seven gifts of the Spirit, in fact, that have been woven into our faith tradition, gifts given to each of us by the Spirit that help us live our lives more fully.  These aren’t gifts that feel more like goals – and lofty ones at that.  These aren’t gifts so hidden you’d have to be Mother Teresa to find them.  They’re gifts that lie within each of us, waiting to be retrieved and unwrapped and used to order our days.  These gifts are identified as gifts of the Spirit by the prophet Isaiah, and elaborated on Busted Halo, an online magazine for spiritual seekers.

The first is the gift of Awe.  This is the gift that comes to us when we see the beauty of God’s creation around us: a child splashing in a puddle on a sun soaked day, the beauty of nations coming together in peace at the Olympics, the grandeur of a snow-capped mountaintop. The gift of awe lets us see God in all things. It gives us that feeling of hope for our life and world. Maybe we get that feeling when we hear a good song, and we sigh feeling grateful for all God has given us. This is where our lives should start.

Awe has the capacity to bring us to our knees in Reverence.  That’s the second gift. It’s a moment of surrender, like sharing a moment of awe with a friend — words cease.  Silence says it all. There are no words to describe what you’re experiencing. With the challenges of everyday life, the gift of reverence places God immediately in our lens. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said. Suddenly we can find in our hearts a real trust and reliance on God. We want to live a life that is more focused on others, including God, than ourselves! Anxieties and fears seem to melt away. This gift exists within us already. The only way to let it emerge is by pausing and being attentive to how awe-some creation can be!  When this happens, reverence moves us to desire something greater, beyond us, and to find deeper meaning.

The first step in finding deeper meaning in our lives is gathering Knowledge.  That’s the third gift. Humans are information gatherers.  Google.  Need I say more?  There are the hard questions: How do I find my purpose? How do I decide on a school or job? How do I meet new people? In our knowledge gathering we might tend to ask “how” questions and be bombarded with many different answers. Knowledge in some sense lets us see things the way God sees them. Consider the Tree of Knowledge in the Genesis story. By eating the apple Adam and Eve gain raw, un-sugar-coated knowledge. The harsh realities of the world come into focus.

But so much data and knowledge can seem like a lot to sort through. The fourth gift, the gift of Wisdom is not about the head; it’s about the heart. The Book of Wisdom, also known as the Wisdom of Solomon, says, “She is a breath of God’s power … She is a reflection of eternal light, a perfect mirror of God’s activity and goodness … she enters the souls of holy people …” (Wisdom 7:25-27) Wisdom is about seeking the deep Spirit within, breathed into us at the beginning of our lives. She reveals our inner talents and desires and lets us pause discerningly. If we’ve gathered knowledge about a particular life decision we can now look deeper and let Wisdom show us what our inner feelings say.

Knowledge and wisdom work together to inform the fifth gift of Understanding. After being bombarded by conflicting messages in our world we can use what knowledge and wisdom showed us to begin to understand the right way to live. What do we do when we hear things like,

“Don’t eat eggs – cholesterol is bad!”

“Eat eggs – it’s good cholesterol!”

“Go to church!”

“No, pray at home!”

“Spend more!”

“Save more!”

The gift of understanding is a blessing and allows us to know, at least on the surface, the right way to live out our lives — in a way that is life-giving.

Understanding needs a final check though. We may have listened to our head and our heart and made an initial decision. The sixth gift, the gift of Right Judgment is true guidance by the Spirit. It helps us make prudent decisions.  Think of Jiminy Cricket.

The Blue Fairy says: You must learn to choose between right and wrong.

Pinocchio asks: Right and wrong? But how will I know?

Jiminy Cricket chimes in: How will he know?

The Blue Fairy replies: Your conscience will tell you.

Pinocchio asks: What are conscience?

Jiminy Cricket pipes us: What are conscience? I’ll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice that people won’t listen to. That’s just the trouble with the world today.

Maybe our conscience doesn’t wear a top hat and carry a teeny-tiny umbrella, but there is that inner voice within each of us that guides us.

Once we’ve tapped into the gifts of knowledge and wisdom, gained greater understanding, and listened to the inner voice of right judgment (all this can be called discernment), nothing will happen without the seventh gift, the gift of Courage. Courage is required to make hard decisions. Life has many challenges and the Spirit gives us the gift of courage to overcome fear and obstacles, to take risks, and move forward.

Consider those who have fought and are fighting for civil rights.  Or those risking death to fight for religious freedom around the world.  Or anyone who takes a stance based on a conviction that is just but not popular.  Consider the risk Jesus took to stand up for righteousness and truth. Courage is our advocate, pushing us to put our discernment into action. And sometimes we have to accept rejection when we stand up for what the Spirit has revealed to us through the previous six gifts.

God has given us the Gifts of the Spirit not as some distant idyllic treasure, but as practical abilities built into our very souls. They help us live and act and move through our lives every day with the guidance of God, making thoughtful, careful choices, always striving to be the person God intends us to be.][3]

This is the Spirit we were made to drink of – cheers, Church!

[1] The New Interpreters’ Bible, Vol. X, pp. 779, 789.