Sermon for January 17th

According to today’s Second Reading, the Corinthian church had been arguing about spiritual gifts. Paul writes that because we have only one God and his Holy Spirit gives all spiritual gifts, therefore, no one gift is any better than any other. In many religions, especially pagan religions, there are many gods. And each god gives different things. For instance, a rain god would give fertility, so if you wanted to get pregnant you would pray to that god for gifts. Another god would be a god of public speaking, I guess, so if you wanted to give a great motivational speech, you would pray to that god. However, for Christians, Paul maintains that every gift, no matter how little or big, comes from the same Spirit, the same Lord and the same God. There is no pantheon of gods to ask for various gifts from. There is only one God who gives all good gifts.

Today’s Christian churches have their own problems understanding spiritual gifts even though they usually are not exactly the same problems as the Corinthian church had. While we are aware that there is only one God who gives gifts, we don’t realize that God blesses every person with gifts, not just a few religious leaders. Notice some of the words Paul uses when talking about spiritual gifts: everyone, to each, to another, to another, to another, to each one individually. My point is that in many churches, including this one, we often act like some spiritual gifts are better than others or, worse, that only some in the church have been blessed with the proper spiritual gifts. In some churches, people get so confused that they start looking to their pastors or priests as the giver of gifts, rather than to God alone.

For example, I, as your pastor, am not the only one blessed with gifts. I have them, this is true, but only because God promises to bless all who believe in him with these gifts. I didn’t receive them at seminary, I didn’t receive them at my ordination, I received my spiritual gifts at my baptism. What does this mean? That each and every one of you have them as well. And you don’t have to go to seminary to find them. And you certainly don’t have to be ordained to receive them. You received them at your baptism. Do you believe it?

Well, if you believe it, then what are your spiritual gifts and what are you doing to use them? Suffice it to say, while we may SAY that we have spiritual gifts, for all intents and purposes many Christians, just like many of you, ACT like they don’t have them. But before we go any further, let me make sure that you understand the difference between a natural gift and a spiritual gift. They both come from God, but they are different.

I went to college to become a double bassist in a symphony. I was a good musician and believe that, in many ways, I still am. When I was asked whether or not I had thought about going to seminary, to become a pastor, I didn’t think that I had a call (even though God was using these people to call me there). Furthermore, I didn’t think that I would be very good at it, especially if I’d have to visit people who were sick. I didn’t want to do that.

While being a musician is certainly a gift, I wasn’t using my music to serve others, only to serve myself mostly. Music can be a spiritual gift, but I wasn’t using it as such by practicing 6-8 hours a day just in order to get a job that I wanted. When God finally got through to me and called me to seminary to start training to become a pastor, I began working on my spiritual gifts and discovered that they were much different than what I thought they would be. Remember that I said that I didn’t think I would be a good pastor because I didn’t want to sit with sick people; however, when I started visiting the sick as a chaplain in a hospital during seminary, I actually found that I loved doing it and even started realizing that it was a gift. It didn’t come naturally maybe, but it was a spiritual gift. When I was focused on serving others, on listening to their needs, on caring for their suffering, it became one of my favorite things to do—we might call this a gift of counseling.

Of the short list of spiritual gifts mentioned in the passage today, the one that I’ve noticed the most in my life is the gift of healing. Now, I don’t believe that I have ever seen a dramatic physical healing in anyone I have prayed for . . . yet . . . but I believe every time I pray that it could happen. However, people have sometimes told me that when I pray for them, they experience a healing of their spirit, knowing that God really does forgive them or that they experience inner healing. You see, as Paul says, “there are a variety of gifts” they don’t all have to look the same. Just because you have the gift of healing, doesn’t mean that it will look the way you think it should look, or how it looks on the movies. You may have it to a lesser or greater degree than someone else. Not everyone will become a famous televangelist, but you may still have the gift of evangelism. If you never try to use your spiritual gifts, how will you ever know? The gift of healing seems like a great spiritual gift to have, but it is by no means the greatest or the worst.

I believe that for many of you there are two obstacles to using your spiritual gifts. The first is that you don’t know what a spiritual gift is, or you don’t know what gifts you might have. This obstacle is mostly about a lack of familiarity with scripture or the failure of spiritual leaders, like myself, to do a good job teaching you about them. The second obstacle is one of faith. This means that even if you know what your spiritual gifts are, that knowledge stays up in your head and never moves to your heart.

Christian Schwarz, the director of Natural Church Development, has written a book about spiritual gifts. In this book, I believe that he has compiled a good list of possible gifts that Christians might have. You each received this list in your bulletins this morning. This list is taken from scripture, but there is no doubt that you could argue about the titles he gives some of them. The point of this exercise is to simply give you some ideas about what possible spiritual gifts you might have. Remember that the gift of healing isn’t always going to mean that people with cancer are suddenly cured . . . though it might. And the gift of counseling doesn’t mean that you are a great psychologist, but that perhaps people feel refreshed and joyful after talking to you. There are a variety of gifts and a variety of how those gifts are manifested. I encourage you to read this list when you are at home this week and pray about how God might use you at Saint Peters and everywhere you go.

These gifts came through your baptism, not through some secondary education. But what about that second obstacle: your faith.

Why is it, do you think, that you have not used your spiritual gifts? I’m sure that some of you have realized, before today, that you have had at least some ability in some of these areas. I know that you have served others. But in the life of this church, many of you either leave your gift under the Christmas tree unopened or leave your gifts at home and never use them. Why?

When Martin Luther talked about how faith is given through the Holy Spirit, he wrote, “I believe that I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel.” I believe that these words are an excellent witness to the words of scripture. It is not our work to find God, but God’s work to find us. In fact, we tend to run from God—we are bound and determined to make it as hard on Him to find us, to love us, to empower us and to save us as possible.

Thankfully, being the creator of heaven and earth, he knows what he needs to do to get through to us, and it is not by motivating us to great acts of spiritual power. Scripture says he kills us in order to make us truly alive. He brings us down to raise us up. He condemns us and then he forgives us. So that we might know who exactly gets the glory. He says that we have sinned because we have not used our spiritual gifts. This is simply the truth. People have suffered, churches have suffered, even we ourselves have suffered because of this. We have left the work of the ministry in the hands of others. We have not served others with our gifts but have used them only to increase our own selfish interests. God has given us gifts—the most amazing spiritual gifts!—and we have squandered them. We are not acting like the people God created us to be, the people God saved us to be, the people God empowers us to be.

So, since you and I are unwilling to use our spiritual gifts, God does something new. He forgives. He forgives you. He gives you and I a clean slate today. Those months and years of not being involved in the life of the church, God has set them aside and now looks at you as a new creation. No longer shall you be termed Potential, but now you shall be called Useful. No longer shall you be called Uninformed, but you are called God’s delight. For God has placed in your hands the most wondrous gifts in all creation—gifts to serve others for the sake of the kingdom of God. Your forgiveness is free. The gifts are yours. What might happen when take them out for a spin? Amen.

Sermon for May 11th (Pentecost)

The Holy Spirit is often talked about as if it were the hippie flowerchild of the Trinity. You know what I mean, the child no one likes to talk about in respectable company. The one that goes to the beat of a different drummer. Floating here and there, where it wills. Blowing in and out like the wind. The Holy Spirit always sounds much more “spiritual” than to show up at church, especially at a Lutheran church. It always seems like it’s easier to be spiritual somewhere off in the mountains than sitting in a pew.

How many of you have gone in search of “the Spirit”? What did you find? Where did you go? Going in search of the Holy Spirit is like going on a snipe hunt, where everybody, but you, seems to know where to look and what is going on. So why then did Jesus make it so difficult to get the Holy Spirit, to find it and to keep it?

Well, he didn’t. He didn’t make it hard at all. The problem is not that the Holy Spirit is so hard to get, but that, in some ways, it is too darn predictable for us. We’d much rather go on a treasure hunt than to find it sitting in our laps one day apart from any effort of our own. The Holy Spirit in contemporary society appears to be the sexiest of the three parts of the Trinity, but it’s function, while quite wonderful, is often seen as, well, a little boring and domesticated. What does the Holy Spirit do? It creates faith. That’s it. The Holy Spirit creates faith. And by this faith alone, you are made righteous in God’s eyes.

Perhaps that doesn’t seem very spiritual at all to you. It certainly hasn’t made anybody stand up and say “Praise the Lord!” so far this morning. However, I maintain that being given faith is the most “spiritual” thing that could happen to you. Martin Luther said in the Small Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel.”

Remember bread makers? Maybe you still have one. Everybody seemed to want one years ago. But then, all of a sudden, they became quite boring. Why? Because all they did was make bread. Just bread. Big deal. My uncle had the same problem with a juicer he bought. He was so excited when he got it, telling us all about how wonderful it was and everything that it would do. But finally, he found that all it really did was make, well, juice. And it wasn’t even juice he could get out of the fridge, but he kept having to buy the fruit to make the juice. It never became anymore than a juicer.

The same holds true for the Holy Spirit. People often get kinda bored with it. Faith alone never seems like enough, so we try to spice it up a little bit. Having the Spirit starts to mean jumping up and down at church to the sounds of a contemporary rock band. Having the Spirit starts to mean doing something radical, different or spontaneous whether the Bible condones it or not. But the problem is that the Holy Spirit can’t be pimped like this. It never becomes more than a faith maker. It creates faith. That’s it.

The second reading from 1st Corinthians talks about the gifts that the Holy Spirit brings with it. The Holy Spirit creates your faith and then gives you gifts, so it can create faith in the hearts of others. Now gifts like healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues, even the gift of faith make it appear that Paul is trying to spice up the Holy Spirit or something, but all of these gifts are given by God for one reason and one reason only. For the sake of faith. To create faith in Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul makes it very clear that everything he does is for the sake of faith in Jesus Christ. “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” That means that the Holy Spirit doesn’t suddenly become more interesting, more necessary or more spiritual than Jesus. Everything Paul says about the Holy Spirit must be viewed in the shadow of the cross. Every gift the Holy Spirit gives finds its goal in service to faith in Jesus Christ.

The thing is that a lot of people see the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ as being very different. Often, Pentecost is seen as the “new age” of the Holy Spirit making a break with the “good old times” of Jesus. But Jesus says, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” You see, the Holy Spirit doesn’t do or say anything different than what Jesus did and said.

Jesus said, “When the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.” The Holy Spirit is still speaking today, but this isn’t as novel as it might sound. It is only testifying again and again for you to what Jesus said before, “Repent of your sins, and believe in the good news of God.” And through this message spoken today, the Holy Spirit creates faith.

I have spent a great deal of time in conversation with God about the ministry at Saint Peters through prayer, reading the scriptures, hearing the spoken word and having conversations with others. What God keeps pointing me back to again and again is that whatever we do here must be for the sake of faith. To create faith in the hearts of each other and in those who have never believed in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

When I look at the communities we serve, I see people who are hungry, hurting, oppressed, depressed, abused and lonely, but I believe that God is not calling Saint Peters primarily to social work. How can this be you might ask? I believe that God is not calling us to social work but to faith work. When we are called to do anything, even something as important as feeding someone who is hungry, for instance, it must always be in service to that person’s faith. We cannot just give a person a fish and let them eat for a day. I believe that we are being called to give people faith so that they might live for eternal life.

At Pentecost, God poured out his Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples so that they might prophecy and speak in tongues for the sake of creating faith in their listeners. How do we know that this was the goal? Because by the end of the passage, scripture says that three thousand people repented of their sins and received forgiveness through baptism. Now that is quite wonderful; however, if giving faith is the goal, then that means that Pentecost isn’t really about one particular day or event at all. It is about something that God has promised to do again and again and again. God gives the Holy Spirit as a faithmaker whenever he gets us to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for the sake of creating faith.

God gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples after his resurrection when he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any they are retained.” Where there is forgiveness of sins, you can be assured the Holy Spirit is there giving faith to believe in the promise. God gave you his Holy Spirit at your baptism when he washed you clean in the eyes of God and created faith in your heart. God gives you his Holy Spirit day after day when you repent of your sins and believe that your sins are forgiven on account of Jesus Christ alone.

Now, today, I will reenact Pentecost for you again. It might not be flashy, but I will show you exactly how the Holy Spirit comes so you know where to go looking if it is taken away from you. I announce to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You may trust in these words as the truest vehicle the Holy Spirit rides upon to go into your ears, into your heart and out your mouth again in your confession of faith.

And as if this faith that makes you right with God was not enough, he gives you more stuff. The gifts I talked about before. Why? Because he wants more faith. Not more faith from you, he has given you what you need. He wants others brought to faith as well. So he has given you each gifts for the sake of faith. As the congregation of Saint Peters, I believe we are being called into service toward each other and toward our community. Each of us using our gifts not as an end to themselves, but as a vehicle for the Holy Spirit to create faith. Not to feed someone for a day, or entertain them for an afternoon, but to give them faith for eternal life.

What gifts has God given you? Is it wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues or the interpretation of tongues? I mean, I don’t even know exactly what some of those look like really, but I bet some of you do amazingly enough. And so I’m just going to let you all know this right now: God is going to use you to create faith in the hearts of others. Not through your own choices, or abilities, but by the power of the Holy Spirit that God has given to you. Not just to feed someone a fish for a day, but to give someone faith for eternal life. The one who calls you into faith is faithful and he will do it.