Loving God, quicken our hearts again, that we may receive Your Word afresh and anew. Send the refreshing wind of your Spirit upon us Lord that your voice may be heard in our hearts and your loving presence seen in all that we say and do once we leave this place of worship to walk by faith in the world that you send us out into. We ask in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Strange Day today in some ways strange because this is the Birthday of the Church, and not Easter as some people might think, or even Christmas, as others seem to believe.
Today is the day in which we celebrate the pouring out of the Spirit upon the first disciples of Jesus and how from that day the church began to reach out around the world, how they went from being timid and afraid in their testimony to Christ to to being bold and courageous in their witness; how they went from being inward looking to being outward looking, from seeking to save themselves to being ones who had a passion for showing others where healing is to be found.
Something strange happened on the day of Pentecost - as the Spirit overcame the confusion that has been upon the face of the earth since the days when the Tower of Babel was destroyed, and made it possible for the disciples to communicate with every person - regardless of differences of race, colour, or language.
Something strange and profound happened on the day of Pentecost - some 2000 years ago, and that something profound is still occurring as the Spirit continues to be poured out upon those who believe in and follow Christ - bringing order out of chaos, understanding out of confusion, unity out of diversity.
It should be the belief of the entire church, that everyone is important - and that all should see and understand that the person next to them from those who work in the kitchen to those who serve at the Communion Table - are an essential and important part of the body of Christ, that everyone - from those who pray quietly at home for their neighbours, both those near and those far way - to those who clean up the church, and those who set up coffee for our fellowship time each week - are fulfilling a ministry that God has given them.
You know, there has long been a tension in the church between celebrating the gifts of God and the individuals with those gifts, a tension between recognizing those people who serve in particular ways and the God who makes it possible for them to serve in the first place.
In the middle ages when the great cathedrals were built the architects were never named.
The great stained glass windows and works of art within them are unsigned.
The wonderful craftsmanship - unidentified.
It was all done for the glory of God, it was all made possible by the Spirit.
Yet even in those times it was recognized that God's gifts, the gifts poured out by the Holy Spirit in different quantities upon different people, took on flesh through the obedience and faithful service of individuals - and that is good and important to highlight the fact that this is so.
That is why Paul wrote what he wrote in Corinthians.
To remind the church in that place that everyone who follows Christ is gifted, gifted by God, gifted in different ways and to different degrees, but that each gift and each person is important - none more or none less than another: that those who preach are not greater than those who listen and that those who wait on tables are no greater than those who gather to eat.
Each one of us if we are being obedient to the call of God in our lives is used of God - some more particularly within the sanctuary and on the property that we share and some more particularly outside spreading the good news to those who need it in the world.
Where is the Gospel today? The good news?
It is in the fact of the Spirit, it is in the fact that God has poured himself out upon us, and in the fact that for those of faith God is at hand. God is here in us and around us.
The good news is in the fact that God has given us a diversity of gifts and that these are in use here in our midst and beyond this sanctuary - in the world to which we are sent as apostles of Christ.
We do have old men who dream dreams and young men who see visions.
We have sons and daughters who are moved by the Spirit to build up the body by sharing their faith, their hope, their worship of God.
We have those with gifts of administration of preaching and of teaching of music and of prayer.
We have those with gifts of helps and of service and those with the gifts of hearing and of counsel.
We have too those who have what Paul calls the gift of faith and those with what I call the gift of presence and of encouragement.
In all that we celebrate today the hand of God is evident and that hand calls us to rejoice and take heart. We earnestly pray that we leave no gift, no person out, because we know that God has not left us so incomplete, that God treasures and gifts each person here.
The good news is that we are equipped by the Spirit, we are equipped to do what the Spirit calls the church to do, which is to witness to the love and purpose of God as revealed through Christ Jesus our Lord and the Law and the Prophets.
As Lisa and Jones and David help us today to reflect on the different tasks that are done here in this place - both those that were done in the past and those that are still done do not hesitate to stand and be identified as one who is used of God.
And should there be no occasion for you to stand perhaps because we have named things according to the experience and history we have here at this church and you are new to our midst. or because you have served in a different way the will of God...then hear now our prayer and our sincerest desire for you and for us is that you may know your value as part of the WHOLE PICTURE that God is seeking to put together here - for God's Spirit is upon each one here today to will and accomplish his good purposes - within this body of his Church, and through us - in the world beyond.
Hear our prayer and rise and praise God in the testimony time for what God does through you or what you are seeing God doing.
The Spirit makes us one. May the walls that divide us from one another be broken down in our common service and celebration. And may God's name be praised - now and forever. Amen
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