Sermon 5/15/05
The Birthday - Acts 2:1-21, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
(view lectionary notes for this text)
I’ve always loved my birthday. Many of you who know me well know that fact about me. I’m likely to remind you weekly or daily when my birthday is approaching. I have my own personal countdown. If I can get a hold of your planner, I will probably mark my birthday on it, just to make sure you don’t forget it. I’m not exactly sure where this love of birthdays comes from. I guess birthdays were always big events in my family – with two younger brothers who are only 14 months apart in age, my mother early established a tradition of making sure that everyone got at least one present, even if it was only the birthday of your brother or sister. So, all birthdays were pretty exciting in my household. I was totally let down my first year of college when the campus didn’t have a huge celebration for my big day – after my freshman year, my mom made sure to drive out to Ohio for my birthday each year, and then to New Jersey during seminary. Perhaps eventually I’ll lose my taste for birthdays as my age increases – after all, I recently turned the corner and am now closer to 30 than 20. But still, I picked a career where I can count on being one of the younger clergy for quite some time, so I’m pretty sure it will be a long time before I get over my love of birthdays.
Today is a good day for me, then, in the life of the church. It’s the biggest birthday celebration I can think of, next to mine, and of course, that birthday we celebrate on December 25th. Today is the birthday of the Church. Not just our local church, not even our denomination, and not even Protestantism – today, we celebrate Pentecost, which is a day we’ve labeled as the birthday of the whole Christian Church. Today, we read about the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit. Today we read about that strange experience where the sound of a mighty rushing wind broke into the house where the followers of Jesus were celebrating Pentecost. Today, we read about the beginnings of Church as we know it – where Peter steps up and finally does what Jesus had been preparing him and the others to do all along: he shares the gospel – tells the Good News about God’s grace to anyone and everyone he can get to listen. Today indeed is a day of celebration, this day of Pentecost.
Our text from Acts opens with the disciples already gathered together. They are gathered together for the celebration of Pentecost, a Jewish festival set out in the Torah, the law books for the Jews, which make the first five books of our Bible today. Pentecost was a celebration taking place fifty days after Passover, and was called also “the feast of weeks” or Shavout. The festival celebrated the “first fruits” of the early harvest in spring. So the disciples were gathered together for this traditional celebration. Suddenly, we read, a sounds like the rush of a violent wind came, and filled their gathering place, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, which seemed to them like divided tongues of fire. And they began to speak the gospel message to all who were gathered in such a way that everyone in the city could understand them. Many people from many places were gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, and it seemed that everyone could understand the disciples. Some were amazed at this, but others were a bit cynical, and accused the disciples of being drunk. Peter stands and raises his voice to the crowds: We’re not drunk – we are speaking as the prophets spoke – and he goes on to speak to them of visions and power that will come to all – young and old, men and women, slaves and free.
Today, when we celebrate Pentecost, our focus is on not on the feast originally celebrated, but on this event we read of in Acts – the giving of the Holy Spirit. This is the gift that Jesus has promised the disciples they would receive, the thing that would be their Advocate, their Comforter, helping them to make the transition from followers of Jesus to those who would be leading and guiding and sharing with others. The Holy Spirit is the gift that helps them with all their other gifts, in a way. It’s the foundation for their work, the source of their confidence in their abilities. After all, being filled with the Holy Spirit is being filled up with God’s own self, right inside of you. God dwelling in you certainly should inspire you with confidence! On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is the gift that is available to each one of us.
As we saw in children’s time, gift giving is an important part of birthday celebrations. Especially as we get older, I think we learn to get as much joy from giving gifts as we get from receiving them, don’t we? We wait anxiously for our loved ones to open what we’ve selected for them. We’re hoping they will like it. We’re hoping they will love it, and in the gift, see some of the love that we have for them. My mother sometimes gives what I like to call “sermonettes.” Her sermonettes are little mini-sermons that she gives when the mood seems to strike her and she suddenly becomes very eloquent on the topic du jour. I’ve always teased her that someday I wanted her to write her sermonettes down in a little book – Mom’s Guide to Life, or something like that. One such sermonette of hers, which appears from time to time in her rotation, has to do with gifts and giving and receiving. It goes like this. If someone gives you a gift, and you decide that you are going to hide the gift, or ignore the gift, or leave the gift unopened, or insist that you cannot use the gift – you can imagine that such behavior would only make the gift giver feel very hurt – your actions would mean that you’ve rejected the gift, that you don’t like the gift, that you don’t need the gift. We wouldn’t think of acting in such a hurtful way, especially when we know we have received a gift from another with love and caring attached.
So it is, according to my Mom, with our gifts from God. God gifts us in so many ways. Each one of us has unique talents and abilities that come to us from God, as we read in 1 Corinthians today. But sometimes, we act as though we’d rather give the gifts we’ve received to someone else. Or we pretend that we don’t have them. Or that we don’t like them, or don’t need them. We try to ignore our gifts, insisting that we can’t really use them. When we do this, we’re acting in a hurtful way – we’re telling God that we don’t like the blessings God has bestowed upon us. We’re unappreciative. And these gifts that God has given to us come not as burdens for us to bear, but as gifts given to us out of love. Imagine how special it is for each one of us to have our own unique combination of gifts, skills, and talents. Imagine the love and care signified in God’s special attention to each of us individually. God just wants us to receive and use and enjoy our gifts with open hearts. That’s a good sermonette.
To me, the day of Pentecost is the day the disciples finally start getting it. They finally start believing, after all this time, that God has indeed chosen them, called them, named them, gifted them to share the good news. Pentecost is the day the finally open the gifts that God has given to them, the day they finally start trying out their talents and skills for the first time. It’s everybody’s birthday, everybody receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, and everybody gets exactly what they most need from God. It’s a celebration. A grand party. No wonder some accused them of being drunk!
We’ve been invited to the party too. Again, and again, God asks us to take part in this Pentecost celebration. Each week we dedicate our financial gifts to God – and I don’t in any way underestimate the crucial nature of these gifts for the ability of our church to do and be in ministry. But gifts of money aren’t the only gifts we’re asked to lay on the table each Sunday. We’re also asked to give to the work of the church, to the work of the gospel, the other gifts with which God has blessed us. We’re asked to give our gifts of music and singing and dancing, gifts of reading scripture, gifts of cooking and baking, gifts of painting and cleaning, gifts of organizing and teaching, gifts of giving and comforting, gifts of visiting and listening, gifts of strength and love. As many of us are gathered here today is how many unique combinations of gifts from God we have here today. There is no one whom God has not gifted – first with gifts of grace, unconditional love, and the Holy Spirit, second with specific gifts that make us who we are. The best gifts are ones put to use, ones that are loved and cherished and appreciated. Today, I want you to think hard, think honestly, about the gifts God has given to you. Some gifts from God we don’t mind using. But others we tend to hide, afraid to show off what God has given us. On this Pentecost day, I want you to be filled with the comforting presence of the spirit that enables you to open your gifts, and love your gifts, and bring deep joy straight to the heart of God.
In your pews, you’ll find index cards. I want you to write down your gifts on those cards, the gifts that you are willing to share with God, the gifts you have that you’ve never before acknowledged, or the ones that you use every day, the gifts that you are willing to use to share God’s love with others. You don’t need to put your name on the cards. I won’t be collecting them later to use against you when it comes time to fill committee slots. This is between you and God. This is your chance to tell God that you know about your gifts and you are ready to start using them, ready to lay them on this table, right with all the other gifts we dedicate on this day. Today, when we receive our financial offering, I also ask you to put in the plates your cards, that we will add to the pile of gifts given by the children, so that we can give thanks to God for these gifts, and dedicate them to God’s work in the world.
Today is the birthday of our faith – the birthday of the church. The church isn’t these walls, or our doctrines. The church is the people. So let’s throw ourselves a great party this year, and relish the pile of gifts we have waiting to be opened.
Amen.