When our daughter, Ann, first went to a Montessori nursery school in Long Beach where we were living then I had the job of dropping her off in the morning.  It was one of the worst experiences I have gone through as a parent.  She would cry and beg me not to abandon her and would cling to me.  When Gail picked her up in the early afternoon Ann was having such a good time that it was hard for Gail to get her to go home.  Separation anxiety is one of those understandable human emotions that is nonetheless very painful because it appears to the child or spouse that the departure of the one you depend on so greatly means that life will never be the same again. Sometimes that proves to be the case, though usually the parent or spouse returns and all is well.

            When Jesus told his disciples that he was departing this earth they had a major case of separation anxiety.  He had been the one to open their eyes to the power and love of God, the one who had taught them to pray and had sent them out to do amazing things in his name.  So what would they do without him?  He told them that it was to their advantage that he go away, for if he did not, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would not come to them (John 16:7).  Jesus said that when the Spirit comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears and declare the things to come and will glorify Christ (John 16:13-14).  When he said that I am sure that they could not begin to imagine how his physical absence could be of any advantage to them.

            Last week we read of Jesus’ departure from the disciples and of their doubts in the face of unprecedented events like his resurrection from the dead and appearances to them behind locked doors.  He told them to stay put in Jerusalem and to wait until they were clothed with power from on high.  Today we celebrate the fulfillment of that promise on the day of Pentecost, which was a festival of the Jews marking the first harvest of grain, with Jews from all around the Mediterranean gathered in Jerusalem to mark the feast.  We heard God’s praise spoken in just four languages this morning: Arabic, Mandarin,  Spanish, and English.  Many more languages than that were spoken on that remarkable day, and not by native speakers, but by followers of Jesus who were empowered by the Spirit to bear witness to him in languages they did not know. 

            Three thousand persons came to faith that day and were baptized at the invitation of the Apostle Peter who said, “For the promise is for you, for your children and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” (Acts 2:39)  We will celebrate the Baptism of Zoe Kittel today whose family is part of the life of this congregation, and we treasure the truth that the promises of God are for us and for our children. 

            So what is the work of the Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, all terms used interchangeably in the New Testament?  Jesus said the Spirit would lead them into all truth, bring their remembrance all he had taught them, would glorify Christ.  Paul says much the same in 1 Cor. 12:3b when he writes, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit leads us to Jesus and Jesus leads us to God the Father.  We see the Trinity at work in the process of conversion and that same work continues in the work of Christian nurture or sanctification.  Paul says that each of us is given a gift or gifts by the Spirit for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7). You see the same dynamic at work in the life and ministry of Jesus.  As he comes up out of the Jordan at his baptism the Spirit descends on him like a dove and God affirms Jesus, saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) Jesus resists the temptations of the devil with the help of God’s word and Spirit and returns in the power of the Spirit to begin his ministry.  He casts out demons and heals people by the power of the Spirit. 

So Jesus is asking us to follow his example in trusting the power of the Spirit in our lives.  God invites us to discover and use our spiritual gifts for the benefit of others  and to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to advance the work of God in our world.  Indeed, that is the only way the work of God advances, for the Bible says: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6) 

Ordinary men and women accomplished extraordinary things when they embraced Christ and were filled with the Spirit of God.  They cared for the sick during the frequent plagues that ravaged the ancient world, and many survived and came to embrace the Lord of life who had shown divine power in the caring of Jesus’ followers.  Female babies were not rejected and left to die by followers of Jesus, even though that was common practice in their world.  Rodney Stark points out in his book, The Rise of Christianity, that this brought into balance the ratio of men and women and that made for a healthier and happier society.  China faces all kinds of challenges in the years ahead, and one of them is a disproportionate number of males to females because of the large number of female babies and fetuses which were rejected because many felt if you could only have one child a male offered better prospects for your old age.  As the Christian community grows rapidly in China I suspect we will see a change in how they embrace the gift of a child regardless of gender. 

Many of the finest schools and hospitals in the developing world were begun by Christian missionaries and nationals full of God’s Spirit and of the conviction that learning and health care should be available for everyone and not only the wealthy.  On June 15 we will hear again from Veeda Javaid, the Director of the Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan, of the progress of schools that the government has returned to the church after taking them over, because the government realized the schools were better run and supported by the church than the state.  The modern protestant mission movement began in the late Eighteenth  Century when William Carey, and Englishman who made his living as a shoemaker, felt led by the Spirit to go to India to share the good news with the multitudes who had yet to hear the name of Jesus. The church looked at Carey’s proposal with very little interest and didn’t think his vision or abilities were needed on that field.  He finally gained the support of a few congregations and individuals and went and had such a gift for evangelism and linguistics that he translated portions of the New Testament into twenty-seven different Indian dialects.  Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

What about you and me?  We may not be called to the mission field, or to found a school or hospital, or then again, we might.  But assuming we stay at our current stations in life, how does the Holy Spirit fit into our lives?  Each of us is given a gift or gifts which can be used to draw persons to Christ and into fullness of life.  Some twenty gifts are mentioned in the New Testament.  Today’s reading from 1 Cor. 12 is one spot where we learn of some of the gifts, and Romans 12:6-8 and Ephesians 4:11 are two others.  Time doesn’t permit me to mention them all today, but look them up for yourselves.  Today’s passage mentions: the utterance of wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues. In verse 28 of 1 Cor. 12 we see three other gifts mentioned: teaching, apostleship, administration.  And in Romans 12:6-8 we read of serving, exhortation, giving, giving aid, and compassion.  Ephesians 4:11 adds evangelism and shepherding or pastoring.

The variety of gifts is by God’s design, for a variety of things need to be accomplished for the rule of God to take hold in our world. Without the gift of evangelism the church will dwindle and eventually die.  Without teaching and knowledge God’s people will not mature. Without discernment, our faith community will be susceptible to bad leadership or unresponsive to good.  Without faith our church will not dare with God to do what God wants done even though it seems beyond our capacity. Without administration a church will sometimes flounder and work unwittingly at cross purposes with resulting low morale.  Without service, giving and generosity, many needs will go unmet.  Without compassion the church loses the hallmark of Christian living and service.

Some denominations tend to value some gifts over others and that can lead to feelings of superiority or competition that undermine out witness to the world.  Presbyterians value administration and doing things decently and in order, but at times that puts a damper on daring and creativity and agility in the service of God.  I like the bumper sticker that says: God so loved the world that he didn’t send a committee.  Yet we have all seen churches that didn’t have established procedures and checks and balances of shared governance and fell prey to autocratic leaders who led them astray.  Jim Jones had no committees or presbytery to answer to and he led nine hundred people into suicide.  Never disdain the value of the gifts of administration and discernment.

Every gift and every member in the body of Christ is needed for the multifaceted work of God to be accomplished in our very diverse world.  The sooner we come to believe and act on that conviction the better for our congregation and the church at large and the world.  This summer on my sabbatical I will be visiting vital churches in our area and beyond seeking to discern gifts that are prominent in their midst so as to better cooperate with them in service to our community.  We have special strengths as do they, and if we can affirm one another and work together, the work of God will advance.  The world needs to see gifts differing but used in the service of one God. Dreamers and doers, artists and bankers, entrepeneurs and homemakers, conservatives and liberals and moderates, share one baptism, one God and Father of all who is in all. May the Spirit of God empower us to make music together in a symphony of service under the direction of Jesus Christ our Lord.