February 1, 2009 Sermon

One Spirit
I Corinthians 12:1-11

Last Sunday we had a pot-luck breakfast followed by a demonstration of our new Children in Worship program. People started arriving at church that morning by 5:00 a.m., when the cleaner started her work. The pastor rolled in next, followed by the worship coordinator and her husband who, at about 7:30, came in to set up tables and chairs and generally get things ready. Moments later a man arrived who had no specific, official job description. But he has a calling. He has a ministry, the ministry of the sidewalk. The man's name is Doug Gauthier, and I want to lift him up as a beautiful example of how God's Holy Spirit works on believers.

Doug has adopted our sidewalk. He comes early through the winter and clears off the snow and ice—no small job when you consider that our building acts like a snowdrift fence. It sits on the edge of a great swath of open country. The wind hits it full force. This slows that wind, causing it to drop its load of snow... right on our sidewalk. It is not unusual to find a two-foot drift on our walk after a four-inch snowfall. Doug Gauthier has decided to make it his job to clear the walk. Then he puts down the ice melt (which he purchased himself). Then he keeps his coat, hat and gloves on and stands his post. From just inside the front door he waits for people to arrive. If they appear at all unsteady out he jumps to escort them inside. As often as he feels it is needed, he reshovels that walk. He offers a genuine smile and warm greeting to all.

Nobody asked Doug to do this. He simply saw the need and stepped up to fill it. He feels a calling. His wife Kathy told me he would have arrived here even earlier last week if he could have gotten her out the door faster. This is the Holy Spirit at work. God created Doug. He gave Doug a specific character. He made Doug friendly, responsible, faithful, and willing to do manual labor. (That last is a less common gift than you might suppose!) God made Doug in part to accomplish the sidewalk ministry. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. God gifted Doug. Now God gifts our church with Doug's ministry. That's the Holy Spirit doing its thing right before our very eyes.

The Holy Spirit makes us who we are. The Holy Spirit gives us ministries based on who we are. What gifts has the Holy Spirit given you in order that you might use them to proclaim the love of Jesus? God makes us to minister. Find your ministry.

We have reached the part of I Corinthians where the Apostle Paul writes about gifts of the Holy Spirit. He opens this twelfth chapter with a quick reference to his earlier warnings against idolatry. Idolatry—the worship of false gods—was a major problem for those first century Christians in Corinth and it remains a major problem today. Paul points out that if we allow ourselves to be led by God's Holy Spirit we will not worship false gods. We could say a great deal more about this, but we need to get on to the central point of this chapter: God gifts us for ministry.

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” We cannot improve on Paul’s summary. Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. We serve by employing them in various ways. God plants them in us and moves us to use them. One God; many gifts; many ministries. No matter who you are, no matter what you can do, no matter how you come to recognize and use your gifts, it all comes from the same God. The Holy Spirit is God at work here and now. God creates us through the Spirit. God plants us in creation through the Spirit. God shows us the ministries we can accomplish through the Spirit.

We have essentially finished our new building addition. We have said that we built it ourselves. Strictly speaking, this is wrong. The Holy Spirit built that building through us. Construction requires many gifts. It requires visionary leadership that sees the need and takes the huge leap of faith required to fill it. It requires a designer to make useful plans. It requires a faithful, doggedly-determined person to run the project. It requires people with the faithfulness to show up and do the work. It requires skilled carpenters. It requires all these gifted people and many more beside. It takes the Holy Spirit working through people to accomplish a great task.

But getting the occupancy permit marks only the start of the Holy Spirit's work in and through that building. Now other gifted people will take up residence within it. They will use their gifts to minister in the name of Jesus Christ. They will teach. They will prepare beds for the homeless. They will mentor young people.

Later in I Corinthians 12, Paul will insist that no gift has more importance than any other. In preparation for this sermon, and just to have a little fun, I called up a few friends who pastor churches. They live in Colorado and Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. I asked them, “Who has real power in your congregation?” They all mentioned the choir director and the chair of the finance committee. Most of them mentioned the women's association, the Clerk of session, and “one or two of the old families”.

Then I asked them who their churches would miss the most if they left. Not a one of their answers to this question had come up before. One said the woman who had counted the offering for something like forty years. Everybody trusted her to keep her mouth shut and count accurately, you see. Another spoke of their custodian who, unbeknownst to the membership, gave an extra ten hours of work per week because he felt God had called him to do that in atonement for a terrible sin he had committed decades ago. The pastor in Colorado told me about the guy he calls when he gets fed up and just can't take any more grief from the members. The people in the church hardly seem to know him, but somehow or another he and the pastor connected and he is a really good listener. God has gifted us all. We need all the gifts. No gift is more important than any other. How has the Holy Spirit gifted you to minister?

Our brand-new building addition has one single-purpose room: the young children's education room. Its walls are lined with shelves on rollers. They are of plain design and made from pine lumber bought off the rack at Home Depot. But they are beautifully made. Their builder was named Mike Priest. We came to know him through Angela and Gary Carter, members of our congregation. Mike had a hard life. He made a few big mistakes and got caught in the grip of alcohol. But he loved to build furniture and over the years had acquired a nice little workshop with good tools. Starting a year ago my wife Linda started commissioning him to make shelves. Now they, along with a nice little sandbox and a table, support our new Children in Worship program. But it is bittersweet to me that we start that program today. You see, Mike Priest died this past Monday. His hard lifestyle caught up to him. He had a massive stroke and faded away.

I would like for us all, each time we look at the furniture in the young children's room in our new building, for as long as we can remember to do so, to say a little prayer of thanksgiving to God for gifting Mike Priest with the ministry of making furniture. Even this down-and-out man had a talent. Everybody does. How has God gifted you to minister? If you do not know, pray for the answer. Ask people in the church whose insights you respect. The Holy Spirit gifts us all. All of us can minister with our gifts. No gifts are more important than any of the others. What matters only is that we find our gifts and use them.

When we know our gifts and minister with them, our lives take on new purpose. We have a reason for being here. Others receive blessings from God through us. Praise God! Now—let's fill that new building, and our “old” building, with ministries that gift this part of God's beloved creation.