Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do
not want you to be uninformed… 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. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the
utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the
same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the
working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of
spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of
tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each
one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
***
It can be eye opening to go to another country and find our
American currency doesn’t work. That no matter how strong our economy, locally,
there is a different system, one based on both the present of state of trade in
that country, and also its history. Perhaps we find their coin currency heavy
but weigh that it is long lasting. Perhaps we look not at white presidents and
inventors depicted in green but at paintings of birds colored in oranges and
reds. They may be a historic reason you can’t trade our note with Andrew
Jackson for Curacao’s note with leaders of
black slave rebellions. Its a different type of system, its a different type of
currency, you can’t trade one for the other.
Similarity, I watched my parents struggle with the content
of, “island time.” It began at the airport with a two hour customs wait,
followed by a missing car rental employee who reminded my father, to no avail,
“Your on vacation, relax.” It was true we had no where to be, but my father was
insistent, that waiting at the airport was not where we wanted to relax. We
would go out to eat, and each minute that a water, or drink didn’t come was
taken as a slight, “Are we being treated this way because we didn’t make a
reservation?” and then a measure of bad service. After an hour of time spent
around a table with their family, I would see my parens glance at the watch on
their wrist. It’s a different kind of time you can’t measure one against the
other.
Likewise, the Holy Spirit deals in a different type of
currency and in a different sense of time. We as a church have been measuring
our lack. We have been measuring how much we will miss Luke when he is gone. We
have been measuring what youth ministry would be like without a paid, full-time
youth director. We have been measuring the decrease in our stewardship. We have
been measuring the lack of volunteers. We have been measuring the empty Session
positions. This is not how the Spirit measures, it doesn’t measure in lack, it
measures in abundance, and you can’t trade one for the other.
The Holy Spirit’s currency is entirely different. What if we
measured instead that we have Luke for five more months, how can we make best
of that time together? Does it look like the Youth and parents this weekend on
their retreat? What if we measured the dozens of possibilities for youth
ministry. Luke and I sat together and wondered how he would help the youth and
their families to not be so reliant on him. We dreamed what if each youth
suggested one person in the congregation who they felt they could go to if they
were having a hard time or a joy. That that congregant, like a confirmation
sponsor would pray for them, watch their games or recitals, and be in contact
with their parents for support. How beautiful would it be rather than one
person holding up the youth if we as a congregation offered ourselves to live
into those promises of baptism. Recently, in a conversation about Christmas
Eve, I told Kourtney that when I began I would sneak Bill Fessel’s name into
the Christmas Eve slot as liturgist. He was so poised, well prepared, and well
spoken, and I thought it was a good picture of our church to have an older
gentlemen and a younger woman pastor both reading the scriptures. I said, in
recent years it has been too hard for Pat to come, so they have stayed home
together. This year they had a visitor, having known the Fessel’s from their
buying her at Youth Auctions, Kourtney brought over cinnamon rolls on Christmas
Eve. Bill was so excited as he had not yet made anything for Christmas morning
and Kourtney watched Bill care for Pat, which is what I wish on any young girl
or boy, to witness that kind of love. Later, Kourtney told Luke, who in tears
told me, tears because Luke and Jed had been the Fessel’s rent-a-grandkids, it
had been the Rembold’s job to care for the Fessels and likewise for the Fessels
to care for them, and watch the boys as they grew. Now as Luke was leaving
again, he was able to know both the youth, and the grandparent, were in good
hands. This is how the Spirit measures. This is the Spirit’s timeline, in
generations, in words said in passing, and picked up and followed through
without direction. What if we as a church measured this, this abundance.
Similarly, what if we asked who has increased their
stewardship this year and learned from them? What if we counted Stewardship not
just as pledges, but gifts of time, and resources, and talents? What if we saw
our currency not just as our American dollar in the stocks of our endowment and
the pledges of our people, but instead in things like Jim Lissman’s carpentry,
Katya and Sabine’s voice, Evan’s computer skills, and Dale Dodson’s humor. You
can’t put a price on that abundance, it doesn't trade, you can;t trade the
values of the outside world for the gifts of the Spirit. What if before we
started anything new, or redid anything old, we looked the list of gifts of our
congregants. Do you know how many people offered to lead a hike in last week’s
visioning? Enough to make me wonder, why are we not hiking more, getting
outdoors, going camping together? There is this whole pile of gifts for outdoor
ministry. You see it in the energy of youth Sunday or Worship in the park. Its
listed on our wall in blue sticky notes waiting to be used. Do you know how
many people said they could cook? It made sense those are ministries which
thrive. There is never a problem finding someone to cook in this church and
likewise I could name a handful of, “best ofs” Bob Moon’s Lasagna, Shirley’s
deviled eggs, that dessert that Betty Duncan makes, Mark Fern’s elk chill,
Ginger’s sundries tomato bread…etc. I dream of a meal comprised of all these
things, think of the abundance. Did you notice any gifts that had no place to
share and were just waiting to be asked, to find a place for their special gift
of the Spirit? Did you ever wonder, perhaps we have more than we could ever
need.
The Spirit doesn’t look at the holes, it looks at the gifts,
it doesn’t follow our calendar for budget processes and stewardship seasons,
and looks our abundance and it dreams. It dreams what could be and it in works
in things like cinnamon roll deliveries, based on youth auctions, and
generations of kids, and the Fessels loving nature. Perhaps we have been too
busy glancing a our watches to realize we are surrounded by family and have no
where to be and that is more than what we could ever ask. Its what we wanted in
the first place.