Empowered by being filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2)... God's Spirited People: the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Bible and the Church today (Part 7)

Over the period between Easter and Pentecost we’ve been working our way through a series looking at the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Bible and the Church Today. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are the ways in which God has empowered and enabled and equipped the church to bear witness to Christ in the world. We started our journey with Jesus commissioning his disciples after the resurrection, recorded at the end of Luke’s gospel and the beginning of Acts, where he promises they will receive power from on high to be Jesus witnesses. We moved on to see the spirit being given so we can Show Christ like love in service (Roman 12). So we would lack in nothing for every good deed and be built up into maturity in the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4). We saw that these manifestations of the Holy Spirit are the ways God speaks and moves through us in a diversity of ways and that we are the body of Christ, where everyone belongs and has a part to play (1 Corinthians 12). Last week we saw how we should use the gifts God has given us with a Christ centred vision, and for the common good (In 1 Peter 4). We are finishing today by looking at God keeping his promise and  sending his Holy Spirit on that first group of  believers gathered together in Jerusalem, making them and us ‘God’s Spirited people’.

Stainglass windows in the chapel at

Mountainside Lutheran Church

One of the visual motifs that has been running through this series  is stain glass art…  The wonderful image that has been on the screen during our service today comes from the chapel down at Mountainside Lutheran Church: These two wonderful panels speaking of the water of life and the fire of the Holy Spirit, and inclusion into the people of God through baptism in water and by the Holy Spirit. Thanks to pastor Joe Kummerow  for letting me use it. During this series we’ve used the idea of stained glass to talk of different pieces of glass, in a diverse shape and colour being fitted together to form a picture and that picture coming alive as the light shines through it, just as God draws us together and as we belong to each other in love and find the part God has called us to play, and as the spirit brings all that together and makes it alive that we show Christ to the world.

But we started with a piece of stain glass art at St John’s in Rotorua, that represented the gifts of the Holy Spirit the sun was supposed to shine through the upper windows and through the glass triangles and down on to the congregation, symbolising that the Gifts the Holy Spirit were for everyone, not just what was happening up the front. The problem as that the sun never shone through on a sufficient angle for that to happen. There was a disconnect between them and the congregation, which I felt was symbolic for a lot of us of a disconnect between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and our own lives. What I want to do today is use Acts 2 as a way of addressing a lot of the issues around that disconnect. If you go on to websites you’ll often see a FAQ page or frequently asked questions page and I want to provide us with that today.

Let’s have a quick look at Acts 2 first. It is the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit as promised and the start of the mission of the church as witnesses to Jesus. Basically it is split into three parts. the first details the events that took place as the spirit came upon those first believers gathered together.  It outlines what happened and peoples response. The central part of the narrative is Peter’s sermon where he explains what is happening and preaches about Jesus. The third section of the narrative is the peoples response, about three thousand were saved and then a concluding description of how this new community, God’s Spirited people, lived together being lead and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The first frequently asked question is ‘Do all Christians need to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit for every one or just the certain chosen few?

While we’ve been addressing that throughout this series, it is good to look at it again. The answer is yes it is for everyone. Look at the flow of things in Acts 2 it starts by says all the believers were gathered together (About 120), all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, in this case all of them spoke in tongues. When the crowd gathers it is the apostles, Peter and the elven that stand up to speak, that is the gift that they have been given, so they use it. They have been training for this moment with Jesus, the narrative ends with people living in a way that reflects the Holy Spirit’s presence in their midst, in all of them with the love they have for each other.

The other important answer to this question comes from the passage that Peter quotes from the prophet Joel , that he says is being fulfilled that day. That God would put out his spirit on all people, and it is a comprehensive list… men and women, regardless of socio-economic status ‘on your men servants and women servants as well, all would speak God’s word or prophesy… and regardless of age… young would see visions and old would dream dreams, and you can choose for yourself which category you are in. 

 WE are all to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. As Paul says ‘ he anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.’ 2 Corinthians 1:22

The second FAQ is ‘was it just for the people then, just to get the church kick started you know and it’s not for us today. I mean we have the New Testament?’… when it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit the church is split along those lies, those who believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit were for then and there but they’ve stopped now and those who believe that it is for all people at all times.

Focusing on what we have read to us today, Peter finishes his sermon by saying that those who repent and believe in Jesus will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That it is a promise for you and your children and for all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call.’ Some have seen this as saying it’s for the first couple of generations of Christians, which is a literal interpretation, but it is more likely a way of talking about it being for all generations to come. For all who God shall call.

People who talk of the gifts not being for today often point to the second half of 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul talks of tongues ceasing and prophecy ending… when the perfect comes. They see that as meaning the New Testament scriptures. It is hard to write back into Paul in one of the earliest letters which is included in the New Testament canon that he would see a time when we had such a collection.  He was writing to a church that had people who believed that the kingdom of God had come in its entirety and they were like heavenly spiritual beings and he has to remind them that this is not the case; they are to look forward to a greater fulfillment when Christ returns.

The fullness of the Holy Spirit, its presence and the gifts are for us today.

Another FAQ is … when you talk about the Holy Spirit we are bit worried you mean all the weird and wonderful stuff that seems to go along with it at ‘those churches’. do we have to become like them?

In Acts 2 there are very real manifestations that go along with the coming of the Holy Spirit. The wind, the tongues of fire everyone speaking in languages of all the nations gathered on that day. This was an important event an epoch changing event. The wind and the fire are symbols of the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament, the speaking in a language that all could understand was   a sign that this was God pouring out his spirit so that the people of God could and would witness to all the nations of the world, this was the revolution of God grace for all, so it was appropriate. We do tend to forget that the focus of the narrative is on what happened to God’s people and we see they had boldness to preach about Jesus. The majority of this passage is about peter explaining the scriptures and pointing people to Christ. The other thing is that it ends with a summary of the life of God’s Spirited people in Jerusalem.  The signs of the presence and moving of God’s holy Spirit are not really all the weird and wonderful stuff, but people repenting and turning to God, a hunger for God’s word, an increase in a dedication to worship and prayer, unity and love; shown in generosity and hospitality, a genuine and practical concern for the poor, a renewed passion for people to come to know Christ, and yes that God does move in signs and wonders.

I think we’ve just gotten to a point where we are not used to God being God in our midst… in the most recent edition of the voice of martyrs magazine, one Syrian pastor who has stayed on the front lines, talks of the church being full, and many Muslims coming to faith 80-90% of them because they have had a vision or a dream… one man asked to become a Christian after a dream where he was drowning in a river and a man came along and hauled him out, he wanted to become a Christian because he just knew it was Jesus, another who is now a pastor ‘ saw a vision of all the prophets coming out before him, Moses and then Jesus and he waited for Mohammad  to come but he didn’t . So he asked a man standing next to him is there anymore and was told no Jesus is the last one.’ We also don’t get our head round miracles but the Syrian pastor amidst tails of suffering and sorrow talks of a viscous unseasonal hail storm coming as they prayed just at the time terrorist had advertised they were going to attack the city he was in, it broke up the mob of 3000 and even the secular Syrian media reported  ‘God fought on our side’.    My Mum, who was about seventy at the time,  shared a vision she had in church one day, she was in vast fields of the most beautiful wild flowers, and she saw a man in the middle of them, that she just knew was Jesus, and he looked at her and said, ‘I know all these by name’. Affirmation that we are all known. Can I say that the most common thing I experience when I pray for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit is an overwhelming sense of God’s peace and love, which I think is the most amazing and awesome thing… God presences himself with his people.

Ok lets move on our next FAQ is ‘Is being filled with the Holy Spirit a one off experience that you need to be prayed for to receive or is it an ongoing day to day relationship?”  

In Acts chapter 2 it is a new experience a new encounter with God. We don’t know what the experience of the three thousand who came to faith that day. There are others like that in Acts, when the gentiles receive the spirit in acts 10, and throughout history as well times when God has met people and poured out his Holy Spirit in a new and fresh way, the Pentecostal movement, look back to the Azuza street revival in 1906 as the place where the renewal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit happened for them. You could look at the welsh revivial… there have been times of great revival and outpouring of the spirit in our own Presbyterian Church as well. In fact one church historian talks of the Presbyterian Church being born in the fires of revival. However We receive the Holy Spirit when we become followers of Jesus Christ. It is what brings transformation God comes and dwells within us. Paul talks of walking with the Holy Spirit, an ongoing day to day encounter with God through the Holy Spirit as the way in which the Christ-like fruit of the Holy Spirit are produced in us. Even when he says ‘be filled with the Holy Spirit , in the Greek it is in a tense which means be filled and keep on being filled by the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps it’s best to leave the last word on that to Jesus. We are so used to his words on Prayer ‘ask and it will be given, knock and it will be opened, seek and you will find’ that we forget that it finishes in Luke’s gospel by saying ’How much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him’. When we pray for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit be it in our own prayer life or in a meeting or gathering, it is God’s good grace to give it to us. In fact when we pray for that it is not the manifestations that happen that are the important thing But that we can trust God keeps his promise.

So I think the answer is yes, it can be an experience and it is an on going relationship, ask and you will receive. Keep on asking and receiving…

Lastly ‘How may I be filled with the Holy Spirit?’

The answer is that if you love Jesus Christ then Ask and you will receive. AS we’ve looked at the scriptures the amazing thing about the New Testament is that because of what Christ has done for us , God wants to live in us, God wants to fill us with his presence by the Holy Spirit, it’s simply a matter of asking him and believing that he will do what he has promised.  God will give us a fresh touch of his love, empower us to witness for him, fill us so much with his presence and reveal his word to us that it will flow out of us. WE will be so filled with God’s love and presence and joy that our vision of what is and what should be will be shaped by that, our dreams filled and directed by Christ. Our actions and reactions become more and more Christ-like, and Christ’s vision of the Kingdom of God will be our vision.

We are going to finish now by doing just that asking God to fill us afresh with his spirit.

God with and within us: A Pentecost Prayer of Thanksgiving and Confession May 2016

The wonderful stain glass window at Mountainside

Lutheran Church here in Auckland. Thank you for

allowing me to photograph and use it.  

This is a prayer of thanksgiving and confession for Pentecost Sunday this year. As I reflected on the passage from Acts 2... I couldn't help but think of the difference of seeing a God who is 'way out there' above and beyond and what Pentecost tells us about God's (address as it were) with and 'with in us' God has always been with his people. through his promises to Abraham, Moses and though the leaders and prophets he sent to guide Israel to be faithful.  Then that with us took on a whole new dimension and fulfillment in Jesus Christ, he came and dwelt amongst us, finally that with the sending of the Holy Spirit God came to dwell within us. 

I borrowed some language from a Laidlaw College public lecture given by Justin Duckworth, the Anglican Bishop of Wellington, for the confession part of this prayer. He called the church in the west compromised, flabby and idolatrous...  and it has challengingly stuck with me.

The prayer for God to fill us afresh with his Holy Spirit is a reflection of the promises in Joel chapter 2.

finally I felt it was important at Pentecost to pray specifically for a renewal of our evangelism as we remember the Holy Spirit was sent in power to enable Jesus followers then and know to be his witnesses. I borrowed it from a  Church of England (help help I'm turning Anglican...) initiative, called 'thy kingdom come' of  a week of concerted prayer for revival leading up to Pentecost this year.    

Almighty and Holy God,

Eternal creator of that there is

Sovereign in all time and every place

Today we come to give you praise

Specifically to give thanks that you are not an aloof God

You are not just way out there, unreachable, unknowable and uncaring

Rather that you draw near and are with and within us by the Holy Spirit

We thank you that you were with your people Israel

They were yours and you are their God

You heard their suffering and spoke to Moses through the burning bush

You Sent him to tell pharaoh to let my people go’

You lead them in the wilderness by cloud and fiery pillar

Established them in the land you had promised to their ancestor Abraham

You raised up leaders and prophets to call them back to you

We thank you that you stepped down into our world,

In Christ the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us

That in him we beheld and received your grace and truth

We thank you that in Christ ‘ you took our place’

Christ’s death on the cross paid the price for what we had done wrong

We thank you that in his resurrection you made a way for us  

That we can pass from our dead life into new, full and eternal life

Today we especially thank you for sending your Spirit upon us

You fulfilled your promise to dwell within us by the Holy Spirit

To place a new heart within us; of flesh not stone

You bring Jesus words to us and lead us into all truth

As we walk with you, by the Spirit, you nurture Christ like-fruit in our lives

You empower us to witness to the hope we have found in Christ

You enable us to demonstrate your love and power  

God who is with and for us

We confess we have done wrong, and left good undone

We confess we have found our vision full of the things of this world

We have eaten our fill with it and lost our hunger for you

We have allowed ourselves to worship the same things as our neighbours’

We are guilty of being compromised, flabby and idolatrous

Forgive us we pray, graciously God and  restore us again

God who forgives and makes new

Fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit today: pour it out on us

May we be so full of your living word that we speak it forth

May we be  so full of the abiding presence of Christ

That our imagination and dreams are renewed and emboldened

That our vision of what is and what is possible may conform to your will

That through your work in us  ‘all who call on the name of the Lord would be saved ‘

 This is a prayer from the 'Thy kingdom come' in the Church of England That I think is so important for us as a church today…as we remember God empowering his disciples to witness to him it's a prayer for the renewal of evangelism

Gracious God,

 We thank you that you have brought us to know and recognise you Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank you for those who shared the Gospel of Jesus with us.

We ask that in turn we may pass the Good News on to others.

Give us confidence to speak of you,

Sensitivity to walk with others on their journey,

And love to inspire us to reach out to others.

Most of all, give us a passion to see your Kingdom come,

That we might take risky steps

To be your witnesses to your world.

Through your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Both panels of the stain glass window in the chapel at Mountainside Lutheran Church.

The water and the Spirit.

A good assesment of the Church in the west and thoughts on allowing for renewal (A Public Lecture by Justin Duckworth (the dreaded Bishop of Wellington)

I don't have much to say on this I simply want to point people to a challenging and encouraging lecture (I know sounds strange right). Laidlaw College very graciously have placed their public lecture by Justin Duckworth the Bishop of Wellington online.

I found it to be a good and helpful and hopeful assessment of where the church is at... in New Zealand and the western world. Duckworth is straight up when he says that the church is 'compormised, flabby and idoliterous' but also moves straight to hope in that this has always been the wrestle we've had (and reading through Judges at the moment for my daily devotions I can see it in historically with God's people way back). Hope comes from Duckworth's look at history when movements have risen up to bring the church back to faithfulness to Christ. He mentions the desert fathers, the Franciscans and in passing the Methodists and Salvation Army... Suggesting even Hillsong could be seen as one such group in the area of church music... The main point he is making is that these just may be apostolic movements, God moments that call the church back to Fidelity.

What I found very useful was Duckworth's reflections on how to foster and encourage these movements. I found myself grieving when he outlined the process by which the church domesticates is dreamers and people who God calls to be on the edge. There were parts in that story that I could relate to, painfully. But there was also wisdom and hope as Justin Duckworth talked about how to nurture and give liberty for fresh vision and passion for Christ to arise, and how those in the church can both support and protect such movements.

Here is the link to the video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_dmNkuouvs

Empowered to speak and serve for a common vision and the common good (1 Peter 4:7-11)... God's Spirited People: The gifts of the Holy Spirit in the bible and the church today (part 5)

 ‘They are a team of Neville nobodies’ that’s how I heard one person describe Leicester City football club, and the amazing news he was commenting on is that this week those Neville nobodies won the English Premier division. At the beginning of the season they were 5000:1 outsiders.  In football terms the club paid peanuts for their players, in fact there are clubs who have paid more than Leicester City paid for their whole team just for one marquee player. How could little ol’ Leicester City beat all these other star studied top line clubs? Well the same commentator who called them Neville nobodies said…”they didn’t have the star players, but each player knew what part they needed to play for the team to fulfill its vision and goal and they played that part. They were not in it for themselves but played for each other, their manager and the club”, their manager was able to unify this group of rejects and misfits that he’d given a second chance, and focus them on the common goal and the common good.  It’s not often you turn on the radio or switch on the TV news and the lead story is such a great sermon illustration about being God’s Spirited people.

Between Easter and Pentecost which is next week we’ve been working our way through the scriptures in the New Testament that deal with what we call the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We’ve seen that God has given gifts to his people in Christ to empower, enable and equip them…Or more correctly that God has given to empower, enable and equip us… to witness to Jesus Christ, to serve, to be built up together into maturity in the fullness of Christ, that God speaks and moves through us in a diversity of ways, and that we are the body of Christ, embodying Christ in the world. Each of these passages have had a list of gifts of the Holy Spirit, each list is different, they are  not designed to be definitive or exhaustive, they are there to tell us about the gifts in the context of important teaching on what it means to be the Church together.

Today we get a fresh perspective on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, all the other times the gifts are mentioned it is Paul who is speaking, but here we have Peter mentioning them. In the other instances Paul is writing to a specific church dealing with a specific issues, whereas Peter still writing to deal with specific issues is writing a more general letter, to Jewish Christians scattered throughout the provinces in Asia minor. The passage we had read to us this morning comes in the last part of Peter’s letter as a general exhortation and so acts well for us as a general summary and encouragement. Like we saw with the football team it puts the gifts of the Holy Spirit in terms of a common vision for the church and a call to use them for the common good. 

Let’s start with common vision… because Peter starts and finishes with vision; we just might not see it when he starts because he starts “The end of all things is near.” So we are more likely to see a picture in our minds of a scraggly street person, slightly wild eyed, definitely unhinged and out of touch, standing on a street corner, with a sandwich board, proclaiming ‘the end is nigh’, and it puts us off.  Wayne Grudem puts it into perspective when he says that Peter is thinking in terms of redemption history rather than just world history. By that he means with the coming of Christ, his death and his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, God has done all that is needed for his salvation plan to be completed ‘Jesus words on the cross were it is finished’, God’s kingdom is come, theologians use the technical term, it’s been inaugurated, the same word we use for the swearing in of a new president, the reign of Christ has begun… but Christ also said he ‘would come back’, and we live with the tension that God’s kingdom is still to come, in the Lord’s Prayer we pray ‘Thy Kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is heaven’. We look for what has started to be finished, or fulfilled, and the technical word is consummated, like we talk of peoples love and unity being completed in marriage. One of the metaphors in the New Testament talking of Christ’s return is that of a bride groom Christ coming for his bride the church. They are betrothed to each other this marriage has been inaugurated, but it awaits the consummation, when the two become one.  But between those two times, the bride readies herself for that time.

That vision does not mean that we are ‘All heavenly minded and of no earthly use”, or that we live in some sort of out of touch fantasy world just waiting for that train to glory to take us out of here. Peter says that it should cause us to be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” Perhaps when Peter says be alert here so we can pray he is remembering back to the garden of Gethsemane when he was invited to stay awake and pray with Jesus, because the hour had come, but he had fallen asleep. It’s easy for us in the on-going life and millennia of time passing to lose focus and faith in Jesus Christ and thy kingdom come. We are to live in a way that shows the world what it looks like to live where Christ reigns, and let that overflow into the world around us, to overcome the destruction of sin, and lostness in people’s lives and to transform the injustice and brokenness in our world.

Peter then calls his readers to live that vision out as the church in terms of the common good. Remember as you look behind me that the symbol of our Presbyterian church is the burning bush, and it’s an image from our stain glass windows I’ve used that image to reinforce that  Peter is speak to us as well as his first readers.

Firstly that it is a call to love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. A Kingdom of God vision, a Christ vision calls us to be a community together: To love one another. Peter is real enough to acknowledge that it’s not easy just like it’s not easy to get a group of football players with their own ego’s, foibles, ambitions and failing together it is hard for us to come together for the common good because we too are all broken and sinful people. So we need to offer the same radical grace, love and forgiveness to one another that we have received in Christ. We belong together we are team. There will be hurts and wrongs and things that really, really hurt and get in the way and threaten to derail us, but we are grow deeper in our love so we can work through those things. Again I wonder if Peter here isn’t remembering a question he asked Jesus recorded in Matthew 18. How many times must I forgive my brother, Seven times? To which Jesus replied ‘no seventy times seven’. Now before you whip out your phones and go look at the calculator app, In pre calculator days it was supposed to be a ridiculous number to remember all those slights and hurts, and keep an account of them, it would consume us. Just like in 1 Corinthians 12 that we looked at last week we should seek the better way… love.    

Alongside that Peter calls for offering hospitality to one another without grumbling. In the ancient near east as is often the case today, you expected to get something for what you gave, hospitality was a way of getting status. Here Peter calls us to open our homes and our lives to one another. One of the great barriers to genuine Christian love is the doors to each other’s houses, if we limited our involvement with each other as church to Sunday worship is that loving one another, it’s as we get into the reality of each other’s lives that genuine love happens. That gifts develop and flourish because we need God’s enabling to share his love with each other. That’s why I believe small groups are important in a church… On a very practical level the best place to start using your gifts and see them develop is in the setting of a small home group or life group. They are a safe place to develop and experiment. The first time I spoke in tongues in front of anyone else, and I sensed I had a word for someone and taught people and lead was in a small group. We actually try and have the level of fellowship and pastoral care that can happen in a small group be expressed in a larger group like this… What it does is often limit the size a group can be to feel that. Churches that grow in size need small groups to be the glue factor.  

Once Peter has got those two things sorted common vision and common good he then turns to talk about how we use our gifts. In very general terms he again says that to live out of this vision of the Kingdom of God is to use what we have been given to glorify God. To use them out of Deeping love and generous hospitality is to use them in a way that does bring praise to God. The list he gives isn’t very large or descriptive, but of all the lists is the most comprehensive. If your gift is to speak do it, if it is to serve then do it. Can I have a commercial break here and say just maybe this team is sponsored by Nike. We have been given these gifts by God so we should use them for God.  The parable of the tenants comes to mind where the servants are given amounts of money, and the faithful servants invest it and use it to make more, the unfaithful servant who does not know what his master is like, hides it.

To Speak covers all the gifts of divine utterance we’ve seen apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, teaching, encouraging, words of wisdom, words of knowledge,  tongues and their interpretation, remember this not exhaustive. Pater says we should do these things as if we are speaking the word of God, these things come from our knowing and being shaped and changed by encountering God’s word by ‘listening ‘to Jesus and putting it into practise.

To serve covers all the other gifts, healings , administration, pastoring, leadership, caring, mercy, again not exhaustive, but again in all we do as well as all we say we seek to glorify God. WE are to do that in the strength that God gives. We may see a lot of these gifts as our natural talents, but as we are new creations in Christ, the Holy Spirit takes those things and recreates them in us. If we rely on our own strength it hard for them to achieve that God wants, but if we use them trusting in God he can use them to the glory of Jesus Christ. I think that is one of the reasons Peter starts his exhortation about common vision and common good by talking about prayer, because it is in that relationship with God that we are equipped and energised to serve.

Peter finishes with common vision in a way that we can understand, with what we call a doxology, a short hymn of praise ‘in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever Amen.’ The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to be used for the glorification of Jesus Christ, sometimes the teams with the most gifted players don’t win because players might think their gifts belong to the individual, that it all about them. Not so in the kingdom of God, in the Church as we’ve worked our way through the different times they are mentioned in scripture we see the focus is on serving, on the common good, they are there so that God maybe praised through our witness to Christ. If we all play our part then it turns us into a winning team. Just like with English Premier league it’s not an easy road, although you’d think Peter’s letter might finish on that triumphant Amen,  he goes on to talk about the churches having to deal with suffering and persecution. 

 This passage starts with a vision of Christ: God achieving his salvation plans and purposes in Christ and his immanent return, and finishes with a vision of Christ: that in all things, encompassing the whole of life, no sacred secular split, no work life, home life, church life compartmentalization, that God would be praised through Jesus Christ. The church starts and finishes with a vision of Christ, now as if in a glass darkly, then face to face, it is our purpose… being witnesses to Christ, it’s what calls us to be about serving… it’s what calls us on to play our part to use our gifts is that vision of Christ… that is the real challenge for us… it is what changes us as group of misfits and  Neville nobodies, given a second chance and new life in Christ, into God’s spirited people.

as a response to this message we finsiehd our service with the hymn 'thine be he glory risen conquering son' a communal call to affirm our common vision of Christ glorified. This isn't us by the way...

Prayer of thanksgiving and confession for Mother's Day May 8th 2016

This is a general prayer of thanksgiving and confession for mothers day I'm going to have a special Mothers day thank you prayer written by the children as they come into church... But in this prayer I've focused on some of the feminine imagery for God in the scriptures.

Acts 17:29 although being full of male pronouns has the image of God 'in whom we move and have our being" and I remember a feminist theologian saying that it was very much an image of the womb and had been liberating when she heard it.

El Shaddai is a word that scholars say has two possible roots God of the mountains from which we get God almighty and God who has breasts from which we can get God all sufficient, Just like a mothers milk is all sufficient for her children and image that comes out in Psalm 131.

Jesus used the image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings in Matthew 23:27 for his and God's love for his people, as he laments over Jerusalem.

Ruach is the Hebrew word for spirit and is a feminine noun. I'm not saying that implies the Holy Spirit is feminine as in Greek the word pneuma is used which is neutral implying it is a thing not a person...  God made humans both male and female in God's image!

God, in whom we move and have our being,

We give you praise for the wonderful birth of creation

That you spoke and it all came into being

All that is around us and all that we are is a gift from you

God, All sufficient

We give you praise for your generous provision

For food and water: the bounty of the earth

For family and friends their love a reflection of your own  

God, made flesh in Jesus Christ born of Mary

We give you thanks for our mothers, in life and in the faith

We acknowledge their commitment, love, nurture and care,

We celebrate those with us, we remember and honour those no longer here.

God, who made us, male and female, in your image

We come and confess that image tarnished beyond our hope by our sin

We have done wrong and left undone the good you call us to do

We humbly come and ask you to forgive and restore

God, who in Christ longed to gather us under your wings like a mother hen,

We give you praise for our gracious rebirth

That the slate is whipped clean and we are welcomed in

For new creation and new life in Christ’s life, death and resurrection

Ruach: Holy Spirit, loving companion and help

We thank you for Christ’s abiding presence with and within

Your nurture into all truth and the fruit of Christlikeness that results

For enabling and equipping to witness and serve by your love and power


here is a link to another prayer of thankgiving for mothers day I wrote in 2012... I simply offer these things in the hope people will find them helpful, meaningful, useful, a starting point for their own creativity or a cautionary tale of what not to do...

Empowered to be the body of Christ and embody Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-31a)... God's Spirited People: the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Bible and the Church today (Part 5)

I wonder if it’s just a guy thing but I love pocket knives. I had a few when I was a kid and later when my wife Kris’ sister and brother in law went on a trip through Europe they bought me back a black Swiss army knife, customized with my name on it and all these wonderful tools and attachments. It wasn’t as great as the one in the image behind me from an introduction to  EDC pocketknife company , but it had two blades, scissors, screw drivers, bottle openers, tin openers, tweezers and a tooth pick and one of those spikes that are handy for getting stones out of horses’ hooves. I used to take it with me everywhere I went I wasn’t aware that could get you in to trouble, because it’s a tool right not a weapon.

 It was about six months after 9/11 and Kris and I were getting on a flight from Dunedin to Christchurch and I’d forgotten that I’d left it in the bottom of my carry-on luggage ( we had our son Isaac who was a 1 year old with us and our carry luggage was a nappy change bag). AS the bag went through the x-ray machine suddenly I was public enemy number one! “What was this offensive weapon doing in my bag??!!… I was invited to stand up against the wall! Told to put my arms out and was patted down! It was the first time I noticed they had an armed policeman at airport gates these days…suddenly he was there with his hand on his holster! It was the first time I’d ever been through this sort of security and to have this happen… I started freaking out a bit, and didn’t like the way I was being treated, after all this was provincial New Zealand right! This was totally over the top! Fortunately Kris kind of stepped in and calmed me down and we had enough time to run the knife back down to our car before the flight took off.  

There is something wonderful about these great implements that are one unit but have so many different tools that enable you to do many different things. It’s one body but it has a diversity of implements with different uses. I’m sure if Paul had had a pocket knife like that he might have used it to as an example of the one spirit giving different gifts to people for the common good.  Well maybe it is a bit too mechanical an example and Paul was right to use the organic one in our reading this morning

1 Corinthians 12:12-31(a)

I think Paul as a tent maker might have really liked the versatility and convenience of a pocket knife; all those different tools all together in one place. But I still think even if he had known about pocket knives he would have chosen to use the metaphor of the human body to talk about being the church. Like the human body it’s not a man-made thing, it is God’s creation. When you look at a pocket knife being used the wonder really is in the way the human hand and body works together to make it an effective tool.  The metaphor of the body says the church is not just about mechanical functionality it’s about interdependent relationships. It’s not about simply having a part to play in an organisation, but being a part of a living breathing organism.

We are working our way through passages in the bible that talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit: means by which God empowers and enables and equips his people to witness about Jesus Christ, serve, be built up in to maturity in the fullness of Jesus Christ, and that they are ways that God speaks and moves in and through his people. Each of the passages we’ve looked at contains a list of the various gifts given to the church to be used for the common good. In each case the lists are different, they are not designed to be comprehensive or exhaustive, rather give us examples of the great diversity of ways in which God chooses to enable his people by the Holy Spirit. We’ve also seen how each of these passages fit with central and important teaching on how we come together to be God’s Spirited People.

Today we are looking at the second part of 1 Corinthians 12. Remember the big issue in the church at Corinth was divisions and factions. The church was split into different groups, one of the issues or symptoms of those divisions were that at least one group saw the manifestation of Holy Spirit as a sign that they had made it spiritually, they saw the use of the more spectacular gifts and one gift in particular tongues as a sign that they were more spiritual than the other groups. It impacted on the public worship and the life of the church. 

When we looked at the first half of 1 Corinthians 12 last week we saw that Paul’s argument was that there was one God, one Lord, one spirit but that God had given a diversity of gifts to be used for the common good. The list of gifts in that section is used to illustrate that point. In the second half of the passage Paul uses the metaphor of the body to show that while there is a diversity of gifts, because they are given by the same spirit that there is unity.

In the first paragraph he introduces the metaphor of the body. Taking about how the church is a diverse group of people gathered together into Christ.  We are one because we have been baptised by the same Holy Spirit and it is the same Holy Spirit that nurtures and quenches our spiritual thirst. The church at Corinth was made up as Paul says here from across ethnic and religious and socio-economic divides: Gentile and Jew, slave and free. Corinth was very much like our modern cities was very diverse and part of the witness of the church is for this diverse group of people to show unity. Or as Craig Blomberg puts it ”Church should be a place where people gather and get along with each other who have no merely human reason for doing so.”

Paul applies the metaphor of the body to say that unity is not uniformity it is not simply that we belong to the body if we are the same part, have the same gift.  It’s not a matter of that the ‘eyes have it’, or the feet, or the nose for that matter. But each part has been given by God so that the whole can function properly.

The church like the body is not all independent parts that can do without the other parts but rather we are interdependent, we need each other to function and grow, so we can all function and grow.  In fact some of the parts of the body which we don’t hold as highly valuable are the most important some of the ones that are not visible are essential…

The church being like a body means that we care for each member not I couldn't care less because it's all about me …in a body when one part suffers the whole body suffers, I’ve been fighting off a cold over the past few weeks and I can testify to that, when one part does well the rest of the body benefits.  For example exercising releases endorphins to the whole system and make it feel good. 

Then Paul moves on to give us another list of spiritual gifts. This list combines a lot of the different kinds of gifts we have been looking at. Ministry gifts to build up the church, serving gifts and also the spectacular gifts that seemed to be at the heart of the problem in Corinth. All these things are given by God so that the body of Christ can function, each is equally important. Be it very visible and spectacular or mundane and often unseen.  Be it what we might see as a natural ability or a spiritual manifestation.

It seems strange that Paul would start his list by say ‘first of all apostles’, he’d just finished talking of the egalitarian nature of the gifts and now he starts ranking them. But this is not in terms of importance or status but rather that the ministry gifts Paul mentions first apostleship, prophecy and teaching are the things that the church is founded on they come first and lay the foundations. The foundation for the body of Christ is the word of God, or as Paul says earlier in this letter that the foundation the church is built on is the Christ and Christ crucified. Churches and in particular cathedrals used to be built in the shape of a cross to remind us of that.

First apostles: Again Apostles with a capital “A’ refers to those who were witness to Jesus ministry and his resurrection. They are the ones who have passed the gospel on to us.  They are the ones who laid the foundation of Christ and Christ crucified.  But also with a small ‘a’ they can refer to church planters and pioneer missionaries who bought the gospel to a new place.  Paul had to remind the church at Corinth that he had done hat in their city and so had a right to speak to them about what was going on and going wrong.

Second prophets: Prophets are those who take the timeless word of God and bring it to people in a timely manner. They take the gospel truth and apply it to the here and now. It can refer to inspired preaching, or it can mean an inspired message for a community, or group of believers or an individual.   An example of that in Acts 21 is Agabus who binds Paul’s hands before he goes up to Jerusalem letting him know what will happen. The church sees it as a warning for Paul not to go, but Paul sees it as an affirmation that this will happen and not to fear as it is God who is in control.

Then teachers, once again teaching comes in the list because it is a ministry of the word, helping people know the gospel, explaining it so that people will be able to apply it to their lives: Both adult education and also passing it on to new generations.

Then miracles and gifts of healings: Paul moves from more ministry gifts to spectacular again. We have God speaking to and through his people and now we have God moving in power though his people. We are comfortable with the proclamation of God’s word and the gospel and even in the miracle of conversion and transformation in people’s lives, but here we see God showing by works of power that the gospel is true. God loves us and has conquered sin and its consequences, God can heal and bring wholeness, God can deliver and set free.

Gifts of helping and of guidance, Paul moves seamlessly from talking of the miraculous to what seems more mundane and ordinary and back again, Helping and guidance are gifts that are not often in the limelight. Helping has the idea of service and working to sees things work, nuts and bolts people.  ‘guidance’ comes from a word that means piloting a boat and is about people who have the skills and abilities to lead a ministry or church. I’ve been watch a series of video conversations called ‘God at work’ about being a Christian in the work place. It features  Ken Costa who has been in investment banking for over forty years, Costa’s skills in the area of business and finance mean he has made a great contribution to his church leadership and also in heading up the whole Alpha International board. That is his gifting in business and ministry .

Then it moves on to all kinds of tongues. Again this comes last not because it is unimportant, but because it was the problem gift in Corinth and Paul puts it last to accentuate for people there are other gifts. Later Paul will talk of using this gift a lot himself.  I use this gift in my devotional life quite often, simply praying in tongues, I was prayed for to receive the Holy Spirit and it as a gift that was given to me, I’ve prayed for people in some situations and had them tell me they have understood what I’ve prayed because they understand it, it’s their mother tongue.

Again the list is not exhaustive, but is designed to illustrate the great variety of gifts. In the church today there are two extremes when it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, those who say that the more spectacular gifts are not for the church today and who only value or accept the more natural gifts and those who have rediscovered the more spectacular spiritual gifts and so focus on them, even to the point that classical Pentecostal doctrine used to say everyone who has the Holy Spirit needed to speak in tongues. But this list says to both extremes that they limit God too much.  Both are expressions of the enabling and empowering of God’s Holy Spirit. Both are needed.

Paul finishes his list with some rhetorical questions, He asks if everyone has each of these gifts, do all prophesy? Do all speak in tongues? Do all heal? So he is driving home the point that we are all needed to be the body of Christ and to embody Christ in the world. There is no such thing as the ‘lone ranger’ Christian coming to save the day. Even then the lone ranger had Tonto.

Paul also says that we should seek the greater gifts , it’s not that we should be wanting to be more and more powerful or important, it’s not like some sort of cosmic video game where we  get a bigger and bigger inventory to get us to and through the next level . But that we can be of more service and use to the whole body of Christ.  It challenges us to seek the gifts we see the least in the church in the western world because they are the ones we may need the most, we need to rediscover the gift of evangelism and the gifts that can be seen as ‘power evangelism’. In the news sheet this week is a list of three websites with good spiritual gift tests as a starting point for you to think about what gift you have.

http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/spiritual-gifts

http://ebcrochester.org/misc/php/LifeWaySpiritualGiftsSurvey.php

Spiritual giftstest.com

Finally Paul says he will show them a better way, and this leads into the next chapter where he speaks of the importance of love, of loving one another. To the church in Corinth and to the church today this is the greatest gift we can receive for the Holy Spirit, love for one another, this is the only context for the use of spiritual gifts. It is love for each other that is the sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our midst, love and its characteristics that are the fruit of walking with the Spirit. Gifts enable that love and equip us to serve in love, and empower us to share the love and compassion of Jesus Christ with each other  and the world God loved so much that he sent his only Son.

Once again it was school holidays so I again used sermon bingo with the chidren...

Thanks also to the website jigsaw planet for the wonderful app that makes images into jigsaws... It was a real help to my limited crativity... If you want to put together the image of St peter's Church here is the link.

 http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=0daf73d860fc