Dearest e-votees-
This Sunday is Pentecost. It is one of the high holy days of our church year. It is when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the early church. May the Spirit blow through your day and your week giving you peace and comfort and joy.
Peace,
Karl
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There is quite a menu of options for the lessons for this Sunday. The text that follows is one of the options for one of the New Testament lessons for this Sunday. It is Paul writing to the diverse congregation of the Corinthian church with a word about unity in the Spirit. Perhaps through the work of the Holy Spirit Paul writes to us as well:
...and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
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.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, NRSV
When we were baptized we were joined into the body of Christ. We joined into a new identity that magnifies and transcends who we are individually. We were born with gifts and abilities. Some have great facility with numbers and problem solving. Some have keen perceptive abilities. Some are adept at creating and understanding music. Some can express themselves well in words or verse or visual expressions. Some have courage and endurance to hold up under the most difficult circumstances. Some have the gift of a caring look and an attentive ear. The range of gifts embodied in us is diverse and marvelous and speaks to the depth and breadth of our creator.
In baptism our lives become more fully connected to the Holy Spirit. We are equipped with spiritual gifts. Things like faith and prayer and discernment and spiritual insight and preaching and the like are placed into our lives that we might be part of the body to be used for the common good.
You are gifted. You have things at work in you through the Holy Spirit which God has used and will continue to use for the building up of other believers. I hope and pray you have people around you who appreciate and encourage your gifts.
Those around you are gifted as well. The Holy Spirit has used them and will continue to use them for the building up of other believers—including you. I hope and pray you appreciate and encourage the gifts of others.
We live in a culture that lifts up certain gifts (musical ability, athletic prowess, etc.) and dismisses other gifts. If you keep reading in 1 Corinthians you see what the Holy Spirit through Paul thinks of all that.
You are a blessing. Thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit at work in you and through you. Share your gifts faithfully this day.
God, help us be the body and build up the body this day. Blow through our days and our ways, now and always. Amen.
This Sunday is Pentecost. It is one of the high holy days of our church year. It is when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the early church. May the Spirit blow through your day and your week giving you peace and comfort and joy.
Peace,
Karl
-------------------
There is quite a menu of options for the lessons for this Sunday. The text that follows is one of the options for one of the New Testament lessons for this Sunday. It is Paul writing to the diverse congregation of the Corinthian church with a word about unity in the Spirit. Perhaps through the work of the Holy Spirit Paul writes to us as well:
...and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
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.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
When we were baptized we were joined into the body of Christ. We joined into a new identity that magnifies and transcends who we are individually. We were born with gifts and abilities. Some have great facility with numbers and problem solving. Some have keen perceptive abilities. Some are adept at creating and understanding music. Some can express themselves well in words or verse or visual expressions. Some have courage and endurance to hold up under the most difficult circumstances. Some have the gift of a caring look and an attentive ear. The range of gifts embodied in us is diverse and marvelous and speaks to the depth and breadth of our creator.
In baptism our lives become more fully connected to the Holy Spirit. We are equipped with spiritual gifts. Things like faith and prayer and discernment and spiritual insight and preaching and the like are placed into our lives that we might be part of the body to be used for the common good.
You are gifted. You have things at work in you through the Holy Spirit which God has used and will continue to use for the building up of other believers. I hope and pray you have people around you who appreciate and encourage your gifts.
Those around you are gifted as well. The Holy Spirit has used them and will continue to use them for the building up of other believers—including you. I hope and pray you appreciate and encourage the gifts of others.
We live in a culture that lifts up certain gifts (musical ability, athletic prowess, etc.) and dismisses other gifts. If you keep reading in 1 Corinthians you see what the Holy Spirit through Paul thinks of all that.
You are a blessing. Thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit at work in you and through you. Share your gifts faithfully this day.
God, help us be the body and build up the body this day. Blow through our days and our ways, now and always. Amen.
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