"Many Voices of the Holy Spirit", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/12/2011

Many Voices of the Holy Spirit
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/12/2011
Based on 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, John 7:34-39, and Acts 2:1-21

Before moving to Rock Springs, I spent the last twenty years of my life, living in Seattle, WA. It is called the “Evergreen” state for good reason, not just for the vast forests of evergreens that grow there, but more importantly because the grass stays green throughout the winter months!
For most of us, spring is generally signaled by the first blooms of the crocus, but in Seattle, in the first part of January the Camilla bushes open up with their bright red flowers; these blooms stay on the bushes for almost two months. Then in March, as the blossoms of the Camilla begin to fade, up out of the ground appear the welcomed bloom of the crocus. Followed by the appearance of tulips in April and soon after that, the Oriental poppies, Iris, and by mid May, peonies.
I love tulips, and I love seeing them in vast quantities, so every couple of years, in April, I would make a short trip north of Seattle to the tulip farms in the Skagit valley, where acre after acre of tulips are seen from almost any road that you travel on. The bonus of this drive comes in parking your car and walking out into these fields, where you can immerse yourself with colors of the rainbow, able to kneel down and cup these glories blossoms with your hands, and those are just the fields. Many of the farms have elaborate displays of spring flowers in their front yards or around their temporary store fronts, where you can place your order for bulbs to arrive at your house that coming Fall.
This past Fall, Paul and I spent a good amount of energy planting tulip bulbs, not knowing if we would be here this Spring to see the fruit of our labors. I think it was toward the end of April, that we started seeing the shoots of those tulips start to sprout up out of the ground. Now, I don’t know if it was because it seemed like Winter hung on later this year or if it’s just because there is no hint of Spring color until the tulips bloom, but I don’t think that I have ever appreciated the beauty of this flower more than I have this season. In each of our flower beds, there are tulips that are red, pink, and yellow in color; single petal, parroted, and multi-petaled. There is such a variety of color, style, shape, height, and time of blooming, but all are a tulip, providing a single message, that Spring is here and that the Winter is pretty much behind us now.
All of this morning’s readings deal with variety and diversity, yet there is a uniform message. This message comes to us through differing sources: we read about Moses who has gathered the leaders of Israel and is anointing them with a portion of the Holy Spirit that he himself has, and yet two who were not there, also received it; In the story of Acts, the Apostles received the Holy Spirit directly from God, with each speaking a differing language; The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians and speaks about their gifts which were given through the Holy Spirit; And Jesus himself cried out, asking for people who want to have ‘living water’ to believe and through believing would have, “a heart that flows rivers of living water”, which meant the receiving of the Holy Spirit. The message was and is about the “love God has for us all” and of work toward “reconciling creation back to love’s original state.”
Today is the day that we celebrate Pentecost, the churches birthday! I can tell who read their e-mail from me earlier this week, because you are the one’s wearing red this morning. This color symbolizes the fire that scripture describes settling upon each of the Apostles and other believers head the day the Holy Spirit descended down from Heaven. A spirit that gave each who received it the ability to speak the message of God in a variety of established languages; languages from all over the world, to those Jews who were there celebrating the Feast of Tabernacle.
The Feast of Tabernacle was the “celebration of harvest”, similar to our Thanksgiving celebration. One of the rituals that occurred during this feast was the pouring of water gathered daily from the pool of Sloam and mixed with wine, poured from the altar into a conduit which carried this mixture to the Brook of Kidron located across from the eastern wall. This ritual symbolized the prayer for the Fall rains upon which Israel depended. Secondly, it pictured the coming of the Messiah and His kingdom in which the Holy Spirit would be poured on Israel and believers of all nations. So when Jesus stood at the last day of this festival and cried, “if any one thirsts, let them come unto me, and drink. You who believe in me as the scripture has said, “out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water”, was in fact, offering the coming of the Holy Spirit to anyone who wished to have it. Jesus had promised this companion to us prior to his death and ascension back to God.
Should we this morning expect the same type of outcome as did the first apostles and believers, with the coming of the Holy Spirit? If we are not able to speak in a language other than what we grew up learning, does this mean that we have not received the blessing, this fire of the Holy Spirit into our lives? The Apostle Paul has given us a very sound response to this question.
He equates the gift of the Spirit to that of our anatomy. Paul starts off saying that, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” So if you are able to say that Jesus is Lord, chances are, you already possess the Holy Spirit. Paul goes on to say, “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.”
You might not have noticed a subtle addition to the top of the Worship bulletin. It was made last week. Does anyone know what it is?? It is up at the top, where we give information about who is participating in the worship. Let me give you a hint by asking how many ministers does this church have? The change is in stating how many ministers we have here in this congregation. It says, “Ministers”, The Congregation! The reason for this is that as followers of Christ, we are all Priests for God, and are given the gift of the Holy Spirit in order to convey God’s message to a world that has forgotten. As Paul tells us, we all have been given very special gifts: some who can teach, some who can preach, some who can sing, some to administration. These gifts are given to us, but not for us! This is an important thing to remember, and because we can sometimes think that we are more special than someone else, because of a particular gift that we have been given, is the reason why Paul was writing to the church in Corinth and to us as well.
The purpose of any gift from God, is not for our own benefit, but is given solely to benefit and glorify God. If we keep that in mind, not only will we have less jealousy and self pride creating problems within our faith community, but we will find ourselves more inclined to use our gifts and feel less tired and experience less burn-out, as we will be fueled by a higher power, one that gives us not only the energy to perform, but the desire and direction in which to best use our gifts.
There are many voices that are spoken by the Holy Spirit. It might be in language, it might be through our gifts, it might come through support and encouragement of our friends and family, it might come through dreams or visions, or through children; it might even come through our pets or through nature. Like the tulips in my garden, the voices, the sounds of the Holy Spirit are many, but the message is always the same: God loves you! God desires to have a one on one relationship with you! God is active in our world, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Let us today, work at creating the space within us that will allow the Holy Spirit of God to become even more effective for tomorrow! Amen