Reflection by The Ven. Dr Deborah Broome

The gifts of the Spirit                                           

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”  But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.  And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.  The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’       Acts 2:1-21

This Sunday is the feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate the day when the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, came into Jesus’ followers and gave them new life and energy. The Spirit set their hearts on fire and let them share with others what they themselves had experienced: the presence of the living Christ. People heard the good news of what God had done and were baptised: in a sense, that was the day when the Church was born. 

As we honour the Spirit that’s been poured out on all of us we remember that it’s by this Spirit that God gives us the ability to be the Church in the first place. It’s God who gives us strength, and passion, and power and who makes it possible for us to do what we should be doing. (I love how God not only gives us a task but also equips us for that task.) It’s God who gives us gifts, and so we celebrate what God has given us, offering back to God the fruit of the gifts God gave the Church when it was born. That resonates with the original festival of Pentecost – what all those Jews were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate. Pentecost was part of the Jewish cycle of agricultural festivals – it marked fifty days after Passover, the end of the Spring harvest when people offered to God the first fruits of what God had given them. The word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek for “fifty.”

So, we offer to God what God has put inside us. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts, abilities, talents, to help us be what God wants us to be. God gives us gifts through the Holy Spirit so we can show the world the love that God wants everyone to have. And the gifts of the Spirit aren’t individual (“take it away and play with it on your own”) kind of presents, they’re joint presents, given to the Church as a whole. As Paul said to the Corinthians, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” God’s really into community-building: the Spirit’s gifts are given to each of us for the good of the whole Church. That’s where we remember that church isn’t an inward-looking group of people, but an outward-facing one, something that exists for the benefit of those who aren’t, or who aren’t yet, its members.

It’s good to remember that to be gifted by the Spirit isn’t something that happens to some of us but not to others. In all that he writes, Paul never lets us think he expects some people in the church to be the ones who are ministering, and that there are others who are simply ministered to because they haven’t been given any of the Spirit’s gifts. We all get gifts – different ones – and we can rejoice together in all the diversity of gifts God’s given to us as a community.  

There’s several “lists of gifts” in the New Testament letters – it’s clearly something the writers and the communities thought about a lot – and they’re often community-building gifts, like wisdom, helping, and hospitality, used to care for others, to let them see God through us.  Some gifts are for making things, using art or music, so the community can reach out to those around us, or reach up to God in worship. These gifts are given to share with the people around us: we’re blessed so that we can be a blessing to others.  

So, what are your gifts? And what other gifts have been given to members of your faith community – gifts that we can offer to each other, and to the communities we’re part of? As we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, let’s give thanks for the gifts God has given us, and develop and use those gifts so they can go on giving, to our community and even more to the community of those around us, those as yet outside the Church. For thus will Pentecost become part of us.