To Each Their Own

When I was a senior in high school, I was finishing up my final trimester before I graduated, just like our seniors did this last week, and I remember being so very confused when I was called out of class to go to the office. I was never called to the office. I had rarely been to the office outside of spending time with my high school counselor who liked to talk to me about college options. I was led to a conference room and I was surprised to see five other students in the same room. I took a seat and I was told to wait with everyone else in the room. It probably wasn’t that long, but it seemed like an eternity of silence, when a woman entered the room and sat down with us at the table.

I immediately recognized her as Mrs. Martin, my second grade teacher, and my very first teacher I had after moving to Escondido. What I had forgotten was that all the other students in the class, whom I all knew, were also students of Mrs. Martin with me in second grade. She said hi to us and told us how good it was to see us and how much we had grown since we had been in class with her. She then handed each of us a manilla envelope and asked us to open them. Inside the packet was a homework assignment that we had completed in second grade. At the top of the page in our own writing was the phrase, “When I grow up, I want to be...” She explained to us she had kept them and wanted us to see what life was like and what our mind was focused on at that age, and was curious to see if there was any connection between second grade grown up ideas and soon-to-be high school graduates.

Are you ready for this? In second grade, when I grew up I wanted to be a professional football player and I wanted to teach art to people in the evenings. It made me laugh and still does because when I hit high school there were some people who wanted me to play football, but I wanted nothing to do with playing it. I laughed again, because I remember having all kinds of drawing books as a kid, but I never really progressed in my art and drawing skills. I am still a bad artist which I talk about with my daughter all the time.

Mrs. Martin talked with us a bit longer including finding out what we were really going onto college to study. She then gave us all big hugs and we went on our ways back to our classrooms. To this day I still draw mostly with my girls, but I still don’t have the skills to be any good at it. I don’t play or watch football. There are lots of other things I think about how it would be good to be good at them. I would love to take the time to learn the guitar. I wish that I could at least sing decently. I don’t have to have as great a voice as my wife, but I love singing I’m just not good at it. I tend to be very monotone. Again ask my wife. There are other hobbies and skills that I have tried to pick up and most of which I believe I have given up on. There are so many things that I would love to learn and be good at but I don’t make the time to be able to any good at them.

Paul today reminds us that the skills and talents that we have, or as Paul calls them, Spiritual gifts, are various but it is the same Spirit that activates them in all of us. Paul also says that each of these gifts are given individually to us as the Spirit chooses, verse 11. I have to remind myself that I’m not meant to be good at everything. I’m not meant to be the end all be all in any or all aspects of my life. I’m blessed to have a wife who is gifted at the piano and singing. I don’t have to be. I am your pastor and there is a lot that I am asked to do, but I also have to remind myself that I cannot be good or great at all of it as much as I want to be for all of you and everyone that I serve. We have musicians in our church because of their gifts and talents. We have a choir because of their gifts. I also can’t read music which hinders the whole music thing. We have ushers, readers, teachers, caretakers, visitation ministers, sewers, and so much more. And I am sorry if I didn’t mention your group specifically.

Today we celebrate Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and allowed them to share the Good News of Jesus Christ any the languages of all the different people gathered there. I think it is so cool to meet people who are fluent in even one language other than their own. Today we celebrate the variety of gifts that are given to each and every one of us. Let me say that again. Today we celebrate the gifts given to each and every one of us. Not gifts given to a few. Not all the gifts given to a single person to do all the work. The Holy Spirit gives to each of us gifts and talents with which to glorify God and lift one another up. Are you an artist? Paint to the glory of God. Are you a good listener? Be a presence to someone who needs company, and do it for the glory of God. Are you good with a computer? Help with church services and do it for the glory of God. Think of your skill and talent. Think of what the Holy Spirit has blessed you with and find a way to do it that glorifies God and thanks God for the gifts you have been blessed with to have.

Which is why the second half of this chapter is so crucial. It continues to reinforce and maybe even bang into our heads the idea that no one is meant to be good at it all or even do it all. Not even me. That’s why we have such a wonderful and gifted staff. They bring SO much to our church. But it doesn’t and should never stop with just the “staff”. We are all called to be the body of Christ. We have all been given gifts with which we can serve with. I, as your pastor, am not the body. I am not the focal point. You are not the body, you are not the focal point. We are the body. I need your gifts and your ministries to be the body of Christ just as much as you need mine. Bethlehem isn’t about me. Bethlehem isn’t about any single one of us. We all are the community of Bethlehem. We all make up the body of Christ. Bethlehem needs your gifts and talents to make this body whole. There is not one of you that as our text puts it is not needed. No one can say that we don’t need this gift or talent. If done for the glory of God, there is a place for you in this body of Christ.

Pentecost, as much as it is recognizing the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, is about its unifying power. We are united. We are all needed. We are all important. We are all called. We are the same in the eyes of God. We are ONE in spite of all our differences. There is no better or worse. There is no greater and lesser. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, there is no liberal or conservative, rich of poor, for we are all one in God’s eyes. All given gifts and talents with which to serve and give glory to God. The one and only God who loves each of us regardless of talents, age, gender, race or anything else. In the body of Christ and in the eyes of God you have worth and value and a place here. We are the body of Christ. We are Christ’s presence in this world. We are one and we are loved by the One and only God and it is God who gifts us with the same Holy Spirit God gave the disciples the very first Pentecost. So that we may let the Spirit use us to give praise and glory to God. Amen.