This Sunday is the Day of Pentecost, the festal celebration of the descent of the Holy Spirit, sent as promised by Jesus, to transform humankind into the body of Christ, the Church. This is why sometimes we hear the Day of Pentecost called the Birthday of the Church.
I will be celebrating the Day of Pentecost, appropriately enough, at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Eagle River.
Now, I do not presume to know the methodologies of the Holy Spirit, save for my faith that the Holy Spirit works through the giving of gifts. Scripture suggests a list of the Holy Spirit’s gifts, and the Episcopal Church points towards this same list in our Baptismal liturgy: “an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and love [God], and the gift of joy and wonder in all [God’s] works.” BCP 308.
The Church has traditionally recognized seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God (I stand with Thomas Aquinas on this last gift—fear of God. Aquinas distinguished this as filial or chaste fear which is a fear of being separated from God versus servile fear which is a fear of being punished by God). Perhaps you can see these the traditional seven gifts represented in the language of the Baptismal prayer. Can you find all 7?
One gift that often upstages all the rest, especially on the Day of Pentecost, is the gift of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in multiple languages, in ways that others can hear and understand. This gift is sometimes called speaking in tongues.
Many gifts, more that aren’t even listed, but one Spirit, and all for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. All for the purpose of making Christ present, known, experienced, loved and worshipped, as the CHURCH.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not a competition, nor are the lists of the Holy Spirit’s gifts a checklist of your own spiritual health or worthiness. The power and mystery of the Holy Spirit is that there are many—even countless gifts, given to each of us—well beyond 7 or 12 or any other limit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given that each of us might know we are the body of Christ bound together, reconciled to God and each other, and empowered to share the gifts of God in us–whatever they may be, in the name of Christ Jesus and his love.
