Fruits of the Spirit

1993 (Year B), 25 July / Pentecost 8

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

There are a whole host of reasons why a person takes on the job of Area Dean. Some are honourable others not. A significant one is the promise that at the end of five years you get a sabbatical to recover. It really is necessary. The last five years have been quite simply the most exhausting and demanding of my life. Birth of children, exams, teens. All of them are as nothing compared to the last five years. On occasions I’ve realised that the church is the very creation of the devil. It’s so disabled me and others I love and care for that it can’t possibly have had anything to do with God. There have been other times of course, some of them quite remarkable, when my life has been so enriched by those with whom I’ve worked in the Area, or here at St Peters, that I’ve felt in the words of last Sunday’s Gospel that I’ve come, ‘Close to the Kingdom of God’. And the reason for that is that there are those with whom I’ve worked who have had the courage to share their gifts.

And there are varieties of gift according to St Paul. Wise speech is one, knowledge and the ability to communicate it is another. Faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophesy, speaking in tongues and of course there is love joy and peace.

Well I am here today to tell you that you can forget all that romantic dewy-eyed stuff about Love Joy and Peace. Patience, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. Of course they have their part to play in the whole plan of things but there was a gift showered indiscriminately on the whole of humanity by the Spirit long before all those things which Paul talks about. The first and supreme gift of the spirit is power.

And if you don’t believe me. Listen to words from the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus tells his disciples before the Ascension. ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.’ Power. Power to do all the things necessary. Power to speak so that people might understand. Power to heal. Power for sons and daughters to prophesy. Power so that young men might see visions and old men dream dreams. And so it was ‘When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven. The noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting and rested on each of them.’

Power is the essence of God. It was God’s power which was and is the source of creation. It is God’s power which was envisaged being at work and the end of time when Christ will return in all might, majesty and dominion and overthrow all earthly power. And it is power which God gave to creation ‘Be fruitful and multiply ... fill the earth and subdue it ... have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’. It is power which God gave through his Spirit to each of the disciples at that first Pentecost. The same gift was given and entrusted to us as part of our humanity. It is present and part of every relationship we will ever have. It’s a gift bestowed at our baptism and confirmation.

So how can it be that we have all been given a gift yet so many of us feel that we simply do not possess it? We count ourselves amongst the powerless. No-one, we think, sees us as having any influence over them. After all we have no effect on the outcome of so many things, so many situations. We spend our lives telling ourselves and our friends that we have no power. Well maybe we haven’t the power to change things in the council or in government for instance, but just think of the power a person in a group has who chooses to be silent. The power someone has who refuses to come to a meeting. The power a parent has who refuses to take responsibility for their child. The power of a child crying. My word we all have power and we all use it.

Make no mistake about it – it is a gift bestowed on each one of us. It’s part of the relationship whenever two people meet. It’s vitally important that we be clear about this, for the gift brings with it great responsibility. It’s so easy to abuse the gift. The times when I’ve felt most disabled over the last few years are when people have abused their power. Denying its existence is one way. Refusing to use it is another. The times I’ve felt most enriched and enlivened have been when people have used power well. We all have a responsibility to use it as God uses Divine power. To use it creatively. To bring life rather than death.

So let’s be clear. What power has been given and entrusted to you by God? Don’t for God’s sake deny it. That would be just too much. If we can’t see and sometimes we’ve been so beguiled and misled by godlessness that we are genuinely blind then talking to a friend might help us identify our gift.

This is so crucial because God’s promise is that whenever his gift is released; whenever we use power creatively then we experience God: the God among us, the God who is community and fellowship. The Holy Spirit. AMEN