May 15, 2005; The Day of Pentecost Readings: Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:4-13; John 20:19-23; Psalm 104:25-37.   The Rev. Dr. Hilary B. Smith A Variety of Gifts for the Common Good It has been said that if the message of Christmas is that "God is with us" the message of Pentecost is that "God is still with us—and always will be (Carolyn C. Brown, Forbid Them Not: Involving Children in Sunday Worship, Year A, Abingdon Press: 1992, p. 106)." We know God intimately through Jesus Christ—what he said and did, by his resurrection that showed us God's power over sin and death. We continue to experience God through the Holy Spirit given to us. We experience God through the Holy Spirit, which—as Paul wrote to the Romans—has been poured into our hearts. The life of faith is a gift of God. No one can earn this gift; no one can live a life of faith through one's own determination. In John's gospel, Jesus says to his followers, receive the Holy Spirit. Receive the gift that will guide you into all that God desires for you. Today we welcome Charles William Dees into the fellowship of the church—into the body of Christ—through baptism. He will be sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ's own forever. Today Little Charlie becomes a Christian through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the power of God to form community and empower an individual. He will be marked as Christ's own forever. A change will take place that cannot be reversed. All of us who have been baptized are forever untied with Christ—that is the gift of God—the grace of God, and it cannot be reversed. No matter where Charlie goes or what he does, he will belong to God, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is the day that we remember that God is always with us and that the Holy Spirit is at work in us, through us, and among us. As Charlie grows up, he will encounter people and systems that will judge him and rank him. We have all been through this, and we continue to live in a world where certain achievements, certain abilities, are highly valued but not others. Having become a member of the body of Christ as well as a member of our culture, he will have a choice—it is a choice that we all have to make everyday. "Will I believe what God has told me about myself and my world, or will I look to something or someone else for the answers?" What does God tell us about ourselves and our world? What can we tell Charlie as he grows about his life as a Christian? In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, we hear that "there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit...to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." That means that every single person has been given abilities, skills, qualities by God. Everyone is important and worthy of respect—everyone. The gifts that we have from God bring us joy and they are intended to be used for the "common good." It has been said that one's path in life can be found where one's greatest desire and the world's greatest need meet. What does God tell us about ourselves and our world? As Christians, we are bound to each other for a reason. God has brought us together for a purpose. On this day of Pentecost, we are reminded that the Spirit is with us to empower us and to direct us as individuals and as a community. We cannot live in isolation and have the life God hopes for us. We are all parts of the body; we all contribute to the whole. Later we will all sign, Charlie's baptismal certificate in recognition of the fact that he is being baptized into the body of Christ, and we are the body of Christ visible. What would you like to tell Charlie about his life as a Christian? I asked this question to some people and they said: "Life is a great adventure;" "Look for the miracles;" "See in all of life the creations of God, and in people the gifts of God." So often as we grow, we start to miss the wonders of life right in front of us. The youngest among us, the babies and young children, help us to reconnect with the wonders of a rainstorm and the joy of looking into the face of another. So in fact on this day when we consider what our hopes and dreams are for Charlie, we find that he helps to connect us with wonders of God and God's creation—evidence of our hope. Even now the Holy Spirit is at work among us through Little Charlie. May he, and all of us, grow in our awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the gifts given to us for the common good. Amen.