Father Albin put on a recording of Richard Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration". He had printed out the copy of "The Great Gift" from his computer. Before making himself comfortable in his reading chair, he had poured a glass of Sobieski over ice, and added a hand-cut slice of lemon. He settled into the chair, took a sip of the vodka, and smiled to himself, having resolved the great conflict of the evening.
"As we have heard from both Acts, and Corinthians, there are gifts from The Holy Spirit. Divine gifts, divine callings, divine influences. What are these gifts? Why do they receive these gifts? I want to talk to you today about these gifts and what they mean. Or, at least, what I think they mean.
What is a gift? The dictionary says a gift is a thing given willingly to someone without payment, like a birthday or Christmas gift. A gift can also be a natural talent, like singing. Sometimes people even like to call these blessings, which is just another way of describing the receipt of God's favor. Or, a "gift" from God, if you will.
You can imagine, as it says in Acts, all of these people hanging around. And the anticipation, the surprise, the fear, and the joy they must have felt at having The Holy Spirit wash over them. The feeling of fear of not understanding what was happening, followed by the joy of receiving The Holy Spirit. And I'm not just talking about a slight tingle, they had wind and sound and flame, and they FELT it.
But more than just feeling and receiving The Holy Spirit, they were baptized in it. They were bound to The Holy Spirit by this experience. And, they were blessed. They were given gifts.
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The Holy Spirit was a catalyst. It was a deliverance. A deliverer of gifts. The gift of speaking in tongues. The gift of understanding tongues. These gifts were from The Holy Spirit. They were gifts. They were blessings from God.
But these gifts, they were small gestures from a Loving God. God believed in these people. God believed these people were of true spirit. So, he blessed them with these gifts.
God blesses all of us with gifts.
Sometimes our gifts are obvious, sometimes they are harder to see, harder to understand.
Sometimes, though, the gifts of our Lord are obvious.
Remember Jesus. Remember his gift. Remember his love.
God loved the world, so that he gave his only begotten son.
Jesus loved us, and gave his life, his blood, to atone our sins.
Think about that. Think about that gift. That great gift.
The greatest gift we can receive is atonement for our sins. And Jesus did that for us. He did that for me, and for each of you. In dying, he destroyed our death. In rising he restored our life. Because of his sacrifice, we can all be forgiven by God. Jesus’ death insured our ability to be forgiven. And it takes nothing more than faith in Jesus and God.
He was the greatest gift we could receive, and his death for our sins was the greatest expression of that gift.
So, what now? What does it mean that Jesus died for our sins. For my sins. For your sins?
It means he consumed them. He consumed our sins. My sins, your sins. He took away our imperfections and restored perfection. He restored The Holy Spirit in us.
More importantly, he bestowed gifts upon you and your families. He provided a way to God. He provided a way to forgiveness and acceptance. He provided a path for faith. With God, you have the chance to choose faith and forgiveness. You have a chance to bathe in the Holy Spirit. You have a chance to accept The Greatest Gift, and be The Greatest Gift to others. Amen.”