The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, May 31st, Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23)

ONE BODY, MANY PARTS

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, the official birthday of the Church. Fifty days after Jesus’ Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, giving them the power and the courage to preach the Good News to all the world.

Before they received the Spirit, the disciples were timid and fearful, hiding behind locked doors, scared to death that the authorities would come and crucify them, too. Now don’t forget, at that point in time, they knew Jesus had risen from the dead. They knew something supernatural and spectacular was going on. And yet, they were still paralyzed with fright.

But at Pentecost the Spirit transformed them into fearless and powerful witnesses of the Gospel. They changed from Barney Fife into General Patton overnight. In the blink of an eye they went from wimps to warriors, from chickens to champions. The first reading this week, from the book of Acts, describes this spectacular event.

A lot of folks mistakenly think that only a few specially-chosen people can be filled with the Spirit and do great deeds for the Kingdom of God. When we think of Spirit-filled warriors for Christ, we think of great evangelists preaching in packed stadiums, talented singers drawing people to the Lord with their electrifying songs, or dedicated missionaries sacrificing everything to teach others about Jesus.

However, the fact of the matter is, EVERYONE has a special gift and is called to use it to promote the Gospel. The job of promoting the Kingdom of God is not just for the Mother Teresas, Charles Colsons, John Paul IIs, and Billy Grahams of the world. This important job is for everybody.

In this week’s second reading, St. Paul wrote about this concept. He explained, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord….To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

There is one Holy Spirit who empowers believers to do God’s will. But this one Spirit gives different gifts to different people. Some, like Pope John Paul II, were blessed with the talent, tenacity, and tenderness to draw millions of people into a closer relationship with Jesus, while also being the moral impetus to topple the evil empire of Soviet communism. Others, like Joe Schmoe, are able only to offer a smile to the despairing stranger who decided to attend church for the first time in years.

One was an international celebrity; the other is a complete unknown. In God’s eyes they are equal since they are each using the particular gift given to them by the Spirit.

This highlights one of the interesting (and liberating) aspects of God: He doesn’t judge by human standards. We humans love to do absolute, side-by-side comparisons. We say one person is [fill in the blank: richer, better looking, smarter, more famous, etc.] than another person, so the first person is obviously more successful than the other. But God doesn’t do it that way. He is more concerned about whether we are fully utilizing whatever spiritual gifts we have been given.

In God’s eyes, if a Joe Schmoe is only capable of making strangers feel welcome with his sincere smile, and consistently does it each Sunday, then he is more successful than another person possessing great preaching/singing/missionary talent who only uses it occasionally.

Paul went on to compare God’s church with a human body. “As a body is one though it has many parts,” he wrote, “and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

The body of Christ is made up of all its members, not just the priests and preachers and high-profile personalities. Every member is vitally important and is meant to serve an important function.

With our bodies, some parts are more celebrated and noticeable—the face, the brain, the hands. Other parts toil in anonymity—the ankles, the liver, the large intestine. But if the ankles, liver, or large intestine suddenly stop working, the whole body is in a heap of trouble.

Within the body of Christ, some members are more celebrated and noticeable. You see them on TV all the time, they sell a ton of books, and after they’re gone people invest countless hours lobbying for their sainthood (which probably horrifies them up in Heaven, modesty being a key component of saintliness).

Most other members of the body of Christ must toil in anonymity. All the unknown Joe Schmoes, Betty Schlepps, and Larry Luggnuts will never have future generations demanding they be canonized as saints.

All of us who will never be noticed outside of our families and our local parishes or congregations have a mission just as critical to Christendom as that of the Pope or Mother Teresa or Billy Graham. We are all key parts of the body of Christ. If we don’t do our job, the whole body is in trouble.

With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can confidently go forth, telling everyone, “Yes, I am the large intestine of the Church! As long as I’m on the job, thou shalt not be constipated!” (Well, OK, maybe we can phrase that a little better. But you know what I mean.)

©2009