We use cute kittens for
praising friends. If you were to ask anyone who prepared for the sacrament of
confirmation through Holy Cross grade school, South Bend, IN in 2014 or 2015
what the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are, I’d hazard a guess that, before
answering, at least a few of them would recite in their heads: “We use cute
kittens for praising friends.” The reason is that in those two years, I was
teaching the confirmation prep class for the kids in our parish grade school,
and I knew that, as part of Bishop’s homily at their confirmation Mass, he
would ask the confirmandi to provide for him each of the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. So, I made up that mnemonic, in which the first letter of each word in
the sentence matches the first letter of the gift, to help them remember. We,
wisdom; use, understanding; cute, counsel; kittens, knowledge; for, fortitude;
praising, piety; friends, fear of the Lord. Only once on a quiz did I have a
kid claim that the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit were wisdom, understanding,
counsel, kittens, fortitude, piety, fear of the Lord. And that list of gifts is
important, because it’s a long-standing way of naming what it is God
strengthens in a Christian when they receive the sacrament of confirmation. The
-firm- part in the middle of the word “confirmation” means “strengthens,”
and it’s not primarily about the recipient of the sacrament strengthening their
commitment (though, if they do that, that’s wonderful); the sacraments are all
about God’s action, not ours, about God’s strengthening of God’s gifts to God’s
people.
I say “long-standing”
and that brings me to why I’m talking about these gifts tonight. This listing
of these gifts goes right back over two and a half millennia, to what we heard
as our first reading from the book of Isaiah. And the journey that list of
gifts has been on is a beautiful journey. In Isaiah, this is Isaiah’s dream list
of qualities for a good king. Isaiah, in his lifetime, know some pretty lousy
kings. That’s why he talks about the “stump of Jesse.” Jesse was the father of
King David, so the house of David, the kingly house, was sometimes talked about
as the tree of David. And when people said that, they were thinking of a great
majestic tree, with shelter and nourishment for all. But, Isaiah, who knew a
lot of the kings he lived under pretty well, and knew how imperfect they were,
refers to not the tree of Jesse, but a stump. The reality of kingship wasn’t
living up to the dream. But he dares to keep the dream alive, for a king, and
for the peaceable kingdom his reign would create. He continues to wait for, and
prophesy, a day when the promise would be realized, that God who choose and
equip a human to lead His people.
We know
that God keeps promises. And we know that promise has been kept most fully,
that dream come to life most fully, in the person of Jesus Christ. He has come,
and he will come again. We live in the ‘in between time.’ And it’s in that
time, that we confess something that I don’t know that Isaiah would have dared
dream of. God extends those gifts to each of us. In our baptism, we were each
baptized into Christ, priest, prophet, and king. We have been chosen and
equipped to together exercise that ministry of servant leadership. In confirmation,
those gifts are strengthened. In marriage or ordination, they’re kind of concentrated
and focused more clearly, but all the baptized together exercise those gifts of
the Spirit that Isaiah associated with the king who is to come. Because Christ chooses
to share his mission with the Church, with us.
As we contemplate,
and grow in awe at this reality that God has given us gifts for service, a few
things happen. Firstly, we grow in gratitude, and that’s a good thing because
it’s just to be grateful to the giver of gifts. Secondly, any temptation we
might have to pride is lessened, because when we come to see our gifts
precisely as gifts it’s harder to kid ourselves into thinking we earned
them. We also start to ask what gratitude looks like. It’s not just a warm,
fuzzy feeling. You know how you maybe set out a piece of artwork on put on a
sweater you don’t really like when a certain relative comes to visit, because
although you don’t like the gift they gave you, you like them, and you
do want to be grateful. Well, what about when we love the gift, and are
striving to love the giver even more? We show our gratitude by using our gifts,
by putting them at the service of the church and the world. We come to
recognize that God has given us the gift of being givers ourselves.
This week,
we collect the gifts for our “Share your Christmas” project. Numerous families and
individuals have collected tags with requests on, from people who may not have
the resources to celebrate Christmas very fully. They’ve used their gifts to
buy an extra gift in response to that request. Others will deliver these, and,
if desired, visit with the recipients of the gifts. These gifts will be arrayed
around our sanctuary during our celebration of the Eucharistic prayer. At one
point during that prayer of prayers, the priest says to God, “Look upon the
oblation of your Church.” Look upon our offering, our gifts. At that point, we’re
talking about the gifts offered on the altar, but we’re also talking about the
gifts around it, and about all that we’ve offered over the past week. Just as,
sacramentally, God takes our gifts of bread and wine and transforms them that
His people may be fed, God takes all we offer, every gift, every sacrifice, and
transforms them. Those gifts around our sanctuary today can be an icon, of the
gifts we have received, the gifts we give thanks for by offering them, the transformation
God effects, and the peaceable kingdom Isaiah dreamt of, into which he’s
leading us through them.
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