Voice-activated, sensitive and responsive

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am not very good with technology.

I only started banking online a couple of years ago after much nagging from the bank and I’m still not used to it and prefer to deal with the cashiers face to face. But they say that opposites attract and my other half is completely the opposite when it comes to technological gadgets.

The latest one that he has brought into the house is an Amazon Echo – a device that has Alexa built into it.

Alexa is a virtual assistant that can get the electronic devices in your house to perform a variety of simple tasks. All you have to do is walk into the room and say: “Alexa, play Christmas carols” and your speakers will start blasting out Jingle Bells, or if you are too hot: “Alexa, turn the heating down to 18 degrees”, or if you’re hungry: “Alexa, order a pepperoni pizza.” And lo and behold within the hour you will get a delivery from Dominoes.

Alexa is voice-activated, sensitive and responsive. When she hears her name a blue light flashes on and she is ready to act on your instructions.

As I was reading this morning’s scriptures I was struck by something Paul tells us about the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us. They all come from the Holy Spirit and they are all ACTIVATED by the Holy Spirit to fulfil God’s purpose – the common good of all.

God has placed Spiritual gifts and activities inside each one of us (like Amazon has built Alexa into their electronic devices) and, the operation of these gifts and activities is voice-activated. When God speaks, when we hear His Voice and respond to what He asks of us, these Spiritual Gifts jump into life to assist in carrying out the activity required at the time.

Now spiritual gifts have always been something that can cause issues for the church. And some are put off from some of the gifts, such as the gift of tongues or healing, because of people who have abused their use. People think of Televangelists putting on a show of their “special spiritual powers” to take money from desperate people.

In this letter that Paul writes to the early Corinthian church we see that some of the people of his day were also using their spiritual gifts to show off. Church services were becoming chaotic with everyone with the gift of tongues shouting out at the same time and no one interpreting so that those without the gift of tongues got nothing out of the service. They definitely weren’t using the gift for the common good of all in the church.

So in his letter to the church, Paul explains to the Corinthians what the spiritual gifts are truly about and for.

The focus throughout this passage is on God, the gift giver.

Paul tells these new Christians that unlike the idols they had worshipped in the past that were unable to move and could not speak, they are now serving a living God who can and does speak and act.

Not only does He speak but for some reason He has chosen to speak and act through people. He has placed His Spirit and the gifts of His Spirit inside us so that He can activate us to work for His purposes.

These gifts are from God and for God’s purposes.

We are to make the invisible God manifest and visible in this world – through our lives, our words, our actions, and the spiritual gifts we have been given.

Perhaps you are gifted in hospitality: making people feel comfortable, welcomed and loved. You being hospitable, you pouring teas and coffees and juices, is manifesting God in the world. You are making tangible the God who says “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” You are showing others the God who says, “Come, you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy bread with no money and wine with no cost.”

Maybe you’re a parent who is faithfully bringing children to church, no matter how difficult it is to get everyone dressed and out of the house on time on a Sunday morning, you ignore the tantrums and faithfully keep bringing them. This is a gift. You are making manifest our God who says, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these”.

When we keep our faith in God, in the midst of the struggles we may have in our jobs and lives, problems in our families or health issues. We are embodying God’s faithfulness and hope, the “steadfastness of the Lord that never ceases”. The Love of God that always hopes, always trusts.

It’s an overwhelming idea to think that the God of the Universe has come to live inside us. That ordinary people like you and me are called to embody this majestic and powerful God inside our weak and frail humanity.

Simon Peter felt the same way. Jesus used his boat to preach from and then instructed him to take the boat out into the deep part of the lake and fish – despite the fact Simon had been fishing all night without catching anything. When he obeyed and saw the miraculous catch of fish that almost sank two boats. He told Jesus to go away from him because he is a sinful man.

It is overwhelming to grasp that we have such treasure in our cracked vases. But for some reason that’s the whole point. God’s divine power is revealed in weakness. We see the power of God in the apparent weakness of Jesus on the cross crucified for us.

God uses the foolish and weak things to confound and confuse the wise. He sends one man and his staff to battle the might of the Egyptian empire to free the people of Israel from slavery; He picks uneducated fisher men, despised tax collectors, and former prostitutes and turns them into the first Christian church; He picks us ordinary people with all of our flaws, weaknesses and insecurities and pours His Spirit and power into us. It defies conventional wisdom.

But our God is anything but conventional. Our God, who speaks and acts, chooses to speak and act through us weak vessels. Just as Jesus calls Simon and his fishermen colleagues to follow Him and tells them that from now on they will join him in catching people instead of fish – God has placed the Spirit inside us and is calling us to follow Him and join his mission of finding people. Finding people to share the good news that our Creator loves them so much that He gave His only son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.

That is the common good, the purpose that God calls us to join and the common good that He equips us with the Spirit and Spiritual gifts to carry out.

So how do we use these gifts that God has given us to join in?

Well, we need to be like Alexa, sensitive and responsive to the voice of our God who speaks.

To be sensitive to the Spirit we need to work on our listening skills. We need to spend time in God’s presence, which includes worshipping, praying and meeting with others. The more we read His words in the Bible, the more we spend time in prayer, the more we will be able to recognise and make out His voice amongst all of the noise that competes to crowd Him out. Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow.”

In our Gospel passage, Simon Peter and his colleagues were listening to Jesus speaking the Word of God as they went about their daily lives, cleaning their nets. They knew His voice and were so familiar with it, that when Jesus gave them an instruction that didn’t make any sense Simon could still respond: “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet, if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Simon was activated – moved to act – because He recognised the Voice of God. He was sensitive.

Like Simon Peter, it’s not just important to be sensitive enough to hear the Spirit. We also need to be responsive when the Spirit calls on us to activate His gift. We must be willing to obey God’s request once we’ve heard His voice.

Unlike Alexa who is programmed to obey automatically, God has given us the gift of free will. We have a choice about whether or not we act on what His Spirit asks us to do. I know there have been many times in my life where I’ve not done what I’ve sensed the Spirit is asking me to do or done what I know the Spirit is asking me not to. I’m sure it’s the same with all of us here today. It certainly was the case for many of the people we read about in the Bible: Looking at the lives of Moses, King David, Jonah, Samson, and Peter, we see ordinary people who sometimes fluctuated between responding to God with obedience and running in the opposite direction. However, we see that God did incredible and supernatural things through them when they responded to His words with obedience and forgave them when they did not respond.

How responsive are we? How obedient are we? Are we afraid or unwilling to act when we do hear the Spirit directing us? Are we scared to look silly? Sometimes obeying the Voice of God might lead to us looking like a weirdo.

But Jesus is telling us today – just as He told Simon then - not to be afraid. He is asking us to follow Him, to go along with Him on the mission He has already mapped out. God’s purposes will be worked out, with us or without us.

Yes, God can do it with or without us but He chooses to invite us to embody Him on earth and be used by and for Him. And He is full of grace for us in those times when we fail to listen or fail to obey. He always gives us another opportunity to be involved in His work in the world.

This is an amazing privilege.

And remembering that we have all been allocated a portion of Spiritual Gifts for the common good helps us to not envy the gifts or roles of others or show off about our own gifts. Alexa working properly means that when activated she interacts with all the other devices in the house – the central heating, lights, washing machine, stereo, fridge – for the common good of everyone living there.

There’s no point the fridge being jealous of the central heating because it gives heat and not cold. All of the devices are serving the home owners purposes. There’s no point being jealous of the gifts we notice in someone else – God has given us all a variety of gifts so that we can all benefit from them.

If we are Spirit-responsive, we will be working together with every other Spirit-responsive disciple, working together to further God’s purposes so that collectively we participate in expanding God’s kingdom and rule. He will rule in us and through us, creating order in the chaos in our lives and the lives of others.

The Spirit has placed us here and placed gifts inside us because He wants to involve us in His work. Let’s be like human Alexas – Sensitive and Responsive to the Spirit and willing to be activated by His Voice.