Holy Spirit: Liberator from Uselessness - Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka

The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Trinity along with God our father and mother and Jesus, the son. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit was present at creation, descended upon Jesus at his baptism, called the church into being at Pentecost and is present among us now. Yet many of us find it challenging to understand who the Holy Spirit is and how the Spirit relates to our lives. Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian liberation theologian, called the Holy Spirit the “liberator” who frees us from the oppressions of sin and gifts us freedom. In this sermon series leading up to Pentecost, we will explore four ways the Holy Spirit liberates and frees us.

Today's scripture reading is 1 Corinthians 12:4-13: "Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit."