Recently the bishop asked “Why do Episcopal preachers seem to overlook or avoid vibrant and convincing sermons on the Holy Spirit?” Seems to me that too much talk about the Holy Spirit, especially enthusiastic talk about the Holy Spirit, like too much talk about the Devil, seems to many Episcopal clergy, seems to me, a little ... well ... wild-eyed. We may have seen, or imagined, too much ranting and raving by rabid preachers who we Episcopalians might view as out-of-control. Distasteful, at least, if not downright offensive. Which is a shame, and I suppose, a sin. Those preachers may well be odd, I may well be odder still, but there is nothing odd, or suspect, or distasteful about the Holy Spirit. I think we may well have seen manifestations of the Holy Spirit, or expressions of life in the Spirit, or flamboyant displays of claimed gifts of the Holy Spirit that seem overly-dramatic, self-promoting, even showy but insincere. But, like it or not, we are all Pentecostal. By virtue of being Christians we are Pentecostal. But we have been conditioned to accept, maybe even believe, that Pentecostal refers only to a specific type of Christian, a particular way of being a Christian and expressing that Christianity. And it may not be, and in my case definitely is not, a type or style of worship and expression and behavior that I consider my type, my understanding of faith and devotion. But the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as detailed by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, are not crazy or suspect or wild, or unwanted--but much to be treasured, valued, cultivated, practiced, and celebrated. Doubtless you remember much, if not all, of the list. I don’t, or didn't, so I looked it up again. The Apostle’s list is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. While the list is glorious, it used to strike me as daunting--what an effort it would take on my part, of all people, to achieve those qualities, any of them, much less all of them. Maybe at the end of a lifetime of heroic self-sacrifice, unimaginable devotion and discipline, one might make some progress on some of them, in some way. But then, one happy day, I noticed that St. Paul does not speak of these characteristics of the Spirit-filled life as accomplishments, or goals, or dreams-- they are gifts, they are given, not achieved, enjoyed and accepted and received, not mightily constructed through huge and fearsome effort by me, in my unpromising life. A gift. I am not sure we can claim that we have completely unwrapped the gifts so that all the world can clearly see them, but they are gifts, and so partake of the nature of gifts--to be treasured and gratefully received. Like all wonderful gifts, and all deeply important gifts, these gifts of the Holy Spirit call for a responsible use of them, call for us to acknowledge how precious they are and how much they in turn might call for in the wise and careful tending of them, as we would any magnificent legacy we were given. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control--this is not what we are to aim for, this is not what we are summoned to, this is not what is expected or demanded of us as Christians. It is what our Lord, in his unimaginably graciously love, bestows on us through the action of the Holy Spirit, it is what he trustingly and preciously assumes is characteristic of us. Using these gifts, appreciating these gifts, having our lives made better and more loving by having these gifts, and yes, like all the best gifts, maybe even showing them off, is all that is expected. And that ought not to be a characteristic of only a small segment of the Christian Church. I don’t know how to answer the bishop, about why some of us preachers avoid preaching enthusiastically about the gifts and the presence and the power Holy Spirit among us. I really can’t imagine why, why on earth, I would not be pleased, happy, and excited about proclaiming that, and proclaiming that with, as the bishop put it, “vibrancy” and conviction at least in probably our quieter Episcopal way, but still, in just as real a version of Pentecostal fervor and excitement as any other church’s--preaching with enthusiastic conviction about our living and loving and worshiping and going forth into the world, rejoicing in the Power of the Holy Spirit.