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Immeasurable Worth (3 June)

Acts 2:14-21

I have been following the series ‘Rich House, Poor House’ on TV recently.  It follows two families (one in the top 10% income bracket, one in the bottom 10% income bracket), as they swap houses with each other and adopt the others income and lifestyle for a week.  As I have watched, what has struck me the most is that each family at the beginning of the process has had a dim view of the other people without ever having met them.

After a recent programme, I found myself reflecting on how I measure a person’s worth.  How I value people, what assumptions I make and how that causes me to act towards the person?

It made me reflect on my relationship with church members.  Do I value them as people or do I value them for what they can bring to the table, i.e. what job can I give them to do?  On the other hand, do I fail to consider people when I am looking for help because I have made assumptions, and on what are my assumptions based?  In doing that, I take away their choice and fail to help them explore their gifting.

The culture gap between rich and poor appears huge but at the most basic level, whatever side of the divide a person falls, they are created in God’s image and have immeasurable worth.

When God’s Spirit was poured out on all people, both men and women, the crowd struggled to see past the cultural divide.  ‘These people’ were Galileans.  They must be drunk!  Prior to the day of Pentecost, God’s Spirit had been given to a few special people such as Kings and prophets.  This new thing was hard to accept and believe despite Joel’s prophecy, because these people were Galileans!  Surely God would have poured out his Spirit on the people of Judah first!  It’s so easy to make assumptions.

I am so thankful that God’s Spirit fills, enables and empowers every believer.  Each person has a part to play in God’s Church.  May God give us the Spirit of discernment to see the Holy Spirit at work in others encouraging and releasing them to be the people He has created them to be.  As the first believers responded to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and encouraged each other, the Church grew in depth and in number.