It seems that all the lessons this morning are about there being plenty of things even though there is only One God. We start off with the famous Pentecost story from Acts. There are plenty of disciples: not merely the famous 12 of the inner circle, but all manner of friends and followers of Jesus. And these many have gathered together in one place. Then comes the One Spirit, rushing in with wind and flame and making many languages where before there was just one. And then no matter what the disciples say it comes out in plenty of different languages, so that each listener hears in the language most familiar to each.

Then we heard the Psalm. Here too there is Plenty from One. This Psalm is so beautiful I encourage you to read it again as I paraphrase it now.

25 One Lord, how Many are the things you have made! The whole earth is full of the plenty you have created.
26 And not just the earth, but the ocean! There are too many things in there to even count, both big and small.
27 We sail boats, but look at that giant whale! You made that just for fun!
28 All of these Many trust you, and you feed them.
29 You give, and they receive; You are generous, and they are full up.
30 But if they stop seeing you, they become afraid. And when their breathe is stopped, they return to your clay.
31 But again you send your spirit, and they are made anew! The whole earth is made new again!
32 May the glory of the Lord endure forever! May the One rejoice in the Many.

The Psalmist sings of the plenteous glory of the Many created by the unknowable creative power of the One. And in the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of the Many gifts given by the One Spirit. It seems that the good people of Corinth (with whom Paul had an ongoing love/hate relationship) were arguing among themselves as to who was more important that who. And the way to tell how important someone was, they reasoned, was to decide if what they could do was more important than what someone else could do.

Paul is quick to end their argument and say that each gift, while unique and valuable, comes from only One Spirit, and is therefore no better or worse than another gift. One may be wise, an other knowledgeable. Another will have a strong faith, while yet another be a healer. Some will seem to be miracle workers and some have the words of a prophet. One will speak, another will interpret. There are many gifts, there are many services, and there are many activities. But there is only One Spirit, and that is Plenty, says Paul.

But he’s not through yet. “It’s like your body”, he says. “You have two eyes and two ears. One mouth and one heart. Ten toes, ten fingers, two legs, two arms, two hundred plus bones and feet upon feet of intestines. But you are only one body, and that One is more than enough for your plenty. And so it is with Christ. God has only one of me, and only one of you, but has plenty of all of us, and yet we are all only one body in Christ, who is One and Plenty”.

And now we come to the gospel where it is harder to see the plenty. John didn’t wait 50 days to schedule the arrival of the Holy Spirit as we have. It happened later that day, the first day of the Resurrection. The disciples were gathered-again, not just the 12, or rather the 11, but all of those whom Jesus called friends-in a house with locked doors. But locked doors are nothing much once you’ve risen from the dead, and Jesus walks in as casual as can be, giving the disciples a bit of a scare. “Shalom,” he says, while they make sure its really him. “Now look,” he continues, “God sent me, and now I’m sending you.” Then the breath of God came out of this previously dead man, and the Holy Spirit was there.

And this is where the Plenty comes in, although its hard to tell by that last sentence: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” It sounds like Jesus is giving the disciples an unlimited license to judge the many creatures of God. Not so. For the one who wrote this Gospel of John, sin was not a moral failing, or an indiscretion, or an intentional evil deed. Sin was simply a blindness towards God’s revelation in Jesus. So when Jesus tells the disciples that they are in charge of forgiving and retaining sin, he’s telling them that if they don’t do something, people are going to keep on being blind to God. If they don’t say something, it won’t get said.

And there you have the Plenty. There were plenty enough disciples in that house to get things started, there have been plenty of believers down through the centuries to keep it going, and now there are plenty of us here to continue the work. There is only One God, and One Spirit, but there are plenty of us, and if we don’t say something, who will?