For
the rest of this month, our Epistle readings are taken from Chapters 12 and 13
of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. The second half of this letter, from
chapter 7 on, consists of Paul’s responses to some questions put to him by the
people of the Corinthian church. Chapters 12–14 deal with the conduct of
worship. It appears that worship in
While
chapter 14’s rules may be hard to relate directly to today’s church, the
underlying principles continue to be of fundamental importance to the life of
the Body of Christ, beginning with chapter 12 and its list of spiritual gifts.
The list is probably descriptive of the Corinthian church, but we should
not take it as prescriptive for us today. There are other lists in
Paul’s letters, none of which agree exactly with this one. The central issue
for Paul is not which gifts the church possesses: he has already told them “…that you are not lacking in any spiritual
gift…” (1 Cor 1:7a). The central point comes in the middle of today’s
reading, in verse 7: “To each is given
the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
And
there’s the point—the gifts received by any one member of the Church are not
given to distinguish or exalt that member, but “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body
of Christ…” (Eph 4:12) The letter from which we are reading today is a
prolonged call to unity in Christ, calling the church to cease its divisions,
to stop competition between individuals, and to start acting as one body, for
the good of all. It is a message that we in the church can never hear often
enough. The message of the Gospel is not about you or me or any one person—it’s
about us, and about all of humanity, called to be one Body, reconciled with God
through Christ. The question before the people of
What kind of church is this to be?
What
kind of church is it into which we baptize two young people on this Sunday in
2010? What kind of church is it to become, as God continues God’s work in and
among us, calling us forward into God’s future? What is to be our role, both
collectively and individually, in helping this church to become what God intends
for it?
These
are not airy-fairy theoretical questions, rather they point to all of our
activities as a church and as individual disciples. When we welcome the newly
baptized, we call on them to “share with
us in [Christ’s] eternal priesthood.” (BAS,
p. 161) We are claiming for ourselves and for our church a share in the ongoing
work of reconciliation of God and humanity, the continuing ministry of Christ.
Each one of us has a specific role in that ministry, as we live into our own
baptisms. Each one of us is uniquely gifted by the Spirit for the work of the
church, and all of those gifts are given for the good of all.
A
baptism is an audacious act on the part of any church. It is a promise that
together we will strive to be the kind of church that God wants us to be, not a
collection of individuals vying to have their own desires met, but a body
working together for the common good.
I
am not saying that we should ignore individual needs—far from it! By paying
attention to each others' legitimate needs, we build up the Body. An automobile
mechanic may spend some time re-building a water pump (e.g.), and it’s good for
the water pump, but the point of his work is not just to make the pump run properly,
but to have the whole automobile fully functional. Just so, we take care of
each other within the church, first of course because we all need care, but beyond
that, because the spiritual wellness of our church requires the spiritual
wellness of our members.
Paul’s
point in the list of spiritual gifts is that all of the gifts are given for the
common good—and everyone has different gifts. The people and their gifts work
together so that the church can thrive and grow. Wouldn’t it be boring if we
all had the same set of abilities? More than that, how would we function?
Thanks be to God that we are all made and gifted differently.
Two
young people come into this body today. As they grow in Christ, the Spirit will
endow them from time to time with the gifts they require to help God’s people
mature together in Christ—a growing, vital, and thriving Body, stepping boldly
in faith into God’s future. That’s what kind of Church we should look for, and
pray for, and work for: a church committed to working as one, empowered by the
Holy Spirit, working together for the good of all of God’s people.
So
may it be.
