sermon 1 Cor 12-12-30

Introduction 

There was a faithful young man who belonged to a congregation for a number of years.  He loved Jesus and he worked hard for his church.  One day he became extremely frustrated with how slow things were moving along on a particular thorny issue that was facing the church. The item was brought up for consideration by the elders and other interested congregants. They would mull it over for a month or two and then nothing seemed to move.  Some of the elders agreed with the young man and others, that this item needed action, but then it seemed to just generate into more discussion.  More and more people got to hear about the issue, and some stood on this side of the issue, and some stood on the other side, and some sat on the fence, and everyone agreed that something would need to be done about it.  When the young man questioned the elders about this, they said this is issue is important and everything important takes a long time to discuss.

Finally, the young man in total frustration, because he cares so much about the church, goes to seek out the advice from an old retired minister who spent decades shepparding congregations just like the one the young man was in.  The young man said, “Reverend, I can’t stand the church!  It’s full of hypocrites!  They say we need to do something but all we do is keep talking”.  The old pastor looked at the man with some sympathy and a small twinkle in his eye and said: “well there is always room for one more”

Trouble in the Text

And so we find the Apostle Paul writing to a frustrated Corinthian church, that apparently has been discussing for some time now, unresolved issues concerning what it means to live as “church” in Corinth.  On the surface, it looks like the congregation has divided into at least two factions over the relative merits of Spiritual gifts- it’s a serious discussion about who has them and which one’s are more important.  

The individuals in one faction strongly believe that those congregation members who can speak in tongues are more gifted by the Holy Spirit then any other members.  They see this plainly and can’t figure out why everybody else cannot see it.  Oh, it’s a messy, family feud that is going nowhere fast and getting a little ugly.  Old pastor Paul finds himself in the middle, trying to give the congregation a new unifying vision of what it means to be a Christian community in Jesus Christ without upsetting the dignity of any single individual.  He has this vision of unity through diversity as the only way for Christian community.

Every congregation of every Christian denomination in every decade of history since the Holy Spirit poured out its gifts of grace on the disciples at Pentecost, have always struggled with how to create community that allows for healthy  individual self-expression in a unity of purpose.  The dialogue is important because it determines whether a congregation becomes weak and fragmented, or matures healthy and whole.  Now put yourself in Paul’s shoes, how might you convince his congregation if you were addressing them about this issue. What metaphor might you use to make your point?

Trouble in the World

Maybe, I would try a metaphor from science.  The philosopher scientist Arthur Kessler suggests that everything in the universe is an individual part of a whole. And each whole is part of another whole.  In terms of physics, its not about us, its about the wholeness of all everything in the universe. But then I thought, huh, I cant’ feel it, so it’s not likely to work.

So then what if I used a mechanical metaphor. I would say we are just like the individual parts of a car engine. If the wiring, or radiator, or other parts are not there, the engine does not work.  This is clearer to my mind. Then I thought if I use this metaphor, I might upset some of the individuals in the congregation because they would not like me comparing their humanity to engine parts, like the one’s in my beat up Chev Malibu parked outside.  They might be thinking, “stop comparing me to your car engine if you want me to keep coming to church.  My dignity is worth more then that”!  And they would be right, I should not compare them to engine parts especially like the one’s in my car and I do want them to keeping coming back to the Gospel!  So this metaphor won’t do to try and explain Paul’s image of the individual as a member of the body of Christ.

I could switch to psychology.  I could say it really is hard to grow up and become a mature human being.  And I would dare to say that none of us who are here and still breathing have stopped maturing in mind and body. We worked hard and suffered much for our hard won independence.  And indeed until we learn through hard experience to become autonomous individuals, until we move away from our parents and take responsibility for our own decisions and lives, we have not in psychological terms, matured.  Teenagers know this unconsciously- they seek their own identities partly through rebelling against parental authority and advice we give them-good and bad.  I have been there and so have you.  

But individual psychology does not quite work either because it emphasizes developing our individual ego strength and downplays selfless service in community and if he was a psychologist, Paul would say that a human being is not a mature individual until they come to participate in a community.  If we never mature beyond our concern for our individual rights, if all we believe is that life simply is about growing up to get away from our parents, to do whatever else we want to do, so long as we don’t hurt anyone else, then we cross the line from healthy individuality into “individualism”.  Individuality is a good thing, individualism is not healthy. It is like communism- its and ism, its not good for us. 

            So, because we are a community of faith, who come to church to get a Gospel perspective, I will stick with the Gospel view.  Gospel wisdom says that a mature individual is one who seeks to mature as a person in mind, body, heart, “and spirit” in a community of faith.  Spiritual individualism is not healthy because it is primarily concerned about itself, and sees no particular outward commitment to community.  As of last year, you could read 140 million pages on the internet devoted to religion and spirituality.  Much of it was marketplace spiritual individualism teeming with all kinds of promises of individual wholeness. Spiritual individualism is devoid of any acknowledgement that being connected to God also means work, personal sacrifice, and responsibility to heal the world and heal relationships.  Spiritual individualism suggests that you can buy wholeness like any other consumer product.

            Now, we can begin to see the deeper issues behind the Spiritual gifts debate that concerned Paul. Paul was seeing the arrogance of spiritual individualism creeping into the faith of the Corinthian church which was threatening to tear the body of Christ apart.  He was reminding them that mature individuals of faith love every member in the body of Christ and use their gifts as instruments of God’s grace to transform and heal the whole people of God.

            In hindsight, when I reflect on the times that I have tried to make my life whole through pursuing a path of individualism, if I am honest with myself and you, I realize that my desire to be the rugged individual at the expense of relationship with others, sounded better then it actually felt.  All of us long for recognition and affirmation of that which is greater then ourselves.  The child who cleans the room and waits expectantly for a pat on the back from her parents does not want to experience the remark- well that’s your job, so be self-satisfied with doing a good job.  The child wants to see the smile of the parent who experiences a clean room perhaps with some surprise!  The smile is the Spirit in the relationship between parent and child.  The smile is the completion of wholeness.  Those who have personally felt suffering when our relationships were damaged or lost (and we all have experienced this), or have witnessed large scale suffering of humanity like hunger, feel in the core of their Spiritual selves that a part of them suffers with the whole community. And if you realize this, then you hear the cry of community in your individual being saying to you, we are part of the whole world and if the world is going to be made whole then all of us must share the experience of hunger of the least among us, so that none of us will starve.  

Grace in the Text

      When Paul speaks about spiritual gifts, he always grounds his spirituality in the compassion of God in the physical and spiritual presence of Jesus.  When Jesus entered his community synagogue to proclaim the Kingdom of God for the poor, he knew in the depth of his being that he was an individual unconditionally loved by God.  He used the gifts of the Holy Spirit working in him to be a voice of hope and healing for the whole community.  This gift of the Spirit allowed him to share generously God’s love with us.        

            And Paul says the whole church needs every individual to do the work of Christ. The eye cannot say to the foot, I do not need you. The hand cannot say to the eye, I do not need you.  God is not threatened by differences in the body of Christ, God loves them.  The goal of the individual members of the body of Christ is not to be the perfect individual in it- the perfect hand or foot, the goal is to share what we have been given by God- our gifts and limitations.  When imperfect human beings come together in humility to work for each other, God provides the rest of whatever is needed- grace, will make the body healthy and whole.

Grace in Life

      We live in the resurrected body of Christ.  In every one of us, the Holy Spirit has provided a portion of the divine imagination that enables us to seek to become part of the wholeness of creation.   If you have ever seen the show Sesame Street, have you noticed the variety of puppets. Weird creatures- very different from each other.  I mean what exactly is Ernie or Burt?  And do you really think chickens and birds can share their gifts with carnivores like foxes and monsters without feeling a little insecure about life unless one has the Divine imagination that this is possible.   And I understand some of the puppets have Aids to reflect the reality of this dreaded disease in children as well as adults. The creatures on the street all pull together.  In an adult world, we have difficulty imagining this diversity of creaturely gifts sharing the same stage in a spiritual unity of joy and compassion but not so in the imagination of children and not so in the imagination of God.  When the church is working properly, it offers human beings a way of being related to each other that cuts across all things that divide us. We start by listening patiently to each other.

So I think a good metaphor for the young man who needed perspective about the church and for us is that the church is like a Kaleidoscope. We are the individual bits of diverse coloured particles. Sometimes we get shook up but when we are shook up together and are held up together in the truth of the light in Jesus Christ, we form a surprising pattern of unique beauty. Shake us up again over another issue and we will settle into a new pattern of God’s creation. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit drawing the particles back as new patterns of community in Christ.  Rejoice in your differences and live in the Spirit of God and the wholeness of Christ.

Amen.