Corporate Life

Today as we have talked about is Pentecost; the day that we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit being sent to the disciples and a reminder that the same Spirit lives in each and every one of us. To be honest it’s kind of weird stopping so quickly into the Pentecost text from Acts and not reading Peter’s speech, and at the same time it is also nice because it helps to introduce the gift of the Spirit and then when we jump back into Galatians which we have been studying fo the last several weeks. It sets up Paul’s talking about the Spirit quite nicely.

The first thing Paul tells us is once again a continuation of what we talked about last week. We ended last week with Paul telling us that if we belong to Christ then we are Abraham’s offspring and an heir to the promise. Since we are children then we have been adopted by God through Christ Jesus. And because of that we are given the Spirit and called heirs. So if we are all those things then we have all been given the same Spirit that we see were given to the disciples on the day of Pentecost.

Even though we see the Spirit descending upon the disciples at Pentecost as individual tongues of fire we see that it is the same Spirit and that they were all sharing the same Good News of Jesus Christ, despite it being heard in different languages. So on the one hand it seems individualistic because of the way it is described by resting on each disciple, but we see it’s corporate nature by the way that the Spirit had one single purpose: to share the Gospel with everyone gathered there that day.

The reason I think that is important is becuase I truly believe that we have grown up in a society which encourages and drives home this ideal that we are all individuals and that we should differentiate ourselves from one another. While I agree that we are all unique, I think that we have taken that too far. In fact I was talking with someone recently who shared with me that they were going through some grief all by themselves because grief is so personal and that no one can truly help this person go through it.

I am sure we have also heard people say that they don’t need anyone else in their life and that they are going to make it on their own. Or we have told people or been told by others that we need to pull ourselves up by our boot straps. It’s no wonder that we have moved into a world that, in general, looks out and is concerned with the individual instead of the corporate body. That is not the world that Christ wanted, advocated, or worked to change. Christ focused on the corporate and the group. To bring everyone together into a single family of God. So that we could all be heirs and children. And by that, we would all be a corporate family called the body of Christ.

While the NRSV does a great job in translating the Bible into English I think one of the things maybe is harder to understand is the idea of the flesh. It is good to hear that they are the works of the flesh or the body in that they are not from the Spirit, but what the Common English Bible translation and The Message do is they translate the word ‘flesh’ as ‘selfish motives’. I think that helps us to understand this passage in two different ways:

By labeling it as selfish motives it helps us to see that these kinds of actions are individualistic. They are made for the feel good or what is ‘best for me’ mentality that we talked about earlier. The individual does what is best for feels the best for the individual instead of what is best for the corporate body.

It also tells us that these desires are things that are not things that we shouldn’t do, though we shouldn’t, but that if we are led by the Spirit which promotes the corporate wellbeing of all then we simply will not be enticed by these selfish motives or desires of the flesh that put self over others. For example: we typically think about the 10 Commandments as the Thou Shalt Not’s. Martin Luther in his Small Catechism points out that while they may be things we shouldn’t do but that there are positives to them as well. So not only should we not steal from our neighbor but we should also do our best to help our neighbor in making sure others don’t steal from them. Corporate not individual.

By contrast the fruit of the Spirit is a corporate, ‘what is best for all’ mentality. It is the corporate love for all people. It is the thought that says you may be mourning and it may not be my loss and I may not understand that loss, but I will mourn with you because I see how much it is affecting you. It is the kindness that says that you don’t have to do this alone. While I know you can maybe pull yourself up by your boot straps, I will be here for you should you want someone to help you pick up the pieces. You don’t have to do it alone.

A life in Christ where we have died with Christ in the flesh (selfish desires) then we don’t do the works of the flesh but we live a life led by the Spirit. A life that is full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A life that considers the needs of others not just the needs of the self. A life that leaves the comforts of the closed room that the disciples were in that day of Pentecost and sends them out into the streets to proclaim corporately what a life in Christ is like.

A life that celebrates our uniqueness and the unique gifts that we have been given by the same Spirit, the Spirit that connects all our unique persons into one family of God. Called by and saved by Christ who died and rose for all so that we might also die and rise from a life of flesh and selfish desires to a life led by the gift of the Spirit that focuses on how we are all children of the same God, all loved and forgiven. All working together corporately giving thanks to God that we are unique and that our uniqueness helps us to serve one another as Christ was the ultimate servant to this world. We give thanks to God for the selflessness of Christ Jesus so that we could all be corporately one family of God. Amen.