Body Talk

I have a confession to make this morning.

I am not very good at gift-giving.

Every once in a while I get it right—on rare occasions, I find something that is so timely, so perfect…that for a brief moment it looks like I know what I’m doing.

But more often than not, choosing a gift for someone becomes a major challenge for me.

Usually when I get stuck, I resort to the classic stand-by: the gift card.

But now today, even that becomes a harrowing experience.

Have you seen how many gift cards there are to choose from today?

You walk into a grocery store or a drug store…just about anywhere these days, and you find yourself facing a wall of gift cards.

Even the easy option isn’t so easy anymore.

I wonder…when you consider gifts…what would you think of as a memorable gift you’ve received over the years?

Is there one that stands out?

Some birthday…Christmas…anniversary…whatever…gift that just seemed to be thoughtful and meaningful in a way that really struck you?

[SHOW GIFT]

A thoughtful gift…a meaningful gift...is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

This morning we’re going to talk about gifts that surpass any other, gifts that are so perfect…so timely and purpose-ful that sometimes…it just seems too good to be true.

But it is true.

We heard the words from Paul’s famous passage in 1 Corinthians 12:

“Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.”

Let’s stop there for a moment.

We need to remember here that what we’re reading is a letter. Part of a series of letters, really, between Paul and the church at Corinth. and Paul is writing in response to things happening in that church.

And one the things that’s happening is that many of the folks in Corinth have come to Christ out of a pagan background, immersed in experiential and sometimes wildly emotional expressions of faith.

In those pagan religions, wild, ecstatic utterances and behavior were often seen as a validation of someone’s spirituality.

It was an endorsement from the gods of that person’s faith...a “supernatural stamp of approval” if you will.

And it seems that similar things and questions are popping up in the Corinthian church.

They may have transferred their loyalty to Christ, but some of their attitudes and behaviors have carried over from their pagan past.

Which I think we can identify with in some ways.

When we come to faith in Jesus there can be things carried over from our past that aren’t healthy.

And the journey of consecration, of turning those things over to Jesus so that they can be healed and we can be freed…that journey lasts a lifetime.

But it is so important…because sometimes the things we bring into our faith…can be destructive.

That’s what’s happening here in Corinth, it seems.

In their quest to be super-spiritual there is far too much value and importance being given to emotional and ecstatic spiritual experiences.

Now let me say one thing perfectly clear: I believe in supernatural and sometimes very emotional experiences in our walk of faith.

But at the same time…I think it’s dangerous to teach that these kind of experiences are everyday occurences, or that if you don’t have them…then you’re some kind of second-class Christian.

Which is clear from Paul’s words here in chapter 12.

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”

To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given FOR THE COMMON GOOD.

This is a complete turn-around from the way pagans in Corinth understood gifting.

In the pagan religions, you brought gifts to the gods in the hopes they would be of use to them…you made sacrifices and dedications to the gods in their temple…you would concern yourself with what you could do for him or her.

But now, Paul paints a different picture.

It’s God who brings the gifts.

It’s God who equips the church.

By his Spirit.

Think of Jesus in John chapter 20, when he appears to the disciples following his resurrection.

He says and does something very interesting:

“Peace be with you!” he says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

As the Father has sent me…I am sending you.

What he’s saying to them…and I think, to us…is, “You’ve got work to do.”

My work, Jesus says…my kingdom work…the responsibility is transferring from me…to you.

And he breathes on them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

What Jesus is illustrating here is that the kingdom work of the church, the work of proclaiming Christ and serving others…is a work that can’t be done apart from the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit empowers us, the Spirit enables us, the Spirit gifts us…for God’s work.

Each of us.

In different ways.

All these things Paul lists in 7 through 10 of 1 Corinthians 12:

wisdom

knowledge

faith

healing

miracles

prophecy

discernment

tongues and interpretation…

…Paul says these are the work of the Spirit.

That is so significant and so important for us to remember.

Too often in the church we confuse spiritual gifts and natural talents.

Sometimes there’s a bit of an overlap, but not always.

In fact, natural talents and abilities, if we’re not careful, can become a bit of a trap for us.

If we define who we are as Christians and who we are as a church only by the things we know we’re able to do naturally…then how in the world are we going to accomplish supernatural things?

Because let’s be honest: the things we’re called to do as a church are not things we’re really able to do on our own.

Sure…I suppose some things we can do on our own.

And for some churches, that’s enough.

But if we only do those things that we can do in our own strength and abilities…then what’s the difference between the church and some secular social service agency or some well-intentioned social club or fraternity?

No…the supernatural work we’re called to do: the work of glorifying God, making disciples, seeking healing and transformation, of battling powers and principalities that keep people in darkness…

…the work of being God’s people and pursuing God’s priorities…this is a supernatural work.

And it requires supernatural gifting and power.

It is all rooted in the Spirit.

Paul says it:

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”

It’s God work…and it happens through us.

And everything we undertake, everything we do as the church, needs to flow out of this understanding…this truth…that God is the one at work.

God is the one who empowers

God is the one who directs and guides

God is the one who gives us all that we need for what he calls us to do.

And he does that by giving to each of us spiritual gifts…supernaturally empowered abilities that transcend our natural talents.

They might involve our natural talents…but they are not reliant on them.

They are reliant only on the Spirit of God.

And the list here in chapter 12 is only a partial exploration of all the gifts God gives to his people.

There are actually 4 sections in the New Testament that you need to look to if you want a broader and fuller understanding of spiritual gifts.

We don’t have time to dive into them all this morning, for now let me just share with you the passages and encourage you to check them out:

1 Corinthians 12

Romans 12

Ephesians 4

1 Peter 4

But here’s the thing.

Even if we wrap our heads around this truth that being the church, that being sent just as Jesus sent the original disciples…even if we grasp the importance of the Spirit and his gifts to that calling…

…we can still fall into dangerous thinking and divisive attitudes about those gifts.

And again…that’s what seems to be happening in Corinth.

That desire to be super-spiritual has given the Corinthians a skewed picture of what it means to be the church.

And so Paul gives them a different picture, a picture that has become one of, if not THE, standard operating metaphor for the church throughout its history.

The picture of the church…as the body.

It’s a metaphor that Paul loves: it pops up in a lot of his writings.

But here in 1 Corinthians 12 he unpacks it in a particularly thorough…and convicting…way.

Let me read you the rest of 1st Corinthians 12, picking up at verse 12:

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

This is actually a difficult passage for me to preach from, not because it’s hard to understand, but because Paul does such a complete job of making his point.

He pretty much says it all…I’m not sure I can offer much beyond his words.

But there is something worth focusing for just a moment or two.

Notice how Paul says “we were all baptized into one body…we all drank from the same Spirit.”

One body…the same Spirit…this is all about unity.

It echoes what Paul says in Ephesians 4:

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

And in light of that truth, Paul then goes on to say that we have no right…there is NO place at all in the church, for superiority, discrimination, or hierarchy.

In this wonderful metaphor of the body, Paul illustrates an absurd scene...that is absurd for a reason.

Sometimes we need absurdity to illustrate absurdity.

And the kind of superior attitude at play in the Corinthian church is the height of absurdity.

Paul says it’s like an eye saying to the hand, “Back off! I’m more important…I don’t need you!”

It’s like the head saying to a foot, “Get over yourself! You’re nothing compared to me!”

And friends, we’re fooling ourselves if we say those attitudes don’t invade our churches from time to time.

When one person or one group looks at another person or another group and says, “They need to get their act together.”

“They’re focused entirely on the wrong thing. They need to get with the program and see that what we’re doing…the things that we’re up to…that’s where the action is. That’s where God wants us all to be.”

Paul’s absurd illustration calls us to name that as a dangerous attitude.

The church needs all of us…all of our gifts, and all of our passions, and all of our personalities, and all of our uniqueness.

What is mutual, what is shared...is our submission to the Spirit.

But what the Spirit does with that submission is going to be different for me than it is for you than it is for the person sitting next to you or behind you.

And our task is to celebrate that…not criticize it.

Paul says, “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”

Our task, our passion…should not be to figure out or dictate what part of the others should be, our task is to figure out what part God is calling us to be.

But even there…we can succumb to an unhealthy way of thinking.

Because I actually think even more than our tendency to get down on someone’s calling and giftedness, is our tendency to get down on our own.

Paul addresses that:

“If the foot says, ‘I’m not a part of the body because I’m not a hand,’ that doesn’t make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body?”

Of course, the assumed answer, and the right one: is NO.

[MARY: APPENDIX]

Paul makes a fascinating point in response to this way of thinking:

He says, “Hey, have you ever noticed that the parts of our bodies that we consider to be less honorable…when in turn actually treat them with greater honor and respect?”

“The parts that we consider unpresentable…we give them special attention with modesty and care.”

He’s tapping into a powerful truth that echoes the words of Jesus:

Jesus said the last will be first and the first will be last.

He said that whoever becomes humble like a child…will be greatest in God’s kingdom.

He told his disciples, “If you want to be great…become a servant. Humble yourselves.”

It’s a truth as old as Scripture: God gives grace to the humble.

In the church we tend to put so much emphasis on the gifts that are noticeable.

But the gifts that are hidden…the gifts that don’t get attention…that don’t get a “thank you” every Sunday morning…

…without those gifts, we couldn’t be the body of Christ in the way we’re called to be.

If you’re sitting here this morning, and you feel like the appendix in the body of Christ, you need to remember an important truth, and here it is: every analogy breaks down at some point.

And here’s the breaking point of Paul’s analogy: there are no appendixes in the body of Christ.

And yes I looked it up: appendixes is the right word.

There are no worthless gifts, there are no worthless people, in the church.

You might feel you have so little to offer, your finances may mean you can’t contribute a lot of money your health may mean you can’t contribute a lot of time and energy…

…there might be any number of factors that make you think you don’t have anything to offer, but the truth is that God is only asking for one thing.

Granted, it’s a big thing.

He’s asking you to give yourself.

And like we said earlier…he is the one who guides us into our giftedness he is the one who empowers us for our service.

Here’s a thought I’d leave you with, and if you remember one thing this morning, I pray it would be this:

The power of a gift is not found in how noticeable it is, the power if found in how faithfully it’s pursued.

When we all pursue God and his Spirit-empowerment with every fiber of our being, he knits us together into a body of faith that can do things beyond ourselves.

Paul says, “You are the body of Christ, and EVERY ONE of you is part of it.”

We do not exist to show ourselves, we exist to show Christ to the world.

That’s what Jesus has sent us to do.

And where he sends…he gifts…where he gifts…he empowers…and where he empowers…he unifies...

And where he has a group of people who understand their sent-ness…their giftedness…their empowerment…and their unity…

…he has free reign to show up and do amazing and wonderful things.

May that be true in our lives and in this place.

[PRAY]