1 Cor 12:5-30 Spiritual Gifts

“Just do it.” “Look out for number one.” “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.” L’Oreal “Because I’m worth it.” Army “Be all you can be.” “Be yourself.” AT&T “It’s all within your reach.” “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” All of these are either advertising slogans or common sayings. Our entire lives, we seem to be hearing one constant message: “The world is yours to conquer. Do what you need to get ahead, and don’t worry because you are the only person that matters.” We are encouraged to act like the toddlers who are not yet aware that their actions affect others because they have barely figured out that their actions affect themselves.

The problem with this message is that we are not solitary creatures. Our actions affect both ourselves and those around us. Even if media and advertising tempt us sto forget that lesson as adults, we learned as children that the people around us matter. If you stand on a playground and one child hits another, the wounded child begins to cry. Actions affect others. If one teenager decides to date his friend’s girlfriend, his friendship is destroyed by the betrayal. Actions affect others. If one person at work doesn’t fulfill her responsibilities, the contract cannot be fulfilled and the whole company pays. Actions affect others.

We can tell what is important in our society by the way we spend our money and the way we pay our workers. We drive by billboards and flip open magazines all showing men and women with the “perfect” bodies urging us on to success. We pay our professional athletes and television or movie actors salaries into the millions of dollars every year. Then we drive a little further, or we close the magazine and walk into our front yards, and we see the teachers, substance abuse counselors, and police officers struggling to make ends meet. Human lives are broken down into the important and the unimportant, the famous and the normal. Actors, musicians, and politicians can receive special treatment. They sit in first class on airplanes, are members of exclusive country clubs, and are invited to private parties hosted by the rich and famous.

On the streets we walk or drive every day, we are normal. Most of us will never be noticed by the famous people who live and work only miles away from this church, yet the good news of the Kingdom of God is that the normal are noticed, and the last shall be first. Paul reminds us that we all serve the same God, and we have all been redeemed by the same Christ.

^12:4 There are varieties of grace-gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, ⁶ sand there are varieties of actions but the same God is working in everything and everyone. ⁷ But to each he gives the manifestation of the Spirit for the common goods. ⁸ 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 gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

¹⁵ 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 cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶ 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 cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷ 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? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹ 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!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ 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, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸ And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

Once again Paul’s instructions teach us not to listen to many of the messages that we hear every day. Christians live in the Kingdom of God present now, although not in its fullness. When we follow Christ and are baptized into Christ’s church, we die to ourselves and to the world around us, and we are raised into new life and the new kingdom. Peter tells us that Christians live as foreigners in the lands where they once lived as citizens because Christians are citizens of a new kingdom. As members of God’s Kingdom, our lives are governed by freedom and grace instead of competition and struggles for power. In God’s Kingdom, all who allow the Holy Spirit to draw them up onto the life of Christ are accepted around the table, and all who enter into God’s Kingdom are given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit.

In today’s passage, Paul provides us with a partial list of spiritual gifts which are given to each Christian to support the whole church. Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift to share with the body, and no single person has all of the gifts. I encourage you to explore what spiritual gifts you have been given, so you can share them with the church. If you don’t know, there are tests online that you can take or you can meet with a pastor who will walk you through one.

Knowing what our gifts are is essential for us to be able to share them with the rest of the church, but Paul’s list of gifts is less important than his desire for each of the gifts to be recognized and honored in the church. You see, the church is the body of Christ, and like a human body, there are many members but only one body. Each individual part is necessary and important. We might survive if we are missing limbs or organs, but our bodies were not designed to have missing pieces. I had a friend who injured her shoulder. While it was healing, she was unable to drive, write, or lift any objects. No one would have said that she was less than a person, but she was obviously injured. The church is the same way. We may survive if only a few people run everything and no one else participates, but we cannot flourish without every member using the gifts which the Spirit has given to him or her. Every person and every gift is necessary in the body of Christ, and when some members don’t share their gifts, the body is visibly wounded.

It can be hard to hear that we are needed and important. We live our entire lives based on our status and power level. It is easy to believe the messages that only the famous and “important” people can make a difference or are really needed. We see news stories about the work that Al Gore or Bono in the fights against global warming and AIDS, and they are recognized around the world by their faces and names. We can be tricked into thinking “Surely I’m not important, and no one misses me. I’m not famous like those people.” The problem is that one of the organs in our bodies is no more important than the others. It doesn’t matter whether our liver, kidneys, heart, or arteries stop working, they can all kill us. If even the smallest blood vessels in our bodies become blocked, the cells around that blood vessel die. We truly need every part of our bodies to be working properly. The same is true of the Body of Christ. We need those people who are not known by the world if we are going to be able to reach out to our neighbors who are hurting right next door.

But the Body of Christ does not just need every single member, it also reverses the power structures of the world. Paul tells us, “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.” We know that God cares for the outcast and ignored people of the world. We saw that he provided instructs to Israel so that the poor would have food to eat. Jesus tells us to “Let the little children come to him” and that “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” God exalts those who seem unimportant or unworthy of his attention.

Too often, we determine the worth of those in the church based on the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to people, without realizing that those gifts are necessary to the church. Too often, we pay more attention to the work of our teachers and preachers, to those with the flashy and visible gifts. We sound like the Corinthians who were much the same way. They were determining which gifts were most important and causing chaos in the church because everyone was trying to exercise the same gifts at the same time. The Corinthians all wanted the visible gifts; gifts like speaking in tongues, prophecy, and performing miracles. That is why Paul writes this long discussion on spiritual gifts and the body. The Corinthians don’t understand why the Spirit is giving them spiritual gifts. We need to hear this message from Paul when we base someone’s worth or importance on whether they have the visible and “flashy” gifts of the Spirit. And we need to remember that God has given more honor to the parts of the body that lacked it.

No one spiritual gift is more important that the others. When I think about the ways that we determine a person’s importance, it reminds me of the many concerts and speeches I have seen. Too often, the speaker or singer ignores or abuses the people running the sound or lighting boards. They have become consumed with their own importance and forget that without those people who work hard behind the scenes, no one would even know there was a person on stage. They would have no chairs to sit in, no lights to see the stage, and no microphones or speakers. It may seem like the person on stage is more important; he or she is the person who drew the crowd after all. But the person on stage doesn’t matter if no one can here what they are saying. Those gifts which seem less important, gifts like service, mercy, and helping, are necessary if the preachers and teachers are going to do their jobs.

So what are your gifts? We each have a place in God’s body, and we each have gifts to give to others. Since no one person can have all of the gifts, we need each other to be able to share our gifts. We can only have all of the gifts when we come together. This is why it doesn’t work to be a Christian who isolates himself from the church.

Ps 71:1-8, Jer 1:4-10

Psalm 71

1 In you, LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.

2 In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
turn your ear to me and save me.

3 Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.

5 For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD,
my confidence since my youth.

6 From birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother's womb.
I will ever praise you.

7 I have become like a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.

8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.

Jeremiah 1:4-10

The Call of Jeremiah

4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew ^[a] you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

6 "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am too young."

7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am too young.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

At the beginning of every semester, my college pastor used to stand up in chapel and have us get our bearings. He would say, “We’re in Murchison Gym, Westmont College, Montecito, California, United States of America, Western hemisphere, planet Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe, Mind of God.” This morning I want us to situate ourselves according to another set of bearings. Where are we? We are in Glencoe United Methodist Church, in the line of John Wesley, the Church of England, the church catholic, and the first disciples. We are followers of Christ Jesus and the LORD, | the God of Israel, of Adam and Eve, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Job and Nehemiah, and of the psalmists and the prophet Jeremiah. That’s where we are. We are part of a community who knows the true God and worships him and declares his glory in our whole lives.

The writer of Psalm 71 is like us, a part of the community of God who has seen God’s faithfulness and been taught the ways that God has acted in history. That is why he, the writer is probably male, that is why he can write a lament psalm which complains about his problem, rests in God’s promises, and praises God even in his oppression. He knows the LORD to be a God of surprises and miracles. He serves the God who gave Abraham and Sarah a child when Sarah was ninety years old, the God who heard the cries of his people in Egypt and raised up Moses to deliver them from pharaoh, and the God who gave Israel king David and promised that he would always be with his people.

The psalmist knows that god is with him, so he declares his reliance on the LORD, using a series of metaphors which show God’s protection. God is our refuge, our rock, and our fortress, and I can’t help but picture the psalmist’s words. The temple was the refuge for Israel, the place where they could seek safety from those who were attacking them. However, in my mind I picture the storm cellar in the Wizard of Oz. As the tornado approached, the family ran around the yard gathering the things they needed, and they rushed to lift the door to the storm cellar, climb in, and get the door shut tight where they would be protected from the winds that could carry them away. Of course, the storm still struck, but they where sheltered underground. In verse 1, God is our refuge; though the storm may strike, we are given refuge in the presence of Christ.

What about the rock in verse 3? I come from the West Coast where earthquakes are normal. In the early ‘90’s, a massive earthquake occurred in Northridge, near Los Angeles. It turned out that doorways and hallways were not the only place you wanted to be when the earth started moving. After the quake, we learned that part of a nearby town was built on bedrock, and part of it was built on fill. When the ground shook, the buildings that were built on the rock stood firm while the buildings built on fill became split-level houses. Whole neighborhoods had to be condemned. For some reason, we like to put our hope in the fill, in things that will crumble. We grasp for money which collapses with one stock market crash. We build an increasingly powerful military which still cannot protect us from attacks like Pearl Harbor or September 11^th. We put trust in the government which cannot rescue us from joblessness, loneliness, and the increasing cost of health care. Fortunately for us, God is a rock, not fill; when the ground beneath us begins to shake, we can stay standing on the rock that does not crumble.

It is this constant security that the psalmist has found in God which has allowed him to put his hope and trust in the LORD. In verse 5, he writes, “For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.” It is only through the LORD that we exist at all; unless the LORD gives us life and breath, we will not survive today. He has given us the gift of life and then walked with us since our birth. Have you thanked God for your life lately? | Where else can you see God’s hand in your life? |

Has he given you people to encourage you when you thought that your life would never get better? Did he place you in a Christian family where you were raised in the church or give you a friend who told you about God’s love for the first time? What gifts has he given you to help others along the Christian journey? In what ways has God formed you as his unique child? |

Jeremiah was formed to be a prophet to the nations; he was put together with specific gifts which God would use to speak to the world. He was made bold to speak against the kings of Israel. He was given life to serve God as a prophet, as a person who would follow God even when everyone else around him turned away. He was called to live a life of obedience, and most of all to speak for God to Israel. He was told to preach, to tell God’s story.

Jeremiah was not excited about God’s call. He reacted with an excuse. Jeremiah said, “I do not know how to speak, I am too young.” He sounds like Moses who insisted so strongly that he could not speak for God, so God ended up giving him Aaron to speak on his behalf. He sounds like us. “I am too young to have anything worthwhile to say. I’m too busy to help my neighbor change her flat tire. I’m too poor to have anyone listen to me. I’m too old to speak to these younger generations.” We make excuses when God calls. What are your excuses? |

Consider today how God is calling you. It is up to the church to tell the story of Jesus who died on the cross and rose again to save the world from sin, who loves each of the children he has made, and who is the rock we can stand on when our lives start to shake. If we do not go, who will God raise up to go in our place? We are all called to be like Jeremiah, sharing God’s good news with the nations and calling all people to serve God. We are all called to serve our neighbors and to love our neighbors just as Christ served and loved us. Perhaps this is why our passage from Psalm 71 ends the same way Jeremiah ends: with the proclamation of God’s word.

The psalmist ends this section saying, “I will ever praise you. I have become like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long.” Our lives should be a ceaseless expression of our praise. If we have taken time to consider the work of God in our lives and in the beauty of the surrounding creation, we can offer up praise to our LORD who is worthy of our love and service.

But praising God all day long does not have to mean that we stand on the street corner declaring the judgment and wrath of God. It means letting our lives and words glorify Jesus in all of our actions. We praise God at our jobs by doing our best work with the gifts God has given us, by being honest in all of our dealings, in avoiding the latest office gossip. We praise God in our homes by loving our spouses as Christ loves us, by viewing our children as gifts from God, by avoiding unneeded extravagances, and by opening our homes to those around us. We praise God with our time by limiting our commitments, so we have time to hear God, by spending our time serving others, and by making time for unexpected opportunities to help those in need.

And when we live our lives to the glory of God, we are more able to hear how God wants us to declare his splendor. We are ready to hear his voice asking us to work in Mississippi or teach a Sunday school class. We are waiting for him to tell us to start a ministry to children in the neighborhoods around the church or to use our gifts and expertise serving on a church committee. Consider how God is calling you to preach his word, to declare his splendor to the world, and know that you are not alone. Remember where we are. | We are in Glencoe United Methodist Church, in the line of John Wesley, the Church of England, the church catholic, and the first disciples. We are followers of Christ Jesus and the LORD, | the God of Israel, of Adam and Eve, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Job and Nehemiah, and of the psalmists and the prophet Jeremiah. We are part of a community who knows the true God and worships him and declares his glory in our whole lives.

Praise be to God. Amen.