1 Corinthians 12:1-13
Every One of Us Afire
James Sledge May
31, 2020 – Pentecost
As
often happens with seaports, Corinth was a cosmopolitan city with people from all
over, many of them hoping to make it big there. It had reputation as a place
where upward mobility was easier than in much of the Roman Empire. In that
sense, Corinth was not totally unlike America. It was a land of opportunity, a
place where even former slaves might become respected figures in the community.
There was a sense of freedom and possibility.
No
doubt the cosmopolitan, Gentile populace of Corinth posed challenges for the
Apostle Paul when he first arrived and began a Christian congregation there.
His converts often weren’t familiar with Hebrew ideas of a covenant community
that cared for the least of these, notions which permeated the teachings of
Jesus. Jesus doesn’t fit easily into a worldview of advancement and upward
mobility, a world view that often sees those left behind as failures.
Most
all we know about the congregation in Corinth comes from the letters Paul wrote.
When Paul founded a church, he didn’t stay on as pastor. He was a missionary,
always looking to spread the gospel, but he still tried to care for his congregations,
visiting them occasionally, getting reports from travelers whenever he could,
and communicating by letter.
Based
on Paul’s letters, the Corinthian church was an exuberant, energetic place.
People were excited about their new faith and the experience of the Spirit.
But, as often happens with religion, they tended to view their faith through
the lens of culture. American Christianity has become so individualized that
might well be unrecognizable to Jesus, and the Corinthians saw their faith as
another aspect of competitive, upward mobility.
Not
surprisingly, divisions began to appear in the congregation. Some imagined
themselves more spiritually mature and looked down on those whose faith they
thought less impressive. Similarly, they began to rank one another’s spiritual
gifts. If you could speak in tongues, you were a real Christian. If not, well
maybe you’d get there someday.
Wealth
divided them, too. In a time before weekends existed, Christians worshipped at
night in people’s homes. Wealthier members could often get there earlier, and sometimes
they started without the others. Their Lord’s Supper was an actual meal, seated
at table, eating and drinking, but poorer members worked long days were
arriving to find all the food and wine gone.
If
Paul had let this continue, who knows where it would have ended. They might
well have split into rich churches and working class church, churches divided
by race, liturgy or musical style and preferences.
In
the portion of the letter we heard this morning, Paul addresses one of these
areas of division, the one over spiritual gifts. There is no upward mobility
with the Spirit, says Paul. If you live with Jesus as your Lord, as your God
and Master, then you have the Spirit. It’s that simple. And the various
spiritual gifts have nothing to do with personal achievement or a hierarchy
that puts some ahead of others. Your spiritual gift is not your doing, says
Paul. The Spirit spreads the gifts around for the common good, for the needs of
the entire body.
According to Paul, spiritual gifts are
not primarily for personal enjoyment or edification. They are to build up the
community. And in theory, if not always in practice, we Presbyterians try to embody
this when we ordain pastors, elders, and deacons. Ordination, we say, is to a
function, and not a status. This is important work, and so we ordain, or set
apart, people for that work, people we believe have the appropriate gifts. But
this does not elevate elders, pastors, or deacons over the non-ordained or each
other. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, writes
Paul. Some have different roles or functions, but all are essential parts of
the body.
______________________________________________________________
Just
a little later in this worship service, we will ordain and install ruling
elders and deacons, and in a first, we’ll do it virtually. In this ordination
service, we will ask the same profession of faith questions that are asked at
baptism, or when young people are confirmed and make their public profession of
faith, or when new members join the church. But these questions are not only
for those being ordained and installed. They are for all of us.
All
of us will profess Jesus as our Lord and Savior and promise to be his
disciples, obeying him and sharing his
love with the world. We all answer these questions to remind us that the call
to be elders and deacons is a part of a larger call that every one of us shares.
In
our baptisms, God claims us and calls us to lives of faithful discipleship.
Some are called to ministries of deacon and ruling elder, but all of us are
called, and all of us are given gifts by the Holy Spirit for living out that
call, so that together we can be the body of Christ in the world. To
each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. But
what exactly is this common good? What does it mean for us to be the body of
Christ?
More
than a century ago, Presbyterians came up with something called “The Great Ends
of the Church.” This is a list of six ends or purposes that should be the core
of every congregation. The first “four are the proclamation of the gospel… the
shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; …divine
worship; (and) the preservation of the truth.” But the last two are critically
important to us today. They are “the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of
the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.”
As
the church, as the body of Christ, all of us are called to promote a rightly
ordered society and to show the world what the Kingdom looks like, what it looks
like when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. And oh, we have much
work to do.
Our
society is not rightly ordered; the Kingdom is obscured and God’s will is
thwarted when it is dangerous simply to be black. And the majority of us here
at FCPC, an overwhelmingly white congregation, are culpable in this situation.
We have been content to say, “I’m not racist,” and then hope the problem will
just go away. But last week’s murder of George Floyd and the widely seen
episode of a white woman calling the
police because Christian Cooper, a black man, asked her to follow the law and
leash her dog make abundantly clear that this problem isn’t just going to go
away. White Christians must do much more than trying not to be racists. We must
become engaged in combating racism, in becoming anti-racists who actively work
to set our society right.
Those
we ordain and install today are called by God to lead us in this work, but
every single one of us is called to this work, and the Spirit is given to each
of us to equip and empower us. To each is given the manifestation of the
Spirit for the common good. The flame of the Holy Spirit dwells in you
so that you can play your part in the work we are called to do together.
Let us pray.
Gracious Lord, on this day of Pentecost, send the flames of the Holy Spirit. Set
our hearts afire for the work of Christ’s body. Show each of us our part, what
we are called and equipped by the Spirit to do, that we may be the Church Jesus
calls us to be, working to transform the world and to live into the ways of
your coming new day.
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