I Am Who I Am 1 Corinthians 12:1-14
We’ve been looking at different events in Jesus life as they’re described in the Gospels, but for the next few weeks I want to look at the letters of Paul. I know when I started to study the Bible I studied the Gospels, that’s where we see Jesus life. But the apostle Paul wrote more than half of the New Testament and if the Holy Spirit included so much of his writings in scripture it must be important.
We know Jesus is God so when I read accounts of his life I expect his reactions to be a certain way, holy and pure to God’s word. But Paul, here is a man like me, a sinner who Jesus reached out to and changed his life. A man who didn’t have God with his grace and mercy at the center of his life who came to see all God offers and then dedicated his life to God. And because he is like me I want to see what he has to say.
A little background; Paul started the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey. It’s believed that shortly after he left to continue his mission the church started to be influenced by the city’s immoral environment and Paul was notified of this through letters from Fortunatus and Stephanus and a believing servant from the house of Chloe. Finally Paul received a letter from the Corinthian church itself requesting information on personal and church life.
Paul’s first letter to the church which he wrote about the year 50 CE is known about but lost to history. Theologians believe that either the church didn’t get the information they were looking for or they didn’t like the answers they received; either way they reached out to Paul with more questions and concerns. These included questions on marriage, eating meat sacrificed to pagan idols and even as to whether women were supposed to cover their heads during worship. And all this prompted Paul to write what we now know as his First Letter to the Corinthians.
So today we can see by our reading that one of the issues the church asked about is that of special abilities and spiritual gifts. It has been assumed this was a concern because some of the members of the church felt they were left out of the Spirit’s endowment.
Paul first explains to them that in the most important way they are all equally blessed by God, Verse 3, “…no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” Anyone and everyone who knows and accepts Jesus is given God’s grace and mercy for it is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that the truth of God’s word becomes apparent. And this means that those who believe are all equal with each other and in God’s eyes because all are equal in God’s grace and mercy. It is this truth that those early Christians are told to hold to.
Now that being said, we know individuals can and do have different talents and this is what Paul addresses next. To his audience and to us, it is human nature to look at what someone else has and compare it to what we have. If we’re all the same why does he get to lead Bible class and I don’t? If we’re all blessed why are they well off and I’m still struggling?
Paul explains that yes we are all equal in God’s grace but as individuals we each have unique gifts and talents and to make his point Paul uses the metaphor of the body to illustrate his message.
The body is made of many parts; nerves, muscles, skin, lungs, heart and each needs the others to survive. The church is the same; Verse 12,“Just as the body, though one, has many members, and all the members…though many are one body, so it is with Christ.”
God created all life. Look at ants. They collect food, build colonies, raise young and do it all again. Higher on the scale look at lions. They hunt, eat, and raise young, and do it over and over again, never wavering, always doing what they were created to do.
And then we have mankind, created by God and yet we see different people with different ideas, different denominations, different traditions, different worship styles. With all the problems this can cause why didn’t God make us like the ants; all the same, all doing the same thing?
Human diversity is a cornerstone of God’s plan. Genesis tells us that after the flood when men began to flourish again they all lived together in the city and Tower of Babel. Everyone spoke the same language, did the same things, thought the same way. Genesis 11:7-8, “…let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other…the Lord scattered them all over the world.” Why when things were going so well? God wants us to grow and learn and going well is not progress. Progress and advancement comes from diversity; differences in opinions and ideas. This is only possible from people who come from different starting points and backgrounds. God knew that for us to reach our full potential we needed to be different from each other.
I found Genesis 1:27, “So God created mankind in his own image.” I gave this a lot of thought; we are made in the image of God. Like God we have the ability to think, to feel and to plan. We like God have the ability to reason and to chose. And to truly have free choice we need to see things from different perspectives.
I’m going to show my age, I actually remember sitting in our living room in July of 1969 and watching men walk on the moon. I was in awe and I started to think about that while I was jotting down notes for today. Think about what that took; people with vision and imagination, mathematicians, computer techs and of course the astronauts; all different with different backgrounds and talents coming together to create the Apollo program.
This kind of joining those with different abilities is what the church 2000 years ago didn’t understand, and it’s what our modern churches need to remember. We need different people with different talents to make it strong. People who are good with children, people who can lead, people to preach, people to keep up the property; people of many talents coming together to keep our church vibrant and alive.
Now let’s look at the greater church. No one should feel left out if it seems other believers are more blessed than you are; accepting Christ doesn’t mean everything is suddenly perfect. I’ve heard ministers preach that God’s grace shows up as personal prosperity and wealth if you just pray hard enough. It doesn’t work that way. As we said before, all believers are equal in God’s grace; the believer living in a shack in the mountains of Ecuador is just as blessed as the believer living in a penthouse. The blessing of God is his forgiveness and redemption; salvation through Christ. Don’t be discouraged in your faith because of what you think you lack. God’s church on earth is a community full of different ideas and cultures, but as Christians Christ is our savior and it’s this truth that binds us together.
We are warned in scripture that we should not be guarded against disparity between us that make little difference. Paul writes in Titus 3:9, “…avoid foolish controversies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because they are unprofitable and useless.”
The truth is salvation comes from faith and trust in Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection. Through this you are given freely God’s forgiveness and redemption and you are a resident of heaven. That is Christianity in a nutshell. As Christians we all believe this basic tenet so whether Congregational, Methodist, Lutheran or Baptist, we should not be arguing with each other over traditions that make little difference. As Christians we should be coming together and concentrating on what does matter, faith and acceptance of Christ Jesus and our work on his behalf.
If you read the next few verses after our reading you will see how Paul explains this to the early Christians, 1st Corinthians 12:16, “If the ear should say ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.”
There have been times in history where different Christian denominations would not work together, and this goes against the teaching of God; Galatians 6:10, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” We have a great local demonstration of this in the Saugerties Area Council of Churches; people of different denominations coming together without quarreling over matters of no consequence to share resources and to work together in Christ’s name; to work together in our community as Christ’s representatives.
All through history people have looked for ways to separate themselves into different groups, and yes differences between us are part of God’s grand plan. The difference is God intended men to learn to get along, to work together, to learn from each other, to make life and the world better by sharing different ideas. Too often men have looked at differences and used them to separate themselves, looked at differences to put others down and segregate them instead of seeing how these differences can make us stronger and more in line with God. God created all of us. He created the body with all its different parts and he created all the different cultures, backgrounds and lifestyles t hat make our world the diverse and beautiful place it is.
The Old Testament can be seen as being about rules to keep, rules that will keep us close to God. The New Testament is not about keeping dye hard rules but about what’s in our hearts. It’s about giving and loving others even if they do things we don’t agree with. 1 Corinthians 16:14 “Let all that you do be done in love.”
This is why I am so dedicated to our Congregational way. Congregationalists recognize we are all believers in Christ but we are all at different places in our walk with Christ. We can accept each other and grow together and learn from each other.
Amen.