What Concern is That?

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed” (12:1). We turn to the epistles to the Corinthians for the rest of this series. Most folks know of the letters, even if they don’t know everything that they contain. In a couple of weeks, we’ll come to the most famous and beloved chapter of the epistle, so there will be recognition. But some reminders of the source of these letters would be useful because there will be recognition.

Corinth was called “Sin City” in its day. There was so much going on there that it would be hard to capture in an introductory way. Suffice it to say that it was hard to be a follower of Jesus in a city like that. It was hard to maintain purity, hard to stay out of the dog-eat-dog business of the surrounding community. It was so hard, in fact, that the ethos of the surrounding area leaked into the church. These letters (and scholars believe that there were so many letters burning up the postal routes between wherever Paul happened to be and the church in Corinth) were written to address issues in the church. This series won’t go into all the issues but will certainly focus on the central problem, at least from Paul’s perspective: disunity.

We’ll come back to it again and again in this series. It is the core of the issues that are facing the church in Corinth and, we might suspect, in the United Methodist Church and every church today. This week, we consider giftedness, but from the perspective of creating unity. “There are varieties . . . but the same” is the formula Paul uses to talk about this subject: Diversity in unity. Individuality for the cause of oneness. I don’t believe Paul would suggest that the individual doesn’t matter or is somehow subsumed into the whole, but he would argue that love as the motivating power of giftedness means that we seek to serve others, to be in relationship. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (12:7). Discipleship grows in relationship. We are gifted in our variety of ways, he argues, so that we can be united by the Spirit and joined together to work for transformation of ourselves, of our community, and of the world.

Gifts, services, activities: are these the same things, just with different names? Are they different ways of talking about a common experience? One of the problems in the church at Corinth was the feeling of superiority among a few. Some have taken to calling those who feel superior “super-Christians.” Paul could be trying to level the playing field in response to those who hold themselves above others because of the kinds of gift they display. And no doubt, like now, there are those who think they don’t have any particular gift of the Spirit. But they engage in activities, says Paul; they provide service. It is all motivated by the Spirit. The grandest and most jaw-dropping action and the simplest, most modest acts are all part of building up the community and are all empowered by the Spirit.

What is going on at the beginning of the text? It is a bit puzzling and has led to a variety of interpretations. As the preacher, you can decide if it is worth unpacking or whether you want to stick to the main thrust of the text, which is unity. If you skip over it, however, someone is bound to ask. It is possible that part of what Paul is doing here is trying to remind those “super Christians” that they started somewhere too and that they did not become the representatives of the faith that they believe they are on their own power. Even the very beginning of their faith journey or discipleship path was supported, empowered, even made possible by the Spirit. It isn’t them; it isn’t something special about their own abilities or strengths or knowledge. Even the extremely basic understanding that “Jesus Christ is Lord” comes at the prompting of the Spirit.

We think we got there on our own. We think we have wrestled this faith thing into place by our goodness or our efforts or abilities that have gotten us this far on the path. And certainly, we are called to work out our own salvation; we are called to expend effort to grow in faith. But we are aided all along the way. Like an Olympic record with an asterisk because of wind assist, we have a Spirit behind us, or within us, enabling us to move forward, to grow.

But Paul doesn’t leave it there. He must include the negative. “No one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’” (12:3). Some wonder if there is a counterforce out there in the Corinthian community, actively working against the new Christian movement, and this is their catchphrase. Perhaps, but it seems more likely that Paul is saying the Spirit is about unity; the Spirit is about building up the body; the Spirit is about let Christ and Christ’s example lead at all times. If you, by contrast, are the cause of division, you are cursing Christ and therefore not speaking by the Spirit. It is a cautionary word.

But what about the gifts? Would it be helpful to run through Paul’s list and identify in the minds and hearts of the congregation what kinds of things we can be gifted with? The varieties of gifts, since that is the title for this week? Perhaps that might be useful. You could talk about wisdom and knowledge and faith as the first tier of gifts in this taxonomy. Then you could notice the more “flamboyant” gifts of healing and miracles, prophecy and discernment of spirits. Then notice that Paul puts speaking in tongues at the bottom of the list, because it was this gift in particular that was being used as the wedge to divide the church. This leads me to think that perhaps the listing and description of gifts here is not supposed to be exhaustive, and it isn’t even Paul’s best list. Rather, Paul’s real goal is to say that in our diversity is our unity, in our individual giftedness is our communal strength.