1 Corinthians 12:12-31b
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany/ 31st
January 2016
“Now
you are the body of Christ,” wrote Paul, “and individually members of it” (1
Cor. 12:27). “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all
the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1
Cor. 12:12).
When
Paul considered the church in Corinth this was his image. Many members, one body. One body,
many members. It was a body viewed as a
whole, with many parts, each indispensable and equal in importance. It’s such a beautiful, organic, living,
dynamic metaphor for the church of Jesus Christ. We’re a body.
Not a machine. Not a building. Not an institution. Not a
business. A body.
And not just any body, but the body of
Christ—the living, breathing body of
the once-dead-now-risen body of God’s only begotten son.
And not some day, not one day when
the church finally gets its act together, not when all the pews are filled and
we’re exhausted from all the mission we’re doing and we have more money than we
know what to do with because people are giving in wild abandon—no, not that
day. Not then, but now.
We’re not on the way to becoming the body of Christ. You are, we
are, you and I are, right now, the body of the Risen Christ. By virtue of your baptism you have been
grafted into the flesh of Christ. This
is who you are; this is who we are, together.
This is what Paul wanted the Corinthians to see when they looked
at themselves in a mirror. Even if they
could only see in that “mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12), one day they will
discover face-to-face and know who they really are and always have been, even
when their vision was obscured by a dim mirror.
Paul gives us this vision as a gift—and
it really is sheer gift. It’s a gift
that every member of the body is invited to claim and share.
So remember who you are; act, live,
breathe like a body. Care for the body. Love the body. Really live in this body. Treat the body with the respect it deserves and all
its members—all—with the honor they
deserve. This is what Paul is getting at here.
And it’s a truly remarkable affirmation knowing that this church
was so divided and full of conflict.
Yet, despite its divisions Paul always sees the church as a whole, as already possessing a unity found in the
“one Spirit” (1 Cor.12:13). And because
this sense of the Spirit is informing how he sees all the members of the church
he invites them to do the same. Claim who you are already and live from it, he says. See the unity, the
one-ness of the community, because Christ is one. Christ is not divided. Right? And realize that the person
right beside you is essential for the work of the Church. All the members are connected, like every
member of a body. “If one member suffers,” Paul wrote, “all suffer
together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26).
If we keep reading,
chapter twelve pours over into chapter thirteen, the great so-called “love
chapter”. You know it, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of
angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries, all knowledge, and if
I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so
that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient;
love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not
insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in
wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. (1 Cor. 13:1-8a).
Chapter 13
is usually read alone, often at weddings; however chapters 12 and 13 are really
one piece and they should be read together. (I’ve never attended a
wedding in which both chapters were read.
Have you?) The reason Paul is
writing at length—and beautifully—about love and what love really looks like is
because the Corinthians have been fighting and arguing—fighting and arguing
over what the church should look like, fighting and arguing over the types of
people who should be welcomed there, the forms of worship that should take place
there, the kinds of theology that should be preached there, and squabbling over
who’s going to be in charge, who gets to have the power. As a result, they’ve forgotten something
crucial. They need to remember who they
are. They need to remember that they are
the body of Christ—which means that they don’t belong to themselves.
Without love
the members of the body go off on their own, doing their own thing, with their
own agendas. Without love all becomes fragmented. Without love one
member thinks it’s better than the other, instead of seeing how each member is
connected to every other member.
Yes, First Church,
Corinth was a mess; it was a terribly divided congregation, painfully so.
It troubled Paul to no end—and he didn’t have the best relationship with them.
You can tell how much it weighed on him by the length of this letter, as well
as the others he sent to them. There
were considerable problems there.
And some of the people
in that church needed an attitude adjustment.
He refers to them as the
pneumatikoi, the spiritual ones, so-called, the “spiritual elite,” people who
thought they were more spiritually gifted than everyone else (see 1 Corinthians
1-3). They saw themselves as “super
Christians.” It’s in this context that Paul wrote, earlier in chapter 12,
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties
of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it
is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given
the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:4-7). In this light you can begin to see why the
only gift that matters is love.
To each is given the manifestation of the
Spirit for the common good. Not just
some. To each is given a gift of the Spirit. Not just some. Everyone—each. Each person.
Each person in the body of Christ is gifted with at least one gift of
the Spirit, probably more. The Spirit
has gifted each person who has walked through the waters of baptism. You’re probably not the only one to this receive
this gift; there could be many in a particular community with the same kinds of
gifts. But you definitely have a
gift. You are gifted and talented.
Gifted
and talented.
I
remember as a boy that I never liked these words, “gifted and talented.” I had friends growing up who were chosen for
the Gifted and Talented Program at school.
From my perspective as a boy it was all very esoteric. All of a sudden, from out of no where, I
started hearing about friends who were identified as “special,” mysteriously
chosen, set apart, invited to take different classes, participate in special
programs apart from the rest of us, classes we were not invited to because we
were deemed not smart enough or bright enough. Perhaps you were part of the
Gifted and Talented Program when you went through school. Perhaps your child is in this program
now. I’m sure it’s a good program,
beneficial in a variety of ways, formative.
But from my perspective, someone on the outside, who wasn’t in the
program, I remember how it made me feel as a boy. I thought and felt inferior, inadequate, that
I wasn’t gifted, that I wasn’t talented—at least not with the gifts and talents
others considered worthy of a program.
What I had to offer, I thought, had little or no value.
And
that’s when the seeds of envy were planted in me. They were better than me and
I wanted to be included in that special group.
On the plus side, I think at some level the experience motivated me to
study hard; it sparked a desire to achieve, to really push myself. I’ll
show them! On the negative side, it
sparked a desire to achieve, to strive to at least appear gifted and talented
in my teachers’ eyes, thus hiding the true gifts and talents embedded in my
soul—gifts and talents entrusted to me by the Spirit. I had to discover these later as an
adult. That boy is still there in me and
he acts up every now and again. But I
assure him that he’s okay.
Jean Vanier has this to say about envy.
Vanier is a theologian, humanitarian, and founder of L’Arche Community. Last year he received the
prestigious Templeton Prize for his work developing communities, all around the
world, for developmentally disabled persons.
(If you’re not familiar with this work, I highly recommend his books of
reflections and essays.[1]) Vanier says, “Envy comes from people’s
ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts.”[2] This is a beautiful, concise, and accurate
description of the origins of envy. Envy
surfaces when we’re ignorant of our gifts—when we don’t know what they
are. Or, if known, envy emerges when we
lack belief in our gifts—when we don’t value them or honor them or trust
them. And very often the things we’re
most envious of in other people are really projections of who we are inside,
but for a variety of reasons cannot see or acknowledge as our own.
 |
| "Kierkegaard" by Luplau Janssen, 1902. |
Many
years ago I came across profound wisdom in a statement by Sören Kierkegaard
(1813-1855)—that blessed Dane.
Kierkegaard has been one of my theological heroes for a long time, a
faithful and trusted companion on my journey.
(His surname translated into English means, literally, “cemetery”—kierke, meaning “church” and gaard, meaning “garden” or “yard;” hence,
“church yard” or “cemetery”. With a name
like that you can only imagine what his childhood was like.) With searing psychological and spiritual
insight, this is what he said: “Comparison kills.” When I first heard those words, many years
ago, it was as if the hammer of Thor had struck me, and cracked me open, and
released my soul. Kierkegaard said, "...the more comparison, the more indolent and paltry a
person's life becomes...comparison kills,” he said, “with its insidious chill.”[3]
He’s right. There are healthy forms of comparison, of
course. But when we’re always comparing
ourselves to others—what others have, what others are doing, what others are
achieving—if we’re always looking outward, valuing what’s “out there,” more
than what’s “in here,” within us, that which has already been entrusted to us by the Spirit, we are doing ourselves
a great disservice and effectively rejecting God’s gifts in us. This is not the way toward life, this is not
what the Spirit intends for our lives, this is not the way of Christ. Pathological comparison kills; with its
insidious chill it slowly, ever so slowly over time kills our souls.
Envy, if left unchecked, has a way of
working its wicked way into our souls and then into our relationships and
communities. It’s a toxin that pollutes everything. The congregation in Corinthians was Exhibit A for
this. We see it at work in the Church, in relationships and families, in our communities and places of work.
A
more biblical perspective would have better served me as a boy. To be in the body of Christ means I am gifted
and talented. If you’re in the body of
Christ then you are gifted and talented.
Your gifts and your talents don’t make you better than anyone else. We’re all the same in the eyes of God—equally
loved. Whatever gifts or talents I have
or you have are not given for your sake alone and not because you’re better
than anyone else. We are gifted in order
to share our gifts with others. The
Spirit has gifted us each in a unique and particular way so that our gifts can
be used for the common good. We’re not
allowed to hoard them or protect them.
We’re not allowed not use them.
The gifts are to be shared.
They’re given to us so that we can give them to the world—it’s one of
the ways God acts in the world through us. By virtue of our baptism, God blesses us with
abilities and capacities that can, quite literally, transform the world. Perhaps that’s why there’s sometimes a
reluctance to accept our gifts and talents, because then we’re responsible for
them and have to do something with them.
And this probably frightens us.
What are yours gifts? Are you using them? If not, why not? What are you afraid of? What’s holding you back?
What
are our gifts as a church? Are we using
them? If not, why not? What are we afraid of? What’s holding us
back?
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
“You are
the body of Christ.” Now. “Now you are the body of
Christ.” Thanks be to God!
[1] Jean Vanier, Community and Growth (Paulist Press,
1989), 51.
[2] Jean Vanier, Befriending the Stranger (Paulist Press,
2010); From Brokenness to Community
(Paulist Press, 1992); The Heart of
L’Arche: A Spirituality for Every Day (Novalis, 2012).
[3] Sören Kierkegaard,
“Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847). The full quote is: "...the more comparison, the more indolent and paltry a
person's life becomes. This
consciousness is the straight gate and the narrow way. It is not the way as
such that is narrow, although quite a few people walk along it single-file; no,
the narrowness is that each one separately must become the single individual
who must press through this narrow pass along the narrow way where no
comparison cools, but also where no comparison kills with its insidious
chill." Kierkegaard’s Writings,
XV (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 152.
