Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you that you are here, present in your church, that you purchase with your blood, that you love, that your building and that the gates of hell won't prevail against. We pray that as we turn our hearts and minds to your Word, now that you would do that work in us, that you reveal yourself, that you'd speak, that you turn our hearts to you. We pray this for your glory and our good. Amen.
Online Church: Amazing and Disappointing
So I want to begin this sermon this morning by reflecting with you a little on the shift to online church that we all experienced. Some of you may be experiencing it right now online, and it's a shift that Covid forced on all of us. And it feels kind of trite to say it, but the technology is really pretty amazing, isn't it?
It's had lots of great outcomes. There are lots of stories of people who've connected or reconnected with God because of churches shifting online, making things available. You can access teaching in your everyday life in new ways that were harder to do before, so it's been pretty special.
It's also the case that it's kind of lowered the barrier for a lot of people in in accessing church, maybe checking out what's going on. Some people say that online is the new foyer, because now you don't have to kind of come, you know, walk up the steps and look in the window and sort of say who's who's here and what do they do and what's it like? You can check all that out online. Some of you may have done that before coming to be part of this church here.
But I guess most of us have also found that doing church online can be a bit kind of lacking. It's a kind of imperfect substitute for being together in person, physically. For my family during those endless lockdowns, sorry to mention them.
I don't want to traumatize anyone, but it kind of looked like us attempting to sit down together at the time when the livestream was about to kick off for our church, and within a few minutes, my kids were either kind of complaining loudly so we couldn't hear what was going on, or they were in another room, like fighting and screaming and punching each other. Either way, not a particularly worshipful experience in my book. And this mix kind of between the the amazing and the sort of disappointing, the glorious and the grubby when it comes to church.
This is not a kind of new thing. It didn't arrive with the internet. It didn't appear with Covid, although it made it kind of in our face, actually.
Better and Worse: The Church’s Mixed Reality
The Australia's Center for Public Christianity a few years ago produced a documentary called For the Love of God, and you might be able to see the tiny subtitle there for how the church is better and worse than you ever imagined. Better and worse. I think it only takes a moment's reflection to recognize the truth to that.
There is tragically too much to mourn and repent of. About the church. I don't think we can escape that.
Whether you have in mind the Royal Commission or more recent kind of scandals and events. Much about the church has been twisted and corrupted and used to shelter powerful people who've hurt others. And it's awful.
It's tragic. It's wrong. And alongside this dark, indelible stain, the church as an institution and as a group of people has given the world some profound gifts.
For example, the universal access to education and healthcare that we cherish so much in this country, even if it's not so cherished in other places. It actually depends on having church, schools and hospitals step in and fill the gap that the government can't afford to fill. This happens in other places to a friend of mine in the UK are reflected with me on how their kind of nationwide austerity measures in the previous decade meant that it was actually churches primarily stepping in in local communities to provide things like after school programs and food pantries and the stuff that glues whole communities together.
The church has done that. It's beautiful and it's ugly. Now, there are a couple of reasons why.
I think deep down we might struggle with the church, given this kind of mixed reality as as amazing and disappointing, glorious and grubby. One is the kind of deep sense that many of us have. That church is not X enough for me.
You know, whether X is exciting or vision driven or collaborative and welcoming or spiritually alive and life giving, we can feel like church is not enough of that for me. It's also the case on the flip side, that we can feel like we're not X enough for church. I'm not cool enough.
I'm not together enough. I'm not moral and upright and well-dressed enough. I'm not gifted enough.
Maybe you're here this morning and you don't consider yourself a Christian. And this is part of why maybe you've bumped up against the ways that church is not enough. Or makes you feel not enough.
Perhaps it's hurt you in the past, or someone you know and care about. Maybe it's enthusiastically welcomed you at first, but then cooled off as as the busyness and stuff going on in other people's lives has kind of hijacked their good intentions. Maybe you've been made to feel, in some way or another, that you're not enough for church.
Like church has a kind of minimum standard of wealth or dress or education. That means you don't really belong. Maybe.
Maybe you're a Christian and you struggle with this. I know I sometimes do. I mention all this not to kind of make you feel kind of bad and poke the bear, but because this twin problem, this problem of church not seeming to be enough or us not seeming to be enough for church was an issue, actually, from the very first days of the church.
Corinth: A Church Shaped by Its City
It was an issue that loomed large in the early church in the city of Corinth, which is in south central Greece, in the world of the New Testament. Corinth was a sophisticated city. It was kind of buzzing trade center, cosmopolitan.
People from all over the world were there and and like many big bustling cities, was a place you could go to kind of reinvent yourself to, to pursue big dreams, to move up in the world. And that dynamic of the city had seeped into the church there, like the glitzy, fast moving, aspirational culture of the city of Corinth. The church, God's people in Corinth was full of people who longed to be impressive and well thought of and admired.
And as a result, those members of the church who were poor or unimpressive in worldly terms, were getting increasingly made to feel like they weren't enough for church. Like they were kind of a bit of an embarrassment. Like they didn't belong in the inner circle of proper, spiritually vital, impressive Christians.
And a key issue, it seems, that was dividing the different groups in the Corinthian church was their attitude to the gifts and manifestation of the spirit in the body of believers. And so Paul takes on this issue here in chapters 12 to 14. We're going to spend the next few weeks in it.
And as chapter 12 opens, he writes this now concerning spiritual gifts. Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. It's a pretty plain statement.
now concerning spiritual gifts. Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.
He's got some teaching to bring. He's got some information and to give them. Yet it's also a little bit sarcastic, probably because the one thing people in Corinth thought about spiritual gifts was that they knew what was what.
When it came to the gifts of the spirit. Some members of the church were clearly all about spiritual manifestations, especially the impressive ones, the spectacular ones. They gave them pride of place.
They insisted they be visibly and openly displayed, and they probably talked a lot about them. And in all likelihood, they were doing this to showcase the power and importance of the church. They seem to have been operating on the implicit assumption that the world would know that God is really among them, because of the spiritual pyrotechnics going on in their midst.
And in reaction to this, we can anticipate, and I think, find some evidence in Paul's letter to them that there was pushback. Perhaps it was just skeptical questioning to start with, but eventually it would have risen to the level of bold assertion that the gifts were unreal, inauthentic. The miracles were fake.
The so-called prophecies were just party tricks. These two groups and and either way, both groups no doubt felt like they had it sorted. They were in the in the know.
They were in possession of all the facts and all the relevant information and had the right conclusions. And so Paul here brings them some information, a new perspective. And specifically, he affirms two things here.
One, the reality of the gifts. He wants them to know. The gifts are real.
He makes it clear he means all the gifts, both the spectacular ones and the less visibly impressive ones. But he also affirms that the gifts are not the main thing. They're there to serve something else.
That is the main thing, and what they're there to serve is the purpose for which God gave the gifts that we, as Christ's body might draw together, make the contributions he's given us to make to the good of all. So that's what we're going to explore together this morning. First, the reality of the gifts and then their God given purpose as they serve the main thing.
Reality of the Gifts
First, then, are the reality of the gifts. The differences we encounter between different people in the church are real differences of ability and capacity.
Aptitude, talent, both obvious and more mundane, are not to be denied. If you kind of get near me during the songs and you hear me singing, you'll know there's differences of capacity and talent there. Can't deny it, right?
Paul says it in verses four and following. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work. Now to each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good, to one that was given through the spirit, a message of wisdom to another, a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one spirit, 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. All these are the work of one and the same spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work.
Now to each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good, to one that was given through the spirit, a message of wisdom to another, a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one spirit, 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.
All these are the work of one and the same spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
So you can see that what Paul says here stands over against both a denial of diversity. There are really different gifts, and it stands over against the implicit message that there are some differences of background, of gifting, of preference, that mean that some people belong there, the real thing, and others don't quite fit. They're not quite right or not enough.
The differences between us, Paul asserts here are gifts. Gifts given by God, the Holy Spirit, and a gift. You know.
Right. It's it's not just a commodity that's exchanged. The act of giving bestows meaning on the thing.
It's a significant exchange. Who the gift is, from whom, and what it's for are at least as important as what it is. I think this is the entire premise of, like, socks on Father's Day, right?
What it is. Okay. A pair of socks.
Maybe I'm running out. Maybe not. But who? It's from.
Who? It's for what it expresses about the bond we share. That's what makes it meaningful and significant.
There's also there's more going on here in the context of the first century. You see, in ancient Roman society, a wealthy benefactor would typically bestow gifts on their protege, maybe an artist or a philosopher. And these gifts included financial support, but they actually extended much further.
It extended to endorsing them, opening doors for them, introducing them into social circles they couldn't access. The gift they got was much more than material assistance. It was the benefactors favor.
And that's very much what Paul is saying to the Corinthians when he frames their differences in terms of gifts. In fact, the very word in the original language that's translated gift is closely linked with the word for grace or favor. The differences between people in the church are manifestations of God's grace and favor towards us.
Now, some people see themselves as God's gift to the world, and that's usually a problem. Right. But but you and your differences, the way God has made you uniquely you are quite literally God's gift to his church.
To this church, you're needed. You have something to contribute. Who you are and what you are, and what you have to offer is not only enough.
It's God given. It's evidence of God's grace as God gives himself in and with his gifts, sharing with us in his wild abundance and all sufficiency. You see, the spirit gives the gifts.
Because God really wants to see his church marked by a life giving dynamic of giving and receiving an exchange that's way more than kind of commercial or competitive, or just a transaction in which we sort of keep finding ourselves wondering if we've done enough or we are enough, or are we appreciated enough, and have they noticed? No. The church is meant to be marked by an exchange that's not just a transaction, but something mutually enriching and life giving.
Practically speaking, I think we bump up against this when we we have this idea that participation in church is primarily kind of a transaction, a consumer thing, where we're sort of asking, what am I getting in return for my money? I preached at a church once where the the ministry team told me before I came that I needed to preach for over 40 minutes. It would be not this sermon, just so you know.
Yeah, yeah, I need because otherwise people felt like they weren't getting their money's worth for the church. And I was preaching a sermon I'd preached before. We had like a 20 minute kind of number usually, and I'm like, ooh, it's gonna be a lot of padding in this one to really make it worthwhile, right?
But sometimes we have that attitude we approach church with, what am I going to get out of it? Am I going to? Am I going to tune in? Am I going to turn up on Sunday?
Am I going to go to my small group? How is it going to benefit me or my family? But but what if we asked a different question? What if instead of saying, how will this benefit me and my family primarily, what if we we turned up and tuned in and connected with each other, asking, how can I share and bless others with the things God has put in my hands?
I think if we ask that question, we might start to experience different things in church. The the mutual enrichment that God designed his church to offer. I think that more than just serving and being served.
We'd find ourselves enriched if we embraced in practice the reality that not only are the gifts real and good, but God has gifted each one of you. He's shaped you to serve Him and His church and his world in good and distinct ways.
Purpose of the Gifts: Unity and the Main Thing
So that's the reality of our gifting. Turning now to the purpose, our differences are not the main thing because it's what unites us, not what distinguishes us.
That is the main thing, and what unites us is God's purpose in gifting the body of his church. I'm sure you noticed it all through verses 4 to 11. Paul was alternating there between emphasizing diversity and emphasizing unity.
There are different gifts, but the same spirit, different manifestations. But the one Lord. And now from verse 12 onwards, he kind of sandwiches the reality of our differences between their fundamental unity of common origin and their common destiny or goal in building up the body.
And look with me first at verses 12 to 13. Just as a body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised 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. Actually the original language is stronger. We are all made to drink of the one spirit.
It's God's action that's decisive. And I think that makes it clear. The main thing, the thing that unifies everyone in the church, is not something about us.
Our choice is our birth and social standing. Happening to live here and not somewhere else. It's God's action.
Just as a body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised 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.
All of us are baptized in or with the same spirit. All of us are given to drink of the same spirit. And so our common origin in the action of God means that the differences between us exist to serve the purpose of what unites us.
And that's a sense in which the church is like a human body. What makes it a body, not simply a kind of random collection of limbs and organs, is its organic connection. It's its oneness in all its differences.
It is united, and the same is to apply to us as the church. What we have in common, what binds us together, is God's grace to us in Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not familiar enough yet with things here at Deep Creek Anglican Church, but I have no doubt that there are places in which you find it challenging to live out this oneness, this unity and common origin in God's grace.
In some churches, it's kind of cultural and political stuff that makes it hard. It sort of seeps in and poisons the root of our unity in Christ. And that can be blatant and overt, like when Christians act like faith demands that we must side with one political political party without question or deviation.
Or it can be more subtle either way. Churches can find that instead of their common origin in the grace of God, it's political alignment or fitting in with some cultural tribe that functionally binds them together. And the result of this is that people get excluded.
People for whom Jesus shed his blood, who just don't fit the kind of cultural mix or the political alignment of the majority, get shunted to the side. In other churches, it's not kind of politics and culture, it's things from their past. Historic conflicts, perhaps, or intense disagreements.
Things that haven't really been dealt with but just avoided and swept under the rug. And as a result, everyone may smile and be polite in public. But under the surface, there can be gossip, factions and hurt people quietly drifting off.
As I say, I'm not. I'm not pointing fingers here. I'm not familiar enough with things at Deep Creek, but I imagine you have some sense of the ways in which you're drawn to live in a manner counter to the unity you have in Christ.
But as Paul goes on, we learn that that in the church we don't just share a common origin, we also have a common goal. Verses 14 to 26 explore why we actually need each other, not despite our differences, but because of them.
It's that that bit about the, you know, can't all be noses and ears. It's absurd, right, to think that a body could all be one part. And yet sometimes in the church we can operate on that kind of thinking.
If everyone was like me, if only everyone was as gifted at singing as me, better than me, ideally, you know, if everyone thought like me, if everyone had the same expectations when they walked in the building as me. It's absurd with a human body. It's absurd with the body.
The spirit has knit together. We actually need each other. And we need each other to be different.
We're not designed to be independent, but interdependent. And this interdependence, this need we have for each other, it actually flips the script on the Christians in Corinth who were acting in ways that implicitly said, some of you are not enough. You're not impressive enough.
You don't really belong. Just hide because it's these very people, Paul says, who are worthy of greater care and attention and protection. Zoom in on verses 20 to 25.
As it is, there are many parts but one body. The I cannot say to the hand, I don't need you, and the hand. The head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
On the contrary, 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 presentable, retreat, treat 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.
This is a beautiful vision, right? And a challenging one. Because what Paul says here sharply challenges the expressive individualism that's so prevalent in our world today.
Expressive individualism says two things, eh? Your job in life is to find out what's unique and different and special about you, i.e. what makes you an individual. That's the individualism bit, and b to express it.
That's the expressive bit. Expressive individualism, right? It's the story of every Disney movie. I missed the slide.
There it is. Find out what makes you, you unique and individual and special and express that and have everyone see it and recognize it. And this plays out in our lives and in the church to.
We can allow the gifts to be all about us individually, to be expressing ourselves, to be seen, to be noticed, to be appreciated, rather than being about serving each other and contributing to the good of all. You see, ultimately the church isn't about any one of us or any one kind of gift. Ultimately, it's about Jesus.
Remember how Paul began the chapter? I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
The fundamental purpose of God's Spirit at work in our lives in gifting us. Is to lift up Jesus, to say he is Lord and to show it in our common life. That's what the gifts are given for.
That's what the spirit wants. It wants us to lift up and exalt Jesus, not me or you. And the Jesus who the gifts are about.
He didn't come to serve, to to be served, but to serve. And he never used what made him special, to exclude others and make himself look look good and feel good.
Now he he gave. He poured himself out. He served.
And he laid down his life as the gift of God. As God's grace made manifest with flesh and blood. And he did it for us.
Not just to set an example, but to save us. To rescue us from that cage of expressive individualism.
To free us from needing to deny our differences or make them everything. And he did it to invite us into that journey of embracing our diversity and using our gifts to serve and build each other up.
And to the degree that we embrace that, that we embrace him and pursue his glory will be free to acknowledge our differences as real without making them the main thing. And we'll use them to pull together to make the contribution God in his grace has given us to make for the good of all.
Do you want that? Deep Creek Anglican church. I want it for you.
And I'm, you know, here for a few weeks. But more than me wanting it. God wants it for you.
Closing Prayer
So I'm going to ask him now to do that work and stir that up in your hearts. Let's pray together. Gracious God, we thank you that you gift your church, that you've gifted this church in the ways that you know are right, that you want and see are needed.
Thank you for each person here for the gift they are to your body. I pray that you would stir in each person a greater clarity about what you've put in their hands to serve. And a deep desire not to ask what do I get?
But what can I give? How can I bless? How can I encourage?
How can I strengthen others? Can we pray that as that happens, more and more people will see and declare that God is really amongst us. Amen.
