Diversity Diversity, obviously, is in. Wherever you go, no matter which arena you are talking about, there is this high value placed on diversity. ``Our diversity makes us better, it makes us stronger,'' we commonly hear.
It's a big theme in the political environment. Our new president's particularly unique ethnic identity is held up as a great symbol of the ascendancy of diversity, with all its wealth of experience. Part Midwestern white and part African, mixed with experiences in Indonesia, Hawaii, and the urban African-American sceneall this diversity lodged in the red blood of one human being.
Our previous president had already taken some steps in the diversity direction, especially in the naming of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as secretaries of state, our country's main representatives to the world.
Diversity isn't just important in politics, or in our schools, or in our towns, it's become part of our families. A couple months ago at our last family wedding, our oldest niece said to me, ``well, I guess my decision to marry Alan isn't such a big deal anymore, right?'' You see she was the first of her generation in my side of the family to get married and Alan is a Lutheran, and a fairly conservative one at that. And now, in the past couple of years, we've added some African-american, Cambodian, and Latino blood to the family. I don't think my family is all that unique anymore and we've joined the great chorus of families in our country and beyond singing the praises of diversity. It makes us stronger. It makes us better. It makes us more interesting!
And of course there is our church. I'm so proud to be part of a church that works against the old stereotype that 11 o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in American life. Just go over there to the nursery. What do you see at a Wednesday night dine out? Go check out the youth group. Look at kid's club. And look at the 11 o'clock hour, especially next Sunday.
Paul writes about spiritual gifts The apostle Paul was a man who spanned in his own being Jewish and Greek worlds. He was a man who traveled a lot, who experienced new and different places, encountering a whole gamut of people. He stood before authorities, he argued in synagogues, he worked with his hands, he was well educated, he spent time in jailhe got around, gaining a taste for different ways of being human. Surely his own diverse experiences give background to his ability to conceive some of the grandest, most global thoughts in scriptures. He writes to the Galatians (3:28) that in Christ There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. We see a pared down version of the same thought here in I Corinthians 12, he mentions Jew and Greek, slave and free, but leaves out male and female. Galatians seems to be a fuller, more complete, more mature, thought.
In our Corinthian text for this morning Paul is writing against the background of the highly emotional, ecstatic practices found in some pagan cults. And within the young churches there was apparently a high value placed on the excessively emotional practice of glossalia, of speaking in tongues. This gift had become, in some gentile circles, the basis, the litmus test, for admission into the church. Paul allows for this gift of the Spirit, but wants to create a larger context for understanding it.
Paul uses the metaphor of the body to discuss how Christians ought to relate to each other. The body has many parts, he says, pointing out the obvious. And he illustrates with some colorful examples. The eye and the hand, the head and the feet, all have to agree that they need each other. No one part can go it alone, every part has need of the other. And furthermore, he adds, no particular part can be said to be more important than the other. In fact, the unseen, lowly, parts are in a way especially important.
At MYF on Wednesday night we were looking at this passage. Paul says here that the ``lowly'' parts in some ways deserve greater honor. At youth group we found Eugene Peterson's take on this idea especially amusing. He says, when it comes down to it, most people probably would choose good digestion over stylish, well-groomed hair!
This isn't the only letter where Paul writes of spiritual gifts. He sees spiritual gifts as ``divinely given and diversely bestowed service abilities in the Christian community for the purpose of ministry with a view to building up the church.'' (Howard Charles, Opening the Bible, p. 249) Here in Corinthians he mentions the gifts of uttering wisdom, of sharing knowledge, of demonstrating faith, of healing, working miracles, of speaking words of prophecy, of discerning the spirits, and of speaking in tongues.
In other passages (Romans 12 and Ephesians 4) Paul mentions some of these same gifts but also variously includes teaching, exhorting, leadership, cheerfulness, ministries of compassion, and apostles, evangelists, and pastors.
Rolling them altogether we might divide the spiritual gifts described by Paul into two broad groups: First, there are gifts of the word. These include speaking words of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy, distinguishing between true and false, and tongues. Second, there are gifts of deeds. These include everything from miracle working to deeds of practical service.
Spiritual gifts, Paul assumes, are not doled out in great quantities to everybody. We are all gifted but not in the same way. Paul would say that the ``fruits of the spirit'' mentioned in Galatians (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, generosity, and self-control) are qualities all Christians can possess. But one shouldn't castigate oneself for not possessing this or that spiritual gift.
And the gifts have a purpose. They are, Paul says, intended for the common good. They are not to be divisive. A proper perspective to keep is that they are all important.
As we speak about spiritual gifts I dare say there are points where we feel at ease and comfortable and other points where we feel ill at ease and skeptical. I know that's how I feel. I think it's worth noting that all of these gifts exist inside and outside the church, inside and outside the boundary lines of Christian experience. Certainly gifts of teaching, wisdom, compassion, and administering are not the sole prevue of Christian people. And gifts of ecstatic utterances and healing and miracles aren't the sole property of Christians.
Paul lumps these seemingly ordinary and unordinary gifts all together. He doesn't seem to need to make a point of distinguishing one from the other. He says they are all here, gifts given to God's people. He does say this. That gifts given by God will lead to the claim that Jesus is Lord (verse 3) and to his denial. These spiritual gifts will ultimately lead to the benefit and edification of all, in other words, to the common good. (verse 7) And the gifts will lead to the building up of the body. (verse 26) When one part suffers, we all will suffer alongside. And when one part rejoices, we will all be rejoicing too. This is how it is in the body of Christ.
Trying to live this out In reading this passage we are deliberately stopping short of where this spiritual gift discourse leads. The evocative last word of the chapter is this: and I will show you a still more excellent way. And that leads us into chapter 13, the love chapter.
But that's for two Sundays from now. Today I want to halt right here and dwell for a few more moments on these ideas that in the body there are many different gifts, that we all need each other, that we need to be mutually dependent, that God really does pour out his Spirit in different ways and with different people.
Now that I'm a little older I have the advantages that go with having been around the block, and having collected a polite pile of stories and experiences along the way. So I really believe this stuff about many different spiritual gifts but I have to confess that it's hard for me to just accept that everything that goes down under the Christian banner can be attributed to the Spirit of Almighty God. I believe that it is appropriate and okay for the Christian community to exercise some collective discernment to figure out, ``is this a spiritual gift, or not?''
The test of ``does it lead to the confession of Jesus as Lord,'' and ``does it build up the body, serving the common good,'' are good places to start.
I find myself preaching this (hopefully) first to myself, and then to others, all the time, that, we all live with blinders on. We can only see so far. Our imaginations of what God can do only stretch so far. But God is far bigger than the limits of what we can imagine. God can gift her people in ways far beyond our limited minds. God can do things that we can not dream of. And in the body we celebrate the way God gifts people with wildly diverse gifts.
So we give thanks to God that there are those with extraordinary wisdom, whose words ring true and deep.
We give thanks to God for those who with compassion and touch bring comfort and healing to those whose minds, spirits, and bodies ache under the weight of loneliness, sorrow, and disease.
We give thanks to God for those blessed with such faith that they can face torment and injustice without rancor or fear.
We praise God for the spiritual gifts poured out upon us, right here at our church, our one thin slice of the kingdom of God. We ask that God will use our gifts, offered in love, for the common good. Amen.
--February 8, 2009 --2009.6/ First Mennonite Church, Reedley
