St.Aidan’s West Epping,17th January 2016
Rev. Paul Weaver
“THE BODY OF CHRIST”
(Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11)
Snoopy, the dog in the Peanuts cartoons, was once going on a hike. As he walked along, a conversation was taking place amongst the various parts of his body. His feet were complaining that they were overworked and underpaid: why should they have to do all the walking? His legs were insisting that they have to work just as hard. His stomach was defending itself against accusations of laziness. Meanwhile his brain is complaining about all the noise coming up from below: it’s trying to get some sleep!
Of course, they are all vital to Snoopy’s hike! Without his feet, he won’t be able to walk at all. Without his legs, his feet will be pretty useless, if they’re there at all. Without his stomach, he won’t be alive to do the walking. And without his brain, there will be no signals to his legs and feet to do anything at all.
Where did Charles Schulz, the creator of “Peanuts”, get this idea from? As he often did, he got it from the Bible: from Paul’s picture of the body in 1 Corinthians 12, part of which was our New Testament reading. In fact it comes from the middle of the chapter, which we’ll hear next Sunday.
Paul writes about feet and ears trying to declare independence from the body. He refers to eyes telling hands, and heads telling feet, that they aren’t needed. We are asked to imagine what a body would be like if it were one huge eye or one big ear. Nonsense, of course!
This is one of the famous passages of the New Testament where Paul describes the church as “the body of Christ”. And he uses the image because he has something important to say about Christian ministry.
How many ministers are there in our parish? Not just Fr Ross! Not just the other clergy who assist! Paul’s answer is that every Christian, every member of the church, every member of any church, is a minister. It doesn’t matter whether we wear a clerical collar, whether we put on special robes, whether we have been officially ordained, whether we are outstanding Christians or not. It doesn’t matter whether we are 23 or 103, and it doesn’t even matter whether we are male or female. God calls every Christian believer to be a minister.
When Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, he saw it as a church with a number of problems. One problem was that they didn’t know much about Christian ministry.
They knew that some of them had special abilities: they had members who could preach a powerful message from God. Others could perform miracles or heal the sick, or speak in tongues. Quite impressive! But their understanding of these things, and their attitude towards them were all wrong.
And in this part of the letter, Paul seeks to get them back on track.
What then was the problem with the Corinthians having these impressive abilities? Actually, nothing at all! It was God’s gift to them. It was the Holy Spirit at work in them. The problem was their attitude.
“I healed a broken leg”, said one. “Well, I gave sight to a blind man”, came the reply. Or someone might say, “I can speak in tongues for longer than you can”. “So what”, comes the response, “no one can understand any of what I say when I speak in tongues. It must be the language of heaven. You can’t get better than that.” It probably wasn’t exactly like that, but you get the point. People were comparing and competing with one another. There was pride and arrogance. They had missed the point, and so Paul takes them back to basics.
Paul makes clear that because something is impressive, it is not necessarily from the Holy Spirit. Perhaps someone had shouted out “Jesus is cursed!” in a state of apparent ecstasy. Was that the Holy Spirit at work? Certainly not, insists Paul. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, the Spirit who glorifies Christ. The Spirit enables us to declare that Jesus is Lord, and strengthens us to live with Jesus as our Lord. The test of whether something comes from the Spirit is not how unusual or impressive it is, but whether it reflects the truth and love of God.
We have heard too often how some clergy and church leaders have manipulated vulnerable people, assuring them that it was right for them to accept the sexual advances of someone with their spiritual authority. They have been persuasive in using that authority: but was the Holy Spirit at work? Far from it!
No, there have always been frauds and tricksters; and some of them have used their position in the church to achieve their evil ends. They often claim to have special spiritual gifts, but what sort of gifts does Paul speak about in his letters, and in particular in this chapter?
He describes the gifts in terms of activity and in terms of service. And he underlines this when he describes the purpose of the gifts. These gifts, these manifestations of the Spirit are for the common good. Their purpose is not to impress others, to compete with others, or to gain power over others. The gifts are given so that we can serve one another.
And what are these gifts? Paul mentions a number of dramatic gifts: gifts of healing and working miracles, as well as speaking in tongues. And then there are gifts of communication and insight: the ability to speak with wisdom and knowledge, the gift of prophecy bringing particular messages from God, the ability to interpret tongues so that others can understand the message, the understanding to distinguish between spiritual truth and falsehood.
Later on in the chapter Paul will refer to more apparently ordinary activities such as helping people in need and providing leadership. In other letters he will mention teaching, administration, the ability to give generously, caring for people in need, and more. You see, the test of a spiritual gift is not how impressive it is, but whether it is helpful in the life of the church, whether it is of help to our brothers and sisters in the church or outside the church, whether it expresses the truth of God and the love of God.
Spiritual gifts may be spectacular or not; some may use obvious talents while others don’t seem to, some may be obvious while others are used by people just getting on with the job. There is a whole range of gifts named in the New Testament, and I am sure there are plenty more. It’s not that we need to desperately try to work out what our gifts are: rather we look at where the needs are, and ask ourselves whether there is some way we can help to fulfil that need. If that is where God wants us to be, he will equip us through the Spirit to make a contribution: it may be a prominent one, or very low key, but with all of them, the Spirit will be at work.
Every Christian has a spiritual gift or gifts. As followers of Christ, we have the Holy Spirit at work in us. But he works in different ways in different people. I will have my particular gifts which are different from yours. But each of you may well have gifts that are different from mine. And that’s fine. We are different in our appearance, our background, our personality, our interests, our abilities, and our spiritual gifts. And those gifts are not in competition with each other: rather they enable us to complement each other and work together for the good of God’s family and the good of our neighbours. As Paul writes: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
We need some leaders, some teachers or preachers: but we certainly don’t need huge numbers of these people. We need many givers: but some will be in a position to give more than others. We need many who are carers: but there are different ways we can show God’s care to others. We need many helpers: but there are many ways in which we can give help. And we need people who can give time to pray; people who can give a friendly phone call to someone who might be lonely; people who can encourage someone who is struggling.
The gifts of the Spirit then are the abilities and opportunities God gives us to make our helpful contribution to the life of the church. Just as we are all different, we have our different ways we can contribute to the life of the Parish. I have said on other occasions that God’s great purpose is not simply to save lots of individuals, but to gather a family, a community. And in this family, we all matter not only to God, but to each other.
We are all in this together, in the body of Christ. Let’s seek to make our contribution to the life and health of our church. Let’s serve, but let us also be willing to accept what others have to offer.
Let me close with the words of a hymn many of us know, which sums up much of Paul’s message for us today:
“Brother, sister, let me serve you;
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too.” Amen.
Paul Weaver