Sunday October 11, 2009
I Cor 12: The Rule of Christ
Every Member has been given some gift by the Holy Spirit
Intro:
Over the past few weeks we have been learning about Christian Practices. The point is for us to ponder together not simply what we believe uniquely as Followers of Christ, but how those beliefs cause us to behave uniquely as a result.
There is a book that was one of the causes of my beginning to think about this issue of Christian practice and unique behavior. Its call UNChristian; what a new generation really thinks about Christianity. It is based on the research of the Barna Group who spent countless hours interviewing young Christians, mature Christians, and young people who were not involved in Church, for simplicity sake I suppose, called ‘Outsiders.’ One of the things they discovered was that a vast majority of young ‘outsiders’ automatically assumed that Christians were hypocrites… that there was a vast difference between what Christians said and did. Statistically, 85% of these younger ‘outsiders’ had been exposed to Christianity and concluded that Christians were hypocritical. 47% of these young people were active churchgoers… and they too felt that most Christians were hypocrites.
To sum this up notice, whether we agree or not, that the perception among young people is that there is a disconnect between what they hear us saying we believe and how they see us behaving.
Furthermore, the Barna Group did surveys of Christian Adults and found that while in some areas there were differences like; going to church more often, owning more Bibles, donating money to religious non-profits. But, they found that the substance of people’s daily choices, actions and attitudes contained few meaningful gaps between ‘born-again’ Christians and non-religious adults.
Are you starting to get the picture that we have to deal with
Let me give it to you one more way… 84% of young outsiders interviewed said they know at least one committed Christian. 15% of those thought the lifestyles of those Christ-followers were significantly different from the norm.
This is why I started this sermon series and once wrote that is was one of the most important of my ministry. It seems obvious to me that if we cannot reclaim the uniqueness of a Christian lifestyle, we will soon be considered, if we are not already, irrelevant.
So we have talked about how Communion makes our view of money and wealth unique… we share wealth. We have talked about how Baptism makes us unique. We offer outsiders, misfits, ne’er do wells, others, welcome and hospitality instead of fear and mistrust. We have talked about Confession and how that practice teaches us to be uniquely honest about our failures and mistakes and how it also builds a community that helps the individual move beyond past failures and into something new…. That something new is what we are going to talk about today
Turn with me if you will to 1 Cor 12 and we will start by reading verse 4
I. The Church Chosen vs. The Church Created
1 Co 12:18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
I want us to think about that for a moment. Does Paul think that the Corinthian Church was chosen by each individual member? OR Created by God.
It is common, especially in our culture for us to assume that we choose the church that meets our needs, lives up to our standards. Many even use a phrase… church shopping. When we say ‘church shopping’ or think that we have chosen the church we are buying into the idea that the church is like a great number of other goods that we own, like cell-phones and flat screen TV’s; or service providers that we use; PC or Mac, Verizon or AT&T.
I suppose you could say, what is so bad about that? But the thing is… TV’s and cell-phones get replaced don’t they… and we go to service providers who provide the best…. Well…. Service and if we don’t get what we want, we can move on.
But what is the church? 1 Co 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
We aren’t a service provider, a social service agency, a social gathering. Paul see’s the church as the body of Christ… and we do not choose the church according to Paul… God chooses us and places us in the church.
How does 1 Cor 12 challenge the way we think about church? First of all, Paul does not see the church as something we create or choose to participate in… Paul sees the church as something God is creating. When we are drawn to church we are being drawn into the creative activity of God, that began when God spoke over the chaotic waters and hung the starts and placed the planets and caused the sea to teem with life… the creative activity of God that cared for and guided rebellious humanity that God created… Adam and Eve, Cain, Abraham, Sarah, Moses and on and on… when you are drawn to church you are drawn into this long, long story of God creating and calling that creation good… and when it goes wrong… God starts over again to recreate because God won’t give up on this creation…
And you and… this is the exciting part… we are here to discover how we can play a role in that creating!
II. Gifts we have vs. Gifts we discover
1 Co 12:7-11 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 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. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
What are your gifts? What gift do you bring to church?
Did you notice how odd some of the gifts that Paul describes are? Did any of you name those gifts? No. You see, churches, all churches in my experience, tend to assume that what we mean by ‘gifts’ is the skill set that we have acquired through education, work experience, hobbies, natural talents or interests. And while that isn’t wrong, and in another letter Paul encourages the followers of Christ to put to good use these gifts in the church… what Paul is talking about here isn’t the skill set that we already have… but something new, outside our history and experience, something super-natural…
The church is meant to be the crucible in which we receive, where we discover just what part God has created us to play in this on-going creating… that we may have had no idea of, no inclination of. Let me tell you, preaching does not come naturally to me… public speaking is not my favorite thing to do… I don’t come by it easily
(feel free to insert your jokes about my preaching here)
But in all seriousness… I don’t preach because I think I’m good at it. When I leave this place and specifically you, my church family, I get very nervous and uncomfortable. I sweat and my hands shake. I don’t like public speaking. But I preach because God has called me too.
Notice that I said that I get nervous when I’m not with you. Paul says that these gifts are given, in verse 7… for the common good… in the greek this is sumferon… to carry to together.
This too challenges some of the common assumptions of church. Many people tend to think of the church in terms of what they are getting out of it. What am I receiving? Paul here is talking about what we carry together… what gifts we already have, what gifts we have to discover… to be used for the common good…
I often say to potential members… I don’t ask where you have been, if you haven’t been to church, because of my own ego, because I think you are missing something. I ask because I am missing something because you are not here… you have been placed here by God to share some special gift… if you are not here, we suffer the loss.
This also challenges the way we think about ourselves.
Again, think about my example. I don’t preach because I want to… but because I’m called to, for you… and I get nervous when I’m in front of other folks… I am who God called me to be when I am with you… John Howard Yoder wrote, and I included this quote in your devotions for the week, ‘Every human being, Christian or not, is less than he or she could and ought be if not part of a body of organic, interdependence with many peers. ‘
Think about how different that is from the world. In the world we are taught the value of the rugged individual. We are taught to leave behind associations and question the authority of the group in order to discover who we are. And yes sometimes we do have to question the authority of the group. But Paul says here that we only discover who God created us to be, who we have the potential to be… when we have a group to share ourselves with, to be shaped and challenged and encouraged by.
III Women
The sad history of the church shows that much of what Paul is talking about has been missed. Especially when he talks about being baptized into the body of Christ, jew and greek, slave and free. God gives the gifts to whom God wishes according to the needs of the community. Yet women for most of our Christian history and even today in places are denied the chance to use the gifts of ministry God has given because they are women.
It is important to realize that there were women in leadership roles in the early church. Paul depended on women to lead the early church. If you look at the first page of your devotions I included just one passage, from Romans 16 and bold printed all of the women that Paul named as key leaders in various churches.
The common assumption in both Roman and Jewish culture was that women were not equipped to be leaders, especially of men. The common assumption was that slaves (people of other ethnic groups) would not have the skills to teach or instruct. The common assumption was that poor people would not be able to take important roles in a community… and this is what made the church different, unique…
The Holy Spirit empowered men and women, rich and poor, of a variety of ethnic groups and from diverse places in the social world, to preach and teach and serve and heal and pray and spread the good news. It wasn’t past experience or education or gender or economic status or societal status that defined them empowered them… it was the call of God… the Spirit that breathed on them and made them what God created them to be…
IV. Instruments
School has started. Some of you perhaps have children in school learning instruments for the first time… or you remember what it was like when the French horn or trumpet or saxophone first entered your home. What did it sound like?
I mention this because I bet there are two reactions when the horns start bleeting and blatting. I bet there is some pride at that first trembling rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb. Pride not at what is, but what might be. And there is probably a headache too.
My point is this. The church is meant to be that one place in all the world, where we are not only free, but encourage and supported as we learn to play our part in the band. It is meant to be a bit noisy and sometimes seems a bit disorganized. But here is the place where everyone gets a part, everyone plays an integral place in the song… it won’t sound the same, it won’t sound right without them. From the greatest of gifts like teaching or handling finances, to the simplest, like greeting or making coffee, are important, all are vital.
I think that is very different than the message people get in the world.
You are valuable. You have a part to play, in important part to play in God’s ongoing creation. Regardless of your education, or lack of it, your experience or lack of it, a police record, a history of rehab; no matter what you’re your parents or teachers or coaches have said about it, in this place, at Berean Baptist church we believe that you are here because God has brought you to us to play an important part in our lives, in the body of Christ, in God’s redemption of all creation. We see the potential in you, we believe that you are here to discover that image of God that you were created in and created to develop and share. We are here to support you and encourage you, to share our gifts with you, to take risks with you and to receive what you have to give.
God Bless you all
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