By Pastor Lynn Sawyer Parks

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

1 Corinthians is a letter written to the church in Corinth, Greece, by Paul. He talks about a lot of things happening in this church and they mostly have to do with division in the church. In chapter 1 he says that word has come to him from Chloe’s household that some in the church say they follow Paul, some say they follow Apollos, some follow Cephas (Peter), and some follow Christ. This division in the church is coming out in other ways as well and Paul will address that throughout the letter. But here at the very beginning he sets the tone for how he’s going to address these problems by stating that Christ is supreme. He continually refers to Jesus as “Our Lord Jesus Christ” in the first 9 verses of chapter 1 as a reminder that they all follow Christ. Paul, Apollos and Peter are all followers of Christ so there is no sense dividing into camps because Christ is number 1.

In the very beginning verses of the letter Paul reminds them that they are part of a much bigger group than just their own fellowship in Corinth. They are sanctified in Christ and called to be his holy people together with all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours, he says in verse 2. He wants them to remember the bigger picture because they have some work to do in correcting the divisions among themselves.

The people that Paul is writing to are not Jews. They are Greeks who have embraced belief in Jesus. Before this they would have worshiped the Greek gods. They did not have a sense of sacred history like the Jews did. They didn’t have this understanding that history is God’s story with purposes that lead to something and that they have a part to play in that story. For the Corinthians, their gods were fickle and unpredictable and people did what they could to stay on the good side of the gods who could decide at any time to mess you up. Paul has to remind them that they no longer live with that world view. Now the resurrected Jesus is Lord of their lives as well as Lord of the whole world. Because of their faith in Jesus, they are now part of the ongoing purpose of God in human history. They have been called to be God’s holy people – just as the Jews have been – and now they are eagerly waiting for the Lord Jesus to be revealed to all. In other words, they are waiting for the day when Jesus returns and are to be about the business of preparing for that. This is the purpose of human history – that Christ be revealed as Lord of all. Being divided doesn’t help them in their purpose.

I’ve said all this to give us the context of the letter and an understanding of how the Corinthian people think. With the divisions and quarreling happening among them, it shows that they are thinking and acting, not as the redeemed people of God, called to holy purpose, with Jesus as their Lord, but rather in their old way of thinking and living as pagans who worshiped the Greek gods who didn’t have a purpose for human history. But we are looking at chapter 12 today, where Paul talks about unity and not division among God’s people and how the whole fellowship of believers is needed for the purpose of revealing Christ.

Here, Paul introduces the metaphor of the Body of Christ. He says beginning in verse 12 that just as the human body is one thing, even though it has many different parts to it, so it is with Christ. All the parts are joined together into one body. We aren’t like Mr. Potato Head with detachable parts that we can rearrange as we want or leave off if we want. We are born with our parts all in their place, and they continue to make up our body, hopefully our whole lives. We want to keep all our parts if we can. This is the way it is with Christ. In verse 13 he explains that we believers in Jesus were all baptized by one Spirit for the purpose of forming one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. The Holy Spirit unites us. Our declaration that Jesus is Lord unites us. Our baptism unites us. It doesn’t matter if we are Greeks living in Corinth or Jews living in Jerusalem, or slaves living in Ephesus, we are all one body. This is a difficult concept for modern people, and it was probably no less difficult for the Corinthians to grab hold of.

I read verses 12 through 14 in the Message version and it communicated well what Paul is saying here. “Your body has many parts – limbs, organs, cells – but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain – His Spirit – where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves – labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free – are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.”
Paul is talking about what is their identity and how does that impact their lives. Their identity is no longer what it was before they believed in Christ. Those labels they used to wear and the way they lived their lives, no longer works. They are now in Christ and live a much larger and integrated life in which Christ has the final say in everything. Life isn’t random or without purpose, and the gods aren’t suddenly going to decide to mess us up. Life is about revealing Jesus, who is Lord and who has mastery over every area of our lives. This is the work the Holy Spirit has done in us, to reveal to us that Jesus is Lord of all, and to fill us with life so that we can live integrated into this one company of believers called Christ’s body. Our identity is now found in Christ and that should impact our thinking and doing as we seek to know Christ, to be ever more like Christ and to reveal Christ to the world. This is why one of our commitments as a congregation for 2020 is to grow spiritually, because we want to know Christ, to grow to be more like Christ and to reveal Christ, or make Him clear, to the world.

So now we, who used to be various individual people living our lives out on our own, are now joined together into one community of faith which is the body of Christ. But just as the physical body has many parts, so the Body of Christ has many parts and each one of us is a part in that Body. All the parts are necessary. We can understand this teaching in two ways and both are necessary. The first understanding is that here in Corinth, each person in this fellowship is part of the Body of Christ in Corinth. So they don’t need to be divided against each other because they are all part of one body. When Paul talks about the ear saying that because it isn’t an eye, it isn’t part of the body, he’s illustrating how ridiculous some of their arguments against each other sound. We need our ears and our eyes, right? Likewise, the fellowship needs all its members and each member is important to the whole. If we were to lose an ear or an eye, our physical body would continue to live and function, but it would be disadvantaged. It’s the same with the company of believers. If one person leaves, the whole can still function, but not in the same way as before. So they need to take seriously these divisions they are causing among themselves and correct it so the body can stay whole.

Another way to understand this teaching is to look at the one fellowship in Corinth as part of the whole worldwide Body of Christ. These Corinthian believers are also members of the same body of Christ as the Ephesian believers, the Jerusalem believers, the believers in Philippi, the believers in Antioch and so on. Each fellowship is a part of the whole. Each is vitally connected to the others by means of the Holy Spirit and their confession of faith in Christ demonstrated through baptism. They have all been baptized into one Body. So the believers in Corinth can’t say that they don’t need advice or help or the prayers or whatever from another fellowship.

For us today, its important that we keep in mind that we at OCMC are joined together as a body in this congregation, but we are just one part of the whole body of Christ around the world. We may not agree with everything other churches emphasize or how they do worship, but all who confess faith in Jesus and who are baptized into the faith are joined together by the work of the Holy Spirit. We are still joined together with MCUSA through the work of the Holy Spirit as members of the Body of Christ even if we are no longer organizationally connected to them. We are still joined together with Franconia Conference through the work of the Holy Spirit as members of the Body of Christ even though we decided not to formally affiliate with them as an organization. The Body of Christ isn’t formed by constitutions, agreements, or affiliations but by the Holy Spirit. We are joined together with the Indian Pentecostal church across the street and St. Martins Catholic church on the Boulevard because we all profess faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit joins us together into the Body of Christ. There’s a lot that we don’t have in common with either of those churches, just as my foot doesn’t have a whole lot in common with my spleen. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t both part of my body.

The Body of Christ has many different parts, Paul is saying here, and these parts need each other. It’s important that the different parts have respect for one another and function well in their own spheres so that the whole body is healthy. NT Wright in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, gives the illustration of an orchestra. He says that in an orchestra there is a hierarchy of instruments with the string section considering themselves to be the most important. Within the string section, the violins are top dog over the other string instruments. At the very end of the orchestral food chain you have the tuba and the triangle. But when it comes time to perform the music, each instrument and each section of the orchestra must perform their part in unison with the other instruments. They all have to work together to produce the music. No one instrument or section can say to another “sit this one out” or the music will be incomplete. The violin, no matter how important it may be to the performance of a piece, cannot produce the same sound as the tuba. It needs the tuba to do its part in order for the music to be complete.

It’s the same within the Body of Christ. Each member of the Body, each believer and each fellowship of believers, has a part to play in revealing Christ to the world. We can’t say to each other “You’re not needed.” The Body doesn’t function that way. This is why identity is important and why Paul reminds them of their identity as being “in Christ.” If they place more importance on labels like “Jew or Greek, slave or free” they are focusing on what makes them different. But if they place more importance on the label “in Christ, follower of Christ, believer in Christ, member of Christ’s body,” then they focus on their commonality and common purpose. Then it doesn’t matter if they like Paul’s style of preaching better than Apollos’ style because it’s all about revealing Christ, not about contests between preachers. It takes humility to be a member of the Body of Christ because we have to be willing to have equal respect for the other members of the Body and acknowledge our need of each other.
Paul also talks in chapter 12 about spiritual gifts. These are abilities given by the Holy Spirit to different members of the fellowship. The Corinthians were dividing up over spiritual gifts, valuing some of the gifts over others. Growing up Pentecostal, I can relate to this because Pentecostals place a lot of value on speaking in tongues. Not all Pentecostals are equal in this but for some, if your church doesn’t practice speaking in tongues in the worship service, you are seen as lacking in some way. Paul addresses that in this letter and yet, 2000 years later, this argument still takes place in the Body of Christ.

Paul lists several spiritual gifts in this chapter and in verse 7 he says they are all given by the Holy Spirit to each one for the common good. The purpose of the gifts is for the benefit of each member of the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit doesn’t give all the gifts to one person and tell them to take care of the Body of Christ. That’s insane. That’s like us picking someone’s name out of a hat and telling them they are responsible to give all the money we need for the church budget this year. The Holy Spirit spreads the gifts around so that each member of the body has a gift to contribute to the whole. Just as we all pitch in and give towards our budget so we all have spiritual gifts to contribute to the ministry of this church.

Yesterday we were at the Soup Kitchen and we had a nice crowd of volunteers from the church. Just the fact that so many people showed up was a gift that encouraged Gwen greatly. But then among those who showed up, we could see different abilities coming out. Some decorated the tables. Some made sandwiches. I now have a reputation for fastest peanut butter spreader. Diana made sure things were recycled. Tyanna cooked, others washed dishes, or served the tables. And I saw a couple people using the gift of including others in the work, helping others find things to do and encouraging them. Some talked with the guests and some made sure guests knew to get a personal care kit. And it was all of us together, including Gwen and George and others doing organizational work and prep work ahead of time, that made it successful. That’s how a body works.
Here in this body of believers some have gifts of knowledge and some have wisdom. Some have gifts of healing and some have faith. Some have the gift of prophecy and some have discernment. But it is one and the same Holy Spirit who gives us these gifts as the Holy Spirit determines to give them. So it’s not like we can go pick out the gift we like best and take that one only, although Paul does encourage believers to desire spiritual gifts. But the Holy Spirit knows what gifts are needed, when, in the Body of Christ and will endow people with those gifts according to the mind and purpose of God. The point isn’t that we get all proud if we have a spiritual gift or feel bad if we think we don’t. The point is that the Holy Spirit makes sure we have what we need when we need it and we can be thankful for what the Holy Spirit gives.

It also means that, each one of us as members of this body, need to be putting our spiritual gifts to use. We have a responsibility to each other to use the gifts God has given us. If we can teach, we should teach. If we are good at serving, we should serve. If we like to give, we should give. If we have knowledge or wisdom, we should share it. For us as a church, having a commitment to spiritual growth, a commitment to clarity, a commitment to a culture of call and a commitment to engage with our community, we want to make sure people know what their gifts are and how to use them in the congregation and the community. We don’t want people to come into this church not knowing that the Holy Spirit gives abilities to members of the Body to be used for the common good or not knowing how to put those gifts to use.

Each one of us is part of this body of believers at Oxford Circle. Each one of us is part of the Body of Christ. Each one of us has the identity of being a member of the Body of Christ with the purpose of making Christ known in the world. This is all the work of the Holy Spirit who also gives us gifts or abilities that are for the common good of the whole body. We have a responsibility to recognize those gifts and put them to use so that Christ can be revealed to the world. We are all in this together, no matter our nationality, ethnicity, age, gender, social class. We are all following one Lord now and we have to guard our fellowship. Next week we’re going to continue this sermon looking at the greatest gift that enables us to be the Body of Christ.