I Corinthians 12: 1-13

a sermon in Grace United Methodist Church J. Michael Smith, preacher

Urbana, IL May 26, 2002

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When I was in high school, a farmer in our church gave my dad a pig to raise. This pig was the runt of the litter and would have died if it had stayed on the farm. So we took the pig and added it to our odd assortment of animals: a pony, a dog, and several cats. We put the pig in the pasture with the pony, and it wasn’t long before the pig developed an identity crisis. It came to think IT was a pony too. It ate grass, ran around the pasture, and jumped fences. It was kind of cute--this pig thinking it was a pony.

Now that I think back, I recall all our animals having an identity crisis. The pig thought it was a pony, the dog thought it was human, and the cat thought it was God. None of them seemed to understand what they really were.

But what is funny in animals is often sad when it is seen in human beings. When people try to be something they’re not--when people try to do things they’re not gifted to do--when people ignore what they ARE gifted to do--it can be sad.

Churches can also have identity crisis. Sometimes a small church will try to mimic a big church--and develop a self-esteem problem. Small churches have different gifts than big churches have. But if a small church merely tries to imitate what a big church does, it will miss the unique gifts and services that God has given THEM to do. Sometimes we get ahold of a book that tells great ideas on what to do in a church. But a great idea in one place is not necessarily a great idea in another place--especially if God hasn’t given the same gifts, services, and activities.

Sometimes we will look at another person, and see that person’s spirituality, and feel inferior--because we don’t have that same ability--to pray, or to speak in front of the church, or to or to be creative in working with children, or to be patient in working with youth, or to be persistent in following through on administrative matters, or to be outgoing in welcoming newcomers.

In my first church, there was a group of people who prided themselves in being gifted spiritually. Some spoke in strange tongues. Some claimed to have the gift of healing by miracles. Others claimed to have the gift of knowing better than others what God wanted. And this group of people looked down their noses at the rest of us. They believed that because of their gifts, they were better than everyone else. And it was easy to feel intimidated around them.

But that problem is as old as the church itself--2000 years old. Paul knew about the problem of spiritual arrogance and spiritual intimidation when he wrote to the Corinthians. He wrote: "I do not want you to be ignorant about spiritual things...all gifts come from God...and to EACH is given the gift that the spirit chooses...all for the common good."

The spirit does not parcel out gifts because we have somehow EARNED them. The spirit is unpredictable and arbitrary in the giving of gifts. The word ‘spirit’ in Greek is ‘pneuma,’ which is the word also used for ‘wind.’ And just as the wind blows where it wishes, unpredictably, so the spirit blows also, where the spirit wishes, unpredictably.

Our role is not to decide who gets what. Our role is to discern how we have EACH been gifted. And then our role is to work TOGETHER for the common good.

Our participatory Bible story this morning was that remarkable story from 1 Samuel, the story of David and Goliath. When David showed up on the battlefront and decided to take on

Goliath, there was quite a fuss about how David should go about that fight. King Saul decided that David should wear the king’s own armor. And so King Saul took his own armor and saddled the young shepherd boy David. David, however, took a few steps and fell over. The armor of King Saul wasn’t appropriate for David! David was a shepherd, good with sling and stone. He was creative, young, and fleet of foot. And when David did what David was gifted to do, he slew the giant!

Each of us have Goliaths in our lives that we must face: a health problem, a relationship problem, trouble at work, difficulty with a child or a parent, emotional darkness or turmoil, depression, loneliness, addictions, chaos that overwhelms us. We all have our Goliaths. And like David, we all have our gifts. But what happens when we try to fight our Goliaths with someone else’s armor?

Did you ever notice, how when you tell someone else about your Goliaths, how they want you to try on THEIR armor? To read the book THEY read, to see THEIR therapist, to try THEIR solution? Isn’t it wonderful, however, when you come across someone who doesn’t try to get you to wear their armor, but listens to you, and encourages you to find your OWN gifts to face the problem?

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul reminded them that EVERYBODY is gifted. No one is left out! All are given talents and services to do.

As Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he notes that God ACTIVIATES the gifts in everyone. I’ve been playing with that idea. When you have cable TV, you can’t watch the channels until they’ve been activated. When you move to a new house, you can’t talk on the telephone or get electricity or water until it has been activated. When I get up in the morning, I don’t like to eat breakfast until my stomach has been activated--which doesn’t happen some days until around noon. (Eating that is--not getting up!)

When I was a child, a highlight of life itself was when my grandparents would visit. And on the day when they would be due to arrive, it seemed as though I was full of spirits inside of me that were activated in anticipation of the great event!

We are indeed given gifts by God. But it is quite necessary for those gifts to be activated. An important benefit that comes from participating in the church is that the things we do in the church help activate the gifts the spirit has given. When we sing together, and tell our stories, and see each other’s faces, and serve together on various projects, and pray for one another--the gifts of the spirit in each of us are activated. In the body as a whole, the gifts God has given are activated. Christianity is not a faith that is done in private or individually. We are all members of one body, and it is when we are in the body together that the spirit is most powerfully present and most effective in activating the gifts we have been given.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are varied. To one is given the gift of music, to another the gift of public speaking, to another the gift of hospitality, to another the gift of passion for justice, to another the gift to work with children, or youth, or the elderly. To another is given the gift of being comforting and consoling. To another is given the gift of creativity, to another the gift to make lists, to another the dogged determination to accomplish what is on the list, and to yet another the gift of playfulness--to put the lists down and experience the fullness of life and it’s purpose and joy.

Last week we thought about the church deductively. We read the story of Pentecost from Acts 2 and deducted from that story what the church ought to be. We noted some of the salient features of the church as recorded in Acts 2. The church is a gathering of people who are infused with the Holy Spirit. The church is a gathering of people in which EVERYONE talks--in various ways. And the church is a gathering of people that SO intrigues the public that some of them even wander in and join up. Noting those salient features of the church, we thought about what directions God is calling US to go.

Today’s text invites us to think INDUCTIVELY about the church. Instead of beginning with a general principle and then figuring out what we should do, we begin instead with the particularities--of who we already are. And we begin to understand where we should go, as a church, on the basis of the particular gifts God has given US!

I remember several years ago, in the place I was serving, we got a new district superintendent. We had an installation for him: a nice worship service. We sang and prayed. And he preached, spelling out the things he wanted to do as a district superintendent. I was excited at first. The goals he espoused appealed to me. And I felt positive.

Then I began to look around the room. You know how it is in the middle of a sermon. The mind and eyes begin to wander. One can only take so much of a preacher! (In fact, some of you have already checked out of this sermon! Happens all the time.) Well, I got to looking around the room at the PEOPLE the district superintendent was going to LEAD--toward his new goals. And I knew about all of them. And based on what I knew, I knew the new district superintendent was in trouble. He was going to lead THIS rag tag band into something great? And then I got depressed!

And then I recalled Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Everybody is gifted by God. I wasn’t sure that we were gifted to do the things our new district superintendent wanted to do. But I was reassured that we WERE gifted. I just didn’t know HOW. And I was pretty sure the new district superintendent didn’t know how--yet. But I did know that HIS success and OUR success would only come as we learned together HOW God had gifted us.

It really doesn’t matter how many books I read on what the church should be--if I don’t spend as much time reading my people as I do my books. The text today invites us to listen to each other, to read each other, to affirm each other, and to TRUST that God HAS provided and WILL provide all we need for where GOD wants us to go.

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