The Epistle for Epiphany 2

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (NRSV)

Spiritual Gifts

¹²Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. ³Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

This passage takes me back to the time of my conversion at the height of the Charismatic Renewal in 1978. It seemed then that God was doing wonderful things in the power of the Holy Spirit. Barclay records how this sort of thing was happening at the time of the early Church and that ‘… in an age of ecstasy and of enthusiasm there can be hysterical excitement and self-delusion as well as the real thing …’

There is no doubt in my mind that much of what we experienced was the real thing – but even at the time, there was also much that caused great disquiet.

There are two important statements that help to find true experiences of the Spirit of Jesus. (i) Let Jesus be cursed: At this time, this statement was required by some of the Jewish religious leaders. In synagogue prayers, it was common practice to curse all apostates, and at this time Jesus would have been named among them. Jewish law laid down that “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree …” As Jesus had been crucified – some would have cursed him in this way. It is also likely that those who converted to Judaism would have needed to curse Jesus, or face expulsion. St Paul explained to Agrippa that in his day of persecution of Christians he ‘… often punished them in every synagogue and I forced them to blaspheme …’ (Acts 26:11) History also tells us that later on in the days of the Roman persecution of Christians, people were forced to curse Christ or die. Sadly there have been occasions in modern times when this has also been true. Let us give thanks to God that we can worship our Lord in peace and without interference.

But there is also the other statement (ii) Jesus is Lord! If the early Church had any form of creed to begin with, it would have been: “Jesus is Lord!” Barclay reminds us that the word for ‘Lord’ is kurios. This was the word that was used to express the name of Jahweh (God) in Hebrew when translated into the Greek, and was used in the Septuagint; the Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures (Tenakh).  It was also the official title of Caesar. Still today, I believe that this is not something that we can find out for ourselves; it is a truth that needs to be revealed to us. It is therefore only when the Holy Spirit enables us – that we can say these wonderful words and mean them.

The Church is the Body of Christ and every part of it – like the human body – performs its own function for the good of the whole. There are different gifts and different functions, but they all come from the same Spirit and are designed, not for the glory of the individual, but for the benefit of the whole.

Paul explains that the Spiritual gifts (charismata) come from God and therefore must be used for God’s purposes. All too often, people think that the gifts of the Minister are the most important, and so they expect the Minister to do everything! But when one thinks of it, we need the gifts of all, not just in church services, but as a community. Especially in these difficult weather times, perhaps one of the most widely prized gifts are those of the plumber. A Christian plumber, who works for the glory of God and so does a superb job and charges a fair price, is a wonderful gift to a community, especially the vulnerable. And the same is true of others, doctors, teachers, traders – you name it – all working for the common good.

But here, Paul focuses on the Spiritual gifts and this in itself is of vital significance. We do need Christians to whom God has blessed with practical and other gifts, but in order to survive, we also need the Spiritual. It is not true that one can be a good Christian and not need to go to Church on a regular basis. I was amazed at a recent dinner for ministers where the controversial work of J A T Robinson was eulogised. This is interesting because his book, Honest to God, claimed that a supernatural God is no longer important. There is a truth that we do need to be grounded in the reality of the here and now, but we also need the transcendent – the Spiritual. Robinson also claimed that traditional Christianity including worship, was not really necessary. And this was preached from pulpits around the UK. Why then are people amazed because Church attendance has declined? Ministers, Priests and even Bishops taught that coming to Church was no longer necessary. I realise that this is somewhat of an oversimplification of Robinson’s work, and in many respects I think he made a vitally important contribution to the development of Christian theology, but this is what people heard. So, while there is much in his writings that I concur with, but here I disagree. We need to be grounded in this world and not live in a world ‘above’ alone, but we need both.

We also need wisdom as well as knowledge. The Greek word for wisdom is Sophia and refers to the knowledge of things human and divine, and of their causes, or in Aristotle’s writing “… the striving after the best ends and using the best means.” This does not come only from thought, but from union with God. Knowledge (on the other hand) gnosis is a much more practical thing; and I believe we need both. The place where we discern both is in the Church and this is why we need to be a worshipping people.

But is the Church searching for both? Without wisdom, knowledge just becomes a relativist matter of opinion. We need to discern the mind of God. If the Church does not do this, I will not blame people for staying away. Our world desperately needs wisdom, for without it, so many people are without hope, because they are without God in the world.

John Wesley makes the important point that there is unity in the Body of Christ (especially if one reads further from verse 12 onwards) even though there is great diversity in those who are members of the ‘Body’, and the gifts that are exercised within it. It is not that those of us who have the privilege to be ordained to the Word and Sacrament are any better than anyone else – we are just different. Laypersons are also included and contribute to the body’s unity through the gifts and graces used in leadership as well. Wesley nurtured lay leadership in small groups called classes. Leaders visited class members to discern spiritual wellness and need, to give guidance and comfort, to teach, and to receive offerings for the poor. If the body of Christ is to be effective in our world, we need all the gifts of all the people. I’m afraid, as a Methodist, that I am saddened that very little of this powerful recipe for growth is practiced anymore. There is therefore little mystery why my beloved Church is dying. We too have become (in many places) institutions where the minister does the work, and Methodism is also often a place where meetings happen on Sundays only. But this is not true here in Loughborough! Our Churches are busy, there are countless small group meetings going on all the time, and every time I drive past the church I see something happening; little wonder why it is such a lovely place to be, even though I (through my particular ministry as a School Chaplain) am somewhat on the fringe of things. But whenever I have the privilege of taking services, the Churches are good places to be!

Wesley explained that “Spiritual gifts, though varied, all flow from one fountain, the Holy Trinity.” Paul gives examples of nine gifts, beginning with two – wisdom and knowledge; he ends with another two – tongues and their interpretation – that were the focus of trouble. Spiritual gifts are designed with the ‘common good’ in mind (verse 7) and deployed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (verse 11). ‘Tongues’ was causing a problem because they were not being used in this way. Because people thought that they were evidence of the direct influence of the Holy Spirit on the individual, they were considered to be ‘better’ than the other gifts. But often the people were no better off, because the ‘tongues’ meant nothing to them because they could not be understood. I treasure those heady days of the Charismatic renewal in the 1970s when tongues were so much part of our experience; but I also remember their abuse.

Nevertheless, we have a picture here of the Corinthian Church that was vividly alive; things happened – astonishing things happened. There was nothing dull and ordinary about this Church. The Spirit of Jesus was alive and active and many gifts were being used by all, for the benefit of the Body of Christ.