What is your picture of a church community? How do we see our church community here at St Ursula's? I hope that we can agree that we are a diverse group of people from different cultures, backgrounds and ages, with different gifts, but united in Christ, who seek to worship together and serve one another and those around us, together proclaiming Jesus as Lord. I pray that we can develop and grow as such a church community.
We heard earlier a passage from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, and there is much we can learn from Paul's words to the Christians in Corinth as he addresses them about the kind of community God calls them to be. He is not offering an abstract vision, rather he is responding to the situation on the ground, commenting on what is already happening in the church and what God is doing among them, pointing out where they need to be challenged and grow.
First, some background. Corinth was a lively city, a prosperous, cosmopolitan centre for trade and commerce, with people of many races, creeds, languages and cultures. There were Jews, ex Roman soldiers, philosophers, merchants, sailors, freedmen and slaves all living in the city.
It was the biggest and most influential city Paul had yet encountered and he knew it would be a strategic place for the gospel to take root and spread. He worked there as a tentmaker. A couple, Aquila and Priscilla, worked with him and opened up their home. Later Silas and Timothy joined them and as a team of 5 they worked together to share the gospel and build up the church.
What was the early church community in Corinth like? From what we read in Paul's two letters, we learn that many people turned to Christ there. The church included a wide range of people from very different social backgrounds: some were very prosperous and some were slaves. Some in the church were very snobbish and when the church met for fellowship meals the rich did not want to eat with the poor. Groups met in different people's homes, since even the biggest villa could only host around 30-50 people for the common meal. We know that many cliques developed in the church, each following a different personality; something that Paul challenges very firmly earlier in his letter. And of course churches today, including St Ursula's, still need to be aware of this danger.
It seems also that the Corinthians were proud of their spiritual experiences. They were very keen to exercise the most dramatic gifts of the Spirit, like healing and speaking in tongues, but they were somewhat short on love for one another.
So, what does Paul say to such a community? Remember that his letters are speaking into a real situation. They are not abstract essays about church life. When we read his letters it is as if we are listening to someone else's mail. Nevertheless, even if our situation is not the same, we can learn a lot from listening in.
In the passage we heard today, Paul speaks to the Corinthians about gifts of the Spirit, but as he does this he is also reminding them about what kind of community they should be. First, he emphasizes that the Holy Spirit will always glorify Jesus as Lord. 'Noone can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit.' Of course, he is not just talking about uttering a few words; he is talking about making a serious confession. 'Jesus is Lord' was the earliest Christian confession of faith. To confess Jesus is Lord meant giving one's loyalty to him, rather than to Caesar, or to the various gods and powers of Rome. This would be demanding and costly. Only through the Spirit could anyone make such a profession and seek to live it out daily. Anyone seeking to live in obedience to Jesus as Lord must be filled with the Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit and the Lordship of Christ are tied together.
Paul has to make this point to the Corinthians, because they tended to think of themselves as super spiritual because of their spiritual experiences. But they need discernment, as do we. The Holy Spirit will always glorify Jesus and what matters most in their spiritual life is not any one particular spiritual experience, but that they confess Jesus is Lord and live in obedience to him.
Paul then moves on to talk about spiritual gifts. There are a variety of gifts, but they are all gifts. The Greek word is charismata, which comes from the word charis which means grace. Everything God gives us stems from his grace. We don't earn it. God's grace is fundamental. Paul has to tell the Corinthians this, again and again. They shouldn't be taking pride in their background, their education, their riches, or the fact they come from an eminent family, and boasting of these things. Neither should they boast of their spiritual experiences. Everything comes from God and his grace: 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord' as he tells them right at the beginning of the letter. This is a challenge to us too. Is our perspective on our lives based on God's grace, or do we secretly (or openly!) boast of our achievements, our family, our schooling and education and see these things as making us more worthy than others?
We, like the Corinthians, have to be reminded again and again of the primacy of God's grace. Everything comes from him and not from ourselves. So, when the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts, they are just that: gifts. They don't prove anything special or worthy about the person who receives them; they are not possessions to be proud of. They are gifts. Elsewhere, Paul asks the Corinthians, 'What do you have that you did not receive?'
Paul emphasizes that God gives many spiritual gifts and there are varieties of gifts. God does not give to everyone in the same way. But it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God who gives these gifts and calls us to different services and activities. Paul's expression: 'same Spirit, same Lord, same God' points to an experience of the Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three-in-one, a divine interplay of life and love. Where God the Trinity is at work there will be diversity, variety and colour rather than dull sameness.
So, what are these various gifts of the Spirit? It's interesting that Paul's list here includes the more spectacular gifts: words of wisdom and knowledge, faith, gift of healing, working of miracles, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. There are other lists of spiritual gifts which Paul mentions in his other letters and these lists include things like administration, leadership, giving, teaching, encouragement and many more. There is indeed a wide variety of gifts which the Spirit gives to the church; some may be seen as more down to earth, and some as more spiritual, but they are all gifts for the building up of the church.
The Corinthians are more interested in the spectacular gifts Paul lists here. These are gifts the Corinthians are experiencing in their worship. Notice that Paul does not dispute the reality of these gifts and experiences. He expects them to use these gifts, but he does caution them about their attitude towards these gifts and how they are used. Often in this letter he has to warn them about pride, arrogance and division, and he reminds them in the famous next chapter of 1 Corinthians (1 Co 13) that what really counts is patient, humble and forgiving love.
What kind of community are they to be? A community where each person uses their gifts for the good of all. This is the crucial lesson and Paul emphasises it: 'To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.' Everyone is given a gift of some kind – remember it is a gift and not a possession – but it is for the common good. Sometimes gifts may come and go; a person may not always have the same gift all the time. Some gifts, like a word of knowledge or insight may be given at a particular point to bring hope and encouragement into a specific situation. Whatever the gifts we are given, they are to build one another up, not to give us a thrill or boost our ego.
This is a big challenge to every church. How do we discern and welcome the gifts God gives to each one of us, but make sure they are used for the good of the whole community? Are we open to all the gifts that God gives, the more mundane gifts and the more seemingly spiritual ones? Some of us here may have worshipped in so called 'charismatic' churches, where words of knowledge, healing and speaking in tongues are common. For others this may be something we know little about, an alien experience, or one we are fearful of. We are encouraged to have an open, trusting attitude which is not hostile to these gifts, while also not seeing them as any more valuable than other gifts of the Spirit like teaching, encouraging, helping and administration. God's Spirit gives as he chooses.
One of the books David gave me for Christmas is Phoebe by the New Testament scholar Paula Gooder. It's a very engaging read. While drawing on her NT scholarship it is written as a story, based on Phoebe, who is mentioned at the end of Paul's letter to the Romans. She was a deacon in the church of Cenchreae (one of the ports of Corinth) but Paul sends her to Rome. Paula Gooder uses her imagination to tell Phoebe's story, and she illuminates and brings to life many aspects of the early church as she does so. In one passage, Phoebe is worshipping with the Christians in Rome and she finds it a bit puzzling because there aren't the same dramatic spiritual experiences she had experienced at Corinth and she wonders if the Holy Spirit is also there in the church in Rome. Priscilla, another woman teacher in the early church, explains that the Spirit works in different ways. Paula Gooder in her notes quotes another scholar:
'We must not think that the early Christians all agreed about worship, which seems...to have been a combination of "chaotic informality" and great reverence, with some contention between parties more inclined to one than the other' (Gordon Wakefield).
Such differences in worship are still a reality today of course. But it remains true that the Spirit gives gifts to each person for the common good. God wants to build us up as a community through the working of the Spirit amongst us. The Spirit may do this through the different gifts we are all given if we use them humbly and for the good of all. We all have something to offer. The Spirit will also be at work growing in us the fruit of the Spirit: 'love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.'
Here at St Ursula's we are a very diverse community of people from different backgrounds and cultures, even if we are not quite as big a range of people as in Corinth. As we worship and learn together, let us be open to the work of the Holy Spirit among us, identifying the different gifts among us and exercising them humbly to encourage one another so that we all grow in our faith. Everyone has something to offer for the good of the whole community. May God in his grace pour upon us his Spirit, that we might share his gifts and bear his fruit; and may we always, in our individual lives and in our life together, proclaim Jesus is Lord.
You may find this passage from Paula Gooder's book Phoebe helpful. (Paula Gooder is a New Testament scholar who writes a story about Phoebe - a deacon in Cenchreae, a port in Corinth, mentioned in Romans 16:1, who is sent by Paul to Rome. Here, in the passage following, Paula Gooder illustrates the fact that early Christian worship was varied by imagining Phoebe comparing the worship in the church in Rome with that in Corinth:
'The biggest difference that Phoebe noticed between what had happened back in Corinth and what happened here was the quiet. Worship in Corinth was a riotous affair. It was noisy, with people speaking in tongues, people prophesying (sometimes over each other), songs would break out at any moment – even when they were in the middle of remembering the Lord's Supper. It was vibrant, full of life, always unexpected, and often uncontrollable. Paul had tried to impose some order on them all, but only with varying success. This was completely different. People waited for one person to finish before they began. There would even be long periods of silence while people thought or prayed before they spoke again. It was very new to her, and Phoebe couldn't yet decide if she liked it or not…
Slightly bemused, Phoebe asked Prisca (Priscilla) whether the Spirit didn't fall on these meetings as had happened in Corinth. Prisca smiled at her.
'It can be hard for Corinthians when they worship with us here. It's not the same, is it? The Spirit is fully present, but in a different way.'
(from Phoebe, by Paula Gooder)
As a comment on this passage above, Paula Gooder quotes the scholar Gordon Wakefield:
'We must not think that the early Christians all agreed about worship, which seems…to have been a combination of "chaotic informality" and great reverence, with some contention between parties more inclined to one than the other'