May 17, 2015

Background Scripture: I Corinthians 12:12-31

Devotional Reading: Galatians 3:23-29

Right from the beginning, let me alert you that the operative number for this lesson is ONE. There will possibly be some other numerical values that come up along the way, but the only number you need to remember at this moment is one.

That is what you need to keep in the forefront as Paul talks to us about the variety of our responses to that one reality. Paul himself acknowledges: “Now there are varieties of gifts,” (don’t stop there!) “but the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:4). Many gifts; one Spirit. “… And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord” (12:5). “And there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one” (12:6).

What’s the point of this “many and one?” The point is although Paul speaks to us of the one source of our many and diverse responses, we often act and live as if our response to this one source is the only correct response.

Someone once said to me, half-joking probably, “Why can’t God get someone to write down exactly what all Christians are to believe and do, and eliminate all this diversity of belief and action?” Unfortunately,  many of us think that would help a lot (particularly if God favored “our way”) if He just made it clear to us and everyone of us what is essential and what is not.

God knows us

One of the principles of commerce is: “Know your market.” Well, God “knows His market.” He knows the great variety of people, the endless variety of needs and opportunities and he also knows our weaknesses and failings. So, He comes to us and, in this rich diversity that He Himself has called into being, calls each of us in different ways. However we respond to his call, it is amazingly singular as to what He wants from us.

He may summon us using different words or analogies – the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, the Great Judgment (Mt. 25:1-46) or the Formula for Eternal Life (19:16-21) – but in all this amazing diversity, God wants a singular response. And we know what it is, don’t we?

We also are called to accept and respond to that same diversity without losing or giving up our oneness in Christ. Maybe it’s me, but as I view the churches of Jesus Christ today, I see a growing diversity but an almost invisible unity. We exercise our diversity without giving much hint of our oneness in Christ.

So, Paul reminds us: “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between sprits, to another various kinds of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit …” (12:7-11).

If an interstellar spaceship would land on Earth this week and we attempted to explain to the space traveler that a majority of the people of this planet believe in and serve just one God as revealed in one man, Jesus of Nazareth – on the basis of what our visitor would observe, would he or she be likely to believe it?

(Actually I wonder, not knowing their gender or past religious affiliation, would we be comfortable inviting them to our churches?)

Big Tent or Little Tent

I use what I hope are facetious words to state a most serious fact: Too often many churches are more engaged in keeping people out, rather than making them part of our fellowship. Our receptivity is marred by our political and social views.

Instead of presenting the Gospel as a Big Tent where all are welcome, we are more likely to suggest they take-in the side shows of our particularity. Those of us who want our congregations to be as much like us as possible seem to forget Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan to show us just how far loving your neighbor and your enemy should extend.

I don’t really mean in this day and age that some churches would bar their doors to people who are “not of our kind.” But I do believe there are many who would not want to have these people as “fellow members.”

Someone recently commented on the threatening demise of denominations, observing some of us are more happy with the number of people we’ve have excluded, than of those we’ve enticed to join: “If you’re not a Liberal, you probably won’t like it here.” Similarly, “if you’re not an Evangelical, you’re at the wrong place.” Or, “if you don’t agree with the Nicene Creed, you’ll not be happy in this church.” “If you lay hands on the sick and pray for them, this is not the church for you.”

And, you probably should have expected this one: “If you perform (or don’t perform) weddings for gay people,” you can pick one of the following – “you are welcome here” or ”you probably need to keep looking.”

After all, you may say, there are as many different kinds of Christians as there are people on this Earth. But Paul reminds us: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into  one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free …” (12:12,13).

And shall we add to that list: once-married or divorced and remarried, liberals or conservatives, Democrats or Republicans, gay or straight, predestinarians or libertarians, federalist or anti-federalists, real presence in Communion or symbolic,  infant baptizers or adult immersion, congregationalists or denominationalists?

There is an endless array of tests for inclusion or exclusion, but let us remember that significant number: the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God – ONE.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.