Jay Rowland
“For the Common Good”
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable.
Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. … [The Message Bible]
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to 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. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. (NRSV)
I love the premise of this passage as it’s rendered in The Message Bible:
“What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives.”
To me that’s what life is all about: the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives.
That right there is pure gold to me. Good News!
Regardless of what is going on in your life or the world, no matter what is bothering us or wreaking havoc or inflicting suffering or sorrow, God’s Spirit is working in our lives.
That is something that’s worth stopping to think about. In the midst of the ongoing and pressing problems of the world, it’s worth spending these few minutes together this morning to ponder the presence of God’s Spirit.
I know that life can beat us down and leave us hard-hearted and doubtful.
I know that for some, talk about “spirit” can be opaque, elusive, hard to grasp let alone trust.
That’s okay. Bring your disappontment. Bring your objections. Bring your skepticism. Bring your best critical thinking. It’s good to be wise and discerning when it comes to matters of faith. Just as long as you keep your heart open to possibilities. As Paul says about the workings of God’s Spirit, “this is complex and often misunderstood”.
We don’t want to be sold a bill of goods, right? We don’t want to be naive or foolish, easily manipulated.
To me, Paul or for that matter the Lord doesn’t have any problem with such concerns. Better to have a mature relationship with the Lord than a grown-up fairy-tale. And Paul certainly knows how easily we human beings can be deceived especially by ourselves. He recalls how some members of the congregation in Corinth (and we ourselves by extension, no?) lived before they met Jesus. He recalls how they were “... led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did”.
This is different, Paul says. God wants us to use our intelligence, he says. God wants us to seek to understand, he says. Because that means we’re probably paying attention.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel would agree, “He who is swift to faith is swift to forget. Faith does not come into being out of nothing, inadvertently, unprepared, as an unearned surprise. Faith is preceded by awe, by acts of amazement at things that we apprehend but cannot comprehend.”
Like Paul, I want us to sense the full weight and importance of what Paul is declaring. It is there in verse 7, almost the middle--the heart--of this passage:
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
This is the beating heart of these eleven verses.
Paul doesn’t say, “to some is given the manifestation of the Spirit,” he says “to each is given …”.
Paul isn’t wondering whether or not God’s Spirit is at work in and through God’s people, Paul is declaring it definitely IS. Not once in a while, or sometimes, but in various ways. And there are no restrictions on it, meaning, God’s Spirit at work in us and through us isn’t restricted by age or gender or race or class or job status or sexual orientation or gender orientation … there’s no qualifications or pre-requisites.
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit
That means you.
And me.
And everyone here.
Do you know this about yourself?
To you has been given a manifestation of God’s spirit.
Too many say to that, “well, not me. I’m too old or too young or too this or too that.”
Such was the case among the Christians in Corinth. Some felt that they had a manifestation of the Spirit which gave them authority and status over any and all other members. Hogwash, says Paul. Everyone is given a manifestation of God’s Spirit.
For a different angle on this hope, The Message Bible translation puts it this way,
“Each of us is given something to do that shows who God is. Everyone gets in on it. Everyone benefits.”
Something to do
This different angle reveals that the spiritual interaction between God and us is not something that happens in isolation. It may start in quiet moments of reflection or meditation or prayer, but it moves toward the common good.
The gift(s) of God’s Spirit alive in you or me is not some ethereal, obscure feeling or sensibility, it isn’t something we keep to ourselves, it shows up in our action and activity. That’s the best indicator that the spiritual gift comes from God: it shows up in our actions and activity, and best of all, it shows up as both our personal fulfillment and the fulfillment of the common good.
It’s how Martin Luther King Jr’s “dream” and vision and hope for our society becomes reality. Our own spiritual formation, in turn, fuels the spiritual formation of community, nation and world. The poetry of the prophet Isaiah we heard moments ago describes what this looks like in the aggregate—spiritual formation takes root in the person, then the community, then nation, and ultimately the world:
righteousness blazes down like the sun
… salvation flames up like a torch.
Foreign countries will see your righteousness,
and world leaders your glory.
You’ll get a brand-new name
straight from the mouth of God.
You’ll be a stunning crown in the palm of God’s hand,
a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God.
No more will anyone call you Rejected,
and your country will no more be called Ruined.
You’ll be called Hephzibah (My Delight),
and your land Beulah (Married),
Because God delights in you.
(Isaiah 62:2-5 The Message Bible)
Each of us is given something to do that shows who God is.
Something to do that shows who God is.
Few if any of us recognize the spiritual gift/gifts God has planted in us.
And so it’s important to create time and space in our lives to discover the particular manifestation/s … expressions … of God’s Spirit God has given to you.
It’s not so much about identifying the specific spiritual gift so much as it is about our time spent engaging with God in a process of discovery so that it becomes a lifetime endeavor. The quest to discover how God’s spirit is expressed in us has the power to move us and keep us moving in a direction God uses to shape us and lead us to fulfillment … not only our own personal fulfillment, but also the fulfillment of the common good.
The spiritual power of this is not only what it shows others about God, but also what it shows us about ourselves.
God shows us who God is through the spiritual gifts working in people we meet every single day.
And God shows others who God is through the expressions of God’s spirit that God has set within each one of us.
It’s so easy to overlook. We’re so busy. So preoccupied. So weighed down by this pandemic, by all of the social and political strife and division, by all the trouble in the world.
But through it all, God never leaves Godself without a witness.
Sometimes that witness is someone we would never have imagined or chosen.
Sometimes that witness is you.
And that’s the beauty of God’s Spirit working in our lives, the wonder of faith community: when I cannot “see” or trust or believe that God’s alive and at work, you do something that shows me, reminds me who God is. Likewise, sometimes you may not be able to see or trust or believe that God is alive and at work in you and in the world. And when that happens there’s something I’m doing to show you, to remind you who God is.
When all else seems lost. Remember: To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit of God …
… for the common good.
“… there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. … All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who gives to each one of us individually just as the Spirit chooses.”
