1 Corinthians 12:12-31
Over the next two Sundays we will be looking at an extended passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. The two week’s readings flow directly and logically; joined by the phrase, “and now I will show you the most excellent way” (1 Cor 12:31).
So next week we will be talking about the most excellent way to achieve what is set out in today’s passage from Paul.
First some context, Paul is writing about the strange and paradoxical nature of Christianity. We can only come into the Kingdom of God through personal faith in Jesus Christ; yet once we do, we become part of the body of Christ, the Church.
We become one with each other, yet irreducibly and utterly unique. We don’t at all become the same – we faithfully become more and more ourselves. This is the mystery Paul is trying to explain to the Corinthians.
The whole is divinely, supernaturally, more than the sum of its parts.
Now in a church, difference – even some forms of conflict – is a good thing if it is engaged with properly.
It is part of the DNA of God’s world that conflict and difference and friction are not to be avoided but to be met and handled with understanding and sensitivity so that new life can occur.
When Paul was writing this letter to the church in Corinth, there were a lot of factions causing friction. There was a lot of difference, and they were not handling it very well at all. This is the theme of the whole of this first letter to the Corinthians.
In Ch. 1, Paul writes of division, with different members of the church following different leaders. In Ch. 4 the church has become arrogant. Serious sexual immorality in Ch.5. Gluttony at Holy Communion in Ch.11; and false teachings were being taught in Ch. 15.
So Paul wrote to them to try to get them to understand that embracing difference would be the gateway to spiritual life and strength and growth.
Now Corinth was an amazing city. Newly built, it had a strong commercial centre and was a major Roman port with market places drawing people in from all over the Roman Empire. It was a very busy place.
Paul spent 18 months there building a church and it looked healthy and strong, (good numbers, as they say!). But the truth is, that it was a deeply divided church with arguments and divisions between the congregation that were always ready to blow up.
When Paul wrote this letter to them, Corinth wasn’t a happy church at all.
So how did Paul want to instil in the congregation a sense of vision for the future? What was the starting point of his argument? Well, some simple points I think that we can readily apply to Drayton.
Firstly, Paul reminds us we need to realise the reality of our unity. When we believe, we are Holy and One instantly.
Underneath all the diversity a fundamental unity exists. The same unity between God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
We become one in unity because God is. Oneness with the Father is the bedrock of Christ’s ministry, and our Oneness with Jesus Christ is the bedrock of Drayton parish.
Paul says at the beginning of today’ reading in chapter 12: “The body is one and has many members…” Now, this is a very simple spiritual law that is reflected in nature, which is this: that unity is worked out through the holding together of diversity.
And Paul says the same thing here about the human body. The body is made up of different organs, each with their own functions, each with their individual way of working.
But just because the ear is different from the foot, etc., it doesn’t mean that there isn’t unity. It just means that the unity embraces diversity and difference.
And so it is with the church – so it is with our parish. The truth is that there are real differences in this congregation; different gifts, different talents, different ministries, different ideas about God and worship and what our church should be doing.
Yet, we are one and anchored on the rock of Christ. Here, Scripture tells us that through this bedrock of Christ our unity is brought about and maintained in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion.
The same Spirit that brought new and eternal life to us as an individual, creates a unity of new life in us as a Church though these sacraments.
Paul says in v.13 “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…and we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.”
The Bible makes it absolutely clear that our unity is expressed by us all sharing Baptism and all sharing Communion. Paul says, “We were all baptized…we were all made to drink…”
So our unity is real and already manifest – Paul is urging us to guard that unity and build upon it through the sacramental life of the church.
Secondly, when we embrace difference and diversity, we see it as life-giving, not life-draining.
Paul goes on in verse 14-20 to show the purpose of diversity with this metaphor from the human body.
Each member of the body is equally valued and equally useful and no, one, member of the body should despise the role of another. Foot, hand, ear, eye – each is equally valuable in the body.
But get this, our usefulness is purely a result of God’s careful bringing together of the various parts, as we read in verse 18: “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose”.
And so it is with us. We, this church, this congregation, is not of human creation. This church has come about through the sheer creativity of God. He has brought each one of us here.
He has given each one of us gifts to be used through the church. He has brought us into relationship with one another. We are where we are because God has designed it this way.
Our task, (insofar as we have the capacity), is to glean through prayer, word, sacrament, and song how God wants his body – this parish – to move and flow in the perfect currents of the great River of God.
The body of Christ right here is a living, organic, moving body – and our task is, at every stage, to go wherever God wants to take his body.
Finally, Paul reminds us afresh of the holy calling of the Church. We are holy and one.
Paul begins today’s reading, “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.”
By phrasing it like this, Paul shows us the equivalence between Jesus and his Church. The church is Christ Jesus. Paul describes it as being ‘in Christ.’ If you are baptised you are in Christ.
Paul is absolutely clear about this in Romans 6, where he writes this: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death?
“Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life”.
So the church and our parish specifically are living out our ‘in-Christness’. This is a holy task!
Paul really raises the stakes here. He is telling the Christians at Corinth who are not handling there God-created diversity well, that the way they treat each other is actually a reflection to the wider world of how Christ responds to difference and how Christ wants to interact with the world.
This is what it means to be chosen by God who has gifted all of us to represent him to the world.
We are stewards together of that calling, stewards of these gifts (which are ourselves), and we allow the Lord to enable us increasingly to use them faithfully, with great hope, compassion and kindness, and with great love. Which is next week’s sermon.
Let me pray ...