A little boy came home from a school trip to a local gym. He told his mother that it was the strangest experience he'd ever had, everyone in there was swollen and screaming.
Body building is a strange phenomenon. There’s a special weights room at the gym I attend in Haywards Heath where the swollen and screaming hang out but I stick to the tread mill!
The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. It’s well documented that for every mile that you jog, you add one minute to your life. That’ll mean that when I’m 85 I’ll be able to spend an additional 5 months in my nursing home!
We’ve got a two part mini sermon series starting this morning on 1 Corinthians 12 which I’m calling Body building. You’ll gather from the green in Church that we’ve passed back to the ordinary season of the Church’s year which is twice interrupted for the Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter cycles. Outside of those two seasons the Church takes us systematically through scripture on Sundays and these next two weeks we’re reading the 12th Chapter of the first letter of St Paul to Corinth.
It contains teaching about the use of the gifts of Christians within the body of Christ All these gifts he says are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. Over the coming two months at the sending-out end of the Eucharist we’ll be hearing of how some of us exercise their gifts to build up Christ’s body. The renewal of our Christian stewardship is an occasion to communicate what ministries we exercise at St Giles and hopefully help more of us identify their gifts and exercise them to build the body. Last week in the Martindale Caroline Rich shared about the lift scheme. Today Chris Wheatley will share about the Life and Faith group.
Concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. Paul says in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 12. He goes on to explain in verses 2 and 3 that ministry in the Church is animated by the Holy Spirit under the name of Jesus. He then outlines the glorious diversity of ministry gifts there are in Corinth, reminding those who have them that what they’ve been given is given not for them but for body building. In this passage Paul lists supernatural gifts – wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues and the gift to interpret that. We need to read this list alongside two other lists of ministries Paul gives in Romans 12, where he adds serving, teaching, exhortation, generosity and leadership and Ephesians 4, where he adds apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors.
The Ephesians ministry gift list ends with him saying they’re given to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. This corresponds to the section of 1 Corinthians 12 we’ll be reading next Sunday where Paul develops how we Christians should see ourselves as the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Body building makes muscles out of flab. Church building makes individuals lose selfish agendas for a common agenda. Let’s read together verses 4 to 7 of today’s reading: 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.
At St Giles there are administrators, churchyard maintainers, speakers, Sunday Club leaders, brass polishers, people who lift others by car, offer Christ’s forgiveness, lead evensong at Westall House, read, administer the chalice, offer people prayer, help train confirmation candidates, consecrate the eucharist, Family Support and Faith in Action ministries, intercessors, church cleaners – I could go on!
Notice the priestly functions of absolution and consecration are in the varieties of services. I need to say again and again, ministerial priesthood is one among many gifted ministries in the body of Christ. It has a wider significance in uniting us through the bishops and their predecessors to the apostles and across the world, today, with the universal church, but as a priest I am part of the team of ministers.
Last Saturday morning those who exercised gifts of prayer in the Lady Chapel told me they thought we should move the main Sunday eucharist to the Martindale and we did. That involved a whole team of folk, some of you ministering as evangelists bringing others to a church service which was made uniquely accessible in last Sunday’s dreadful weather.
In his first letter to Corinth Paul’s chapter 12 and 14 are about supernatural gifts and their best use. These two chapters – 14 is mainly about speaking in tongues – have the famous one on love, Chapter 13 in the midst. He lists the gifts and goes on to say they’re all great but they’ll go nowhere unless you use them lovingly, submitting to the body of Christ as a whole. He says elsewhere that no Christian can be right with God unless they’re right with those over them in the Lord. To best use what God has given us we need to use it in an authorised way and not freelance. Otherwise we see body breaking and not body building!
Let’s read on together, verses 8 to 11: 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. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
A few brief points. The Greek word for gifts is charismata. The gifts we read out are called charismatic gifts and many churches are recovering them nowadays. The first two, wisdom and knowledge are the capacity to receive supernatural information about situations through which God can change things. Faith is not the gift of faith by which we all believe but a special gift linked to believing God for the next two gifts healing and miracles. Prophecy and discernment are capacities to help the church see the way ahead. Tongues and interpretation are similar gifts but linked to deepening prayer and praise in individuals for the common good.
Body building changes flab to muscle, weakness to strength. So it is in the body of Christ. The ministry gifts of individuals are given for the common good. This is true whether they’re the supernatural gifts of healing and so on just listed or the more natural gifts of helpfulness and leadership I pointed to in the parallel Romans and Ephesians passages.
If St Giles is going to deepen its life and grow new members we need to make space for the exercise of both natural and supernatural ministry gifts. We need to recognise that these gifts are to be exercised under authority, ultimately that of the bishop. We need a safe structure, just like our natural bodies need our skeletons. We also need the Holy Spirit’s giftings to clothe the skeleton, so to speak, of holy church. We don’t want to be the dry bones mentioned in the book of Ezekiel.
A last Body building image. The bible many times compares believers to trees that bear fruit. It says we’ll be judged ultimately by the fruit of the Spirit we bear – love, joy, peace and so on. In this passage Paul is speaking not of fruitfulness but of empowerment. It’s not a fruit tree image for the church but a Christmas tree image! You know, we’ve been carrying the old Christmas trees to the rec this week. Presents hung on a Christmas tree can be taken off by people but they don’t grow from the Christmas tree as fruit grows from an apple tree. You and I are called to bear fruit, the church is called to bear fruit, but we also get gifts given us by God that don’t come from us but are given to empower others when they receive them. People given gifts of healing are given them by the one Spirit not from out of themselves but from God above. What they’re given is given to bring blessing to others, not for their own benefit but to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
More on this next week.
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