“Spiritual Gifts”

I Corinthians 12:4-13

My first grade teacher placed me in the slow reading group because I was so quiet and shy that I was afraid to speak up. Eventually all of this got sorted out, but it still left an impression. I learned early on that students are divided into groups in terms of academic ability. This is neither a positive nor a negative a statement. It simply spells out reality as I, and probably most of you, experienced it.

Students are still experiencing this reality. We may not be as blatant about it as folks were in the fifties, but it’s still going on. Special Ed. Gifted Programs. College Track. Do any of those sound familiar? These are some of the ways we categorize students today. That’s neither a judgment nor a blessing. It’s reality.

Beyond the official academic categories lie other types of labels, labels that students inflict on one another, often in hurtful ways. Motorheads. Dopers. Jocks. Nerds. These are some of the labels publicly and sometimes hatefully tossed about by today’s high schoolers. Even more hurtful are those unspoken but all too often acted out categorizations: Bully, Victim, Different, Popular, or Unpopular. So goes the caste system that is officially and unofficially imposed on the teenage children of our culture.

Those caught up in this caste system are living, breathing reminders that John Calvin was right. Original sin is alive and well in our world. Total depravity isn’t just a theological term; it’s a hateful, unfortunate, deplorable reality among sinful people living in a fallen world. That young human animal we call an adolescent is one of the most cruel creatures on earth.

We grownups aren’t a whole lot better. Although more subtle and refined in our cruelty, we still act it out in some devastatingly harmful ways: bigotry, snobbery, class-consciousness, and social ostracism. As we age we do not outgrow the reality of our total depravity. Under the surface of the must civilized person there beats the sin-stained heart of the primitive savage.

Those of us who follow Jesus are supposed to be in a process of moving beyond castes, labels, and categories. That’s part and parcel of that thing we call sanctification, a movement in the direction of holiness. But even in the saved person there still beats that sin-filled heart. We are dogged by depravity all the way to the grave.

A biblical example of this is Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. That church was about as dysfunctional as it gets. Class differences. Blatant immorality. Raging conflicts. Lots of “my-faith’s-greater-than-your-faith” statements being passed around. Some folks who had been blessed with certain spiritual gifts assuming that these gifts made them more special in God’s eyes than did the gifts possessed by others. An unofficial division into first and second class Christians.

Paul rather strongly reminded them that such divisions had no place in the Body of Christ. All Christians are blessed with a spiritual gift. All gifts are graciously bestowed on believers by God. None of them are earned. None of them are more special than are others. Each gift is important to the life of the church. Each is to be used to glorify God, serve the cause of Christ, and build up the community of faith. They are not status symbols. They do not denote spiritual superiority.

The gift of wise council. The gift of clear understanding. The gift of simple trust. The gift of healing the sick. The gift of miraculous acts. The gift of proclamation. The gift of distinguishing between spirits. The gift of tongues. The gift of interpretation of tongues. None is greater than the other. None is more important. None is more necessary.

As Paul wrote, “… there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; … there are varieties of service, but the same Lord… there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” After wrestling with all of this for a while, Paul goes on in chapter 13 to make it clear that no gift is of any value if it is not exercised in a spirit of love.

We may be divided into categories and castes in school, but not in the church. Society may classify and label us, but the Lord does not. The world tells us to compete, win, come out on top, and die with more toys, but the Holy Spirit directs us to live in a spirit of humility, cooperation, community, and servanthood.

An interesting reality of Reformed Theology is that there are no such labels as clergy and laity. The church is a priesthood of all believers. There are no super Christians. Some of us may be called and ordained to specific tasks – set apart for specific duties, but that doesn’t place teaching elders, ruling elders, and deacons on a pedestal above other Christians. Those of us upon whom God has laid the responsibilities of leading, governing, and teaching the church are servants of Jesus Christ. We serve. We do not rule. We lead by example. We do not make autocratic demands. We are who we are and we do what we do only by the grace of God. Or at least we’re supposed to.

Quite often, though, we get sinfully caught up in titles and the power and authority they supposedly bring. And even when we don’t, there are always those non-ordained folks who consider themselves second class Christians. If somebody tells me over and over again how much better I am than they, I have to work very hard not to start believing it. Of course there is always at least one dear – or not so dear – saint who takes it upon him or herself to keep us preacher types humble. That’s a topic for another day.

Titles, roles, places on the ecclesiastical ladder, and levels of education, such are the things that divide us these days. While certain charismatic and Pentecostal groups understand the gift of tongues to be the mark of full-fledged Christianity, the problem with most mainline Protestants is that we don’t get all that excited about spiritual gifts one way or another. We ignore them, disavow them, dismiss them, and otherwise find ways not to use them. Or we play poor-pitiful-little-me-my-gift’s-not-as-special-as-yours games that allow us to excuse ourselves from our responsibilities as members of Christ’s Body.

That, my friends, is just as sinful as claiming our gifts to be superior to the gifts of others. While humility is a key characteristic of a Christian, we sometimes go a bit too far with our self-deprecation and false modesty. Every Christian receives a spiritual gift – every Christian. Every Christian is called to use his or her gift for the common good – every Christian.

No Christian has the luxury of discounting the value of his or her gift – no Christian. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit…” Not some. Not a privileged few. All. Tiny Tim’s prayer in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” is: “God bless us, one and all.” In terms of spiritual gifts that’s exactly what God has done. He has blessed us, one and all.

I realize that I’m getting redundant. So be it. I’d rather overstate the obvious than understate it. This congregation is part of Christ’s Church. Each of us who faithfully professes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is a member of Christ’s worldwide Body. As such, each of us has been blessed with a spiritual gift.

So what do we do with it? First, we carefully and prayerfully discern, often with the guidance of one another, what our gift is. Then we claim it, nurture it, mature it, and use it. Not proudly. Not arrogantly. Not selfishly. But with thankfulness and a sense of healthy humility. We do what God has called and gifted us to do. We claim our ministry and carry it out as well and as faithfully as we can this side of heaven. We take our place in the Body of Christ. We join our gift with the gifts of all other Christians in carrying out the cause of Christ. Finally we entrust our gift to God, not needing to control the ultimate result of what we do for Christ.

I have a gift. You have a gift. All God’s children have a gift. In the Kingdom of God no one will place us in the slow group just because our gift is different. There is no Special Education class for the supposedly less-gifted members of the church. There is no caste system by which our gifts and we are classified. We’re all in the Gifted Program. Every gift is special in the Body of Christ just as each of us is special in the Kingdom of God. Amen.