I chose to preach today on the New Testament reading, which is the second part of Paul’s teachings on spiritual gifts to the divisive first-century church in Corinth. Today’s scripture actually is a continuation of last week’s reading from Corinthians. And as it turns out, that works out quite well, as Brittany preached an interesting sermon last week on the first part of Paul’s teaching.
Now, this first letter to the members of the Corinthian Church, in the words of my Oxford Annotated Bible, “is a fascinating window into the struggles of one community of the movement that developed into Christianity”[1]. Brittany likened it to the various groups in high school, like the jocks, the nerds etc, which I thought an apt comparison. Corinth was the first major urban centre to which Paul brought the good news of Christ. With several co-workers such as Priscilla and her husband Aquila, Timothy, Pheobe and Silvanus, they spent a year and a half establishing house churches in Corinth, and they would come together every so often to celebrate the Lord’s supper. After Paul left to go to spread the Word in Ephesus, Apollos, another missionary, came to Corinth.[2] This letter of Paul’s is his response to issues and concerns brought forward by the folks from the Corinthian Church. He deals with several specific issues that needed resolving as well as general problems in terms of how well the Christian life of the community was coming together—or maybe wasn’t quite coming together! It was, to be sure, an interesting mix of people who had joined to form this community in Christ—Greeks, Jews, slaves, freed people, men, women, rich and poor. It was an incredible undertaking-- bringing so many diverse cultures together to work and live in a new way of believing and living out that belief, and into a faith that was so new it was still developing ways about how to practice it and worship too. It’s clear if you read the letter in its entirety that each one of the various factions had their own ways and traditions that they felt was the right way, some of which were anything but Christian. What Paul and his fellow missionaries were trying to do was bring the unity of Christ to the diversity of peoples, joined by their belief that Jesus was the Son of God, their Lord and Saviour. For some people, this would have meant incredible changes to their lives and lifestyles! This is the very definition of faith development—a true work in progress! And we think we have differences of opinion about how things are to go in our churches! Paul’s instructions in this letter were incredibly influential. This time of development of the early Christian church became the very foundation of how Christian Churches are to function. It made a wide reaching impact in terms of use of language for worship and interpretation of Christian belief into a way of life that “provided key bases for subsequent Christian belief and practices”.[3] Unfortunately, this also included the writings that biblical scholars today readily agree were later additions to Paul’s original text, particularly the instructions around the roles of women, reversing the equality of women in the Church and community, subordinating them back into the patriarchal structure of the society of the time.
So, last week we heard how Paul addressed concerns brought to him about spiritual gifts that had been given to various people in the community. It seems some of these gifts were being viewed as having higher value than others, like speaking in tongues for example was very highly prized. And as a result, a bit of a hierarchy developed around who was thought to be the most important person in the Church, that some were more worthy than others because they had received the “better” gift. Paul reminds them that all spiritual gifts, whether it is the gift of healing, prophesying, wisdom, discernment, doing miracles, speaking in tongues or interpretation of tongues—all these are given as a gift from God, a loving grace from God given to each for the good of everyone, to benefit the whole community. One gift is not more worthy than another, nor is the person who has that gift more worthy than the person who doesn’t have it, because they will have another gift, and all are needed for the common good.
We still do that, don’t we, we assign value to people based on their abilities, their gifts—and in our culture, the resultant valuation based on the earning power that gift then brings. I think particularly of the exorbitant amount of money paid to male professional sports players, celebrity actors and musicians.
So today we read how Paul takes this analogy of everyone’s gift being a part of the larger common good one step further. He uses an analogy: that the church is like a body which belongs to the risen Christ. This is so we are then able to better identify with the risen Christ, but of course we are not identical to him.[4]
According to one commentator I read this week, this body analogy is “one of the most famous metaphors in the history of Christianity.”[5] Paul gets even more specific in his analogy by describing the various parts of the body and how each is necessary to the functioning of the whole, one part is not better or of more value to the whole body than the other—even those seemingly less respectable parts that are hidden by clothing. Those parts that seem more minor, or seemingly of less value are to be equally valued. This metaphor of people being a part of a body was not original to Paul. It was actually an ancient image, and commonly used. According to my research: “The body was commonly used in antiquity as a metaphor for human society...(and) was an image...exploited by (the) elite classes to justify inequality...”[6] The ruling classes represented themselves as the head and the belly, as these were considered at the time to be the most indispensable and honourable parts of the body.[7] And “(t)hose at the bottom of the social ladder should stay put and be grateful for the guidance and protection of their natural superiors. After all, in the body, the brain that makes crucial decisions is more critical than the lowly organs that sustain routine daily functioning.”[8] Goodness, that puts the lower classes in their place!
So this viewpoint of Paul’s that all parts of the body were of equal value, and then by inference, all members of the church are indispensable and honourable, including those who were maybe less visible or considered by society as less important was, well, an astounding statement for its day. He is saying all people are of equal value! Paul goes so far as to say that “...God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.” (vs 26 NLT) That could be taken as a subversive comment, certainly in direct contradiction to the elite classes’ use of the body metaphor to justify their own importance, and devalue others. Paul was re-affirming to this newly forming Christian community the counter cultural message that Jesus also preached, no one is of more value than the other, period! We are all one in Christ, interdependent on each other for full and healthy functioning of the body of Christ. If we are honest, this is still a challenge for us today! Do we honestly and truly believe and treat people like all people are of equal standing, of equal value? And unfortunately the history of our Church belies otherwise. And this remains, to this day, a counter cultural concept.
I’ve used this example before, but I think it’s an apt one. Have you ever broken a toe? I have! With a broken toe, you just don’t walk normally, it hurts too much, and not just the toe but often the entire foot pains, and the pain can go right up into your leg. A broken toe causes you to limp when you walk, and then your hips start hurting because you’re walking off kilter, because toes are there for balance. Well, that causes your back to go out of alignment, which often leads a headache, and you wind up feeling really awful, literally from head to toe! And all this from a tiny broken bone in a toe! Because, the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone, the foot bone’s connected to the leg bone, the leg bone’a connected.... well you get the picture!
I’ve been reading a book entitled “Being Disciples, Essentials of the Christian Life” by Rowan Williams, a former Archbishop of Canterbury. In his chapter ‘Faith in Society’, he actually quotes this reading from 1Corinthians and expands on it. Let me end with a wee quote from Rowan Williams:
The New Testament describes what happens when human being are brought into relationship with Jesus Christ by faith as a community in which everyone’s gifts are set free for the service of others. The community that most perfectly represents what God wants to see in the human world is one where the resources of each person are offered for every other, whether those resources are financial or spiritual or intellectual or administrative. This is the pattern of the Body of Christ as St. Paul defines it. It is not only that the least or apparently most useless has the dignity of possessing a gift and a purpose; it’s also that everyone is able to give to others, to have the dignity of being a giver, being important to someone else. And instead of being a static picture of everyone having dignity, the Christian vision is dynamic – everyone is engaged in building up everyone else’s human life and dignity. [9]
I do think that this nicely sums up Paul’s body metaphor. Together, as members of the body of Christ, each of us with our own purpose and with our individual God-given gifts can do amazing things for God’s Kingdom. It takes all of us working together, giving together, using our various gifts, to keep this particular church, this tiny part of God’s body functioning optimally. Our work makes an impact within the larger community too. And that, my friends is ministry, which is the purpose of all our God-given gifts! Amen.
[1] Oxford Annotated Bible: Commentary on The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, p 267 NT
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid, p. 268
[4] The Oxford Bible Commentary-2017: Commentary on 1 Corinthians, p. 1127
[5] Lee C. Barrett in Theological Perspective for 1Cor 12.12-31a in Feasting on the Word, Year C Vol 4 (WJK Press: Louisville, KY 2009) 278
[6] ibid
[7] The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Fifth Edition. Commentary on 1Corinthians 12: 22-26 p. 2053
[8] Barrett
[9] Rowan Williams, Being Disciples (SPCK: London, England) 2016, 68