Greater Gifts
“Greater Gifts” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! It is great to have the children be part of leading our service this morning, and to have an opportunity to thank the adults who teach and lead our Sunday School classes. We know, of course, that recognizing the gifts of one group of people does not mean that we aren’t aware of or don’t appreciate folks who serve our church and community in other ways, but it is appropriate to hold up and celebrate the gift of teaching, and to share in the joy of having children at Creekside who are learning about Jesus and the Bible.
Given all that, you may be surprised to know that in-fighting about spiritual gifts and how they are recognized, ranked, or appreciated is a very old New Testament theme. This is thanks to the church at Corinth, which was planted by the apostle Paul, which he returned to visit at least one more time — and was treated badly — and sent letters to at least three times. I can imagine that there were some humble, faithful, gracious peoplewho were part of the Corinthian church: these are not the folks that Paul was directing his comments to his letters. There were some bad actors in Corinth, not surprising in any group of people, and especially not in a group of Jews and Gentile believers who were all new to the Christian faith — because the Christian faith was new to everybody. The whole church was a bunch of baby Christians.
Paul does not shy away from calling out some bad behavior which is damaging individuals and relationships. The guy in chapter 5 who is sleeping with his mother-in-law — even non-believers know that’s wrong — that behavior is destructive to the church, which Paul calls the body of Christ. All of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are a good thing, of course, but bragging about how your gifts make you better than other people, or should give you higher status in the church than other people not so good. It’s like the foot saying “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” or the ear saying, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye.” If the whole body were an eye, how could you hear anything? If a body needs all it’s parts to function properly, it’s just ridiculous to say that some parts are “better” than others. We are all the body of Christ and part of each other.
It’s a powerful metaphor and one which is helpful to keep in mind as we recognize and celebrate the gifts which we have seen this morning. One of the ways a body stays healthy is to train. It may have been a long time ago — so long ago that some of us may not even remember exactly how it happened — but none of us were born knowing about Jesus, or having Bible verses memorized. If we learned about these things as children it is because somebody taught us. If we were fortunate, we learned about Jesus in our homes, from people who cared for us and about us and had made their own commitment to learning about Jesus. Maybe your parents or grandparents took you to church, or maybe they dropped you off and came back to get you when it was all over. Being a teacher is a spiritual gift, but it is also a gift to be in a place where you can receive that teaching: hopefully in a setting where you felt loved and safe and got to know adults who were not your parents or grandparents, and were able to ask questions without being worried about not knowing the answers. The church should be a place where children and adults have the space to wonder. Faith is something which we can lead others to, but we cannot believe for them; faith is more like a plant which is nurtured and blossoms throughout a life time than a bouquet which we force someone to accept, only to have it die after we walk away.
Verse 28 lists some prominent spiritual gifts, or people with those gifts like apostles, prophets, and teachers, and then miracles, healing, helping others, leadership skills, and speaking in tongues. And then Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions, all aren’t apostles are they? All aren’t prophets are they? All don’t have gifts of healing, do they? The obvious answer, so obvious that Paul doesn’t even say it, is Of course not. Not only does everybody not have the same gift; there isn’t anybody who has all the gifts.
Paul says an interesting thing at the end of this chapter, and some pretty significant stuff which comes immediately after that. Verse 31 says, Use your ambitions to try to get the greater gifts, and I’m going to show you an even better way. Wait — there are greater gifts and a better way to do things? I thought all those spiritual gifts, being an apostle or a teacher or a prophet were things which were to be used to build up the church. There’s something greater than that?
You probably know what comes next, or if I say 1 Corinthians 13, you might remember that chapter begins with the words, Although I speak with tongues of men and of angels but don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but don’t have love, I’m nothing. Ouch. All that stuff which Paul wrote about spiritual gifts in chapter 12, it all gets superseded by Chapter 13. Remember, this chapter wasn’t written for some misty-eyed wedding ceremony, Paul dropped this into the middle of a church fight — this was for the congregational meeting when folks were fighting about the budget and how much they give and how their programs are more important than other programs, and how maybe our pastor isn’t doing enough for us.Paul says, if you are not sharing your gifts out of love, you are missing the point. If you cannot rejoice in the gifts which other people have and you do not, you are missing the point. If you are critical because other people don’t share their gifts the way you think they ought to be shared — the way you would have shared them if you happened to have those gifts or had the time to volunteer or whatever — you are missing the point. Today is an opportunity to be intentional about celebrating the gift of teaching, and the people who have answered the invitation to be teachers at Creekside; even those — especially those — who weren’t sure how it would go, but said Yes, I’ll do my best. Today is an opportunity to thank our children and the adults who bring them to church. We look forward to them being the church tomorrow, but they are the church right now. These kids have a lot to learn and a lot to teach us. We give thanks for all the gifts which God has given us as the body of Christ, and pray that we would share them with love. Amen.