UNITY IN DIVERSITY A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Bonnie Scott Jelinek St. Pauls United Church of Christ, Chicago June 2, 2013

Transcription

1 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11, 25-26* UNITY IN DIVERSITY A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Bonnie Scott Jelinek St. Pauls United Church of Christ, Chicago June 2, 2013 I stand here before you feeling so blessed: How I love it here! I love the City, the neighborhood, the architecture, the Lake, Lincoln Park, and my walk to work each day on Belden. I want you to walk to church with me on Belden, starting at the Lake on a glorious morning: I pass Marsha Volk pushing her granddaughter in her stroller on the way to see the lions at the zoo; Kathy Berghoff in her baseball cap, racing one of her four miles; a familiar French speaking family eating their croissants together on the corner; an older man, in a bright red silk, is calling in Mandarin to his dog, near the pink blooming cherry tree; around the corner of Geneva, children s feet are pounding the sidewalk to school, followed by their German immigrant parents speaking in their native tongue; past the red brick Lincoln school with white parking fences straddling the road; the Fitzgerald children racing across the street before the final bell; and finally, we see Fernando watering the gardens of our Church overflowing with spring and summer blooms. And how I love this church: its towering spire, the stained glass windows I see even from my walk; the buildings impressive stance on the flowering grounds along our city block, the Chapel and our Sanctuary. How I love the people of this church -each and every one of you I have gotten to know over these six months. Now walk with me into the building on a Sunday morning: See the teachers preparing their classrooms; Kurt rehearsing the choir with Kevin; Ninon and others gently placing treats for our social hour on crystal platters, and the bounty of food arriving in the kitchen for the shelter meal to be served later; hear the adult education class discussing faith and public issues with Jeff; Avena leading the course on Love and Logic ; and Matt quietly listening to those who need to speak with him before the service; Kathy answering everyone s questions; and the ushers and the acolytes getting ready, for our time to collectively worship God. How exciting it is to be here in this growing, vital, and spiritual home with all its diverse spiritual gifts. There is such exuberance. But what a juxtaposition this is to the Church in Corinth bits and pieces of which we learn about from Paul s letter read this morning. Corinth is in trouble and is a divided community. This passage illuminates its human sinfulness and brokenness. Corinth was a merchant city on an island off of Greece; a critical and strategic location for trade. It became, over time, quite a wealthy and cosmopolitan city. If we were to have walked there, then, we would have been able to climb a prominent, 18 hundred feet high promontory. At the summit, we would see the famous temple of Aphrodite, with its multitude of temple slaves. In the city center stood the bronze temple of Apollo. Poseidon was the Chief god of Corinth, and there were many altars to numerous lesser gods, everywhere. The church in Corinth, against this backdrop, is a story about a young church suffering with conflict and confusion. They became a community of believers formed after they heard Paul

2 teach in the synagogue. Feeling the pressure from the Jewish leaders, Paul took a small band of converts and met for prayer and study in the home of the ruler of the synagogue. From other letters we learn that the church had several wealthy members and a high ranking city official, creating the possibility for some power struggles among these social elite, but also between members of various social economic levels: freedmen and slaves, dock hands, and potters, the powerful and well born. Paul got a strong foothold here, staying for at least a year and a half and it became one of the most important centers of the early church. The conflict also included spiritual matters. Some members believed that certain spiritual gifts were more important than others, and demonstrated a superior form of spirituality. They paraded these gifts before the gathered body, and expected others to defer to their authority and power in decision-making. They were getting high on their spiritual giftedness instead of recognizing the source of the gift- Jesus Christ. Paul wrote his letters in hopes of ending this conflict. He emphasized that all of God s people have gifts and all are equally valuable to the health and vitality of the church, and are to be exercised by them-- not for their own selfish purposes, but for the benefit of the body; the church of Jesus Christ. That is the unifying principle. Every believer is to use his or her spiritual gifts in order that God's church might grow and become everything it is called to be in the world. Paul saw this lack of unity as the consequence of human sinfulness and brokenness. He viewed love and unity as the true mark of a new life, fueled by the Holy Spirit, to build up the church. There are challenges in our world too. What do we share in common with those believers in Corinth? Do we name, value, and celebrate our spiritual gifts God has given us? God has equipped St. Pauls with very gifted people, with equally important gifts. Might we feel one is more important than another? Or do we err on the other side, which is not thinking our individual gifts ARE that important? I rather think that is more often the case with some of us at St. Pauls. Let me share with you a potential liturgy that could help us affirm our Spiritual Gifts. Picture that there are seven candles on the communion table and each person in our congregation has an individual candle. Each of you, after praying, is asked to each come forward and light your individual candle from one of the seven large candles labeled for a specific spiritual gift (whether it is the gift of hospitality, teaching, healing, singing, visitation, serving, etc.) As you all go back to your seats with your lighted candle, the light from all the individual candles will light up the church, bathing the entire sanctuary in a golden glow. The many individual lights are joined together to create an overwhelming sense of unity in the midst of such diversity; what a powerful spiritual force! With thankful hearts we offer our individual gifts to God and pray for God to use our gifts to minister to each other and to the world around us; to act in unity as the Body of Christ. If I WERE to have given you a candle to light, which of the marked candles on the communion table would best represent your giftedness? Do we use our spiritual gifts, which are for ministry, for the common good? We have many mission opportunities now, and many more to come in the future. Today we see 25 young people and 10 adults being commissioned to go to Appalachia on their mission trip. They are

3 employing their spiritual gifts not only to help those less fortunate, but also to help contribute to our body of Christ here, at St. Pauls Church. They each own a diverse spiritual gift, but together, they have unity. It is my prayer we may all find unity in our diversity. I heard it said that "Christians, like snowflakes, are frail, but when they stick together they can stop traffic." God acted in the church in Corinth, by empowering them to recognize their individual and equally valued gifts, as gifts from God and to be used to build up the body of Christ. God is acting in our church as well. The walk along Belden to our Church illustrates the variety of gifts in our neighborhood, which we need to tap. We need to proclaim that we are not just the Chapel at the corner of Orchard and Fullerton, but also the large Sanctuary on the corner of West Kemper and Orchard, the Church at the crossroads of need and hunger and justice, historically grounded in our call to missions. What other church passes a sign-up sheet to work in the Lincoln Park Shelter during the first inquirers class? Christ makes us disciples not to form a country club but to serve our brothers and sisters near and far using our diverse gifts. We are an open and affirming church, which makes a joyful sound in our city, as an extravagant welcome, open to all, no matter where we are on life s journey. We have a Church School of active and enthusiastic children learning about God s love, invited with their doubts, questions and wonderings; a place where our teen agers can thrive and show US ways to reach out with our talents, and share with US their contagious spirit. Never have I been so moved as by the High School class s sermon on Youth Sunday. They spoke of their roots here in this very church, how it has nurtured them, loved and supported them, called forth their gifts, challenged them to go on mission trips, take social justice issues seriously, to act on their God given faith. They feel safe, loved and valued. We see this also in this Confirmation Class, with their valuable talent projects and presentations. They took their spiritual gifts God has given them seriously, and God acted through them! Both the Confirmation Class and the High School class are groups of diverse students but they gathered in unity in their diversity, all for the common good. The church in Corinth had deep troubles, as they were learning how to become a Christian church; they had dissention, and disunity. Through the life and letters of Paul, God s action brought them (and us), instructions on how to live a Christian life and become a community of faith. We at St. Pauls have the advantage of years of history both in our E and R, and UCC traditions, growing knowledge of the gospel, good pastors, strong lay led leadership, a love of our church which, with God s help will move us forward, with exuberance! So the charge now, to each of us, is to quietly consider what spiritual gift or gifts God has graced you with, and to think how you can demonstrate that gift in community as part of the body of Christ, here, at St. Pauls. As we name our individual gifts, acknowledge them as gifts from God, and use them wisely, as together we will find unity in our diversity and bring light to our world. I invite you to continue on that walk with me. Amen

4 1 Corinthians 12 The Message (MSG) Spiritual Gifts What I want to talk about now is the various ways God s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say Jesus be damned! Nor would anyone be inclined to say Jesus is Master! without the insight of the Holy Spirit God s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God s Spirit. God s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God s Spirit. God s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel clear understanding simple trust healing the sick miraculous acts proclamation distinguishing between spirits tongues interpretation of tongues. All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts limbs, organs, cells but no matter how many parts you can name, you re still one body. It s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we

5 all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn t just a single part blown up into something huge. It s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don t, the parts we see and the parts we don t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. 27 You are Christ s body that s who you are!