LIFE IN THE SPIRIT 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 BECOME ALL FLAME There s a story in the Desert Fathers about a young monk named Lot who goes to Father Joseph, his spiritual mentor, and says, Father, as far as I can, I keep a moderate rule, with a little fasting, and prayer, and meditation, and quiet: and as far as I can I try to cleanse my heart of evil thoughts. What else should I do? The older man then stood up and spread out his hands to heaven. His fingers shone like ten flames of fire, and he said, Why not become all flame? There s a vast difference between Christianity lived out as something we re required to do with great moral effort and living a life that is both filled and transformed by the Spirit of God. The young monk in the story knew only the first, while the older hermit in the story knew the joyful radiance of life lived in surrender to the Holy Spirit. Many of us, at both an individual level and as church communities, live almost entirely in the first way. As individuals we go to church (even if it s dull); we try reading the Bible and find it dry; we try praying and get distracted; we try serving but get resentful when others don t reciprocate our efforts. At a group level we have meetings to plan strategy, oversee pastoral care, organize worship services, balance budgets and make decisions. In each of these situations we often behave as if the Christian life begins and ends with our efforts. Sometimes out of frustration like the young man in the story we ask, What else should we do? The Bible offers us a vision of a future world transformed by God, but it also anticipates that we, having received God s grace, will also be empowered and transformed by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit. JESUS PROMISED THIS Experiences of the Holy Spirit aren t isolated to the Bible or to stories from the early church. Throughout the centuries individual Christians and communities of Christians have time and again discovered (or encountered) the depths of joy, peace and holy living resulting from an overflow of the Holy Spirit.
After the 17 th Century French Philosopher and Mathematician Blaise Pascal died, his friends found sewn into the lining of his coat a piece of paper with these words: The year of grace, 1654, Monday 23 November...from about half past ten in the evening until half past midnight: FIRE God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Not of philosophers and scholars. Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. The world forgotten, and everything except God... Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. My God...Let me not be cut off from him for ever! Blaise Pascal had discovered the personal presence of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised would be given to those who loved and trusted him. This promise of Jesus is found throughout the New Testament. In John s Gospel we read Jesus promise to his disciples, The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. John 14:26 27 Jesus well known teaching on prayer in the Gospel according to Luke where he says, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you, concludes with the assurance that our Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Luke 11:9 13 Jesus never envisioned us living the life of disciples in our own strength. The Holy Spirit was sent to empower the church on the day of Pentecost, and is still active today to establish the truth of Jesus in our lives, to bring transformation and healing and to guide and empower our activities. CONTROVERSY It s sad that the most life-giving and beautiful truths of the Gospel are often the most abused. Many of us are aware of the historical arguments about
baptism and communion that still divide some churches today, and yet Jesus gave us these to help us grow in our relationship with God and in our unity with each other. In the same way, many Christians today disagree deeply about the continued presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. Some churches teach that the spiritual gifts described in Paul s letter to the Corinthians, including prophecy, miracles and healing, are still available today. Others believe that the Holy Spirit stopped dispensing these gifts with the death of the apostles. The strangest thing about these disagreements is the way the Apostle Paul s teaching to the church in Corinth is used to justify both views, without actually learning from the wisdom Paul offers. I believe the Holy Spirit is active in the church and in the lives of individuals today, and that spiritual gifts are still given for the life and activity of the Christian community. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that transforms our faith from a dull habit into a living flame. Paul s letter to the church in Corinth can t be used to argue for or against particular manifestations of the Holy Spirit because he didn t write his letter for that purpose. Paul embraced the activity of the Holy Spirit, but he wrote to the church in Corinth because some Christians were abusing certain gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate just how spiritual they were compared with everyone else. Paul didn t oppose manifestations of the Holy Spirit; instead he urged individual Christians to exercise them for the good of everyone in the church and not for their own benefit. THE SPIRIT IS FOR THE BODY Instead of focusing on certain experiences of the Holy Spirit, Paul urged the church in Corinth to celebrate the diversity of ways God s Spirit was active in the lives of individual Christians. He did this by describing the church community, not simply as a loose collection of individuals, but as an interconnected body. Understanding the interconnected nature of community by comparing it with a human body wasn t an original idea. Both Paul and the Corinthians would have been familiar with the concept because Menenius Agrippa had used a similar argument several hundred years earlier, when he compared the Greek city-state with a body in order to persuade citizens to stop rebelling against the nobles.
Paul s description works differently though, because he s not comparing the church with just any body. After pointing out the connection between different parts of the human body Paul writes in verse 12, So it is with Christ. He is in other words identifying the Christian community with Jesus by making it clear that the church can be understood as the body of Christ. That is not mean that Jesus was not raised and ascended but only exists now in some vague, symbolic way in the church s collective memory. It does mean that we are representative of Jesus until his return and that he is somehow present and active in us, not just individually but together, in order to continue his saving work in the world. This is not simply a matter of remembering Jesus as a great teacher and trying to be good by following his rules. Paul understood the church, as the assembled Christian community, to be dynamically empowered by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit. Earlier in his letter Paul even connected our ability to voice our faith with the activity of the Spirit by saying, No one can say, JESUS IS LORD, except by the Holy Spirit. In order to emphasize our shared identity in the church, Paul went on to describe (in verse 13) how, even with all our cultural and social diversity, we share in the life of the Spirit. For Christians in Corinth this was true regardless of social status; it was for both slaves and free people. The Spirit is for all Christians. We have this share through our baptism, at which time we become incorporated into the body of Christ by being filled and drenched with the Holy Spirit. LIVING IT OUT IN THE BODY Paul s language has such intensity to it, that even if he was referring to baptism in water, he was clearly not describing an empty bathing ritual. When he wrote, we were all made to drink of one Spirit, he clearly envisioned a way of life that is filled with the Holy Spirit The challenge for some of us will be to embrace that vision by inviting the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives. For others of us the challenge will be just as it was for the church in Corinth; to recognize and celebrate the diversity of ways the Spirit of God is active in the lives of individuals. One of our most undesirable human traits is to look at other people and feel insecure because we don t have what they ve got, or to look at other people
and feel proud because we ve got more than they have. Another tendency is to expect other people to have exactly the same experience as we have had, and if they don t then to somehow try and force such an experience on them. Paul wrote this letter because some of the Christians in Corinth were getting overly excited about one or two particular experiences of the Holy Spirit. They forgot that the real reason the Spirit was sent was to bring the life of Jesus into the midst of the church community and to equip us for the mission of God. We should anticipate and celebrate the more extraordinary gifts the Spirit gives to the church, but we should never forget that throughout Scripture the Spirit is also described transforming the life of all Christians by: Deepening our sense of unity with Christ. Leading us into truth. Helping us to worship God. Guiding our decision-making. Illuminating our Bible study. Motivating us to action. Giving us the right words as we share our faith with others. When the old hermit invited the young monk, to become all flame, he was describing the Spirit-filled life that Paul knew, and that we are all invited to experience today. Jesus never intended us to live the Christian life out of our own resources, but to raise our hands to heaven and ask for the Holy Spirit. [If you would like to receive prayer today, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, for healing, or for any other reason, there will be an opportunity after the service]. BLESSING You are God's servants gifted with dreams and visions upon you rests the grace of God like flames of fire Love and serve the Lord in the strength of the Spirit. May the deep peace of Christ be with you, the strong arms of God sustain you, and the power of the Holy Spirit
strengthen you in every way. Amen.