1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Introduction
Near the end of the movie The Avengers, the villain, Loki is
facing off against the giant, green monster form of The Hulk. As the Hulk grabs
him, Loki yells out, “ENOUGH. You are, all of you, beneath me. I am a god you
dull creature, and I will not be bullied by…” at which point The Hulk thwacks
him against the ground thwack…thwack…thwack and mumbles, “Puny
god.”
We live in a world which lives in fear to ‘puny gods.” Fear,
death, worry and shame stand over us and tell us that we are
‘dull creatures’--and we allow them to control us. But they are impostors. Fear
and death and worry and shame are pretenders dressed up in fake divine costume.
As Captain America says, “There is only
one God and I don’t think he dresses like that.”
Here is the mystery of the church: it is full of super
heroes. We didn’t come out of our mother’s womb as super heroes. Oh, we tried
to act like super heroes. But you know and we know that when you pretend to be
super heroes, you just get beat up. However, when we were born again, when God
gave us his spirit and it transformed us, each of us was given a super power.
The Bible calls these super powers karis-ma
or gifts. And with those super powers, those karis-ma-ta, we have the very real
strength to overcome, to win, to defeat the puny gods.
Why is it that we prefer to live as Clark Kent instead of
Superman, as Diana Prince instead of Wonder Woman, as Peter Parker but neglect
Spiderman? Is it the costume? Or maybe, we have forgotten who we really are? When
the world is at risk, do we honestly long for the cubicle, the classroom, the
kitchen and the minivan? Or is there something else.
I have a theory. I suspect that in many cases it’s the other
super heroes. We don’t like them. Sometimes Sunday morning just isn’t big
enough to hold all of the super egos. So prickly! So sensitive! So bombastic!
So self-protecting! Just like with the Avengers. As long as each one held
tightly to this high opinion of their strength, their intelligence, their
importance, Loki—the enemy--wins.
Just like in the church. When we hold tightly to our opinion
of our strength, our gifts, our smarts, our importance, the enemy—the
Devil—wins. But when we submit ourselves to the great God and work together,
the church is a super power. The world is dying, evil is seducing heart after
heart, but we are worried about what so-and-so said to us, whether they
listened to what I said, or why they were looking at me strangely.
We are broken and selfish people. We are given super powers.
Bringing us together to help save the world seems like a bad idea. What was God
thinking? I mean, seriously, look at you…and me.
It is exactly this topic that Paul talks about in a letter
he wrote to one of the first churches he started, 1st Corinthians.
In the 11th and 12th chapter we find that the people in
that church have discovered their super powers after becoming followers of
Jesus. But, because they are selfish people, like you and me, they have used
their gifts to make themselves look good and important. The gifts have,
tragically, become simply sin magnifiers. Same sinful people, bigger explosion.
Now, in the second half of chapter 12, Paul says, in effect,
“Children, let’s learn how to play nice with each other.”
We Belong Together Because We Share One Spirit (vs. 12-13)
12The body is a unit, though it
is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one
body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit
into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free —and we were all given the
one Spirit to drink.
First: These super powers—these gifts—are given. They
are not natural or innate. No one is born with super powers, but everyone who
is born again has a super power. You don’t plop down a few bennies or your
credit card or say a few rosaries or sacrifice your right ear or anything like
that to get these super powers or to upgrade to a “better” one. We can’t take
any credit for our super power.
Second: These super powers are really a person. It
says “we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” But this isn’t like some
gamma-radiation-mutagenic-viral-spiritual drink. It is not an “it” it is a
“who”. The terrifying part of becoming a follower of Jesus is that you invite
God (big-G God) to move-in to your soul, with access to the real you, with
permission to re-work your spiritual DNA. By opening the door to the Spirit of
God, he unlocks something new. The Bible has several lists of these super
powers, sort of like an X-man catalog.
Third: These super powers should create a super team,
not just a super hero. According to these verses, it doesn’t matter what bubble
fill out in the “ethnic group” survey. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit
into one body—whether Jews or Greeks…”
So, it is not whether Filipino or Chinese or Swedish or Tanzanian blood
(lahi). We stand together in the blood-line of Jesus.
And it doesn’t matter what your income or socio-economic condition, “For we
were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether….slave or free.” Wherever
we started, when we become a follower of Jesus, we belong together.
Do you think that the Spirit invested all of that power in
you just so you could party harder? No! It was so we could party
together, and work together, and cry together, and celebrate together while
expanding the kingdom of God.
We Belong Together Because We Play An Essential Part (vs. 14-20)
Of course, there are some people who try what I call the
Iron Man strategy. They say, “I don’t need anybody else and they really don’t
need me.” But we are an essential part
in the team. Here’s what Paul said:
14 Now the body is
not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say,
“Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that
reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I
am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease
to be part of the body.”
17 If the whole
body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were
an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the
parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19
If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
You may never
have heard of tall Yelena Isinbayeva. As a young girl of 5 years old in Russia,
she started training as a gymnast, setting her sights on one day going to the
Olympics. However, at age 15 she was told she would have to leave the program,
because at 5ft 8½ inches she was considered too tall for the sport. If you had
stopped her life right there, people would have shaken their heads at tall
Yelena, the failed gymnast. Why? Because there was a slot on the Olympic team
and she didn’t fit.
But someone else
looked at tall Yelena Isinbayeva and didn’t see a failed gymnast. Instead they
saw a talented pole-vaulter. Within a year, at age 16, she had won her first
competition, the World Youth Games with a vault of over 4 meters. Within five
years, she had broken the world record and taken the gold in the Olympics.[1]
Every one of us is a
Spirit-enabled gold medalist in something. But sometimes we disqualify
ourselves or other people from the ministry by insisting that we fit into the
pastor-slot or the missionary-slot or the children’s-worker-slot.
But the Bible says God made a
perfect place for you, in the church. Just like the Avengers, if Iron Man or
Thor or The Hulk or Nick Fury backs out, the whole team suffers. I first
learned this lesson from my favorite super hero: Curious George. This little
monkey was always getting into trouble because of his curiosity. One time the
Man with the Yellow Hat was putting together a puzzle and he found that there
was a piece missing. Soon after that, Curious George developed a stomach ache
and had to be taken to the hospital. They took an X-ray and, sure enough, there
was the missing piece. Curious George had eaten it.
It happens to us also. We are the
missing piece. When we don’t work together in the church, it is glaringly
obvious: there is a piece missing. Like Curious George, it also hurts us when
we try to hold it inside and not use it the way it was supposed to. But when
all the pieces are working together, it creates a beautiful picture.
We Belong Together Because We Need Each Other. (vs. 21-26)
Let me put this a different way:
Outside the church you can never be who God made you to be. We need each other!
I am not enough to do what God wants me to do, even with my gifts. I need you
and you need me. The Bible says:
21The eye cannot
say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the
feet, “I don’t need you!” … 24 … But God has combined the members of
the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that
there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal
concern for each other. 26 If one part
suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part
rejoices with it.
Alex Rodriguez, or A-Rod is one
of the highest paid players in major league baseball: $29 million. Baseball
insiders know he’s a big star with a career battering average of .301[2]
I may be a newb at this baseball thing, but doesn’t it seem extreme to pay so
much money for someone who misses 70% of the times he’s at bat. Even Shaq did
free-throws better than that!
But baseball is like life. We
don’t always get a hit—do it right. Even the stars get it wrong a lot of the
time. By myself, I’d have to hit a home run every at bat. But we play as a team
so that, if we string some hits together, back-to-back, we start scoring some runs
and we can win the game.
It is like hospital gowns. You know hospital gowns, right? They have nice floral prints on the front, but down the back they are completely open to the air. People in hospital gowns never like to turn their back on anyone because they are exposed. We all have strengths and weaknesses, like the hospital gown. And we keep trying show only our good side, but our back side is showing somewhere. But here's where the church comes is: when two people in hospital gowns trust each other and stand back-to-back, no one's weak point is exposed.
Conclusion
So, what is it that glues a church full of super-power
wielding, but flawed, people? Just in the next chapter (chapter 13), Paul
reveals what it is: Love. Let me read you the next few verses:
If I speak in the tongues of Nick
Fury and have the aim of Hawkeye, but have not love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of secrets like Black
Widow and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge like Iron Man
and if I have the strength of Hulk or Thor to move mountains, but
have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I have like Colson or
sacrifice myself like Captain America but have not love, I gain nothing. – 1 Cor 13:1-3 paraphrase.
You know what a super hero without love is? Pathetic.
When we don’t love, we remain trapped in the control of the puny gods:
selfishness and fear. Love is the proof that we are no longer trapped by sin,
that we have truly been freed by God.
Maybe this morning, you realize that you’ve never had the
thrill of the Spirit’s power flowing through you. Could it be you’ve never let
Jesus in close enough to do the radical work he needs to do in your life. He died on the cross to make it possible for
flawed, weak people to be transformed into good guys and good gals.
Maybe you’ve been stressed out by church because you’ve been
forcing yourself or other people to be an “eye” or an “ear”. There is a place
for you in the church, maybe not what you or anyone else expected, but tailored
for who you are and where you are. Maybe its time to start a program of guided
experimentation: serving in different capacities for short periods until you
find where your super powers click with the amazing mission of God.
Look around you now: this place is filled with super heroes.
Every one here. Treat them with respect. Forgive freely, they’re flawed.
Apologize frequently, we’re broken. And Love deeply.
