Eric Lemonholm

January 17, 2010

2 Epiphany C

Isaiah 62:1–5; Psalm 36:5–10; 1 Corinthians 12:1–11; John 2:1–11

Joining Hands for the Common Good

This is the season of Epiphany, the season when we celebrate the light of God that has shined in the darkness of the world in Jesus our Lord.

During this season, we are going to focus on how we live as the body of Christ and shine with God’s light through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are especially going to focus on Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, from chapters 12 through 15.

The church in Corinth was a church in conflict.

Conflict is not new to the Christian church – as soon as Jesus’ disciples shared the good news of the resurrection and started forming communities of followers of Jesus, there was conflict.

Christians are still human, still sinful, still limited in understanding and wisdom and love.

Church conflicts are not surprising, but rather predictable.

We see the world, one another, and the Bible as through a distorting mirror, dimly.

It is no wonder that we have conflicts in the church, just as we do in every other arena of life.

The question is, how do we overcome them? 

How do we resolve them?

How can our unity be restored?

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

As followers of Jesus, our unity does not come from having the same political or social backgrounds or beliefs.

There’s an old saying: If you ever meet anybody who thinks like you do, you’re lucky; if you ever meet two, you’re blessed. You’ll never meet three.”[i]

Kathleen Norris, a writer from rural North Dakota, in her book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, talks about “organized religion.”

She writes: “I have begun to wonder what people mean, exactly, when they say they have no use for ‘organized’ religion. ... I have come to suspect that when people complain about ‘organized’ religion what they’re really saying is that they can’t stand other people. At least not enough to trust them to help work out a ‘personal’ spirituality.

How can they possibly trust these unknown others, people with whom they may have little in common, to help them along on their religious journey? ...

“Joining a church is not like joining a hobby club; you will find all sorts of people there, not all of whom will share your interests, let alone your opinions.

But there is a vast difference between the giant abstraction called ‘organized’ religion and religion as people actually live it .... [religion] organized enough to keep a city church going, one that offers an AIDS support group, perhaps a soup kitchen, services to the elderly and, wonder of wonders, the Eucharist [Holy Communion] itself.

In the rural area where I live, churches are still the only institutions capable of sustaining community ministries such as a food pantry and a domestic violence hotline.

But they provide something more, that even the most well-intentioned ‘social services’ cannot replace. It is called salvation, but it begins small, at the local level, in a church that provides a time and space for people to meet a God who has promised to be there. People are encouraged to sing, whether they can or not. And they receive a special blessing, just for showing up.”[ii]

Our unity comes not from thinking alike, but from the one Holy Spirit within us, who creates faith in Christ in us.

Last week, we heard this from Titus 3:

⁴But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. ⁶This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 God has poured God’s Spirit richly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, through the water of rebirth and renewal that is our baptism.

Though we come from different perspectives and see the world through different lenses, yet we have one Spirit within us – the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.

I hear the Trinity in those verses, God as Three-in-One.

·         There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.

·         There are varieties of services, but the same Lord – Jesus.

·         There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.

We have different gifts.

We have been called to serve others in different ways.

We are energized to perform different activities. 

And yet, all of those differences flow from the same source, the same God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:7: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

If everyone had the same spiritual gifts, then our community would be seriously lacking.

Our different gifts complement each other’s gifts.

Note the one purpose of all our different gifts: for the common good.

God gives us gifts so that we can share them.

The Spirit works through our different gifts in many and various ways for the common good of all.

One of the conflicts in the church in Corinth was about spiritual gifts.

Some people thought that their spiritual gift was somehow more spiritual than others’ gifts.

Paul lists some spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11:

To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom,

and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,

⁹to another faith by the same Spirit,

to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

¹⁰to another the working of miracles,

to another prophecy,

to another the discernment of spirits,

to another various kinds of tongues,

to another the interpretation of tongues.

¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

It is the Spirit who chooses our individual gifts and gives them to us – that is why they are called spiritual gifts.

This year, we will work on discerning our spiritual gifts.

Each of us has gifts.  You have a spiritual gift, whether you know it or not.

No one’s spiritual gift is more important than another’s, but everyone’s gift is important.

It’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday.  King once said, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

We relate to God and others as individuals, but never only as individuals.  We are connected to one another – both as members of the church and citizens of the world.

When people are suffering anywhere, that affects us – or ought to.

This comes to our attention dramatically in times like these, after the earthquake in Haiti.

We can’t begin to imagine the scale of the devastation.

It’s already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with almost no infrastructure, no functioning government and little private industry.

And now, there is widespread destruction, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people dead or dying – and it’s hard to even get help into the country.

The International Disaster Response of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has already pledged $600,000 in direct aid to Haiti.  That amount will increase as the offerings from local congregations flow in.

People on the ground in Haiti, like Miquette Denie of TeacHaiti, who is working so hard to rescue and care for survivors, need our help now and in the days and years to come.

We can do more working together than we can on our own.

Here’s a story:

A little boy wandered from his South Dakota home some years ago. The parents couldn't find him. State police, Boy Scouts, neighbors and others joined in the search.

For three days these hundreds of people moved through the prairie, hoping to find the boy before he succumbed to the elements.

On the morning of the fourth day, one of the searchers said, "Let us get organized in one long line. We'll join hands and sweep up and down the prairie until we find the boy. He can't have gone very far. "  

They formed a line a quarter of a mile long. They made an impressive sight as they began to move through the prairie holding hands.

On the third sweep they found the boy. The cold prairie nights had taken their toll. He was lying dead, in a small ditch behind some brush.

Gently the boy's body was carried to where the mother was waiting. When they put the dead boy in his mother's arms, there was complete silence for a moment.

Then she looked up and said: "Why didn't you join hands sooner? Why didn't you join hands sooner?"

Why didn't we?[iii]

Now is the time for us to join hands for the common good, to reach the world with the love of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit within and among us.

Our neighborhood, our city, our world, Haiti, do not have time for us figure everything out and agree about every issue.

It is time to join hands and sweep the world with God’s love – starting here and now, with one another.

Amen.