1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Epiphany 3- Year C
Some like to talk about “Christ” as a focus of unity. All the various gifts come together in baptism in Jesus’ name. There is no casting out one gift, one human identity. All are one in Christ. Other traditions name other organizational models of unity.
Wherever one falls on the hierarchy of apostles to tongue talkers, followers of a unity based on “Christ” follow one who claimed an even older vision as his job description. So, religious conservatives and liberals and nones, as wonderful as your speculations might be, how are you doing with the poor. Talking about them or living among and as a poor person does? What excuses of working “for” them from a distance are you using? How are you doing with those who are captive in any number of ways from political exiles to the drug addicted to those bound by their culture to those whose brains are wired differently than most to __________? How are you doing with other engagements with the realities of class differences and other ways we divide people out of community?
Regardless of theology, how do the hungry and thirsty fare when you are around? If they are no better off, “Christ” is not your unity. Is this or is this not the year to actually make a move toward activating a gift of greater connection to undergird and organize your specific set of gifts (yes, your entire constellation of gifts, not just a biggie of a limited list). This scripture passage is not for diagnostic purposes but a call to action. If you take a spiritual gifts inventory and identify your key gift, but have not joined it with the gifts of others for the common good of all, you are a prideful gong tooting your own horn and not caring a whit about mixed metaphors much less continuing a creation of community.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/01/1-corinthians-1212-31a.html
The body does not consist of one member but of many. At this point the church does not consist of one tradition but many.
This, of course, leads to a variety of disputes within the church - which is the truest of the traditions. Which is the organizing tradition/law that will eventually bring all the others into line with it?
If we go anywhere but a thanks and a pox on each and every tradition we will have fallen back into the letter-of-the-law trap. The blessings of each tradition pushes said tradition beyond itself into the gray area of proto-tradition. The most helpful of the traditions are those which help us see a bit further, hear a bit deeper, walk a step more, stand higher on their shoulders. The most unhelpful start assigning honor and respect - always, of course, assigning themselves the best of show.
Strive for the largest tradition, the widest interpretation, the grandest hope.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/january2004.html
Knowing where we fit into community is important. Roles are significant.
If we had finished verse 31 we would know that this positioning within community for the sake of the community is important but only prelude to something even more basic -- having our role be connected with our love.
We don't act for the common good only on the basis of what others will get out of our so acting, but because it goes deep within our own life to be grounded with G*D, with love.
Act for good for others only and it won't be long before we get to resentment and hate as we are worn down. Common good needs to take into account the source of action as well as the one benefit of action.
Often we read this passage on a horizontal plane with all the gift connections running back and forth between us. This can get to be rather law oriented and socially determinant. Don't forget to read this from a vertical axis -- a G*D's eye view from above and below.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/january2004.html
Now you are the body of . . .
and individually members of . . .
At first blush this is a wonderful formula. Unfortunately it soon runs afoul others in the same body and confusion as the body is variously understood as a religious experience, national identity, family blood, service organization purpose, or any other corporate identity that might get pitted against another until we are at each other's throats vying for power (Bears and Saints, to use an American football image).
I am that which I am joined to and have both communal and individual identities. Like it or not, being part of the body of Christ puts me in connection with some very questionable characters, including Jesus. To pull my individual Christian identity too closely around me would finally isolate me from every other Christian and to have theirs pulled too closely around me makes me want to give up an identity I have cherished. It is important to claim Christ as larger than any of our Christianities.
As we begin another <a href="http://www.geii.org/">Week of Christian Unity (January 18-25)</a> one might wonder how we are doing after 99 years of the celebration of this week and nearly 2,000 years of this scripture.
It is so easy to get into rankings within a body. Are we talking first Apostles or executively-privileged Presidents, or Father as family head or . . . ? Are we talking spiritual values trumping national values which take family values that in turn ranks higher than . . . ? If I am members of several bodies what happens when they are in conflict, when my patriotism claims my religion?
It is nice to have such a formula at hand to use against others when they don't measure up. It would be even better to have clarity about the limits of such a formula and a way to cut through the "apples and oranges" choices of real life.
How does this work in a world that is increasingly mistaking religion for nationalism and permitting one small segment of family values to smash larger family values by excluding those of a variety of sexual orientations? Between and within any aspect of this formula there are gaps that will only be healed by an application of "the greater gifts. . . ."
Without the greater gifts conversation, this one is fraught with danger.
- - -
I sing a song of the saints of G*D,
patient and brave and true,
who prayed and thought and lived and died
with the G*D they loved and knew.
And one was a Buddhist, one was a Muslim,
one was a Christian, and one was a Jain;
they were all of them saints of G*D, and I mean,
G*D helping, to be one too.[Variation on I Sing a Song of the Saints of God in honor of the Magi who were the best Magi they knew to be.]
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
Jesus was filled with the power of Gift.
You are filled with the power of Gift.
OK, there are varieties of gifts, but, please, with Gift there is no way to measure a greater gift from a lesser gift. Don't bother going there or striving there.
If striving is to be done, may it be that we strive to claim our Gift in this moment so that, "Today my Gift is being fulfilled through . . . ." is our rallying cry. When two or three are fulfilling their Gifts together, community is formed and prayers are responded to.
- - -
Those interested in such as a Gift coming-of-age book would do well to follow the Annals of the Western Shore series by Ursula Le Guin: Gifts, Voices, and Powers.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html