Where are we needed? Where do we belong?
Where do you fit in this world? Where are you needed? Where do you belong?
When I was in my late teens I saw this graffiti on an overpass over a busy road. It said, “Go to work Lemmings”. Car after car would file in under this sign, like lemmings in that computer game, all joining the rat race, all following the rest to get to work on time. Most dystopian futures in books and movies that have nasty dictators, generally treat the common folk as all replaceable units to be used and controlled. People are to find their place in the whole system and to be happy with that. Traditional societies function more this way, caring more about the whole than the individual. Hindus have their caste system where people are in different bands or straters of society, and so where they are born socially, is their place in the world.
But we are not like that are we? Although I hear sometimes when people in the public service look for a change of job, they look for ones at their current level in a different department. If you are a band 6 you can do another band 6 job somewhere else. The theory goes, you, and all your fellow band 6’s can be shuffled around, like parts in a big government machine.
And you know, if you left your job, someone else could fill your place in a week and in six months time people may stop using your name as a scapegoat for why things aren’t working. Does your workplace really need you? As Billy Brag sings, “the truth is it’s a buyers market, they can afford to pick and choose”.
I read that when you retire there is a real struggle to work out who you are, what are you going to do now, are you even needed any more? And then when you have been retired for a long time, you may feel like you are overlooked even more. The world is rushing by, everyone is moving too fast and no one is waiting for your legs to catch up.
Where do you belong, where are you needed? How are you going to live? There is a restlessness to ones life if they haven’t sorted these things out.
We long for connection, community and belonging at all stages of life, and hopefully you find that in church, but that is not always the case.
Today in our passage, Paul is correcting how the church is to operate. Paul is helping the people in a church to get a sense on where they belong, where they are needed. Like truly belong, and truly needed, not just to fill a roster, but to help build up and support Christ’s body, for the common good.
Different and Same (v1-11)
Same Spirit
Paul starts in verse 1Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:1–3 NIV)Paul is writing to correct a bunch of things in the Corinthian church. He is replying to specific questions and issues that have been raised. We don’t necessarily know what these are exactly, but we can guess what they are based on Paul’s response. In this letter a few times, Paul would start a new section starting by saying something like “now concerning X”. He does this in chapter 8 about food sacrificed to idols, about sex in chapter 7, and now he starts on about the gifts of the Spirit, or about being spiritual.
Don Carson thinks their original question could have been something like “is it really true that spiritual manifestation constitutes unfailing examples of spiritual people?” (cited in Into the Word, 1 Corinthians 12).
See, there might have been a fascination with visual evidence of the spirit like speaking in tongues, and the church may have been divided to say that those who have this gift are clearly more spiritual than the others or given a higher status than others. This also may have made their gatherings a little chaotic, and maybe unedifying. So from chapters 12 to 14 Paul is “deprioritising while not delegitimising the gift of tongues.” (Into the Word, 1 Corinthians 12).
And so Paul starts off and says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord are spiritual people. It is the spirit who helps us say “Jesus is Lord”. This phrase “Jesus is Lord” is one of the oldest most basic statements about the faith. It also was a politically loaded statement in the Roman Empire, for “Lord” was a title for Caesar. Saying “Jesus is Lord” is a statement of personal allegiance to a new king, to a new ruler, who is head over all things.
And it is the Spirit who helps us say “Jesus is Lord”. The Spirit has changed us from being pagans, from being dead in sins, to followers of Christ. If you want to know if you are a spiritual person - do you believe that Jesus is Lord, that He is king over all things and will bring about his kingdom? Those who follow the new king, those who obey Him, and those who trust that He has saved them from death, are Christians and they have the Spirit in them.
Once establishing that all Christians have the same Holy Spirit, that all believers are spiritual people, Paul goes on:
Different Gifts
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. (1 Corinthians 12:4–6 NIV)We see that we may have different gifts from the Spirit, but they all come from the same source. “All Christians receive gifts, not just an elite few.” (Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 1 (Theological Perspective))
In these verses, there is even the hint of the Trinity. We have the same Spirit, the same Lord and the same God at work in giving us different kinds of gifts, service and work. Our God is the prototype of the unity-in-diversity that is to be reflected in the church. We have the same God, but we are given different gifts, and these gifts seem to be comparable with service and work.
It can be hard to say what exactly a spiritual gift is. Some gifts are more like roles and responsibilities, like teachers and evangelists. They could be like opportunities and circumstances, such as singleness or marriage or character traits like encouragement, generosity and mercy.
Gifts overflow into action when they are used not for yourself, but for the church.
And we are told what these gifts are use for. Verse 7
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7 NIV)“Christianity is not a religion of spiritual Lone Rangers or narcissists” (Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 1 (Theological Perspective))
We are to use our gifts, not for ourselves, but for the common good. And that, phrase “common good” is as vague as it is broad. It is for all and it is for good. We are to better the community we are apart of and not just ourselves - there is an outward focus here. For construction and not destruction within the church. We don’t consume something called church like we may have done few years back when it all went online, we are to participate in it.
Paul then lists some of the different gifts people may have. In this list he mentions nine gifts but I don’t think this list is exhaustive. At the bottom of this chapter, Paul mentions four more, which some seem to be more role-based. Elsewhere in Romans 12 there are other gifts mentioned. For the sake of time, we are not going to define what each and every gift is, and that task can be quite tricky as there seems to be real overlap with some. But here in this chapter I think Paul is just listing a smattering of gifts to make the point that there are many, they are different and they are to be used for the whole. When it comes to this chapter and this context it is perhaps worth noting that in both lists tongues and interpreting tongues are last. Paul will go on and focus on the two gifts of prophecy and tongues, so maybe stay tuned for that next week.
In verse 11 Paul sums up saying:
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:11 NIV)Since all gifts come from the same Spirit, we can not say our gifts are better than others - simply because they are gifts. We can not take any credit for some special skill we have, no one gift can claim a better status or superiority. They are all given by God as He determines, and He does this for the sake of the whole.
Paul then makes this point with a metaphor about the body:
One and Many (v12-31)
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. (1 Corinthians 12:12–14 NIV)
We read about his speech from first century BC writings (Dionysius of Halicarnassus) where he says:
A commonwealth resembles in some measure a human body. For each of them is composite and consists of many parts; and no one of their parts either has the same function or performs the same service as the others. (cited in The First Letter to the Corinthians 2) Exposition of Implications for Powerful Members of the Body: You Need Me, 12:15–20)He goes on to say that the senate or the politicians are the stomach which nourishes the rest of the body. He was trying to convince the mob that those in power are not really self-serving but are there to help maintain the status quo and to help all the other parts of society function.
Even after Paul this idea of a body for society got picked up. John of Salisbury, who was secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury (who should have known better) writing in 1159 said:
The prince is as the head... The ministers of the word are as eyes to watch…and as the mouth to speak… The judges are as ears… The nobility are as the shoulders and arms to bear the burden of the commonwealth, to hold up the head, and defend the body.… Men of lower degrees are set as inferior parts in the body… (Policraticus cite in Tudor Protestant Political Thought, 1547, p86 by Stephen A. Chavura)In both these examples, they do the exact opposite of what Paul is doing. Paul doesn’t assign which people or roles are which parts of the body, but what he does try and do is say that each part has its place and even urges the well-to-do to give more honour and respect to the weak to stop their divisions. (The First Letter to the Corinthians (2) Exposition of Implications for Powerful Members of the Body: You Need Me, 12:15–20))
Our own bodies are made of many different parts like hands and feet and arms and legs and earlobes and kidneys, etc.. and yet all of those parts make up one body. So it is with the church and the gifts. The church is to be one body, one group of believers, all with different parts to play, to help the body, to help the church to function. None are lesser or greater.
This means if you are part of a church there are two statements that you can not say. You can not say, “I do not belong” and you can not say “I do not need you”.
Belong
Verses 15 and 16Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 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 stop being part of the body. (1 Corinthians 12:15–16 NIV)Diversity is found in the church. We don’t have to be all like-minded, and wired the same way. We can be different and still belong. Normally people find belonging in groups of people who are the same, where they think the same and do the same things, like a book club, or car club or political party. But that is not the case here - here everyone belongs regardless of different skills, and work and service.
The gifts that you have been given belongs in the body. The Spirit has given you a gift that is needed for everyone. We do not to have the same gifts, we are not to be all alike, but what gifts we have are to be used for the rest.
This means you belong here. You are a part of the church, which means you have a part to play.
We also have about 40 Life Groups that meet throughout the week. In these, you can be known and know others in a smaller group setting. This is where you can share your life and God’s word with each other, together.
We have a few groups that have spaces.
8am: There is one that meets on a Monday morning,
there is our seniors fortnightly groups that meet here at church on Tuesdays at 11:30am. This is always growing,
there is another group in Richardson that meets on a Tuesday night.
10am: We have a women's Tuesday night group
10am: We have a women's Tuesday night group
There is another Tuesday night group in Wanniassa
Women on Thursday have also started another group
If you are interested in joining a group, please see me.
Have you heard the challenging question about if our church closed it doors would anyone in the community notice? This can be a fair question. But to make this more personal and more to the point of this passage: If you left our church, would anyone in our community notice? How are you involved in the lives of people here? What are you doing to help encourage and edify the people here onto love and good deeds? How are you supporting people to hear about Jesus?
So just a heads up, at the end of this year, we will start the push for Serve25. This will be an opportunity for you to consider how you might serve in what our church is doing.
At the 8am service, we are in need of more service leaders and prayers. Not to mention those who can use the sound desk and ProPresenter. If we get more people willing to host a morning tea we could bring back CAMEO again.
At the 10am service, we are looking for those who can use the sound desk and ProPresenter. Our church also needs more creach leaders, female youth leaders and those who can play guitar, drums and bass.
Could you help out in these areas? Are you available and willing?
But overall I am deeply thankful and impressed with all those who do serve here. To give you a sense of scale, we have 271 volunteers in 734 positions. The top 3 areas are in cleaning, kids/youth and in Life Group leading.
This year alone we had 48 people who weren’t serving at all who started and more than a 160 or so started serving in at least one new role.
But beyond St Matt’s there are other places where many of you serve, these are in kiros, Scripture in School, Beach Mission, boards, Gedions, FOCUS, and then beyond those other formal places, there are many many informal ways people are caring for each other. These are unmeasurable. Lots of phone calls, and brunches and lunches and catch-ups. Book clubs, and handy work and moving things for others.
So thank you for what you do and may you all consider in how you can be using what you have for others.
You are the body. You each have a part.
You belong. You are needed. You have a gift.
So that, if someone asks you, why do you go to church, you can say, “It is where I belong, it is where I am needed”.
If you are interested in joining a group, please see me.
Needed
Now, the other thing Paul says you can not say to others in the church is that you do not need them. Verse 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!” (1 Corinthians 12:21 NIV)There are to be no divisions between parts of the body. All are needed, all should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers every part suffers. At night, when I broke a rib the rest of my body stayed up with it to sympathise with the pain. The whole body is affected when something hurts.
When people climb up high mountains, they rope themselves together. That way, if one climber should slip and fall, they would not fall to their death. They would be held by the others until they could regain their footing.This means you are needed here. You need others and they need you.
The church ought to be like that. When one member slips and falls, the others should hold them up until they regains their footing. We are all roped together by the Holy Spirit. (1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Church Unity))
Have you heard the challenging question about if our church closed it doors would anyone in the community notice? This can be a fair question. But to make this more personal and more to the point of this passage: If you left our church, would anyone in our community notice? How are you involved in the lives of people here? What are you doing to help encourage and edify the people here onto love and good deeds? How are you supporting people to hear about Jesus?
At the 8am service, we are in need of more service leaders and prayers. Not to mention those who can use the sound desk and ProPresenter. If we get more people willing to host a morning tea we could bring back CAMEO again.
At the 10am service, we are looking for those who can use the sound desk and ProPresenter. Our church also needs more creach leaders, female youth leaders and those who can play guitar, drums and bass.
Could you help out in these areas? Are you available and willing?
But overall I am deeply thankful and impressed with all those who do serve here. To give you a sense of scale, we have 271 volunteers in 734 positions. The top 3 areas are in cleaning, kids/youth and in Life Group leading.
This year alone we had 48 people who weren’t serving at all who started and more than a 160 or so started serving in at least one new role.
But beyond St Matt’s there are other places where many of you serve, these are in kiros, Scripture in School, Beach Mission, boards, Gedions, FOCUS, and then beyond those other formal places, there are many many informal ways people are caring for each other. These are unmeasurable. Lots of phone calls, and brunches and lunches and catch-ups. Book clubs, and handy work and moving things for others.
So thank you for what you do and may you all consider in how you can be using what you have for others.
You are the body. You each have a part.
You belong. You are needed. You have a gift.
About gifts
And we should remember that the gifts we have are good things, given by God, and we shouldn’t be jealous of others, or think that ours are worthless. We also shouldn’t get grumpy with ours, and wonder why others aren’t doing what we are doing.
But we should also remember that the gifts themselves isn’t the end of the matter. There is a more excellent way, and that is a way of love. Love is the secret source in the use of our gifts. The next chapter spells that out. If we have all the so-called “greater gifts” but don’t have love, then we are just an annoying sound, like an early 2000s ringtone. Love is how we are to use our gifts. And I think love is the way we work out our gifts.
Sometimes we might think backwards when it comes to gifts and service. We first look at ourselves and then what is needed. We self-evaluate our gifts and work out if we can serve. But it is perhaps better to think the other way around. To see what is needed and then looking at ourselves to see that we can. One way could be seen as a form of narcissism, starting with self and trying to find a comfortable fit, the other way is looking outward to what is needed and fitting in there, even if it is uncomfortable. Ramez Atallah, who is the general director of the Bible Society of Egypt, critiquing the Western Church’s view of gifts, said that we should first think about the mission God has called us to, and then to step into responsibilities and in that moment God will develop your gifts so you can then serve in that responsibility. He says
So find a need, take on a responsibility and help with God’s mission.
We can be like an Orchestrate that is made up of many instruments, where each one contributes to the whole symphony. Or like a building construction team that is made up of different skilled labourers, like plumbers and electricians and tilers, all working together to build something that lasts.
We are a body, which is organic and dynamic, that is made of many parts. Each part has been given a gift from God to help the whole.
I think the best summary of the use of gifts comes from 1 Peter 4:10-11
But we should also remember that the gifts themselves isn’t the end of the matter. There is a more excellent way, and that is a way of love. Love is the secret source in the use of our gifts. The next chapter spells that out. If we have all the so-called “greater gifts” but don’t have love, then we are just an annoying sound, like an early 2000s ringtone. Love is how we are to use our gifts. And I think love is the way we work out our gifts.
“let’s not go after our gifts. It is the trap of the devil. Go after God’s mission for you and, if it is in the area of your main gifts, praise the Lord. But if it isn’t… He’ll develop gifts for the task he has assigned you.” (Pastoring with Vision, Creativity, and Courage in Hard Places)There is no promise in the Bible that if you have a certain gift that task would be effortless. In fact, the Bible says that it would often be hard work (Gathering Together, p119 by Karl Deenick). Frequently when we serve others it will cause us to suffer, it takes time and effort to do almost anything. But through the ministry of the church, the goal is for others to know Jesus. So while it may feel like death is working in us, we hope that life will be working in others. (Gathering Together, p122 by Karl Deenick)
So find a need, take on a responsibility and help with God’s mission.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV)You belong. You are needed. You have a gift.
We can be like an Orchestrate that is made up of many instruments, where each one contributes to the whole symphony. Or like a building construction team that is made up of different skilled labourers, like plumbers and electricians and tilers, all working together to build something that lasts.
We are a body, which is organic and dynamic, that is made of many parts. Each part has been given a gift from God to help the whole.
I think the best summary of the use of gifts comes from 1 Peter 4:10-11
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10–11 NIV)If you have a gift of speaking, speak encouraging and helpful words from God. If you have a gift of serving, do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.
So that, if someone asks you, why do you go to church, you can say, “It is where I belong, it is where I am needed”.
Heavenly Father,You have called us to be one body in ChristWe thank you for the diverse gifts of the Holy SpiritGrant us grace to honor each other’s gifts and callingsHelp us to use our talents for the common good and the building up of your ChurchTeach us to value each member of the body, knowing that all belong and all are needed.Fill us with love, which binds everything together in perfect unityThrough our one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
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