Sunday 19th January – Activated by the Holy Spirit – Pastor Adrian Kitson

As we head into another year together, we hear some words about being church from Paul to that interesting congregation in Corinth.

Just like us, they were facing an uncertain future.

For us human beings, the future is always uncertain. We just cannot see it 100% clearly. For us Christians, we can’t see our future, but we know some pretty good promises of God that will always sustain us through whatever comes.

Every age demands different things from people like us – a congregation of Christians in Jesus’ mission. Things always change. Paul knows this and says we always need to adapt to change so we can continue to ‘be all things for all people so that some might be saved’ (1Corinthians 9:22)’.

One of the things many people who think about the current state and challenge of the Christian church in the West say is that congregations like ours need to pivot. In this 21^st century we need to follow the Spirit’s leading to move from a clergy led and lay supported way of doing mission and ministry to a lay led and clergy supported way of doing our ministry and mission.

So, the challenge is to transition from the Pastor being the one who is seen to be the only one doing the ‘real important ministry’ with support from the people to the Pastor being much more the support act for the people of God doing the ‘really important ministry’.

This is challenging for us all.

For pastors, it means being like a farmer letting go of the reigns of the farm to the son or daughter enough to trust them and see them grow into it, at the same time as not being present or uncaring or reneging on leading and supporting them.

As people, it means taking the weight of ministry and mission of my church community and not simply being a consumer of what is offered by the Pastor an others. It is moving from the spectator seats in church life to the playing field of my church’s life and work.

Either way, using one’s gift, as Paul urges the Corinthains to do here – spiritual or otherwise, costs us, and so it should since we have been paid for with a very high price by this Saviour of ours.

As I hear these words of Paul to the congregation in Corinth, I believe this is the way it was always meant be anyway – Those called to teach and preach supporting the people in their works of ministry and mission, not the other way around.

I find great encouragement for us as we step into another year of mission with Jesus, all powered by the same Holy Spirit with me being the support person for you and the use of your gifts for others, way more than you seeing yourself as the support person for me using my gifts for others. Tere is a bit of both in this but the emphasis in Paul’s words here (and elsewhere) are definitely on people like me doing all I can to ‘equip the saints for the works of service God has already set up for them to do”.

As we might have heard before, the Corinthian church was a vibrant community where people received and operated in varieties of gifts from the Holy Spirit.

But, we can tell from what Paul says here, they had a bit of trouble working out how to operate in unity and love with these gifts. Nothing new there!

Notice how Paul does not issue a direct, strong emotional charge against the Corinthians, saying something like: “You Corinthians are wrong.” Rather, he says: “I do not want you to be uninformed.” In other words, he is saying, “You could know more and do better”.  No shaming here. Just an invitation to learn. That is the gospel way.

Straight away he gets to the truth of who they (and we) all are – idol making and chasing flawed human beings:

Paul means literal idols in your house with candles being lit and prayers being prayed. For us, idols are harder to spot – anything or anyone we place our trust in for our wellbeing and future hope more than Jesus and his promises.

But also straight away, Paul gets to the other side of the truth about us. God, in his amazing grace has given us his very best gift – his Son, Jesus, to make us new by winning forgiveness and true reconciliation with the Father for us. We are now under the Holy Spirit’s life and leadership.

Paul wants the people to know that nothing the Holy Spirit does can ever be divorced from that man, Jesus, and all he did and said and still does and says. It seems like some in the Corinthian congregation had divorced the Holy Spirit from Jesus. Believing that the Holy Spirit was somehow his own person doing his own thing – some kind of magic spiritual power at work without clear connection to all that Jesus did and taught.

Paul makes it clear that it is inconceivable that the Spirit does its own work apart from God. And more. The Spirit of God also has to do with Jesus and confirms his work. That is what Paul means when he says;

“Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

Now Paul gets practical. He gives seven truths:

1. “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (12:4).

These gifts do not come from within you or me. They are gifted by the Spirit.

Yes, there are many gifts, but yes, they all come from the same source. So, no one can boast or claim superiority over another. We are all dependent on the Spirit for any gifts we may have. Very humbling!

The Spirit gives different gifts to different people. Apparently, this is what a community of Christians in Jesus’ mission need.

“The utterance of wisdom,”

“the utterance of knowledge,”

“faith,” “gifts of healing,”

“the working of miracles,”

“prophecy,”

“the discernment of spirits,”

“various kinds of tongues,” and

“the interpretation of tongues.” (12:8-10).

This is going to take a lot of acceptance, humility and mutual support!

The Holy Spirit obviously is not into excessive individualism or flagrant elitism that does not build up the whole community.

2. “There are varieties of services, but the same Lord.” (1 Corinthians 12:5). Here, “services” is a translation of the Greek diakonia, which we would call service or ministry. So everything we do here are part of diakonia (serving). Whoever does the work of the Spirit or whatever is done in the church needs to reflect the work of Jesus, who is the foundation of the church. His servant serving is the tenor of our use of whatever gifts the Spirit gives us.
3. “There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12:6). God is the source and activator of anything good in any of our giftings. God is the energema (energy). All serving, personal or communal, is activated by the same God.

This is a challenge. We can take matters into our own hands in a nano-second and find ourselves doing and saying all kinds of things that may or may not be energised by the Lord. They are just us, expending energy for our own purposes or needs. So, here is where living in a church community comes into its own. We test each other. We are a natural test for each other. I am sure that is why Jesus established communities of us. We need each other to stay straight, true, in tact, serving well.

So, whatever works we do around here or whatever gifts they receive from the Spirit and use, they must know that their works need guidance from the Father and from Jesus through their fellow disciples.

4. “… For the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). There is one purpose for all or any of your God-given gifts – Your fellow Christians. Gifts are not to be used for self-promotion or selfish reasons. Rather, they must be used for strengthening the community.
5. “All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” (1 Corinthians 12:11) In other words, you don’t get to choose your gifts. You only get to choose how you use them. It is the Holy Spirit who has chosen you and chosen your giftings and his selection of you and the gifts he allotted to you must have something to do with what this church community needs.

So, the purpose of your giftings is to make this church stronger and useful to more people. My role is to support you in that with teaching, preaching, leading liturgy and caring.

I can see a community of gifted people serving in love as a lay led and clergy supported church doing our ministry and mission. I think that is really exciting and needed.

I can see a St Petri that is a community of God’s people serving in their gifts and me supporting them in any way I can – leading liturgy, administering the Sacrament, teaching the Word, proclaiming to good news, pastorally caring…. But all in support of the real ‘ministers; the real leaders, the real gifted people – all of you. Sounds like Paul’s vision of church to me.

I wonder whether you will allow it? I wonder where God wants you to fit? I wonder what you are doing with the giftings the Spirit has given you and how we can give space for you to find ways to build us up by using them with a servant heart?

I guess we will find out as we are;

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