I Cor. 12: 1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 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.4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to 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. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
Were I a gambling man, I would wager that someone will go home from church today feeling unfilled, unfed, dissatisfied and disappointed, or at best, neutral about it all. The odds are good; it happens every Sunday in every church, even on the same Sundays in the same church where other people go home saying, “That service really spoke to me.”
And they’re both right.
You hear this disappointment with church whenever people say things like, “I’m not being fed at that church” or “filled,” or, “It’s not helping me grow.” And it’s not like we don’t need to be fed, filled, or to grow. God wants to feed us, body, soul and spirit, as Mary put it in her song, “to fill the hungry with good things.” God wants us to grow. God made us for growth. If we, the leaders and servants of this church, are not ourselves growing, if we are not attending to people’s hurts and hungers, that’s a serious breach of commitment toward God and toward you.
But maybe we in the church have set people up for disappointment with ads like what I’ve seen in the newspaper, the yellow pages, and on the church signs like, “Here is the place where you can be filled!” or “Our church: the place where you can grow!” Or “the place where you can meet God!” If ever we encouraged anyone to think of a church sanctuary as “Inspiration Station” where we cruise in and out to get fed and filled with enthusiasm, entertainment, and helpful hints for the week to come, well, that’s not the vision of church that today’s passage presents.
Which brings me to the first question in the message outline: What three actions of God characterize the church in today’s passage? I say actions because this passage does not talk about church as a place, nor about its programs, its pastors, its people, or its worship services, as important as all those things are. Paul uses verbs not nouns—action words–to describe church. Even more surprisingly, Paul here talks about church in terms of God’s actions, more than about human action. So, in answer to that first question, church is God’s action in the world to….well, three things, a) to give, b) to activate, and c) to reveal, or to manifest.
As for the first verb, to give, to give what, precisely? To give gifts, spiritual gifts. These gifts include prophecy, healing, extra measures of faith, wisdom, discernment of spirits, speaking in other languages, or interpreting other languages. There are other New Testament lists of spiritual gifts, like teaching, administration, service and mercy. Today I’m not going to spend time unpacking those gifts individually and explain what each of them is. What’s important this morning is that God gives these gifts; they are not human achievements. This was important for the Corinthian Christians because we read elsewhere in this letter that their worship services were degenerating into show-and-tell sessions, competitions to show who is the most spiritually gifted and powerful among them.
That might feed a few egos, but it won’t feed any spirits. It might inflate a few heads, but it won’t help anyone grow. They were forgetting that these spiritual gifts are gifts from God, not personal rewards nor achievements. So, church is whenever and to whomever God is giving spiritual gifts for the building of persons, and the building of God’s kingdom in this world, when they are exercised for love of others, not for love of acclaim or status.
The next verb is “activate,” as in verse 6: “there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” So God does not only give these gifts, God gives them their power and puts them in motion. That would challenge anyone who might put too much confidence in their own giftedness, or give themselves too much credit for what God does through them.
But the bigger problem usually is that we have too little confidence in what God can do through us, not too much. We’re more likely to compare ourselves with others and sell ourselves short, than to exalt ourselves over others. Either way, it’s not helpful. How often does the discernment committee call someone to say, “A dozen people have affirmed you as someone who could serve on this commission,” and the response is, “Oh, but I could never do it the way so-and-so has done it,” who’s just going off that position.
To which I would like to say, “But we don’t want you to do it the way so-and-so did, because you’re not so-and-so. We want you to do it however God wants to do it through you. Because it is God who gives the gift, and God who activates the gift. God knew what he was doing when he made each of us and gifted us in certain ways. And when we make mistakes and come up short, as we will, then remember, in the words of G.K. Chesterton, “Anything worth doing is worth doing even poorly.” Besides, there’s nothing in today’s passage about perfection, but everything about the joy of participation. Participation with God, and participation with each other.
Which brings us to the third verb: “manifest,” as in “to reveal,” or “display.” Okay, technically, the passage uses a noun form of the verb, manifest, “manifestation.” But this is still an action, not just a thing, an action of God, the action of God to make manifest, or to reveal, Jesus. If anyone should wonder then, Where is the Risen, living Jesus present, active and visible today? What’s the proof that Jesus ever walked the earth? Look at whenever and to whomever his Spirit is giving and activating gifts for ministry, wherever his Spirit gives and activates ministry gifts that strengthen people and their relationships, so serving the common good. Then and in those ways the Spirit is manifesting Jesus even today.
When that happens, we will grow, feed others and be fed, spiritually. Which brings us to the second question in the outline: How do we grow, spiritually, I mean? We grow spiritually in ways similar to how we grow physically: by being fed, and by exercising, stretching and moving our spiritual muscles. One doesn’t work without the other. Feed us without exercising, and that’s not real, healthy growth; it’s just getting heavy. Exercise without feeding, and that won’t last long.
We are fed for growth whenever other people exercise their spiritual gifts on our behalf. Like when someone, with a gift for teaching, teaches us. Or when someone with a gift of compassion or consolation visits, comforts and encourages us. Or when someone with a gift of wisdom listens to us and counsels us. When God’s Spirit manifests Jesus through such spiritual gifts, then we are being fed.
The exercise, stretching and moving necessary to our growth comes whenever we use our spiritual gifts, developing them in practice and in relationship with others. So, if we have what the Bible calls a gift of administration, then every time we exercise that gift prayerfully and lovingly, we grow. We never get it perfect–God has reserved the quality of perfection for himself—but we can always get it better, and that means we’re growing.
But if you’re starting to wonder, How can we grow, through the feeding and exercise of our spiritual gifts, during just an hour and fifteen minutes on just a Sunday morning per week? we’re on the same page. The answer is, We can’t. And that’s one reason why we sometimes come home from a Sunday morning worship service feeling as hungry, empty, lonely and thirsty as when we came. Because no Sunday morning worship service can provide everyone the kind of personal, healing, helping touch from the Spirit and his gifts that everyone needs. Not even if you heard the world’s best sermon, and the world’s best choir sang for us.
Nor is this a proper setting to have everyone contribute and exercise all their spiritual gifts. Not if we want to get home in time for work tomorrow. Not when there are160 of us. There are plenty of other good reasons to gather here, worshiping, on a Sunday morning, for God’s sake as well as ours. But to fill all the holes and feed all the hungers in our hearts, and to stretch and exercise our spiritual gifts so that we might grow, some of that can happen here on a Sunday morning, but not all of it.
But don’t despair; I see such exercise and feeding happening other times throughout the week, as we pray and read the Bible, as people contribute and receive of their gifting in Sunday School classes, or in service and ministry to the community, in hospitality shown in our homes, in those times when two people open up to each other and say, “Yeah, I’m struggling with that, too; can we check in with each other this week, and pray for each other?” Some of our commission meetings have moments and elements of mutual ministry and encounter with God through the giving and receiving of our spiritual gifts. Not all the gifts of the Holy Spirit that the Bible mentions are for our weekly gathering for worship. Many, if not most of them, can only be exercised in face-to-face relationships, wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name. There and then you also have church.
Which brings me to the last question: What about small groups? What do they have to do with spiritual growth and spiritual gifts? By small groups I mean any regular gathering of people committed to meet with each other for a specific period of time for a ministry that they have covenanted to do together. Usually, it’s a ministry to each other, such as a six people in a Bible study helping each other deal with divorce, or with adult children in crisis. Another really basic small group would the marriage mentoring program the Pastoral Leadership Team and I are hoping to get off the ground, in which one engaged couple, or a newly-wed couple, meet regularly with a couple who have been married for more than a few years, for mutual encouragement and education.
Or they could be less formal. Remember phone booths? And how telephone numbers were scrawled on them, none of which you should call? Unless it was for Bill W. That was code language for any recovering alcoholic, struggling with his desire to drink, or with a recent relapse. Call Bill W. and you’d get another recovering alcoholic on the line to listen and help talk your head back on straight. Both parties in that call would say that they grew and were strengthened by that exchange. That’s a small group in its barest minimum of two.
I ask that question about small groups because, 1) Zion’s Pastoral Leadership Team and I believe in small groups and wish to encourage them; and 2) I find small groups to be one of the best ways to help people grow spiritually, because they put us in the kinds of relationships where we are most likely to grow, again, by being fed from other people’s spiritual gifts, and being stretched by using our own spiritual gifts.
Every church has small groups already, whether they know it or not, but not always good ones. Without intending to, we can end up with small groups that divide more than they unite, which stifle our growth rather than aiding it, like when they’re unofficially, informally organized around a political or theological agenda, or a grievance, or to protect a secret or a family’s power. Every church has churches within it, so all the more reason for us to be intentional about them.
Some people have told me, “Small groups? Been there, done that, and it didn’t work.” I won’t argue with that. Especially not if you were in a church where they said, “Okay; Everyone with last names A to D, you’re now in one small group; everyone with last names E to G, you’re in another one.” Or “those of you in these two zip codes, you’re in this group.” And if you asked, Why? the only answer was, “Because small groups are the latest thing; we’re told they make churches grow.”
Then, two years later, people with those last names or in those two zip codes looked at each other sheepishly in church or at the grocery store and asked, “Were we supposed to be still meeting?” And “What was that all about?”
But here’s an example of a very successful, powerful small group experience I have had: After one gentleman’s funeral, I visited with his widow, and from that visit I got the idea of getting her together with some other women who had also been widowed over the previous four or five years. I also found a very good Bible study resource for bereaved and widowed persons. I convened that group, but I quickly found out that with prayer and a little preparation, the meeting could basically run itself. Or rather, as people opened up and shared their feelings and experiences, the Holy Spirit was running the meeting. After the first meeting or two, other members took turns leading the meeting. Sometimes I wanted to take my shoes off in those meetings, for it felt like we were standing on holy ground. There were eight or ten sessions in the guide, and when they were up, so was the small group. It didn’t need to last forever. But these survivors continued to bless, feed and stretch each other in informal ways, apart from any small group meetings.
The next year, another recently widowed person was looking for support, so we started that small group again, but with a different resource. And the woman who was newly widowed the year before turned out to be an amazing support and resource person for the newest member. Seeing her relate to the newly bereaved, again I thought of taking my shoes off. The Spirit was feeding and filling someone else through the exercise of her gifts.
I speak for the Pastoral Leadership Team of elders and both of us pastors when I say that we have an interest in seeing small groups grow and succeed here at Zion Mennonite Church. No, we’re not going to divide Zion into mandatory small groups and tell you who goes where and when. We’re going to wait and pray for the Holy Spirit to urge people to come forward with a passion, a concern, some need or some subject or topic or theme that he or she wants to explore or address in a small group, and on the Spirit’s timing. If it’s something in line with Zion’s vision and mission, then we will help you publicize it and connect with others who come forth and say, “Yeah, I need help on that, too,” or “Yeah, I care about that, too.” Come with a resource that will guide your group, like a Bible study guide or a book. Or we can help you find one.
We’ll need to know when you want to start it, and when you want to stop it. The stopping part is just as important as the starting. The last thing you want is for people to lose interest or wonder how long this will go on and start failing to show up. If you say, “This will go for three months or ten sessions,” you can then review if you want to keep going or not, and if some people say, “Yes, Let’s keep going,” good for you!
Every small group needs someone to convene it, but it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to control it. Still, there needs to be someone who puts forth the vision and who can say, “The buck stops with me” for its going forward. Someone who makes sure the group gets started, who makes sure that every meeting gets started and ends on time, who takes the responsibility to ask, “Where are we going to meet?” and “Who will help me lead this?” But just as importantly, the convener asks, “Who can help lead this?” and “Who wants to take a turn leading this?” Because some day, the leader is going to wake up sick, or go to her daughter’s graduation, and if the group can meet without the convener and leader, again, good for you. In fact, if someone else comes out of a small group saying, “I can’t wait to start my own,” our wildest prayers have been answered.
Do that and you won’t be on your own. We on the Pastoral Leadership Team will be every small group convener’s support group, cheerleaders, coach and sounding board. We’ll pray for you, check in with you, listen to you, celebrate with you when things are going well, and consult with you if things are not going well, say, if someone is monopolizing the meeting, distracting the group from its business, or is present only in body, but absent in mind and spirit.
But that kind of disenchantment and disaffection are less likely to happen in a smaller, face-to-face group of twelve people or less, who covenant for a certain time to support each other, hear each other, love each other, share with each other, and receive from each other of their spiritual gifting, and respect all matters of confidentiality. You never know, in the kingdom of God, just what the effects of such smaller, short-term relationships and ministry can be. Most of the earliest Anabaptist gatherings and churches were more like small groups than like an assembly of this size.
Then there was a small group meeting in London one night, in a house on Aldersgate Street almost three hundred years ago, where a man, struggling with great doubt and deadness in his soul, attended a study of Martin Luther’s short book, A Preface to Romans. Sometime in the course of that meeting, something happened. As he put it, “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” and the change in him changed the world. That man was John Wesley, and he later instituted a method for small groups meetings on a regular basis. And that’s how we got Methodism.
So, let’s not let size fool us. The true measure of a church is not its seating capacity but its serving capacity. That is, our capacity to serve each other and the world with the gifts God has given us, for the common good. And our openness to being served, by the gifts that God has given others.