One in the Spirit -- A Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost Sunday (1 Corinthians 12)

Adam Kossowski, Veni Sancti Spiritus

1 Corinthians 12:3-13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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. 

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

*************

                We’ve been waiting for the Spirit to come. Whether we’re ready or not, the Spirit is coming and is here. That period running from the moment of Jesus’ ascension to the day of Pentecost has come to a close (and with it a very strange Easter 2020). The promise made in Acts 1, before Jesus departed, was that before long they would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). With Pentecost that day has come. According to Luke, the followers of Jesus spent the time between the ascension and Pentecost praying and choosing a successor to the fallen Judas so that their number (twelve) would be complete. Then came the date with destiny, the day promised by Jesus.

                It was on Pentecost Sunday, a day when Jews would have gathered in Jerusalem for one of three important pilgrimage festivals. Pentecost is the Greek term for the Jewish festival of the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot). And so as they gathered for prayer that day, the Spirit of God fell upon them, and as the Spirit baptized them, they began to proclaim the Gospel in a multitude of languages so that the crowd below heard the message (Acts 2). As I noted Shavuot was one of the three pilgrimage festivals, along with Passover and Sukkot (Tabernacles). It was both the celebration of thanksgiving for the wheat harvest and a celebration of the giving of the Torah. As a pilgrimage festival, the city of Jerusalem would have been filled with people from across the diaspora. There are several intriguing parallels and analogies between the two festivals that should be kept in mind as we celebrate Pentecost.

Since I’m focusing my lectionary reflections this cycle on the second reading (epistles), we are invited to consider the message for Pentecost that comes from 1 Corinthians 12. First Corinthians 12 to 14 focuses on things of the Spirit. In fact, it is the place we go to understand how the Spirit works in our lives. There Paul speaks about spiritual things, of which he does not want them to be uninformed (1 Cor. 12:1). The lectionary reading begins in verse three and extends to verse thirteen. The section we’re invited to consider begins with the declaration that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). In other words, our ability to confess our faith is rooted in the presence of the Spirit, who empowers us to proclaim the good news to the ends of the earth.

Having made that opening declaration, Paul gets to the practical side of the equation. I should preface this by dropping down to the closing verses of our text, where Paul invokes the imagery of the church as the body of Christ. He reminds us that there is but one body with many members. What is true of the body is true of Christ and therefore of the church. I will come back to the message of verse 13 in a moment, but first let’s return to the middle section of our passage. That middle section is the first of two gift lists in 1 Corinthians 12. I have written a rather lengthy book on Spiritual Gifts titled Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening, (Energion, 2013), I would direct your attention there for an in-depth discussion of spiritual gifts.  

What Paul does here, is describe how there can be unity in diversity in the congregation. Paul tells us that there are a variety of gifts but only one Spirit. There is, he declares, varieties of services, and the same Lord, along with a variety of activities, but one God. While I realize that Paul doesn’t have a fully developed trinitarian theology, we see hints of the possibility here and there in his letters. While I try to be careful about how I conceive of God in trinitarian terms, perhaps we can think in terms of how our own unity in diversity as a community might reflect the diversity that exists within the unity that is God.  

As to the variety of gifts, Paul offers nine in this first list, all of which are activated by the same God in each one. These gifts, which are given to the members of the body for the common good include the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. It appears from the larger context that this gift of tongues is a big issue. Apparently, some prize it above the others (see 1 Corinthians 14). However, while Paul never denies its value, he puts it below those gifts that allow for understanding. The point here is that whatever gift you have been given, it comes from God and its purpose is related to the common good. So, don’t mount your high horse, because there is no hierarchy of gifts. Your gift(s) are there so you can serve others, not so you can rise in stature. Gifts have a purpose, and that purpose, while it might prove to be a blessing, is given for the welfare of the body.

To return to verses twelve and thirteen, after we’ve heard the message that the Spirit brings gifts to us that are to be used for the good of others, we hear the message that there is one body with many members. This reality is rooted in baptism, through which we become one, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free. In other words, as John McClure notes, “all of the usual ways in which people are organized by class, ethnicity, gender, social status, or education are irrelevant within this new creation.  All that is relevant is the way that God’s gifts empower each for the common welfare of the whole” [Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, p. 254]. Over time, the church has often failed to recognize Paul’s message as revealed here. We often follow the lead of the larger culture, just like the Corinthians. Here is a corrective if we’re willing to embrace it. Whatever gift(s) come your way, use them, Paul tells us, for the common good. Remember as well that they come to us from God through the Spirit so we can declare that Jesus is Lord.

Image attribution:  Kossowski, Adam. Veni Sancti Spiritus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56946 [retrieved May 24, 2020]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/8750321716 - Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P..