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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: Spiritual gifts make us one, as we should be Andrew C. Thompson, May 29, 2007
Andrew C. Thompson
By Andrew C. Thompson Special Contributor
In his 1964 book, The Christian Witness to the State, theologian John Howard Yoder writes, "The Holy Spirit is the possession not of a few peculiarly gifted individuals, but of the congregation at large." He writes about the way the church should go about its ministries -- with a unity borne out of the indwelling presence of the Spirit.
It makes me think about the upcoming season of Pentecost.
Pentecost -- like the Holy Spirit -- presents something of a challenge to many Methodists. We're not sure how to deal with it, and we get nervous whenever we come across people who claim to manifest extraordinary "gifts of the Spirit."
Paul's lists
In the last church I served, I liked to read Paul's counsel about spiritual gifts in Romans 4, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 with members of my congregation. In these letters, Paul refers to gifts of the Holy Spirit that range from the fantastic (prophecy, speaking in tongues) to the everyday (administration, servanthood).
When we read those passages together, I always had church members who insisted they did not have a spiritual gift because they couldn't identify with one of the 20 or so specific ones that Paul lists between the three letters. They would get discouraged, thinking they had been left out of the spiritual-gift sweepstakes.
But God has not denied spiritual gifts to any of Jesus' followers, so long as they are a part of the covenant community known as the church. Paul's lists of gifts are not exhaustive. This is shown by the way that they differ from letter to letter, as he uses them in different contexts.
And Paul also wants to make clear that "spiritual gifts" do not refer to magical powers bestowed on individuals. They are gifts that are known and manifested within the church. In fact, they can only be truly used within the church because they are dependent on the power of the Spirit -- a power that is primarily experienced in the gathered community.
So do each of us receive spiritual gifts? Of course we do. For as long as we are one body in Christ and each of us individual members of it, we all have Spirit-led gifts to offer to the community. Our participation in the church itself is a gift, and the particular ways we express our discipleship in that body are constitutive of the spiritual gifts we possess.
Church unity
That is something for us to remember this Pentecost. When we hear once again the magnificent story of the early church in Acts 2, we should remember that the purpose of the Holy Spirit descending was to unite many individuals into one body. When each person heard in his own language, the Spirit was overcoming barriers in order to bring the church together through grace.
And the result of that work was not to engage in any type of spiritual showmanship. It was rather to bring 3,000 souls into the church through baptism (Acts 2:41).
When Paul writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28), he is echoing the power of the Holy Spirit for unity in Christ.
Jesus does not want to save you apart from his church. His call on your life is a call into the community known as the church. There is no such thing as a solitary disciple.
The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the church. Because of that, the church can exist as one body united by grace. That is good news! And when we stick together, through thick and thin, we find that there are ample gifts present among us to help us be the community Jesus wants us to be.
The power of Pentecost is finally a power for the church. For the greatest spiritual gift -- the gift of the Holy Spirit -- is the gift that allows us to live faithfully as the church.
The Rev. Thompson is working on a doctoral program at Duke Divinity School. He blogs atwww.genxrising.com.
Andrew C. Thompson
