For the Common Good

At church today, we heard another great sermon from one of the Pastoral "Triumvirate” at First Lutheran.

This time the discourse was delivered by the Rev. Kent Shane, our associate co-Pastor. His fresh perspective shed wonderful new light for my wife and me on the subject matter – the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The sermon text, taken from the lectionary, was the first 11 verses of I Corinthians 12. The common, and usual, focus in these verses (and about which my wife and I were most familiar) is on the gifts of the Spirit, and, often, on who has what gift. All of that is well and good.

Pastor Kent, however, pointed out some interesting contrasts to the familiar. The first occurred in the initial verse, and it turns out that Bible translators may have caused some inadvertent blurring.

Most translations, including the NRSV which we use in worship, say, in verse one, “now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters…” Pastor Kent observed that the original Greek, instead, simply says “spiritual things” (or as he mentioned with a wry smile, “spiritual stuff” in our younger vernacular).

The distinction is subtle, but the effect of the latter is to take the emphasis off of “gifts of the spirit” (and our natural focus on what particular “gift” we might have) and to place the focus where it probably should be – on the Holy Spirit and his appropriation of things, or stuff, (gifts, talents and services) within the body of Christ.

The rest of the text goes on to describe how there are “varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit”; how there are "varieties of services, but the same Lord”; and how there are "varieties of activities, but the same God activates all of them in everyone.”

Pastor Kent suggested that we can benefit from this text by realizing that the Holy Spirit is the one who works in each of us “for the common good” (v 8). It’s a wonderful picture of how the body of Christ should function.

The good news is that we can experience the grace of God every day as we participate in the activities of that body, by effecting our gift, service or activity “as the Spirit chooses” (v. 11). Thanks be to God.