God Must Laugh

Saugatuck Dunes State Park. Photo by norjam8 via Flickr.

Good news! We’ve reached a milestone in our life together. This week, I received my first complaint. This is a good thing. It means the honeymoon is over and the marriage is beginning. It means you know me well enough to have a critique, you care enough to say something rather than just leave, and you expect me to stay long enough for it to be worth the effort. This is a very good thing. But any time we start a new thing, it’s good to lay some ground rules. The rule here is biblical, which means it is very simple, it’s not very easy, and it works. It’s from the gospel of Matthew 18:15-17.

What it means for us is that I have no interest in anonymous feedback. I’m not your average pastor. On Monday mornings, I hike with the Lambs. On Monday nights, we open our home to anyone who wants to sign up for dinner. In fact, you don’t have to sign up. Come on over, just don’t expect the house to be clean. On Tuesday mornings, I talk politics with the Butler Street boys at the Annex. On Wednesday nights, I’m at the Corner Bar working on my sermon. During regular office hours, my door is always open to visitors, and I will stop what I’m working on to talk with you even if it means I have to play catch-up later.

If you’re busy, and spending time with you means going where you are and working alongside you, I’ll do it. I don’t think you’d find too many other pastors who’d make you that offer. I don’t hide in my study, and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. So, please do me this one courtesy. If you have something to say, say it to me. Don’t let someone else carry your concern to me, and don’t pass along anonymous suggestions.

In a hierarchical church, conflict is easy. I’m in charge, and you’re not. If you don’t like it, leave. In a church run by elders, conflict is easy. The elders decide the issue behind closed doors. But in a Congregational church, we keep our stuff out in the open. It’s messy, and it’s hard, but it works.

Suppose you have an issue with the way I preach. The easy thing would be to complain about it to someone else. You get to vent, and if they tell me, I might even make a change. Here’s the problem. You vented, but you didn’t face the problem, so you don’t really feel better. The person you dumped on now shares your burden. And if anyone tells me, I’m hearing it secondhand, without any context or explanation. I might misunderstand your concern and make a change that actually makes things worse!

Here’s the other problem. Complaining is a force multiplier. You make the same complaint to 12 different people, and only half of them come to me. Now I think there are 6 people out there with your problem. Since when does one person get six votes in a Congregational church?

Suppose you do the really difficult thing, and say it to my face. Now we have a chance for a conversation. Honestly, how often does anyone really listen to what you have to say? That alone may make you feel better. Maybe you’ll hear my response and you’ll agree. Maybe we’ll just agree to disagree, but you’ll walk away from that conversation feeling better. That’s how it is when we follow the book. It’s simple, it’s hard, and it works.

Speaking of the book, let’s get back to today’s reading. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. That doesn’t mean much to us, but in Bible times, Corinth had a reputation. It sat on an isthmus between the larger northern and southern sections of Greece. This means it had a port on it’s east, a port on it’s west and a trade route running down the middle. Which means? Right, Corinth made Saugatuck look like Disneyworld.

Paul is talking to the church of Corinth, converts from wild living, and he says, “You used to be pagans, and you were led astray, trying to get advice from mute idols.” So his instructions answer very basic questions. How do I know if the voice speaking in my heart is really God? If someone says she’s a prophet, how do I know if it’s true? If someone has a spiritual gift, like the ability to speak other languages, should we put him in charge?

Paul deals with the more important questions first. How do we know if God is really speaking? His answer is simple: incarnation and trinity. Of course, he doesn’t use those words, because those words didn’t exist yet, and even if they did, he’s speaking to baby Christians, but that’s what he says. Look at the text.

No one with the Spirit says, “Jesus be cursed.” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord” except by the spirit. The word Lord was a title claimed by Caesar that meant he was a living God. When Christians were arrested, it was specifically because they said, “Jesus is Lord”. It was treason. So to say, “Jesus is Lord” is to acknowledge the Godhood of Jesus. The word we eventually created for that concept is incarnation.

Back to the text. Many gifts, one spirit. Many services, one Lord. Many activities, one God. This is what we call a trinitarian formula. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, in this case presented in reverse order because the topic is spiritual gifts, manifestations of the Spirit’s work within us.

So how do you test the spirits? If a priestess tells you you’re going to die next week unless you pay her money to remove a curse, ask her how she feels about Jesus. If she says, “Who?” or, “He’s one good teacher among many” don’t be afraid. But if she says, “When I look at Jesus, I see God as God truly is,” take her seriously.

Obviously, we don’t meet many priestesses today, but experts and gurus abound. We don’t suffer curses, but we know addiction. And what about the cults that prey on young people? Does this expert honor Jesus as Lord, or put himself at the same level. Does this habit honor the Spirit that lives within me, or does it destroy my body and warp my mind? Does this cult honor God our Father whose gracious love knows no limits, or do they use duty, shame, fear and guilt to ensure obedience? This book may be old, and it may be hard, but it still works.

Now that he’s covered the basics, Paul moves on to Spiritual gifts. When we accept the love offered to us in Jesus, we free the Spirit to work within us, and that Spirit shows itself through spiritual gifts. Imagine yourself sitting in our chapel right now, looking at the stained glass window. How many colors do you see? Too many to count. How many lights make all those colors? One. The light from one sun interacts with the uniqueness of each shard of glass, resulting in shades and hues too numerous to count, to beautiful to describe, and too unique to duplicate.

Paul gives a list of Spiritual gifts, not an exhaustive list, but ones the Corinthian Christians might experience. And notice how he lists them. The subtle, hidden gifts come first. The flashy gifts come last. He makes a similar list later in the letter, and he does the same thing, so it’s intentional, which probably means he’s correcting a specific error. People were claiming priority for certain gifts, or deferring to those whose gifts were miraculous. Paul instructs them to do the opposite.

What spiritual gift makes the top of Paul’s list? Wisdom. There’s an old gamer quote that says, “Intelligence is the ability to tell it’s raining. Wisdom is the sense to come inside.” Intelligence is rare enough, but wisdom is gold. Yet, how does our society value wisdom? Follow the money and the attention. Who gets the money, the people with the wisdom to get us out of this mess, or the people foolish enough to get us here in the first place? Who gets the attention, the people wise enough to make good decisions, or the people foolish enough to make poor choices and more foolish enough to get caught?

How does this church value wisdom? Do we spend more time honoring our elders, or wishing for “fresh blood”? We don’t need new people; we need to live out of our gifts. If we live out of the gifts of God’s Spirit, we’ll be less stressed and more effective. Imagine that. Do less. Accomplish more. If we live out of our gifts, the growth takes care of itself.
So what’s your gift? Paul lists a few here: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. If you want to know more about them, ask me later. They’re pretty straightforward, but we’re short on time.

This isn’t the complete list. There is no complete list, because there is no limit to the Spirit. So what’s your gift? If you don’t know, that makes you normal. That’s part of why we come here each week, because it’s easier for our friends to see the truth in us than it is for us to see it in ourselves.

The Spirit lives in each of us, that’s why we all get one vote and nobody gets two. The Spirit lives in each of us, that’s why we all have a gift to share. Nobody gets to be in charge, and nobody get’s to be entertained. The Spirit lives in each of us, that’s why we strive for unity without uniformity. It’s that simple. It’s that hard. And it works.

Benediction: We are a stained glass window. God’s light shines through each of us, but our imperfections and limitations only allow certain aspects of that light to shine through. If you look up close, you’ll see beauty, but until step back, you’ll never get the point. Each of those shards was arranged by a master, each in it’s place, none more important than another, each vitally important its own way. Alone they’re beautiful. Together, they’re art. May God’s light shine through you this week. May we be a living work of art that gives beauty to the world and glory to the creator.