In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Church is a funny thing isn’t it? I am often amazed that it has lasted for 2000 years and that in often spite of itself – it continues to draw people to worship in community. Despite the fights and the pettiness that sometimes marks our life together, despite the mediocrity that sometimes marks our worship or our work, the church continues to exist and be a source of strength, comfort, challenge, hope and unity for many people.

St. Boniface, once said, “The church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on course.”
      
I have to admit though that despite Boniface’s stirring words I have a love/hate relationship with the church, the body of Christ on earth. But when I am feeling discouraged or frustrated because we seem to be doing and accomplishing so little God causes me to pause and think what my life would be like without the rag tag community that is the church. And at the risk of exposing myself as an optimist, I’d say that it is here in the midst of the church that I have experienced God’s grace.

As contentious as the church seems to be at times, we are no less so than the fractious congregations in Rome, Ephesus, Galatia and Corinth addressed by St. Paul. I consider that a good sign – a sign of life – that Christians have continued to fuss and fume and struggle, right down to our present day with the tensions that exist between diversity of spiritual gifts grounded in the unity of Christ. It may look awful messy from the outside, but it is simply the cost of Christian discipleship.

Turning to our reading from 1 Corinthians, we have to admit that we do not know much about the reasons for Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. The purpose for the letter is not known to us. Yet we can infer from Paul’s response that the apostle is writing to a bitterly divided congregation. Unity in Christ is the great theme of this letter.
  
And it is out of this division and conflict that Paul writes our passage from I Corinthians 12 – about Spiritual gifts. Key in the passage is verses 4-6 – hear them again; “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
And there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

The Apostle Paul nor Jesus for that matter never envisioned a church where there was uniformity. A place where we all think the same, expect the same, able to do and contribute the same. And if truth be told, many of the conflicts or frustrations we feel within or toward the church are because perhaps we want everyone else to think like us or be like us. Our spiritual gifts are the most important and if people would just recognize that things would go a whole lot easier. As the old saying goes, “I may not always be right but I’ve never been wrong.”

There is a story of a certain sea captain and his chief engineer who were arguing as to which of them was the more important to the ship. Failing to agree, they resorted to the unique plan of swapping places. The chief engineer went to the bridge of the ship and the captain went to the engine room.

After a couple of hours the Captain suddenly appeared on the bridge covered with oil and grease, “Chief,” he yelled while waving a monkey wrench. “You’ll have to come down here; I  can’t make her go!” “Of course you can’t” replied the chief engineer, “She’s run aground.”
 
Sometimes the church fails to recognize the diversity of gifts among us. Paul had to remind the church in Corinth and he reminds us too, that we all bring different things to the worship and work of the church as ministers of Christ because of our baptism.
But it is the same Spirit – God’s Spirit who grants us
the gifts, leads us to serve, and gives us the courage to give witness to God’s grace in a hurting world. It is our unity in Christ that binds our diversity of gifts together.

When I am ponder these truths, I am humbled and I remember that it is God through Christ who has called me to this task – for me to be a minister and it is God who gives me the gifts to carry out this task. When you hear these truths of which the apostle Paul speaks, perhaps you too are humbled. For you also remember that it is God who has called you and provided you with gifts for ministry. And it is God who calls us , and it is God who grants us the strength and courage to share our gifts.

I believe it was the theologian Karl Barth, who once said something to the effect that the church will change when people stop seeing the church as a place to have their needs filled, and start going because the church needs them and the gifts that they bring to ministry.

So I ask you, my fellow ministers in Christ, what is your spiritual gift?
According to St. Paul, a spiritual gift is not necessarily a warm glow within or a positive attitude toward life. A spiritual gift is a gift that builds up the body of Christ, that edifies the congregation as a whole. It’s a question for you to ponder as pray, sing and reflect together. Thanks be to God!! Amen!