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. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 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. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
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. 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. I Corinthians 12.4-13
Nearly 2000 years ago, the Apostle Paul wrestled with the challenge of an evolving church when he wrote to the saints gathered in Corinth. Like every thriving church in every age, they honored traditions and practices that they had inherited from preceding generations. But as their community grew, people began to recognize that old structures had to give way to new realities.
But not without some hesitation and struggle. Old ways are hard to give up. So Paul writes to remind his beloved people that it is not the form that matters as much as it is the faith that unifies all the diverse gifts and perspectives of the church.
We all have something to give, something to offer, Paul assures the Corinthians; but he reminds them that what we offer should serve the common good, not merely our personal sense of how things should look and how things should be done. The church is one body, made up of many members; and while we bring all that we are as individuals to it, we are unified by one Spirit and one God.
We belong to the Body of Christ. ‘Belong.’ We all say it; but how often do we take the time to really consider the implications of ‘belonging’ to something.
15 times in his letters to the churches in Rome and Corinth, Paul speaks of ‘belonging.’ For Paul, ‘belonging’ is a way of reminding the faithful in those cities that membership in the church requires a certain sacrifice, a willingness to give ourselves over to the faith of the community, and that in common prayer and shared discernment, we might together find God’s vision for the church. It might not always look exactly how we would like, or sound exactly like we want it to sound, but ‘belonging’ assures us that even in those moments of disagreement, we are bound together.
And being bound together and trusting together that God will lead us is the essence of the church.
Out of the Wilderness 