The Same Spirit

          Paul has become our expert on the Holy Spirit.  To be sure, there are other, more contemporary thinkers to whom we could turn, but Paul’s work has the benefit of coming from his very personal experience.  While he did not meet Jesus ‘in the flesh’ (though Paul was certainly aware of the impact that Jesus had on people in and around Jerusalem) he was given a gift of the Spirit while travelling to Damascus.  Voices and visions  - especially those that no one else can see or hear – are always reckoned as spiritual experiences.  Paul met Jesus in that fantastical moment, and that experience changed his understanding of life, faith and everything else.

          Writing to the believers in Corinth, Paul is giving some depth to what must have been a very quick lesson on the work of the Holy Spirit.  They have heard and believed - but now Paul urges them to understand, which is a crucial step in a journey of faith. 

          We often admire a person for their ‘spirit’ - that sense of joie de vivre that makes them who they are.  We know that to be different in everyone - and that is a difference to be celebrated.  It is not uncommon for people of little of no faith to imagine that there are ‘varieties of gifts’ evident in humans, but it is only through faith that we imagine those gifts might have but one source.  Paul makes the distinction for those who are converts to Christianity without a Jewish background - pagans for whom each ‘god’ was represented by a  different trait, or managed a different part of human life. 

          He is working to bring together people with widely different ideas of the divine - to expand their understanding of this new faith - this mighty Lord - and to do that, he reminds them that there is a spiritual agency at work.  Paul finds a way to turn diversity into a lesson on the power of God:

  “Now there are varieties of gifts, BUT THE SAME SPIRIT…”

          The folks who invite us to think about diversity in the church (especially in the PCC these days) would do well to consider this text from Paul.  According to 1 Cor. 12, if I am able to make that earliest profession of faith - “Jesus is Lord” - then I am being led by the Holy Spirit - and that spirit offers many different gifts.  The list of gifts is long and varied.  wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy.  Paul is describing activities that are common among those who believe -behaviour that the Corinthians could identify among themselves and within themselves.  

          Elsewhere Paul names other traits - apostles, teachers, helpers, leaders - to which I would add prayers, thinkers, doers, singers, musicians, administrators, listeners, visitors…you get the idea.  If you are Christian - if you have been baptized and claimed those promises as s your own; if you’ve decided to follow Jesus - you can be sure (according to Paul) that the Spirit is working in and through you in some meaningful way.

          This ought to have been a revelation to the Corinthians, who previously depended on a wide variety of spiritual sources to find their way through life.  To learn that there, in the midst of their wide variety of talents, was one God, revealed in this one Jesus.  One God whom they were experiencing in different ways.  One Jesus to whom they could witness in different ways.  One Spirit which brought many different things to light in the course of worship. 

          It ought to be liberating for us too.

          At a time when many are seeking safety in sameness; in a world where, sadly, racism and bigotry are finding newer and fiercer expression, Paul’s words deserve a new hearing.  In parts of the western world, among people who should know better, people are jumping on bandwagons and singing variations on “Look out for number one.” 

 Claiming security concerns, we are asked to stand united - which is often code word for suppress differences.  It’s a dangerous move - it’s not a place for a follower of Jesus - for it ignores Paul’s understanding of how God’s Spirit moves us and shapes us.

          The same Spirit produces a variety of responses.  The Spirit borne by those who are on the side of Christ directs worship that runs from wildly enthusiastic to deeply meditative.  The Spirit sends willing workers to the furthest reaches of civilization and to the heart fo the inner city.  That Spirit lives in all who call Jesus LORD - the spirit belongs to those who earnestly live into Jesus’ teachings - loving neighbours, praying for enemies, loving justice, walking humbly.  And that one spirit offers a variety of gifts to an infinite variety of people: Jew, Greek, slave, free, woman, man, and everything in between.  Such differences are not counted against us - but are honoured by the work of the Spirit within each.

          “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, make of female…” Paul famously says - not to suggest that we should be physically (or racially, or culturally) indistinguishable, but that none of those features ought to keep us from serving God who made us.

          These are challenging times for the church - faced with questions of belonging, and inclusion; questions of witness and worth.  And the world in which we witness is posing similar questions - in the name of sovereignty and security, some would question policies that encourage multiculturalism and compassion beyond national borders.  Our witness - guided by the spirit and following the leading of Jesus - ought to open us to the wondrous diversity of God’s activity in the world.  For ours is a Spirit of hope, born on the first Easter day; full of life and love.  Let that be the Spirit we celebrate.  Let that be the Spirit we cllaim