Too Many Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Let’s start with a somewhat philosophical question: can you give yourself a gift? I’m not asking about whether or not you can do something nice for yourself or buy yourself something--of course you can, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m focused the semantics of the word “gift” which, by its very definition, must be given willingly to someone without payment. So, if I’m paying for it and giving it to myself...it’s not really a gift anymore, is it? In order for something to be a gift, it has to be freely and willingly given to me by someone other than me. Does that seem logical? Is everyone with me so far?

This is the logical clarification Paul makes with the Corinthian church regarding “spiritual gifts.” Most English translations have this phrase in verse 1, but it is perhaps better translated from the Greek pneumatika as “spiritual things.” The Greek word for gift, charisma, doesn’t show up until verse 4, but we’ll get to that in time. Back to verse 1. Richard Hays suggests that Paul may have been implying some irony when telling the Corinthians that he didn’t want them to be “uninformed” about “spiritual things.” “It is evident,” says Hays, “that the Corinthians are well acquainted with manifestations of the Spirit in their worship.” The concern for Paul, however, is that “they are treating these manifestations of the Spirit as signs of their own spiritual sophistication and power.” So in verse 4, when Paul emphasizes that these “spiritual things” are God’s “gifts” of grace he’s essentially reminding them: “you can’t give yourself a gift.”

There are two implications to this reminder, the first is emphasized in verse 7: “to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” The manifestation of the Spirit in each of us is authenticated by the good which it empowers us to do for others, not by the sense of self-importance is causes us to feel about ourselves. Jesus said as much when he rebuked his disciples for arguing about who was the greatest, “Do you really want to be great? Then serve others.” Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Another example of a true manifestation of the Spirit is found in a line from a popular hymn: “They will know we are Christians by our love.” I can’t simply say I’m a Christian to try and convince a person towards whom I’ve been a complete jerk...my Christianity is authenticated by the love I show, not by the claims I make about it. It seems that Paul was hearing a few too many reports about Corinthians bragging about their ability to speak in tongues as if it made them more important than others. This isn’t serving the common good, and it isn’t spreading love. Paul doesn’t address this issue directly until chapter 13, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

The second implication of the reminder that “you can’t give a gift to yourself” is similar to the first, God gives the gift so that God’s will might be done through us. God freely and willingly gives us the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to empower us to serve the common good insofar as the common good serves God’s will. If I recognize in myself a spiritual gift of being able to speak in tongues, but I only use that gift to serve the so-claimed “common good” of a small group of other individuals who share that same gift...God’s will is not really being done through that gift. I’m missing out on something so much bigger and greater.

Here’s the point Paul’s ultimately trying to make: there are too many gifts for one person to possess on their own. Preaching and teaching and wisdom and knowledge and healing and performing miracles and discerning gifts and speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues...and this is by no means an exhaustive list. The gifts of the Spirit are too many to count, too diverse to categorize, and too important to overlook a single one. But the Corinthians are lifting up some gifts as “more important” or “more valuable.” While this is causing separation within the community, the bigger threat seems to be that this might make some individuals feel as if their gifts aren’t important or that they don’t matter. Who’s going to be excited to share a gift they don’t think anyone cares about? God freely and willingly gives the gift of grace to all. If God knows and trusts us to be capable recipients of that gift, what greater threat is there than being made to feel bad or ungrateful or resentful of our gifts because they’re not “as good as” so-and-so’s?

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” “God gives unique gifts to individual people to enable them to serve the church in special ways.” I can’t think of a clearer witness to this belief in the life of the Presbyterian church than in our ordination and installation of ruling elders to the session. The whole process of nomination, and voting, and ordaining, and installing is slathered thick with the Spirit of God, affirming and celebrating individual gifts being used to serve something greater. In just a few moments we ordain and install two new elders to the Session and our prayers and affirmations and laying on of hands will serve as powerful witness to the will of God at work in the life of our congregation. But we miss the point if after the “amen” is proclaimed we think that the newly ordained elders are now more important than the rest of us, or worse, that our gifts aren’t important enough to be shared. You might not be getting ordained to serve on the Session this morning, but you are being called to serve your church, and the greater Church of Jesus Christ in a way that only you can. There are too many gifts of God in this room to be contained entirely on the session, or in the choir, or in one family, or behind the pulpit. God’s will is being done here today, and you are an integral and irreplaceable part of it!

Thanks be to God! Amen.