Having It All

The scriptures referred to are 1 Corinthians 1:1-9.

In The Wizard of Oz, what Dorothy wants most is to go home. In the end it turns out that she had the means to return home all along: her magical shoes. After leaving the land of Oz in good hands, she clicks the heels of her shoes three times and returns to Aunt Em and Kansas.

A lot of American films and cartoons play on this idea of “you had it all along.” But often it is not something that was given to you, like Dorothy's shoes. More often the sentiment is “you had it in you all along.” And usually if the hero lacks anything it's not ability but self-confidence. “Believe you can and you can!” is the motto of almost every Disney film.

Most American entertainment goes along with this. Offhand I can only think of two films that don't say that all you need is to believe in yourself. Both are biographies of real people. In Florence Foster Jenkins Meryl Streep plays the real-life New York heiress who wanted to be an opera singer. While she lacked the talent, through her money and position in society she managed to live her dream, oblivious to her inability to stay on-key. Still the film makes you root for her even as you laugh at how bad she is at singing. And over the closing credits they play a recording of the real Jenkins to show that they didn't exaggerate her inability to carry a tune. Meryl Streep should have won an Oscar simply for managing to vocalize so badly, something that's really difficult if you know how to sing.

The other film about a person who probably shouldn't have followed his dream is Ed Wood. If you've ever seen one of his films, like the notorious Plan 9 from Outer Space, you know just how incompetent he was as a filmmaker. In every department—writing, directing, casting, and special effects—Wood shows more enthusiasm than ability. There is a wonderful and probably apocryphal scene in his biopic where Wood has a fight with the people financing his film—a Baptist church, of all things—and goes to a bar where he commiserates with another beleaguered director. Knowing someone else has the same problem encourages Wood to try again. At the end of the scene, we discover the other filmmaker is Orson Welles. The point of the scene seems to be that you may run into opposition because you are a misunderstood genius—or because you are simply inept at what you are trying to do. Confidence is no guarantee of competence.

The reason I brought these up is in our New Testament passage, the opening of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. The church had a lot of issues it was dealing with. Scholars would love to have the letter that had been sent by the church to Paul laying out all their conflicts. (1 Corinthians 1:11, 7:1) One issue concerned the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12, 14) Some of these gifts were spectacular, like healing or prophesy or speaking in tongues. Some were less so, like helping or administrating. But not everyone had every gift. And people were apparently upset about this. Either people envied the gifts of others or else those with certain gifts looked down on those lacking the same gifts.

In chapter 12 Paul will address this controversy by using the analogy of a body. It is made up of different parts, each of which has different functions. Not every part can do everything the others do. But they are all important and they are all part of the same body. And so it is with the church, which is the body of Christ with Jesus as the head.

But I noticed for the first time that in his introduction to this letter Paul says “you are not lacking in any spiritual gift...” (v.7) Paul is thinking ahead to this issue. But is he contradicting what he will say in chapter 12 of the letter about not everyone having every gift? Is he just giving false confidence to those who feel they are lacking?

No, and part of the problem is that unlike in Greek we cannot easily see  in English if the word “you” is singular or plural. This is where the Southernism “y'all” would be helpful. Still it should be obvious from the context that Paul is addressing the whole church at Corinth here and not any one individual. So Paul is saying that the assembly of Christians as a whole has all the gifts. It's just that they are distributed by the Spirit to different individuals.

Besides the belief that "if you dream it, you can do it," another very American idea is that of the self-sufficient individual. But the myth of the person who can do it all also clashes with reality. Sure, some people are polymaths, knowledgeable in many different subjects, but nobody knows everything, or has every talent, or has mastered every skill. Thomas Jefferson was a gifted musician, inventor, and politician but he was terrible at his own finances. He was in deep debt at the time of his death. You could probably beat him at a game of Monopoly. Einstein was brilliant at math and physics but he was so prone to getting lost in his own town that the Princeton police were used to finding him wandering the streets and taking him home. If not for them, he might have ended up on a milk carton: “Have you seen this physicist?”

We all need each other. And that's Paul's point. Which is why between chapters 12 and 14, which discuss gifts of the Spirit, there is chapter 13, where Paul asserts the supremacy of Christian love. Love is more important than having a flashy spiritual gift. Without love having a gift is hollow. Without love the gift is not being used for its true purpose: to build up the body of Christ, the assembly of believers. (1 Corinthians 14:12)

But to return to what Paul says in today's reading, the church in Corinth was not lacking any vital gifts of the Spirit. And that wasn't because it was a megachurch. Remember that at this time, there were no church buildings. All of the early churches, for the first 300 years, were house churches. That meant they could accommodate maybe 30 people.

Based on the organizational model of the synagogue, a church would have a president and a group of elders to organize and run things, and deacons to help with those in need. Once Paul had planted a church and saw it begin to thrive, he would lay hands on the elders and appoint one to oversee things. (Acts 6:6; 13:2-3; 20:17, 28; 1 Timothy 4:14; Philippians 1:1) The Greek word for overseer is episkopos, which we call today a bishop.

As a church grew in a city, the group would have to spread to other houses. In fact, that's probably how the office of bishop grew. When there was just one house church in a city, the bishop would preside over the worship and the Eucharist at that house. As the number of Christians in a city grew, he could lead services for different groups in different houses at different times of the day. When the increasing number of Christians precluded him actually officiating at every church in the city on a Sunday, the bishop appointed a presbuteros, Greek for elder, to be in charge of an individual church and to take over his immediate pastoral duties. The presbuteros, which over time became the word “priest,” would also keep the bishop informed of how things were going and of any needs they had. So the priest both represented his people to the bishop and the bishop to his people.

This structure of bishops, elders and deacons was only in its early stages at the time of Paul. (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:6) Still Paul is telling this one house church of a little more than 2 dozen people that they have all the gifts they need. Instead of everyone vying for the more attention-grabbing gifts, people needed to trust God's Spirit and find out what their particular gifts were.

In Romans 12 Paul lists some gifts that are less eye-catching and probably more vital. They include things like serving, encouraging, giving, and showing mercy. (Romans 12:6-8) Yes, we need leaders and preachers and teachers, but we also need people who can organize things and motivate people and support the church financially and do counseling and all the rest. Again it is a very American thing to emphasize leadership and offer books and seminars on it. But we tend to ignore the fact that not everyone can or should be a leader, any more than a body can be made up of nothing but heads. I spend a lot of time in my head and one thing God has been showing me, painfully at times, is that I need to pay attention to the rest of my body. You can't write a sermon if you have a leg or foot cramp nor lead worship if your body is shutting down.

God has not left us without the gifts we need to function and grow as a community in Christ. They are here. Some are in each of you. Some you know you have. Some you may suspect. Some of your gifts are known by those around you who see them even if you don't. We had them all along because the Spirit has given them to us. We simply need to recognize them and develop them and use them to build up the body of Christ.

Some gifts can be found in the resources we have through the bishop and his staff. It is important to our bishops that we stand and prosper as ambassadors of God's kingdom in this community. And as I said on New Year's Day, it is vital to remember this as we prepare for the changes this year will bring.

Finally we need to remember that we are not in this alone. Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus' name, he is there among them. (Matthew 18:20) And if Jesus is with us, we have what we need. In him we can have confidence.