A person once told me they felt they didn’t have any spiritual gifts. I wonder if you have ever felt that way? You look around church on a Sunday morning, and it is easy to just see teachers, worship leaders, singers, musicians, and preachers. Did God pass you by?
Are some gifts more important than others?
What about the pastor? What about the teacher? What about the leaders? What about the Bishop?
Our world is accustomed to seeing certain abilities as better than others. Just look around and who gets the most attention? Surgeons. Athletes. Entertainers. Politicians. We value them. Interview them. Want to hear their opinion.
I have an idea for a No Name Pastor Podcast. Not only would the podcast not interview the big name famous pastors who you can watch on TV or online or read their books. The podcast wouldn’t mention any names at all. It would be entirely anonymous. Even the hosts of the podcasts would never share their names.
My guess is that the podcast wouldn’t work. Wouldn’t gain traction. People want to attach a name to a face, and also there are many ways in which anonymity means avoiding accountability. On a No Name podcast, you could say all manner of craziness and never have any accountability for it. Not good. But there is something in me that still wants to try a fully No Name podcast, precisely because just about everything else in our world, including in our Christian world, is about glorying the Big Name preachers. Even in a small church, a pastor or leader can believe that they are somebody special.
It seems the Christians in the house churches in the Roman city of Corinth were elevating some gifts above others. During a worship service, people who had the gift of tongues were given a high place of prestige. It could easily have left some people feeling like they were missed when the Spirit was handing out gifts. Have you ever felt “I’m not a good public speaker,” or “I’m not gifted musically,” or “I’m really shy”? When we think those thoughts, we can believe we are less than. Though our culture prizes and platforms that kind of thinking, in the church that is faulty thinking. Understandable, but faulty.
Paul comes up with an insightful metaphor to help this church realize their faulty perspective. The body.
When we hear Paul mention the body, especially for people that have been around church terminology for many years, it is very familiar. The church is the Body of Christ. Or we call a certain church a local body of believers. Or sometimes just “the body.” We get this from Paul.
When he first wrote this, he saw the human body as a great analogy for the church. There is much about our bodies and the way they work that is very helpful for churches to think about.
In the next post, we’ll begin to read how Paul’s analogy of the body relates to Christians and churches.
Photo by NATHAN MULLET on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 