Read 1
Corinthians 12
As is often the case, we need to go back one chapter to
find the antecedent of what Paul discusses here. Differences are part of who we
are—in fact essential to seeing who has what gift or ability or need—but those
differences need not lead to divisions (11:17-19).
They should bring us together.
One God
One Spirit
One Body
One Accord
One God manifested in every iota of creation.
One Spirit manifested inside of us, all around us,
hovering over a formless earth.
One Body and many parts all essential to the full
functioning of the body.
One Accord from all of our differences we push forward
without division.
The One God has given us One Spirit from whom we receive
many gifts that are to be used to produce fruit for the body and bring glory to
God.
We are all gifted differently but all made to live in one
accord.
None of us are the
whole. We really can’t even be an island unto ourselves. We are all connected,
but we are not always in one accord.
I will take a little license with Paul’s explanation.
Foot: What’s going on in the control center? Why am I
slamming on the brakes? I was just feeling the road.
Eye: There are flashing lights behind us.
Foot: You didn’t
see them?
Eye: Obviously not, did you?
Foot: Nice. Why do
we keep you around?
Eye: We all put it to a vote.
Foot: And?
Eye: The Ayes (Eyes) have it!
Foot: Don’t give up your day job.
Eye: The guy with the flashing lights is still there. There’s
a spot. I’m pulling over.
Bladder: Good. I will always take a stop.
Sometimes, it seems that one part of our body does not
know what others are doing, but those other parts are not dispensable. One part
is not to be idolized. No matter what taxonomy we place on the parts of the
body, all have a valuable part in the overall design and functioning.
I can live without an arm but not without a heart, but
still, the heart can’t say to the arm, I don’t need you. We can live without
you.
We need to quit triaging our bodies and think about it
working at full capacity. That’s the essence
of the analogy.
How can one part not know what the others are doing?
I just finished the Evasive Dring Course at Bill Scott
Raceway near Winchester, Virginia and was headed towards Washington, D.C. The
last thing our instructors told us before we left that Friday afternoon was
watch your speed.
Yeah, sure, ok.
Somewhere on the outskirts of the capital city, I think
near Dulles Airport, I glanced at my speedometer in my Volkswagen Golf and it
was over 120 ad maybe 140.My eyes came of the dash and scanned for any extra
pretty lights.
Whew! Dodged a bullet there.
Yes, I backed off the accelerator a few seconds later.
Why wait a few seconds?
C’mon. I was already right at 140. Why not see what this
finely tuned German lawnmower engine will do? Should I go on sinning so that
grace could abound even more?
I didn’t. It wasn’t really the discretion over valor
thing. It was Mr. Practical showed up unannounced im my mind and reminded me:
· It’s
not like I carried a backup motor with me for long trips in case I blow up one
along the way.
· I
was certain that a speeding ticket for doing twice the speed limit wasn’t going
to be my budget.
The rest of that drive at only 10 or 15 miles over the
speed limit—still driving by grace—was boring. OK, I might have tried 120 again
in an open stretch.
What does any of this have to do with the body? I was driving along as if the week before had
been like the past dozen, but it wasn’t. I had grown accustomed to driving at
very high speeds. This drive on the interstate seemed like any other drive,
other than the unusually high number of people putzing along.
My mind, my thoughts, my awareness had no idea that my
foot was having the time of its life.
When I need to pass a car on a state road and need to
make it happen quickly, I know exactly what my foot is doing. On that entry ramp to the interstate, I want
to feel the accelerator. My eye can’t do that.
The ramp sign may say 55 but I know I need to do 35 and
let the traffic pass or 95 and I need to feel the response now.
But on that summer day a few weeks before I was headed to
big sandbox, life was normal for most of me, and really good for my foot
closing in on warp speed.
Our bodies are designed to work as a unit. That doesn’t
always happen.
Our diversity when used for the common good can give us
uncommon results.
Our diversity, when used for its own purposes,
debilitates the body.
Let’s do this again.
One God
One Spirit
One Body
One Accord
It is not our differences that matter as much as that we
use them for the common good—for the body if you will. To do that, we need to
be in one accord.
How can we ever do this with so many body parts or gifts?
By the same Spirt that manifested those gifts in you.
It’s more connection.
It’s more koinonia.
You all get extra points this month for enduring another Greek
word. This one is perichoresis. You can find some fancy definitions to go with
that one, but I took them all and am going with Divine Dance.
The Father, Son, and Spirit are God manifested to us in
three entities—three persons. They are different but never divided. They dance
in harmony.
The One Spirit has manifested in us many different gifts
but they are to be used in harmony. Paul’s example was the human body, but we
have this divine example of Father, Son, and Spirit. In a similar vein, we can
also look at the divine Jesus and human Jesus existing in harmony. We don’t dig
into that much, and today, I think the divine dance of the trinity will suffice.
Differences do not require division among us. Diversity
can take us farther than uniformity if the cause is common to and good for all,
or in our case brings glory to God.
The message of
this chapter is not the hierarchy of apostles and teachers or nursery workers.
It’s harmony.
It’s accord.
It’s oneness in our differences.
Our model is a divine dance. We have been asked to dance by God himself.
To join this holy Trio of Father, Son, and Spirit as they do things God’s way
and never look back.
It’s sounds great, and I’m sure we will get
there some day, but did anyone remember that we are still
living in these human bodies with sinful tendencies and would surely muck up
any dance we were invited to attend.
I used the Movie Scent of a Woman as an analogy
to frame our struggles
in life. It was in a First Light service not too long ago. I
will use it again to call us to embrace the divine dance to which we are
invited.
The movie had Al Pacino and Chris O’Donnell as the lead
characters.
Pacino played retired U.S. Army Lt. Col Frank Slade. He was blind. He had seen combat, but his blindness came at the hands of his stupidity, not the NVA. Slade also has no filter. You see why I liked the movie.
But Frank kept pressing on. He was living his life with
the occasional depressed mood and even suicidal tendencies, but he didn’t quit.
Chris O’Donnell was to accompany Al Pacino during a
school break. O’Donnell’s family lived on the West Coast and the school was a
prestigious East Coast Academy.
So, we have a temporary mentor who is struggling and a kid with a problem. The school dean is trying to manipulate O’Donnell. I
won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t seen it.
Pacino takes O’Donnell to a fancy club with a dance
floor. He asks him to describe the dimensions and layout of the floor. Then
Pacino asks a lady to dance, and he is an exceptional dancer. The dance was the
tango.
She never realized Pacino was blind until O’Donnell helped him find his seat at their table after the dance.
O’Donnell is amazed but has to ask. What happens if you
get tangled up? I love the response.
If you get Tangled up, Tango on.
Tangled
up, Tango on!
You keep going, trusting, believing, and living. If
you get tangled up, just tango on. Our miscues, mismanaged motivations, melodrama,
melancholy moods, and other states of our being that don’t align with my
alliteration have already been accounted for by God when he asked us to dance.
The Father, Son, and Spirit hold a divine dance daily—each different and unique but completely in sync with one
another.
We as many parts of one body, as people with various
gifts, as creatures all made in the image and likeness of the one true God but
different in many ways are invited to this divine dance.
It starts—whatever our gifts, talents, and roles we have
been given--by us getting in step with the Spirit that lives within us.
We can know harmony.
We can live in accord with one another.
We can embrace our various differences in a common
purpose.
And God has already factored in how many left feet we
have,
One God
One Spirit
One Body
One Accord
That’s the dance card. Don’t sit this one out.
Amen.
