“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

Paul writes these words to a community divided that needs the reminder of their unity in Christ. Not everyone is made the same, both in how God made us physically and how God makes us in the Spirit through Christ. Some of us have age, and experience to bring. Some of us have youth and vigor. Some of us have wealth, while some of us have health. Some of us have discerning minds/hearts that help us understand what we can do, and some of us have discerning hearts/minds that open us to hear God’s call to dream of what could be done! As Paul says, ‘there are a variety of activities… (and) to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” What activities or manifestations of the Spirit has God given you for the common good?

As we continue to move forward growing in the love, grace, and embrace of God I call to each of us to discern how we can use those gifts to serve. It’s not just a St. James thing, that at this time of year churches start the work to find people to serve in the congregation; a common example is service on council. And, regardless of size, people are encouraged to serve and yet do not. Yet, as Paul writes in Ephesians, “...we are what God has made us (to be), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (2:10, my emphasis). With the variety of gifts God has given us, I call us to take part, to serve, to work for the common good of the congregation and our community. Why? It’s not because I’m trying to fill a council. It’s because God has prepared each of us for this service!

We serve because of our shared place in relationship with the Triune God that we seek to experience and share in the world today, and in our lives together. Paul follows up his many gifts with this:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Corinthians 12:12-26).

We serve in the variety of roles because no one of us can do all the work alone. We are one body in Christ because we are uniquely made to fit together and serve God, one another, our larger community, and the world in our own ways! So, I urge everyone to pray: “Lord, help me discern the gifts you have given me in Christ Jesus so that I might do the good works for the common good in the world. Guide me to share those blessings for the health and well-being of all. Knit more tightly my strand in this Body of Christ, so that all might experience You through your love, grace, and embrace! Help me to answer this call to service, in what way I can. Amen.”