Good Shepherd United Church of Christ

"What the Foot Might Say . . .         " I Corinthians 12:14-27
February 14, 2010
Metairie, LA

The apostle, Paul, addressed controversy and outright conflict and consternation during his ministry and all of this produced compelling philosophical argumentation and memorable poetry . . . Just before the passage we hear today we hear Paul's definitive proclamation on gifts of the Spirit, laid out in lawyerly terms.

You remember it, don't you? It was Paul's response to a few charismatics, people who thought that their gifts were superior to all the other gifts and lorded that over the rest. Paul responds with strong and sage commentary.

"There are varieties of gifts," he declares, "but one Spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord, and there are varieties of employment, but the same God who inspires them. "Varieties."  "Varieties."  "Varieties." Or today we might say, "Diversities." "Diversities." "Diversities." And then: "One!" "One!" "One!". One Spirit, One Lord, One God.

Thus Paul lays out the thesis - unity not uniformity. And he continues by illustrating the varieties: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle working, prophesy, discernment, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. His list is a smattering of personal riches of Spirit in the Corinthian community. The list could have included many more gifts, since those Corinthians were loaded with the kind of talents that naturally occur in a sophisticated, worldly port city, like Corinth. And like New Orleans.

But with that wealth of talents and diversities come that oh-so-human tendency to want to turn "classification" of gifts into a hierarchy of gifts and the classic ego - driven tendency to say, "me," "me," "me," "my gifts are the best! This scenario happens at universities and schools. Who is at the top? We all know - Presidents and Superintendents and Principals. Who is at the bottom? The people who serve lunch or supervise the playgrounds. This may be the way of the world, where some people's talents and efforts are denigrated and others are held aloft, but it is NOT the way of the Christian community. And this is Paul's conclusion: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greek, slaves or free - all are meant to drink of one Spirit." So there.

Any of us who imagine that our gifts - whether making the best cakes for the bake sale, or playing in the band, or serving in the nursery, or setting up the altar flowers - whatever gift we bring, it is honorable and excellent when offered in the Spirit of the Lord. On the other hand, if you have the most excellent gift, teaching Sunday School or keeping financial accounts or leading the choir - but use these gifts in a spirit of dis-unity . . . your gifts are tarnished and useless and might as well be tossed in the back of the closet. That's the ringing conclusion Paul offers in Chapter 13, the "love" chapter which begins with a series of "ifs" . . . You remember: "if I speak in the tongues of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal"- notice that he goes after preachers first! I think that's because preachers and other fancy speakers, like politicians, are most in danger of using their gifts for self-enhancement. The next "if" . . . "if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries"- this second arrow goes to professors and experts, say on Wall Street or at legal firms or doctors of medicine, with many degrees after their names, who so often turn their opportunity to serve into opportunity for self-aggrandizements . . . Then the next "if"- "if I have all faith,” this is pointed at the pious ones, the ones Jesus warns us about, those who strut their spirituality around in fancy robes and decry the morality of others, or parade around in sack cloth and ashes, as if their piety will save them. I think of the baseball legends who suddenly confess their use of steroids in a huge press conference so as to benefit from their sudden reformation. I also think of John Edwards with his pious chatter about caring for the poor, all the while spending his millions on a mansion and $400 haircuts. The man so badly misused his gifts and disabled his vocation.

And "if I give away all that I have, but have not love, I gain nothing." We recognize this, don't we? In a sense it is an effort to purchase goodness which is not for sale.

Then, sitting between the two famous passages, one on the varieties of gifts, the other on the preeminent importance of love, we have one of the funniest passages of the Bible. First of all, it is full of sight gags. Imagine if you will, the visual representations of the foot talking to the hand. Imagine a bunch of people on the beach, bare toed, lounging in beach chairs. Suddenly a foot speaks. Would it be a young chubby foot? Or would it be a horny old foot with a hammer toe? Perhaps pedicured foot, calluses removed and painted lady like pink. What a sight - a foot offering a monologue. Think of your own foot, offering an opinion, venturing a conversation with your hand. Maybe you have the fast feet of an athlete or maybe frail feet - how would your foot's voice sound? High pitched? Gravelly? Would it have an accent? This particular foot, I think, sounds down hearted and maybe jealous of the hand when it declares, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body" Ridiculous! Patently ridiculous, which Paul points out. It's as silly as a church pew, saying to the piano, "Because I only have bottoms sitting on me every week, while you, O Piano, make melodies and harmonies, then I am not part of the sanctuary. Humpf. "Ridiculous! As ridiculous as the ear saying, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body."
Imagine a series of Mr. Potato Heads. The first Potato Head has all ears plugged into the tuber. The second Mr. Potato Head has all eyes. The third all mouths. The fourth all arms. Any three year-old child would recognize and make right the problem. Paul continues in his imaginings. "What if the whole body were an eye?" It would be monstrous! What if the sanctuary were only one huge piano? Nowhere to sit down, no hymnals or Bibles, no carvings over the altar, no cross, no flowers. Ridiculous! Then Paul takes us from the ridiculous to the well . . . naughty, when he refers, ahem, to unspeakable members of the body, those parts that we do not