4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

One of the great temptations as a pastor, and church leader in general, is to become isolated. What I mean by this is both that it is real easy to get swept up into the mentality that the only work that matters is the work that is happening within the walls of your church (and after a while, that is exactly what it can become: your church, not God’s church, but your church), and secondly that you have all of the answers, and if you don’t have all of them, then you’ve got most of them. It’s an ugly reality that very few people like to acknowledge could ever happen in an institution such as the church.

A few years back, I knew such a leader. He had a good heart, but had created an environment where the only things that existed were his church, and his ideas about how that church should run. He had no conversations with leaders from other churches, in order to keep him grounded and provide him support, and he had a next to impossible time believing that he could ever be wrong. This sort of isolationism led him to a particular type of thinking and anything that was outside of that paradigm was dismissed out of hand. He was unable to recognize, let alone acknowledge the movement of the Spirit of God is ways that were different then the little world that he had created. Different opportunities for mission, worship, and ministry in general would present themselves, and the answer was always the same: ‘no’.

Eventually this isolationist attitude of ‘my way is the way to go’, caused the people of the congregation to become disenchanted with him (to say the least), and correspondingly for him to become increasingly frustrated with thee congregation. And why did it happen? Because he had separated himself off into his own little world of religiosity.

Something along these lines was also manifesting itself in the Corinthian church. In some way, a hierarchy of acceptability was being formed that said unless you were serving God this way, or celebrated God that way, that you were, in fact, doing it wrong. Think about what that may have looked like: on one side of the room you have a group of people, probably led by a select few, who are thinking that the folks on the other side of the room are, in some way, heretical.

When that sort of mentality exists in a community, what normally happens? Unfortunately, the people who are on the other side of the room gather themselves together to both defend their perspective, but also to point out the ‘faults’ of the first group. This back and forth, tit for tat continues to escalate to the point that, eventually, the two sides can’t be in the same room at all.

This is why Paul is says, "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." For Paul, the diversity of gifts, service, and activity show, not how people are getting it wrong, but how majestic the movement of God’s Spirit really is. The glory of God is not necessarily based in the uniformity of thought and practice, but in the diversity of ways that God is able to lead people to be the light of the world.

Now that sort of thought can be real easy to hear and say, "yeah, I can go with that." The problem is when the intellectual thought hits the practical world, because when the rubber hits the road, its amazing how many folks realize just how difficult the thought can be to implement, regardless of how important it may be to do so.

For example, most people are able to recognize when something like the hymnal needs to be replaced. That’s not the problem. The issues show up when the new hymnal is finally selected. All of a sudden new hymns are being sung, and old familiar ones are no longer available to be selected. Think of how many disagreements you have heard of this sort of issue.

Just the other day, a colleague of mine recounted a story where it was two minutes prior to worship, that time when chaos seems to reign, when a parishioner came up to him with a very serious look on her face. She asked him, "do you have a second?" In a distracted fashioned he fired back, assuming that she had a late announcement to make mention of, or an addition to the prayer list, "yup, but you’ve got to make it quick." She looked at him, totally serious, and said, "can you make sure that this year’s Christmas Eve service has hymns that we know? I can’t handle another service like last year’s." One minute before worship and completely serious. She was focused on her point of view and was unable to see the Spirit of God working in new and different ways.

Another colleague talked about a time that he was captive in the dentist’s chair, and the hygienist was asking what he did. He said he was a pastor, to which she said, "Oh, I’m looking for a new church". Thinking that he might be able to help out, he asked, "what sort of a church are you looking for? Where have you gone before?" She told him the church and said, "I’m looking for a place that is full of the Spirit." He looked at her with a confused face because he knew the place she mentioned to be a place that specialized in contemporary worship music; a place that was described by many as, ‘full of the Spirit’, and asked, so what was wrong with your previous church?" "Her response? "The band wasn’t good enough." She was focused on her point of view and was unable to see the Spirit of God working in new and different ways.

While these two examples might have caused us to laugh for a moment, all of us can think of times where one person, or one way of thinking forces a community of faith to splinter, or at the very least, become divisive. Pastors or leaders who create a particular line of thought or practice and if you don’t live up to that bar, then you’re wrong and you’re out.

But that is not the sort of community of faith that Paul calls for us to accept. Paul is screaming out, "look at the unity that can be found in our diversity! God has created us with so many different skill sets and interests and all of these ways can show the light of our Lord. Put those different ways to the test, that’s fine, but if the love and forgiveness of God is being exhibited then it is of God. The church is not ours: it is God’s. Allow the Spirit of God, not your personal spirit, to be the delineator of what is right and what is wrong."

Especially this day, as we celebrate the ordination and installation of new deacons and elders, let us remember that we come from many different places, carrying with us many different experiences and many different ideas. This diversity is a good thing and shows to us over and over again how the Spirit of God is able to move, not just in one way, but in many ways, through many different ideas.

As we move into this new year and continue to ask the question of how is God calling us to serve, let us recognize that the answer that may come, may be difficult to swallow, because it is different then what we know.

However, just because we haven’t done it that way before, doesn’t mean that the way is not of the Spirit of God. While this may be our church home, always remember that it is, first and foremost, God’s church and that our unity can and will be found as we serve in so many diverse ways.

Holy Lord, it can be so easy to get our personal wants and desires wrapped up in what should be Your church. God, help us to recognize that Your will, Your Spirit can be expressed in a diverse number of ways, and it will be as we work together in that diversity that we will discover the unity that is found through Your Spirit in Your son, Jesus Christ. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.