Differing Gifts, Same Mind

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity… Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another.”

MEETING new people is like going to a foreign country for the first time. New sights and sounds, new ideas of how to live, what to say, what foods to eat, what time to do things come bouncing and bounding off our own way of living and we are constantly surprised. Every human being is like an entire culture, like a whole world—filled with unique ways of viewing events, desires, an entire history, and the hope of a future that is completely different from our own. Meeting and getting to know and to appreciate new people is being alive. Every person brings a world of fascination into our experience. If we are truly made in the image of God, it's got to be so.

Being in ministry, proofs of this fact are being constantly offered to me. Yesterday I lead a memorial service for a gracious lady who lived a long, full life and gave a lot to the family she loved. I hadn't known any of them two weeks ago, but now I was immersed in a family and could apprehend the beauty of what went on in another world from my own. She was an artist and painted wonderful seascapes. She heard music and had to get up and dance. She was the Hemet California Turkey Queen about 70 years ago, and is pictured in a swimsuit holding a live turkey with about 5000 turkeys walking around behind her. Her family call her the life of the party. So, when they asked that live music be played for their reception afterward in Augie's, I offered myself. And I actually did. I played folk music at a funeral.

What was so wonderful about the encounter was that we are not the same as each other. This lady's son is married to a Japanese American woman, and the church was half filled with her family, and their two handsome sons. Worlds meet and merge, and it's wonderful. The visual cues, such as this Eur-Asian intersection just makes us aware of our diversity.

And so there is a great tragedy when even one of these worlds ceases to be, fails to bring its voice to the chorus, cannot share its own unique treasures with the rest of us. That tragedy— the cutting short of a life —may be due to accident or natural cause, an act of God or chance fluke. So many things already may happen to end a young life, many that can't be anticipated or guarded from that it's unthinkable for us to actually try to end a human life before it's even begun. But for 36 years now, American law has protected not the lives of the young, but those who take them away. And each year one Sunday in January is designated as Sanctity of Life Sunday . Today is that day. On January 22 nd , 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision that legally shelters the act of killing a baby under a cloak of darkness they called privacy . A doctor and one scared girl are the only ones necessary to make the decision to destroy an entire world—the world inside her infant. We will never get to know what gifts that child was meant to bring, what amazing perspectives might enrich us when we met that one unique person. And since the Roe decision, 50 million such worlds have been ended in the violence called abortion . Every life is sacred: that's the message of Sanctity of Life Sunday. Sacred because every life is a world, a whole world of gifts that will be given only if that baby is allowed to live.

There are many gifts, and it's imperative that a person has gifts that are different than other people. What good is a gift of music if everybody has the exact same musical skill, writes the same song, plays it the same way you do and sounds exactly like everybody else? We wouldn't even listen to them. Why? We wouldn't have radios or cd players, because we don't even hear music—it's nothing to us, for it's what we do ourselves. The beauty of music is that it's different from one musician to another, and listening is always a discovery of melodies, rhythms and poetic expressions you never thought of yourself. Viva la difference . Like food, we couldn't bear eating the same meal every day, so we live life more fully because each person who comes our way brings new gifts and their world for us to look into and be enriched by.

St. Paul wrote the Corinthians: “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.” 1 Cor 12:1-7 He speaks of spiritual gifts, as he does in our Epistle to the Romans today, where Paul speaks of prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, ruling, and mercy. We each partake of these gifts at times, but each of us is uniquely gifted with one or another of these. It would be a very weird church where everyone was just a prophet, or if all of us were trying to be rulers. If everyone is the teacher, who is there to learn? If all are the givers, to whom can they give? But in all this diversity, there has to be a common chord, an understanding that passes between us all. There are many gifts, but one mind behind the complexity of our dance. It is a dance, not just chaos.

We may hear a wide range of music during our lives, but in the Western world, we understand the chromatic scale, an eight step octave with half-notes, and certain customary rhythms. If you get too far from those familiar sounds, in our ears it ceases to be music and has become just noise. There are diversity of gifts, but one spirit , one mind behind it all. There are worlds in every person we meet, but we already understand enough about worlds in others that we can appreciate and understand their world when we greet them.

Jesus knew it was time to take His path of public life. He might have stood on a mountain top and glowed, or walked on water, or raised dead people, or simply start teaching. But He chose to go with something already started, already being used and understood. He sought out the Baptist, and when He found him, He submitted to Baptism. Jesus went down into that water and came up, where He was met with the Holy Spirit sent from His Father above. He used the familiar form of entering a new phase of spiritual life, one that the Jews held sacred—ritual washing for a humble show of cleanliness—to enter an entirely unique life of giving the greatest spiritual gifts anyone ever gave. Offering better gifts still requires that we be understood, that we submit to some familiar forms, so that our gifts can be received.

So when St. Paul says for us to be of one mind toward each other, he isn't talking about uniformity. This is not about giving the same message, using the same terminology, code phrases and platitudes that signify we are identical and all think and feel exactly the same about everything. Pooey! I don't want such a world. This is not about sameness. For God made not just one planet and one star, but galaxies innumerable beyond our own, each galaxy with millions of stars, nebulae, and planets with rings , 15 moons , blue and green and striped, hot gases, icy spheres, comets, meteors and asteroids. He's very interesting. His mind is very interesting too: just look at all the kinds of plant life and animal life He made on this wonderful planet.

So, the one mind who is to be in all these human beings, the parts of the Body of Christ, His Church, that mind unifies us and makes it possible for us all to bring our gifts together with charity and appreciation, with love and forbearance, with joy in these different gifts and growth of all the members the result as we take in the wonder of new worlds.

Sometimes a Christian enters a church and feels their gift has to be received. And yet, their gift is like a Lego that isn't from this same set of Legos. It isn't of one mind with the others. There are plenty of places open where this individual may serve, give, share, receive and live. But their Lego— by their own insistence, because it isn't actually from God —isn't going to fit. They may quietly leave, unable to fit in, or they may try again and again to force the little plastic nubs into each of the people they meet and grow frustrated in the attempt and the seeming refusal of everybody to accept their wonderful gift. They don't seem to see or hear the gifts being shared around them, those Legos don't fit into them, and are therefore inferior, useless to them. They kick and they leave.

In all the Christian world there are today so many styles of worship, so many philosophies of spiritual ways, so many fractures and offenses given and taken, so many flavors, tastes, likes and dislikes and expectations: it is impossible to think of one mind that might cause all of them to even get along, let alone worship and apprehend God together. But it's being done.

16 years ago, I went to Tahoe for the first Pastor's Prayer Summit from this region, and the relationships that were forged at that gathering of about 75 pastors from Baptist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Charismatic churches live on today. One mind was found amid those many voices, gifts and practices. We shared communion together every night. Today, I meet regularly with a small informal circle of myself, a Church of Christ pastor, a Pentecostal friend with whom I've been close since Tahoe, and two others. We share our lives. Our Legos fit just fine. With Christian ministers from other churches in the police chaplaincy, I experience the extremes of life and we communicate perfectly. We bring so many different gifts to our various callings, but there is one mind that unifies us in purpose and result.

The world will only know that Christians have an answer to the baffling questions of today when Christians come out from under cover and share their gifts. Many of our country's problems stem from Christians failing to share the gifts we have, the voice we have been given. That's why abortion is 36 years old, and still a confusion to many.

You are a gifted race and you have more than you know in that world that is inside of you. But the gift you are to bring is the gift of God , that has the unifying force of His One great Mind . When you bring and share that gift, it isn't yours anymore. It's His. It was from Him, given by Him, and it serves Him. We will receive it joyfully. We've been waiting for just that gift with expectancy.

PFH+