A, Pentecost Sunday - 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 "God Works Good Works"

1 Corinthians 12:1–13 (ESV) Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.  You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.  Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.  Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  For 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 ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.  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 one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

We live in an instant society.  If we want something we can get it immediately.  There is no need to wait for the time or season in a global community.  We can get it frozen or canned in the supermarket. 

When we want information, once one went to a book or a learned person.  Today, one goes to Google.  Letters no longer go through the post.  There is no six-month wait for the boat to arrive with mail from the other side of the world.  Instead, letters are emailed from one side of the planet to the other, instantaneously, with the click of a button.  One doesn’t even need to wait to go to a computer to send a message.  Email is even being superseded by quicker mobile communications; texting, video calls, Twitter tweets, and Tik Tok.

With all this immediacy comes an expectation of pleasure now, without waiting.  When the expectation is not immediately met, frustration floods in to fill the void made by the lack of instant gratification.

It’s no different in the church today!  We are all part of modern society and its pursuit of immediate pleasure.  We all love the feeling of immediate gratification!  It’s the modern addiction behind all the addictions one can imagine!

When one thinks of addiction, one tends to think of the things that are socially unacceptable, like substance, sexual, and alcohol abuse, tending not to associate addiction with pleasure.  But even simple seemingly innocent pleasures can lead one into addiction without even realising it.  Behind them all is the “expectation” for pleasure.

As with society outside the church, inside the church we struggle with the same frustrations.  When frustration occurs as a result of our expectation for pleasure, there is a very real desire to “get on with it” and “do what needs to be done”.

Paul wrestles with the Church in Corinth who, “wants to get on with it!”  Their expectation was driving them to work contrary to the Spirit of God.  This is because their expectation was their mute idol. 

He says to them in first Corinthians twelve, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.  You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.  Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:1–3 ESV)

Here Paul, first makes the point that one being led by the Holy Spirit is not going to speak against and curse Jesus Christ, but rather is going to believe and confess Jesus as Lord.

After making the point, that the Holy Spirit open’s one’s mouth to speak, Paul goes on to teach, that in the same way, the Holy Spirit wills one to work. 

Without the Holy Spirit doing the work through the worker, the work will fail.  The worker will not glorify God the Father or the work of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, the worker will glorify themselves and their own spirit of goodness, and the work done will be followed by ever-increasing confusion and chaos.

This is why there is so much confusion and chaos inside and outside the church today.  In our frustration and desire for instancy, there is no waiting for each other, let alone waiting for God!  Instead of waiting for God the Holy Spirit, a plethora of pleasures takes over and these spirits, competing for pleasure, battle for supremacy inside and outside the church.

At Pentecost, God the Father and God the Son sent the promised Holy Spirit.  The apostles, the other disciples, and the women were hiding in fear of what might happen to them.  But after Jesus’ resurrection he breathed the Holy Spirit into them.  God’s peace was with them, allowing them to wait, allowing them to act with one accord, and allowing them to be the one body of Jesus Christ.

They came out of hiding to boldly proclaim Christ, without fear, with one voice, calling for repentance.  The mega works of the Holy Spirit were done in and through them as they breathed forgiveness over sinners. 

As one they could stand together under Jesus Christ, reject rejoicing in sin by naming it, confess their own sin and call others to repent as well, ask for forgiveness as encouragement before others to do the same, and live as one under the breath of Jesus’ forgiveness.

Paul seeks to return the Church in Corinth to the oneness of the Holy Spirit and the pleasure of God from the confusion of spirits seeking pleasures in an evolving exacerbation of expectations.  Their expectations, and the confusion of human spirited desires that came from them, were mute idols made active and chaotic, only by the work of those who worshipped them.

Paul shows the people of Corinth that doing the work of God by their own effort without the Holy Spirit is as impossible as saying, “Jesus is Lord”, without the Holy Spirit!   In fact, without the Spirit of God their human spirited’ work was accusing and cursing the work of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and destroying the body of Christ in Corinth.

Paul says, “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 one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”  (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 ESV)

In our baptism we are being resurrected into the one body or church of Christ!  Just as Jesus put aside his divinity and lived by the Holy Spirit while he walked to the cross, we too are called to put off our human spirits and walk as one in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit’s power.  Just as Jesus lived by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God while he walked to the cross. 

Jesus put aside his divinity when he walked without sin to the cross.  But the difference for us is, we put off the sinfulness of our human spirit, that is, not trust ourselves.  But rather, trust the Holy Spirit, to give us, our activities, our ability to serve, our empowerment, and our works, as he chooses to apportion to each of us.

As Paul says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities (works), but it is the same God who empowers (works) them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  All these are empowered (worked) by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:4–7,11 ESV)

The idols of pleasure are real in everyone’s lives today.  The spirit of this age is one of individualism.  Therefore, a multiplicity of spirits swirl in confusion, seeking a plethora of pleasures, only to produce pain!  The reality of the evolving ever-increasing confusion and chaos in our society, demonstrates the need for us as church to wait on the Holy Spirit, allowing the Word of God to be worked in those who wait in the Word of God, for the work of God.

God works good works, in those who allow God the pleasure to work in them, putting to death the idols and works of the human spirit in favour of the life-giving gifts and work of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

B, Pentecost 15 Proper 18 - James 2:8-10, 12-14, 17 "The Good Works of God"

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you are doing well.  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.  So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.  For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:8-10, 12-14, 17 ESV)

What good works have your done lately? 

What goes through my head on hearing this question makes me squirm with anxious uneasiness.  I am trapped somewhere between overweening pride and crushing desperation as waves within toss to and fro between the poles of self-righteous goodness and woe-is-me-ism. 

“Good works hey!  I’m looking pretty sweet today!  How good am I?  It’s so hard to be this good but I’m doin’ it!”

“I wish I could be as good as you!  I am such a failure!  I’m going to have to work much harder if I am ever going to that good”

Exposed is a narcissism that seeks attention because I am so so good, or the opposite, because I am so so bad!

Now in this temptation to strut or wallow, I thank God he has made me aware of this narcissistic Old Adam; the old man within.  Although both fill me with sickly dread, I am appreciative that God has given me this knowledge of my sin and sinful nature.  

Yet I ask the question, “how does one do good works freely?”  My Old Adam is such a sly old coot; a silly stubborn fool that’s had years of practice getting his own way.

Faith and good works go together.  We all know that from God’s word.  Yet I find myself striving to do works that glorify me.  Or I hang my head in shame for the dodgy deeds I’ve done.  The result is I’m led by the Old Adam to downgrade my faith in God as no more than a good or bad feeling. A feeling measured on the scale of my perceived popularity!

And then I hear texts like James telling me that faith without works is dead.  A voice inside says to me, “You must be dead! You’re not good enough!  Is there any point doing good works anyway?”

James does confront us with stern language!  He doesn’t mince his words in the slightest!  He says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself,’ you are doing well.  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” (James 8:8-10 ESV)

How can I not show partiality and love my neighbour as myself when I’m not even sure how to love myself?  I only seem to glorify myself because of my goodness or seek attention because I’m such a failure!

Yep!  The Old Adam within is a wily old pig of a person!  He’s like a dog that returns to its vomit!

Despite feeling the sting of the Law in light of my impotent lovelessness, the word of God teaches this old dog a new trick.  God calls me not to trust my feelings but to trust him and his word of liberty and freedom. 

How do I do good works freely?  The freedom of God reveals to the Old Adam, the old dog, that there is no new trick to learn.  The Lord Jesus says to my heart, “come behind, stay, abide, remain!” In fact, it’s God who sorts out the sheep from the goats while the dog sits.  But even more, God doesn’t just let a sleeping dog lie, he wants it to die.

It’s at this point I realise the devil’s taunt within that, “my faith is dead”, is the Holy Spirit revealing that “my works are dead” and I will never be able to do good works by myself.  But instead, it’s the Holy Spirit who is doing good works within, without my having to feel a certain way or do the things prescribed by my Old Adam.

What I have been struggling in is a return to the knowledge of good and evil. A familiar trick from the old dog, the Devil, himself.  It’s not a new trick, however, he’s been up to this old game since the Garden of Eden!

But thanks be to God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit wills within us knowledge of sin and grace.  The sin of our being and the deeds that come from it, once revealed in us frighten us and show us we need a Saviour, namely Jesus Christ, to whom we flee.  And once we are there, we realise it’s he who has been sorting the sheep from goats within each of us the whole time.

Like a farmer sending out his dog to muster the mob, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into your heart to heard and separate the sheep from the goats.

God works good works!  He first works mercy, and he continues to work mercy for us.  He needs to while the Old Adam continues to daily seek to resurrect himself back into his persuasive position of good and evil deception. The Old Adam wants us to be like the father of lies, Satan, doing works of judgement and accusation that lead me and others to eternal death.  So, God needs to work mercy!  God works good works of mercy! 

King David confesses in Psalm 51, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” (Psalm 51:6 ESV)

What are these truths and wisdom in the inward being, the secret heart?  Earlier in the psalm David refers to knowing his sin and God’s knowledge of it, the truth and justification of his word, and the blamelessness of his judgement.

How amazing it is to know that exposure of our struggle with sin is a good work.  It shows us what God deems as good is that which we would rather hide just like Adam and Eve sought to do in the Garden.  This good work leads into other good works of faith beginning with confession of sin, justifying why God sent Jesus to die on the cross in place of our eternal judgement of death.

Finally, Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel that we are not aware of our good works.  Like sheep and goats, he sorts out the motives deep within us.  And it’s good that he does this now while we are living because at the resurrection, he will sort the sheep from the goats.  

He says, in Matthew 25, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.”  Matthew 25:31–33 (ESV)

Jesus goes on to say to those on the right and the left, the works they did or did not do, did or did not serve him.  Even if we do seemingly good works to justify ourselves, they are not good works at all. 

Alternatively, the works that seem to be ones that condemn us and kill us in the eyes of the world, like confessing sin, confessing Jesus, being real about our inabilities, being completely sincere and transparent that appears to be foolishness, weakness, and shows vulnerability are not all that bad for those who trust Jesus’ good work at the cross, the Father’s good work of providing for us, and the Holy Spirit’s good work of encouraging within us faith.

So, what good works have you done lately?

I have done the good works of God!  Because God works good works in me! Amen.