Starting to Anticipate Togetherness

“Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.2You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b]11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire[e] the greater gifts.” St. Paul, 1st Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 12

I’ll only be brief, because Paul really unveils the nature of our togetherness so beautifully. All I can do is gesture to the salient features of the passage.

We have a culture where uniqueness and difference is only thought to emerge from individualism. Whatever benefits or security community may offer, the price must always be one’s special, particular identity. The group, the crowd (we assume) just swallows that up. Paul teaches us here that this way of thinking about togetherness and uni que-ness is, in short, total bullshit.

Rather, our uniqueness finds its fertile soil in the community indwelling with the Spirit. The individual identities of organs and appendages in the body have their identity by their relationship with each other in the whole complex system of the body. So it is for us as Christians. Our identities shrivel and die like severed limbs when we are cut off from the working of the whole body. Fleeing from our communities seems like the way to ensure our individual self, but in fact achieves the opposite effect. The grand mystery of human social life is that the deeper we dive into authentic community, the more our uniqueness finds articulation, finds its value.

So, what does this mean for our little experiment in Christian life? I think we can indicate a handful of anticipations along these lines as well.

For one, it means showing up bravely in the belief that togetherness is ultimately good for us. I’m sure that sounds, on the face of it like a step that could be assumed or left out. It is, instead, perhaps the hardest. To really be present, to really donate yourself in all the invisible ways to the community of others, to not hold out some private room at the back of your heart… well, it requires a super-natural courage. It requires the support of the Spirit.

After all, people are scary. And dangerous.

Secondly, I think it involves a further kind of self-confidence that has two sides. On one side, there is the self-confidence that allows me to be a hand or a foot or an eye or a nose with out worrying that, because I am not some other thing, I am therefore separate from the body. This is a confidence and a courage to be that weird, unique thing that God has made and promises to use for the good of all things. On the other hand, there is the self-confidence that allows OTHERS to be the appendage of the body that they are. We have to let folks have their convictions, their purposes, their gifts without demanding that their nose-ness become like our eye-ness. For, if all were the seeing, where would the smelling be? Rather, we ought to rejoice that God has given those passions, those gifts, those callings that are not our own, so that we may rest in the confidence that, together, the work of the Kingdom is being done in cooperation with our God

This “self-confidence,” of course is a confidence in the self that the Spirit offers to me, as opposed to some sort of epiphenomenal isolated self defined by consumerism or empty accomplishment, or alternately, the self of self-loathing and self-centered fear and obsession. As JD and I have said we often identify as the “piece of shit at the center of the universe.”

Rather, in academic speak, we can say that as Christians we have an authentic pluralism grounded in a shared identity that is not an individually determining identity. We can share an identity and not just tolerate, but rely upon and celebrate internal difference.

Now, forget all the stuff I just told you and go back and re-read Corinthians 12. Let the truth of it wash all that individualism/collectivism dichotomy-think out of your mind.