Pentecost novena, session 4b

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 working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  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 inspired 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 by 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 Cor 12:4-13

Within the charismatic renewal, this passage is often used for a couple purposes. First, it demonstrates that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been at work in the Church since its earliest years. We tend to think of many of these gifts as strange expressions on the periphery of orthodoxy,when nothing could be further from the truth. It is important for believers to understand that these spiritual gifts are both desirable and normal expressions of the Holy Spirit's presence within us.

Second, and related to this purpose, it is used as a guide for neophytes in the renewal to pray for Spirit to manifest in them. We're often forced to put a fair amount of attention on tongues - which many refer to as "prayer language" - because this gift seems so strange to us now, and there's a funny thing about the Holy Spirit: if we don't want a gift, God won't force it on us. Therefore we end up talking a lot about tongues because people don't want anything they consider "weird" unless they can also see its benefits, and so they stifle the entire movement of the Spirit by not yielding to whatever gifts God wishes to pour out for the benefit of the Body.

Oh, we haven't gotten very far into to that part of Paul's analogy yet, but here's the point: these gifts are apportioned by the Spirit individually, but they are for the benefit of the whole Body.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 

But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.  - 1 Cor 12:14-26

So apparently the Corinthians were experiencing a sense of stratification over the Holy Spirit's apportionment of gifts among them. Paul is taking them to task for missing the entire point of the Spirit in pouring out those gifts among them in the first place. They are a gift of grace, and taking pride in some gifts at the expense of those who have received "only lesser ones" misses the entire point of grace and of the gifts.

You'd think that folks who have received such gifts from the Holy Spirit wouldn't need a lesson like this, but we have the same issue with our own gifts, spiritual or otherwise, and how we treat those whom we deem less blessed with their gifts.