January 14, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Right after the New Year, the political landscape in Washington, D.C. changed. Our own Nancy Pelosi is now the Speaker of the House and we pray that less combative and more non-partisan government would lead us into a brighter and more productive future. But it wasn’t long ago that many of us were glued to the TV set waiting on election returns and seeing how many red and blue states there were.
In any election season, candidates for almost any office of any party can easily whip up enthusiasm and energy over trying to divide constituencies from one another. In a school district, someone will rally the senior citizens to oppose higher school taxes with the reasoning that they don’t have kids in the schools so they shouldn’t have to pay higher taxes. In California, Central Valley politicians and San Francisco politicians make speeches about how either the rural folk or the city folk shouldn’t have to support folk in the other location. Nationally, the wealthy and poor are pitted against each other, as are interest groups of all kinds seeking more money and attention for their particular causes.
Lost somewhere in the midst of all this clamoring for dollars and attention is the concept which founded this nation and others, the idea that a city, state or nation is actually people uniting to share resources in support of one another. Some of our states, like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia enshrined that concept in the very name of the state: “Commonwealth.” It’s the “Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” The wealth in the state’s natural and human resources are there to be shared among the citizens of the state as each has need. The leaders of the government are to be “stewards of the common wealth.”
In a society of people often bent on trying to get as much as each one can for themselves, this concept of “commonwealth’ seems quaint in the extreme.
Corinthian Commonwealth
Yet this notion of the commonwealth comes to us from the Bible, and from Christians in the New Testament. In the Book of Acts, the new community of Christians is described as having all things in common. That specifically seems to refer to material goods. Paul is clearly aware that the Christian community at Corinth had some trouble with this practice as well. Earlier in his letter, Paul addressed their lack of sharing and common concern when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper together (11:17-34). The Corinthian Christians had trouble sharing their resources.
As an important seaport and commercial center, Corinth included people both of great wealth and significant poverty, including many freed Roman slaves who aspired to move from poverty to wealth. From within the letter, we can decipher that this community had problems with dissension and asked questions of Paul on how to live the Christian life, both as individuals and in community.
Some folk in the Corinthian church struggled with the concept of “common wealth” in terms both of material goods (like food) and in terms of a perceived hierarchy of gifts. Apparently some people felt that some gifts were more important than others and therefore made those blessed with them more important than other members of the community. Instead of the kind of counter-cultural equality Paul had tried to establish, where the point of having gifts was to enrich the community, the values of the surrounding society seeped into the life of the church, with the result that some people felt self-importance while others felt demeaned and neglected.
So after addressing the issue of the sharing of food, Paul turns to the nonmaterial gifts in the community. He celebrates that the great variety of gifts and activities all emanate from one God, one Spirit. Then he emphasizes that the point of all these gifts is not to give special benefits to anyone. The gifts of the spirit, like the material resources of the community, are to be used “for the common good.”
The people who have the gifts did not earn them or achieve them on their own, rather they are just what the word implies, “gifts,” given to each and all by the same Spirit not because of human merit, but by the Spirit’s free choice. The point of having gifts is not for personal pride or enrichment, but to use them to care for and build up the faith community, for the common good.
Commonwealth of FCBC
As we begin the New Year at FCBC, I have been thinking about our commitment to the common wealth in our church. Like the church in Corinth, we too have been given many gifts from the same God for the common good. But sometimes when we can only speak one of the two languages spoken here or that we can worship at one of the four Sunday morning services that we offer, we feel that there’s little in common that we share. And just like the Corinthians, we Asian/Chinese American Baptists at FCBC can run the temptation to see our individual gifts as a reason for personal pride and enrichment rather than to use them for the common good.
We certainly may celebrate the diversity of gifts that are found here, but Paul tells us to emphasize the unifying relationship that exist among them—one God, one Spirit. Our church needs all the gifts, and none of the gifts are inferior to the others. Some might seem lowlier, but on the Spirit’s scale, they are all weighty, and each is critical to the common wealth of the church.
The heart of Paul’s message is in these sentences: “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. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (12:4-7).
Some people might wonder what benefits are there for me to give up a Friday night and cook dinner at Friday Night School; well, this lowly job of hospitality may lead students to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Some people might wonder what benefits are there for me to help Joe Chan with breakfast at church; well, this lowly job of cooking waffles and washing dishes starts our day with the Lord by reminding us of God’s grace and abundance. Some people wonder what benefits are there for me to help pick up the church and participate in the Clean-up days; well, these lowly tasks of using our strength teach us that all gifts are given to us by the same God for the benefit of everyone. When we serve God, we don’t ask what personal benefits we would get before committing. We offer our gifts freely because these gifts were freely given to us; not of our own merit or doing.
God equips us with the gifts and resources we need to be of service to others. The problem, though, is that we often discount what God has given us and overlook the opportunities we have to use those gifts to accomplish some good. Author Anne Lamott tells about a time when she went to the supermarket to buy food for a birthday dinner.
As she was checking out at the register, the cashier looked at her receipt and joyfully announced, “Hey! You’ve won a ham!” Although the cashier was excited that Lamott had won, Lamott was anything but enthused. But so as not to disappoint the cashier, she pretended to be excited about her good fortune. As she wheeled her cart out to the car, Lamott debated what to do with the ham, giving serious thought “about chucking the parcel out the window near the field.” In fact, she was so distracted thinking about the ham that she ended up banging her shopping cart into the back of a parked car. As it turned out, the driver in the car was a woman she knew. Soon they got talking with each other, and the woman in the car explained, “I don’t have money for gas, or food. I’ve never asked for help from a friend since I got sober, but I’m asking you to help me.”
Right away Lamott reached into her purse and handed the woman a wad of bills. Then she reached into her shopping cart and held up the ham. “Do you and your kids like ham?” She asked. “We love it,” the woman replied. “We love it for every meal.”
The ham, which at first seemed to Lamott to be nothing more than a useless prize, turned out to be an invaluable gift when it was offered in the right moment. When we are only thinking about ourselves and what we need or don’t have, we can often lose sight of the greater good or the situation in the bigger picture. By sharing the gifts that we have received, we are able to strive toward the common wealth of all people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tomorrow is a federal holiday when we remember the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Our gifts are given not only to be used within the confines of our church and building, but to serve God in the wider world. Mindful of Dr. King’s encouragement to us to help each person have the freedom and resources to fully develop whatever gifts they have been given; we have a challenge not only within our churches, but in our communities as well.
Dr. King’s dream of a more just and equal society that is free of all segregation is from another dreamer, the Apostle Paul. Paul dreamt that the congregation in Corinth could rise above its divisive, derisive, arrogant and segregated ways and therefore, Dr. King believe that our society can too. Paul’s dream inspired Dr. King not only to dream of an end to segregation in the church, but in a society as well.
We know that far too many African Americans and poor people face discrimination and are blocked from equal opportunities. There are far too many African Americans incarcerated in our prisons. There are far too many African Americans and people who live in poor communities who have preventable diseases and little assess to medical care. There are far too many African Americans on the list of homicides and who commit suicide. If we can understand that the church as the Body of Christ with its variety of gifts, activities and services has been given by the same and one God for the benefit of the common good, then can we make a commitment that we also must be committed to use these resources in our wider world for the common wealth of all?
In celebrating Dr. King’s birthday, we remember him saying, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” And he said, “Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.”
For the Common Good
Like Dr. King said, “Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.” And my prayer is that “You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.” It amazes me that many of the gifts that lay dormant in Pennsylvania for many years became activated by serving at FCBC. When you use your gifts for ministry at FCBC, I am able to use mine with you too. You are enabling me to become what I ought to be and I hope that you are becoming who you ought to be according to the gifts given by the one and same God.
I believe that our church is committed to the common wealth of all. It’s one of the strongest gifts that we offer to each other and to everyone who comes through our doors. Our visitors always glowingly remark about how friendly you are. We even have out of state visitors who return time and time again to our church when they are in San Francisco because of the friendship and hospitality that you provide.
This is good because according to sociologists, Americans have a third fewer close friends and confidants than just two decades ago—a sign that people may be living lonelier, more isolated lives. In 1985, the average American had three people in whom to confide matters that were important to them. By 2004, that number dropped to two, and one in four had no close confidants at all.
Our challenge both as a church and a nation is to continue to strive for the common wealth of all. Instead of using our gifts in fueling divisiveness in our church, we use them to empower understanding and focusing on our common mission to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in the world.
Instead of using our unique gifts to puff-up our own self-importance, we freely give them to benefit the good of the community.
Instead of thinking that our gifts have been earned from our own merits, we work actively and courageously in our society as Dr. King taught us that we cannot escape “the network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Instead of coveting the gift of fellowship and friendships that we have at our church, we are commanded by our Lord, Jesus Christ to be a friend and confidant to everyone who comes in the name of God. May the Commonwealth of FCBC is seen acceptable in God’s sight, our strength and redeemer.
Let us pray.
Lord God, teach us to use our gifts, talents and abilities for the commonwealth of the church. Challenge us to strive for mutuality and affirm the importance of working together in the service to the Body of Christ. Amen.