The Spirit’s Global Gifts

Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 12:4-31

Quotes for Reflection

Harvey Kwiyani, Substack: Global Witness, Globally Reimagined
I am persuaded that the gospel comes to us with a multicultural imperative. The vitality of the worldwide Body of Christ depends on the mutual exchange between its parts (Eph. 4). All parts must receive from other parts. All parts must give some things to other parts. No part is self-sufficient. And, of course, no part belongs in the body without a gift. No member of the Body can say to another,“I do not need you”(1 Cor. 12:21).In a nutshell, there is neither first-class nor second-class members in the Body of Christ. But how does this work in practice? One way to think about this is that in Christ, God has drawn us together to the heavenly table where God alone is host and we are all guests. The table metaphor makes it possible to think about all of us bringing and sharing our authentic cultural foods in God’s presence. To taste the gifts of another part of the Body—of brothers and sisters from another part of the world—all you need to do is look around the table. This works well when we successfully curb the urge to dominate and assimilate one another into our ways of doing things but, instead, embrace diversity for what it is, a gift from God. Given the global dynamics of our segregated existence, the challenge is whether we can actually all be guests at God’s table. This needs a great deal of self-emptying for all of us, a letting-go of our power and entitlement(Phil. 2). There is no need for those at the edges to parrot what the powerful and influential among us are saying and doing in order to be accepted. An older and wiser friend of mine, a white American man, led a multicultural congregation that was a safe space for asylum seekers in St Paul, Minnesota. When I visited him, he told me,“In this church, we are all foreigners.” The key to his theological conviction was that Christ decentres us all so he can be our one and only Centre.

Harvey Kwiyani, Substack: Global Witness, Globally Reimagined
Mission without colonialism is possible.If Jesus’ mission needed imperialism, he would have grown up in Rome.