The Christian community in Corinth is quite fascinated with spiritual gifts. It’s a mostly Gentile church in a rather wild port city in Greece. Most of the population is made up of retired Roman soldiers, but with all the trade in the city, there are people from all over the Roman world here. Walking the street you can hear half a dozen languages in addition to the standard Latin and Greek. There’s a Jewish synagogue in town, and temples to the Greek God Poseidon, the Roman Goddess Roma, and the Egyptian Goddess Isis, among many others.

And right in the midst of this ethic and cultural milieu is the church that Paul founded. Paul spent a year and a half there with them getting everything established. But it wasn’t always easy for these hard-living Gentiles to live a Christian lifestyle. And it doesn’t take long before they are writing Paul with questions and concerns about how they should live. And some of those questions have to do with the place and role of spiritual gifts.

Before these Corinthians had been convinced by the message of Jesus Christ, they had been involved in all sorts of other kinds of religious expression. And many of those other cults were famous for their miracles, their amazing displays of spiritual power. Worshippers would go into trances, prophesy, display acts of power, contact the spiritual world, speak in tongues, and all sorts of other wonders.

So now that they are in the church, these new Christians want to understand how manifestations of spirit work within the Christian context. How are they to know if one of these spiritual gifts is from God or not? How are they to know how to properly use the gifts of the spirit? Are they essential to the faith, or are they just spiritual excesses that distract from the true faith?

Paul has a pretty simple test to help the Corinthians discern whether a gift of the spirit is actually from God. If the manifestation of the spirit declares Jesus as Lord, then you know that it is from God. If the manifestation of the spirit curses Jesus, then you know it’s not from God, but from some other, more nefarious, spiritual source. In other words, you can tell a manifestation of the spirit by its fruit. If someone claims to have a revelation from God, but their message seems completely at odds with the message of Jesus, then you can tell that it isn’t authentic. If someone displays some kind of spiritual power, does some kind of miracle, but that display of power does not serve to further the Kingdom of God, then you know that it isn’t authentic. If someone makes a prophesy but it is destructive rather than constructive, then you know that it isn’t authentic. A display of spiritual power, of any kind, is only worthwhile, is only from God, if it serves a Godly purpose. Otherwise, it is not from God, regardless of the source.

In the wake of this week’s massively destructive earthquake in Haiti, televangelist Pat Robertson offered his attempt at spiritual wisdom on the matter. He claimed that all of the suffering in Haiti — the earthquake, the hurricanes, the economic problems — all of them are a result of God’s displeasure, because, he says, the Haitian people made a pact with the devil in order to free themselves from the French about 200 years ago. In truth, while the United States was still caught up in the sin of slavery, the people of Haiti — an entire nation of slaves — gained their independence in 1804 through a military revolution, not unlike the one that made the United States an independent country. Subsequently, the United States and all of the white European powers systematically isolated Haiti, because they were afraid that the revolution would spread, that more African slaves would fight for their freedom, and nations like ours wanted to continue profiting from the slavery of other human beings.

Now, we can tell that Robertson’s words are not wisdom from the Holy Spirit, not because of anything we might know or think about Pat Robertson, but because his words are so at odds with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He has taken the suffering of the Haitian people, a suffering historically caused by the sins of slavery and racism and today caused by the forces of plate tectonics, and he has turned them on their head, saying, apparently, that God prefers slavery to freedom, that God prefers oppression to liberty, that God prefers death to life. That simply is not God’s way, it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is not the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

Paul also seems keen to tell the Corinthian Christians that spiritual gifts are supposed to benefit the whole community, not just those who are the vessels of spiritual power. If someone is granted spiritual wisdom, then that wisdom should benefit everyone. If somehow has the power of spiritual healing, then that healing should benefit everyone. If someone is able to speak in tongues, it is worthless unless those tongues can be interpreted and the message is meaningful to the whole community.

Spiritual gifts are not meant to be hoarded. Spiritual gifts are not to be used to show off. Spiritual gifts are not to be used for the benefit of the one who has been gifted, nor or they any kind of status symbol. They are simply the means by which the Holy Spirit is manifest within the Christian community, and those manifestations of the Holy Spirit are meant for the benefit of all, not just for the privileged few.

But perhaps the most important part of this scripture passage is the message of diversity in unity. Diversity in unity: that’s not something that is easy for us to understand. In our world we usually find unity only in places where there is homogeneity. We are united because we are all alike, we all look the same way, we all have similar backgrounds, we all believe the same things. It is easy to present a united front when everyone in the group is the same. But there is always a tendency in these sorts of groups to strive for greater and greater purity, to keep excluding more people for being outside the norm, until there are only tiny factions left, each fighting over which one has things right.

Likewise, when we think of diversity, we often associate it with controversy, disagreement, even violence. Diversity means things like race riots, religious wars, ideological terrorism. Wherever there is diversity, there is bound to be disagreement, where there is disagreement, there is often conflict, and where there is conflict, it is only a short step to violence.

But Paul speaks of something higher, something more noble: diversity in unity. Many gifts, but one Spirit, many ministries, but one Lord, many activities, but one God who makes them all possible — diversity in unity.

It should be a very familiar concept to us Americans. In fact, I’ll bet almost every person here has it printed on their person. E pluribus unam, stamped on nearly every form of US currency. Out of many, one. From diversity, unity.

God has made the human race a people of great diversity. We have different skin colors, different hair, different features. We speak different languages, have different nationalities, share different histories. We have different levels of education, different standards of living, different socio-economic classes. We have different political and religious viewpoints.

And yet in spite of our differences, we are all united together in God, because every single person in this world is created in the image of God. Every person is God’s beloved child. Every single person is deserving of love and care and compassion and grace.

Whether we see it or not, there is unity in our diversity, because God sees our unity, and God has made us to be diverse. It is up to us to knock down the barriers that usually divide us. It is up to us to transcend our petty bigotries and acknowledge every person in this world as our sister or brother, because we are all children of one God. It is up to us to reach out a hand even when we don’t expect welcome, so that the reality of our world might come into conformity with the dream God has for us: a people who are black, white, and brown; a people who are rich and poor; a people from north, south, east, and west; a people who are old and young, female and male, powerful and weak — and yet, a people who are one. May it be so. Amen.