We theoretically investigate selective coupling of superconducting charge qubits mediated by a superconducting stripline cavity with a tunable resonance frequency. The frequency control is provided by a flux-biased dc superconducting quantum interference device attached to the cavity. Selective entanglement of the qubit states is achieved by sweeping the cavity frequency through the qubit-cavity resonances. The circuit is able to accommodate several qubits and allows one to keep the qubits at their optimal points with respect to decoherence during the whole operation. We derive an effective quantum Hamiltonian for the basic, two-qubit-cavity system, and analyze appropriate circuit parameters. We present a protocol for performing Bell inequality measurements, and discuss a composite pulse sequence generating a universal control-phase gate.