Eager to Benefit Others
- davidwperk
- Oct 17, 2023
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Proper 23, the week of the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:
14:1Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. . . .12So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.
You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 986)
AM Psalm 5, 6; PM Psalm 10, 11
Jer. 36:27-37:2; 1 Cor. 14:1-12; Matt. 10:16-23
Today we celebrate the Feast of Ignatius of Antioch. (See below.)
David's Reflections
American culture seems preoccupied with questions of rank—the best team, the best song, the best fighter, etc. In pop music, we have the top ten, in college football, the top twenty five. And, we tend to bring that over into the realm of the Spirit, for example valuing large churches over small ones.
The Corinthians also tended in that direction, especially in the area of spiritual gifts. If spiritual gifts come from God as enablements to serve, can we identify gifts that might be more important? Which are the best? Some had elevated the gifts of ecstatic speech, healing, miracles, and prophecy to the top of the list. These people seemed to value a more ecstatic individual experience of Spirit. In some of Paul's lists, he also ranks gifts, but his ranking system differs. For him the most important gifts are the ones that build up and bless the Christian community, and he regarded ecstatic speech as a gift that builds up the individual, not the community, so he placed it at the bottom in his ranking.
The person speaking ecstatically does not communicate in a known language. Rather, God's Spirit speaks through him or her an unknown language, what Paul calls "the tongues of angels" in 1 Corinthians 13. Unless someone, the speaker or someone else, interprets, no one, including the speaker, will discern God’s message. Sometimes, the person experiencing prayer in tongues has hints of what the Spirit is saying through them.
The need for interpretation to benefit the community highlights the private nature of this gift. Even the ability to interpret is a spiritual gift. Therefore, for Paul, such ecstatic speech by its very nature should be exercised in private and not in public worship. Better to prophesy in public, that is to speak a word of inspiration or instruction to the entire congregation in a language they understand. So, he required those speaking ecstatically to have an interpreter so that the community would be built up. Otherwise, the ecstatic speaker must remain silent in the assembly.
Part of Paul’s concern focuses on the response of outsiders to the community to the display of ecstatic speech in worship. He assumes that nonbelievers would be in the assembly and that they would be mystified by such display.
This discussion may feel alien to your experience if you've not experienced ecstatic speech personally or witnessed someone else speaking ecstatically. That would be especially true if you've worshipped most of your life in an Episcopal or other noncharismatic church setting. I grew up in a small town with a strong Pentecostal presence, and as a youngster witnessed my Pentecostal friends speaking in tongues in one of the most radical church expressions of charismatic gifts. Through the years some of my closest friends and most mature church members have had the gift of ecstatic speech but have exercised that gift in a very different and much more private way.
Paul values all the gifts including the ecstatic ones. It appears that in its best expression (this chapter and in the closing verses of Romans 8), speaking in tongues has to do with praying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit praying in and through the person apart from their intellectual participation. It is not primarily about emotions; those who practice this devotional gift in private will affirm that. And, it is not a gift for every Christian, any more than any other gift is intended for all.
What we are called to do by this chapter is to "pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts." We are called to be open to God's Spirit and to allow the Spirit to manifest Godself through us as the Spirit chooses. We are to devote ourselves, our natural abilities and our spiritual enablements, to God for service through the church. What natural abilities and spiritual charisms does God want you to devote to divine service through your church (the former can become the latter with the aid of the Spirit).
As Paul puts it in the final verse for today, "since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.” Paul Tillich said it well. “If the divine Spirit breaks into the human spirit, this does not mean that it rests there, but that it drives the human spirit out of itself. The ‘in’ of the divine Spirit is an ‘out’ for the human spirit.+
+Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951, 1957, 1963), 3:111-112.
Collect of the Day, Proper 23, the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, pp. 234-235)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (died ca. 107 -110 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Ignatius of Antioch
Almighty God, we praise your Name for your bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch, who offered himself as grain to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that he might present to you the pure bread of sacrifice. Accept, we pray, the willing tribute of our lives and give us a share in the pure and spotless offering of your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer to the Spirit.
Welcome Holy Spirit, come and set us free! Let each one catch the living flame and be ravished by your love! Let our souls glow with your fire. Help us overcome our forgetfulness of Spirit. [Clark H. Pinnock, Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), p. 9.].
A Collect for Peace
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
For the Unity of the Church
Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one: Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit,
that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 255)
In the Order of Worship for Evening
Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
A Collect for Mission
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Epistle, 1 Corinthians 14:1-12
14:1Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. 2For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. 3On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church. 5Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
6 Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? 7It is the same way with lifeless instruments that produce sound, such as the flute or the harp. If they do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played? 8And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 9So with yourselves; if in a tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10There are doubtless many different kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound. 11If then I do not know the meaning of a sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
Comments