Love and Spiritual Ecstasy

Daily Office Devotional, Friday, April 1, 2022

The week of the fourth Sunday in Lent

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

13:1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 955)

AM Psalm 95 [for the Invitatory] 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32

Exod. 2:1-22; 1 Cor. 12:27-13:3; Mark 9:2-13

Today we celebrate the Feast of Frederick Denison Maurice. (See below.)

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Epistle, 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

13:1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

David’s Reflections

Van Morrison sings a song entitled “I Forgot that Love Existed.” These lyrics are repeated like a refrain:

If my heart could do my thinking

And my head begin to feel

I would look upon the world anew

And know what's truly real. *

Some of the Corinthians had forgotten that love existed. They were experiencing ecstatic manifestations of God’s presence and power, speaking in unknown languages, miracles of healing, and other works of power. They were describing themselves as “spiritual” on the basis of these manifestations, spiritual gifts that some other members of the church obviously lacked. (Paul uses the adjective “spiritual” as a noun only one other time outside the Corinthian letters. See Galatians 6:1.)

Paul did not deny that they were experiencing God’s gracious gifts. Rather, he sought to point them toward another expression of God’s presence as superior and more central to Christian faith. For Paul, the ethical took precedence over the ecstatic. The ability to accept, care about, and be faithful to relationships in an unconditional way, that is, the ability to love was the more fundamental manifestation of the Holy Spirit. We do not all share the ecstatic gifts, but we all can share this ethical force called love.

Here, love gets framed as commitment that seeks the well being of the other and not primarily as feeling. I can intend commitment to the other. Feelings can prove rather ephemeral and dependent on the beauty or appeal of the other. I find feelings elusive of intent. I can arise in the morning and redouble my intent to live for the well being of the other. Intending to feel a certain way about the other eludes my control.

Paul did not set these two, the ecstatic and the ethical, against each other in an either/or dichotomy. He believed that healthy Christian faith could encompass both. But, to elevate oneself above others on the basis of the experience of the ecstatic was something other than to love. Perhaps we can hear Paul challenging the Corinthians to let their heart do their thinking and their head do their feeling, to bring heart and head into synch. An intellectual approach might mistrust the ecstatic. An ecstatic experience might distrust the intellect. Better to live with these two closely united and complementary to one another.

Morrison’s song also has these lyrics:

I forgot that love existed,

and it strangled my heart.

Then I turned a brand new leaf,

And made a brand new start. *

Paul points us toward a superior way, making our commitment to and acceptance of one another the central driving energy of our Christian experience. That love will force us out of our preoccupation with ourselves and our frenzied self-maintenance into vital connection with others in the community and into witness and service to those without faith. Those with the more ecstatic gifts and those with gifts of the Spirit less dramatic will dance in synch in the mystery we call “the body of Christ.”

It’s never too late to turn over a brand new leaf.

Note: This passage offers an instance of the chapter number impeding the reading. Had chapter 13 begun with what we read in 12:31, the connection of ecstatic gifts to love would be even more clear. The practice of subdividing the Bible into segments began with the Hebrew scribes creating clusters of scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures. Scribes copying New Testament manuscripts used various methods of segmenting the text, like putting a capital letter on the first word of a verse in the margin. We normally credit an Archbishop of Canterbury (1207-1228 CE), Stephen Langton, with dividing the Bible into chapters.

* Van Morrison CD, "Poetic Champions Compose." Exile Productions, LTD., 1987.

Collect of the Day, The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 219)

Collect for Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent

O God, you have given us the Good News of your abounding love in your Son Jesus Christ: So fill our hearts with thankfulness that we may rejoice to proclaim the good tidings we have received; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Occasional Services, p. 54)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Frederick Denison Maurice, priest and theologian (died 1 Apr 1872 CE).

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/FDMaurice.htm

Collect of the Feast of Frederick Denison Maurice

Almighty God, who has restored our human nature to heavenly glory through the perfect obedience of our Savior Jesus Christ: Enliven in your Church, we pray, a passion for justice and truth; that, like your servant Frederick Denison Maurice, we may work and pray for the triumph of the kingdom of your Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Collect for Fridays

Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies' sake. Amen. (BCP, 123)

A Collect for Quiet Confidence

O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 832)

A Prayer for Light

Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 280)