Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ICorinthians 12:4-6, NRSV
Gifts, services, activities – what we have to offer the world, the medium we choose to offer our gifts, and the actions we take to show our love for God, self, and neighbor. It’s the adventure of a lifetime to discern, pick, and work in ways unique to us – no one can offer what we can, and we cannot offer what someone else can. We shouldn’t waste our days worrying about whether we have gifts, or whether our gifts are worthy: we do, and they are.
So find your place, your service, where your gifts are needed. Put your heart into it. Accept the praise of others with thanks, and a grain of salt. Don’t mistake your worth with how others value or do not value you. Serve.
Remember, you are a delight to God. That’s why you are here, beloved child of the Creator.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ICorinthians 12:4-6, NRSV
All of us are born with gifts unique to us. The combination of who we are, where we live, and the community that surrounds us affects how our gifts are recognized and fostered – or whether they are recognized and fostered at all. It’s why mentors are so important: they see in others something precious, and they offer their time, patience, and wisdom to help it grow.
But recognizing and investing aren’t enough – a mentor has to do this without trying to determine or definitively define the purpose for which the gift was given. That is up to the Spirit. But it takes trust in God and others to do this.
A mentor can’t co-opt another’s gift or path for recognition or benefit – it’s time to foster the accomplishments of others rather than add more accomplishments to one’s own list. Generosity and maturity are required to do this.
Sometimes, it’s not about the ones whose gifts we see so readily. Sometimes, it’s about taking the time to look deeply at those whose gifts aren’t visible – whose value has been overlooked or questioned. The gifts are there, no doubt.
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!,” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 12:3, NRSV
In some of the occult films, werewolves can’t touch silver and vampires are kept at bay by garlic and crosses. In the same kinds of movies, the demons disguised as humans can’t touch crosses or holy water without harm, and can’t say the words God or Jesus. While such things make for interesting plot points, Paul isn’t writing about them. The power of words and speech isn’t that simple.
Paul has already mentioned idols that cannot speak, the ones people have left behind when the Spirit led them to follow Jesus. But what about idols that can speak, living people who entice with words? Just because someone is a gifted orator, or seems to be hijacked by the Spirit to speak in tongues, does not mean that the words are the Word of God (another name for Jesus). So how to tell the difference?
Look beyond the delivery to the content of what is being said.
Are the words honoring Jesus and his commandment to love God, self, and neighbor? Do the words point the way to an ever expanding inner life and an increasing generosity toward others? Then those words say Jesus is Lord.
Do the words shrivel the inner life, diminishing rather than deepening? Do the words demand devotion to someone or some ideal other than God and the coming reign of love? Does the speech vilify neighbor and justify harming self and others? Then they are a curse rather than a blessing.
In this age of so many loud voices and a cacophony of words, it’s a good idea to put them to the test before trusting their sources…
You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. ICorinthians 12:2, NRSV
In the ’90’s, looking through the paper, I saw the comic strip Nancy; in it, she was playing with her virtual pets – feeding the cat, tossing a ball to the dog, making sure they were happy. In the last panel, the perspective widens out from Nancy at her computer to show the living, breathing pets she was ignoring.
Idols come in different shapes and sizes, and they are rarely villainous. What makes them idols is the power I give them.
What are the spiritual gifts, and how do you identify who has which one? Are they a measure of our worth, a means of comparing spirituality and godliness? Paul had quite a bit to say about such questions.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at his words. Who knows where they might lead us…such as:
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 1Corinthians 12:1, NRSV
Words have power – something Paul knew well. What is said or written can sway opinions, leading listeners and readers into greater understanding or leading them astray. Deceit can have tragic consequences, just as honesty can be life-giving. Whenever we offer words about the spiritual life, we would do well to take seriously the effect they could have on others.
To the best of his ability, Paul used his words to inform and uplift – to offer a nudge toward a deeper connection with God and neighbor, and a better sense of self. He writes, I do not want you to be uninformed because he wanted good things for others. That is a worthy goal, and a good indication that what follows this opening sentence in chapter twelve will be well worth reading…
One of the wonderful things about a coastal town is the breathtakingly expansive nature of the ocean. Water stretches for miles in the distance, and I can see it all from where I am standing.
The same is true of the mountains.
I know I can’t see forever, even on a clear day, but it seems like I can.
But it’s the beauty of the other days that sticks with me, the foggy and cloud-filled ones.
This is High Street yesterday – a foggy morning that obscures everything that is more than a hundred feet away. I know what’s up the road – I lived just a few hundred yards from here for two decades – but I can’t see it.
Just across the street, Ladner Street was also wrapped in mystery:
There is beauty in the mystery of a partial view, just as there is a grandness to an unobscured view. I love both – one cannot be mistaken for the other, and seeing both is a glimpse of something more important and expansive than I can express in words.
Encounters with God, large and small, are more akin to the glimpses of life through fog or mist – beautiful, but in no way all-encompassing. This doesn’t mean that they are untrue or faulty, it just means that they are not complete. One person cannot behold God fully, and one person’s vision of God does not dictate or encompass all the visions of God that are possible. That’s not a problem – unless and until a beautiful and partial view is mistaken for a full one…
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.
We have taken the road through the psalms of Ascent, and now we reach the end.
But it’s never really the end, is it? Because there are always places that call to us, that put our feet back on the road.
Even if where we go next is a familiar place, the road and the ascent has changed us. We aren’t really going back to who and where we were – we are walking into the wonder of a time and place that we see more clearly for having left.
Every place we call home is a temporary dwelling place; our time is limited and we move on.
But before we set out again, let’s dwell in the place that is the reason for our journey: the house of the Lord.
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord.
May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.
Psalm 134, NRSV, A Song of Ascents
Bless the Lord for all the challenges we face on our journeys – they teach us patience and give us strength.
Bless the Lord for the everything-is-falling-into-place times: we see the beauty around us more easily for them.
Bless the Lord for the work we have been given to do – we appreciate rest more because of it, and we have the chance to honor creation through it.
Bless the Lord for the journey. Bless the Lord for journey’s end. Bless the Lord. Make us a blessing. Bless.
How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.
Psalm 133, NRSV. A Song of Ascents
There isn’t much unity right now, especially in Israel and the Ukraine. It isn’t oil that’s running, it’s blood. The world is too small – and there are too many people and too many life-taking tools – for us to pretend that we are all anything but kin. We are bound together in our common breath, our common need for nourishing food, adequate clothing, sturdy shelter, and our common right for a life without violence. So how do we get to that place from this one?
My thoughts right now:
Prayer is a good place to begin – a prayer for those in harm’s way, and a prayer that those in power seek peaceful solutions. I’ll continue praying, and remembering this: prayer isn’t a good place to end.
Act in ways that foster peace and justice in my everyday life. Keep a calm, inviting home. Let go of frustration that is fruitless and petty – waiting a few extra minutes in a line, getting cut off on the traffic circle, and extending courtesy and compassion to those who cannot or will not do the same for me.
Put my resources to good use. Send aid to areas that desperately need it, not just once but for as long as it takes for the situation to improve.
Keep the to-do lists and work/social obligations reasonable; the time squeeze narrows my focus and allows me to eliminate anything beyond my own preoccupations.
In his book, The Spirituality of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann discusses three different kinds of psalms – psalms of orientation, psalms of disorientation, and psalms of reorientation. The first are psalms of thanks and praise coming from a place of blessing. In Brueggemann’s words, these psalms in a variety of ways articulate the joy, delight, goodness, coherence, and reliability of God, God’s creation, and God’s governing law (p.8). The disorientation psalms are for seasons of change and instability. This kind of psalm constitutes a dismantling of the old, known world and a relinquishing of safe, reliable confidence in God’s good creation. Themovement of dismantling includes a rush of negativites, including rage, resentment, guilt, shame, isolation, despair, hatred, and hostility (p,10). The reorientation psalms are songs from a community surprised by a new gift from God, a new coherence made present to us just when we thought all was lost…this move of departure to new life includes a rush of positive responses, including delight, amazement, wonder, awe, gratitude and thanksgiving (P. 11)
Songs of Ascent are sung on the road to Jerusalem, approaching the center of the Jewish faith – God’s holy temple. Psalm 132 is a song affirming God’s presence among the people – God’s in his temple, all’s right in the world. But I think it can be understood and sung from two very different places of understanding.
The first, an orientation psalm: of course God is with us – that’s the way things are.
The second, a reorientation psalm: God is with us! – it could have been otherwise…
O Lord, remember in David’s favor all the hardships he endured; how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed;
I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Israel.”
We heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar. “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool.”
Rise up, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your faithful shout for joy. For your servant David’s sake do not turn away the face of your anointed one.
The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my decrees that I shall teach them, their sons also, forevermore, shall sit on your throne.”
For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation; “This is my resting place forever; here I will reside, for I have desired it.
I will abundantly bless its provisions; I will satisfy its poor with bread. Its priests I will clothe with salvation, and its faithful will shout for joy.
There will I cause a horn to sprout up for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one. His enemies I will clothe with disgrace, but on him, his crown will gleam.”
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore.
Psalm 131, NRSV. A Song of Ascents. Of David? [Some scholars believe this psalm was written by a woman, regardless of its being attributed to David. I don’t think it matters much, but the imagery is definitely feminine – God as mother, human soul as child.]
I hadn’t really given much thought to the image of the soul as a weaned child, one already moving toward adulthood and able to survive without a mother’s milk. It isn’t hunger for food that moves this child to seek its mother; it’s the desire to return to the source of life, and the recognition that life begins and is sustained by the loving presence of another. None of us are self-created. That simple truth can be accepted and celebrated, or it can be denied as a weakness. If denied, the truth of our very existence is lost, and we will seek in vain to replace it with all manner of complex knowledge and difficult tasks – all of which will have no foundation or ability to ground us in what is true and real.
There’s no shame in being still in the presence of the one who brought us into life. It’s the one place in the universe that offers a glimpse of who we are, and how very much we are loved. This and no other is the starting place of wisdom.
