1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Epiphany 2 - Year C

I haven’t said recently, “Let Jesus be cursed”. In fact I don’t know that I have ever said it. I certainly don’t intend to say it.

I have, from time to time, conveniently put Jesus out of mind. I have played one thing he said off against another. I have used my gifts for my own purposes rather than some degree of common good.

And the difference between the saying and doing is exactly the degree of hypocrisy in my life. How about you?

After such a generalized confession let’s get down to a seemingly small point — gifts are allotted to and activated by G*D. If you want to say Spirit, that’s fine. These gifts appear to be distributed in mysterious ways that we too easily chalk up to some spiritual plan.

Of interest here is a sense of continual shifts in gifts as call after call comes. Sometimes that is a re-call (no not a recall, a re-call) and we deepen the arena in which we are gifted and called. Sometimes our gifts and call broaden from one arena into another and we put one call down to pick up another.

This is prima facie evidence that gifts and call are living entities. As the spirit chooses, we claim, gifts and calls are allotted and activated. There is no room here for such discriminatory legislation to deny to a whole class of people what is clearly given - a gift and a call. For forty years the United Methodist Church has denied this piece of biblical wisdom, that gift and call need to be evaluated on a basis beyond whether or not a person is affectionally oriented toward a person of their same gender.

Mary saw a gift and a call in Jesus and put him in a position to acknowledge and act on both. Water not only revealed belovedness, but water revealed better wine than could be expected - a party reveling in community and relationship could be extended.

It might be said that the sign here is not water to wine, but the revelation of a gift and call not previously activated. When this sort of integrity is shown, we are speechless and simpy stammer out that some great thing must have passed by here (listen). In the midst of your wearlness may you still sing your gift, your call.

 

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/01/1-corinthians-121-11.html

 

 

If you have not done a spiritual gifts inventory lately you may want to explore a couple of websites - The United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

These instruments can capture a bit of your spiritual gifts history but cannot predict where and what the next spiritual gift you will have. Therefore it is helpful to regularly check in with these types of inventories and your covenant community to see if you can keep up to date with what is going on in your life.

It is exciting that none of us have all the spiritual gifts and that those we have can be for a time and a season rather than for eternity. If you were to reincarnate as a spiritual gift, which one would you desire it to be? It is also exciting that all of us together have all the spiritual gifts we need.

It takes a village full of spiritual gifts to raise a child. It take a child's spiritual gift to complete a village worth of gifts.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/january2004.html

 

 

Verse 7:

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (NRSV)

Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. (The Message)

What manifestation/doing of the Spirit is alive and well within the person from whom you learn the easiest, who is your hero/heroine?

What manifestation/doing of the Spirit is alive and well within the person most difficult for you to learn from, who is your enemy or betrayer?

Can you believe the same Spirit is in both, working for the common good so everyone benefits? This is difficult. We want to idolize the easy revelation and deny the difficult or misused gift. This gift of dealing with a variety of community members helps us know when the gift we are using is coming from a deep place within and is connected more directly with the Spirit. It also assists us in recognizing when we have had that gift take a detour through our necessity of the day that we use to fool ourself or manipulate others.

In both cases we can better "do what needs to be done" (Powdermilk Biscuit as Spirit) by showing the part of GOD we best image.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/january2004.html

 

 

While we were yet "pagan" we did not experience ourselves as led astray. It wasn't until there was a moment of revelation that our accepted reality didn't match up with our experienced reality - a moment we later called holy - that we began to make important distinctions regarding decision-making moments and decision-making methodologies.

Recognizing that just because we all believed something didn't make it right opens us to questions about what is now needed that is different than has been needed. We can still affirm that what moved us forward was a particular decision (gift) but that keeping on with that same gift in a different setting is now holding us back.

In the midst of a listing of various decision-making modalities (gifts) there is a key element that takes us beyond simply discussing, debating, warring about the numbered hierarchy of gifts that ranks those who hold them. This key is that of "a common good". In this sense all gifts are good gifts if they are able to play their part. When there is no dialogue between them, the gifts fall apart into sectarian prejudices.

Gifts are activated by a common good (a holy spirit moment) that senses a turning tide and shifts gears to a next gift, already present, even as we momentarily shift away from a previous gift. This activation process calls for a gift of ambiguity appreciation larger than any particular decision-making gift. It calls for a gift of humility to let go and humility to step forward.

- - -

common spirit
holy good
mix and match
holy common
spirit good

here a gift
there a gift
everywhere
a gift gift

gift of moment
gift of choice
gift of application
gift of letting go
gift of holding on
gift for every season under heaven

gifts activated
gifts received
gifts that are no gift

common spirit gift - kite sky blue
spirit gift common - kite sky bluer
gift common spirit - kite sky bluest

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

 

 

I am always amused and aggravated at the way Paul can so easily slip from an either/or didacticism regarding Jesus' "name" to an open-ended appreciation of variety of gifts attributed to a Spirit of this same Jesus. I experience no harm to this pericope should verses 2 and 3 happen to get erased or not spoken when reading. Try it: 1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-11.

With that detail cared for, consider again the variety of images of G*D that G*D seems to have an appreciation for. They range from deserts to your life this day. All the named and unnamed gifts are expressions of an original blessing. Perhaps you will appreciate Chris Smither's song, "Origin of Species" - lyrics and performance.

For those of you who aren't into links, here is the pertinent section of the song:

God said: "I'll make some DNA"
They can use it any way they want
From paramecium
Right up to man."

"They'll have sex
And mix up sections of their code
They'll have mutations...
The whole thing works like clockwork over time."

"I'll just sit back in the shade
While everyone gets laid.
That's what I call
Intelligent design."

Yeah, you and your cat named Felix,
Both wrapped up in that double helix,
Is what we call
Intelligent design.

Paul calls this DNA "the same G*D who activates [each gift]". Appreciate an Original Blessing or First Gift that has manifested as you. Pretty amazing, are you!

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html