Epiphany 5 C
1 Corinthians 14:12-20
02/08/04
A recent front-page story in the Wall Street Journal (January 6, 2004) reported U.S. Marines being trained for duty in Iraq are getting drilled in people skills as well as heavy weaponry. They are receiving instruction about staying respectful as well as about staying alive.
Marines are still being taught to fight. They are gifted in heavy weaponry and with the tools to use them effectively; but in order to diffuse hostility borne of suspicion they are being taught to ask questions first and shoot later.
Yes, there is great risk to such a strategy. An enemy certainly can exploit it for his purposes, and Marines still will have to be alert to defend themselves; but they are being asked to believe that people in Iraq "can still be won over if American troops treat them with more dignity, patience and understanding."
So they are being asked to use their fighting skills wisely, to employ them with discretion, remembering the greater mission of working with the people of Iraq in order to promote peace. This means they will sometimes pull back instead of fighting. Some of their intimidating apparel is being removed. The course talk and the gruff demeanor, which are so much a part of the military’s image of power; are being toned down. It’s not just simper fi anymore. It’s semper respectful.
That’s the way it’s got to be when you’re trying to win the peace. Wars are fought and won with an indiscriminate use of force; but if you’re trying to build consensus you need to exercise your power with greater precision and tact. You need to use the tools at your disposal with greater care so as to unite and not divide, so as to encourage and not dissuade.
And that’s true, as well, when it comes to the church. One might say that’s Paul chief concern today. In the chapters leading up to our text Paul has made the point that the church properly speaking is a body made up of various believers united together around Christ who is the head. In addition God has uniquely gifted these many members of His church with powerful tools and gifts. “Some he has made into apostles, others prophets, others teachers, then workers of miracles, and also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:28) but note: not for their own advantage or standing, but that, “church might be built up” (1 Corinthians 14:12). The church is a body with Christ as its head, which makes the gifts of His Spirit expressions of God’s will to build up the body. They were to be used respectfully, reverently, to God’s glory, not their own; and with the greater good of the church as their goal.
It’s something the church at Corinth hadn’t quite grasped. They were extremely zealous for the attainment of God’s gifts as Paul encouraged them, but only for their own spirituality and growth. They weren’t thinking much about the spiritual growth of their brothers and sisters in the faith or about their non-Christian acquaintances who desperately needed Jesus when it came to exercising those gifts. This was especially true of the worship life of the congregation where many were using the gift of tongues.
This gift of the Spirit gets a lot of attention today. What was it? How was it expressed in the life of the church? Is it a gift that the Holy Spirit still gives to the people of God today? Should everyone have this gift? Let’s suffice it to say this morning that the NT uses the word tongues in such a way as to imply both the speaking of foreign languages, known by various cultures, as well as unintelligible mutterings of the Spirit. In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, for instance; Paul references speaking in both the tongues of men and of angels. It is likely the latter that is being spoken of in our text, a gift that Paul claims himself and commends to the church; but one he also clearly teaches as being more personal in benefit. Much more important for Paul is the gift of prophesy or preaching, the ability to proclaim the truth of God’s Word; because through that many more are blessed. And that’s what the life of the church is all about. It’s about functioning as a body. It’s about building each other up.
But here’s what was happening in Corinth. Worshippers were drifting into some kind of spiritually ecstatic state, speaking in tongues unknown or unable to be interpreted. Then another would be overcome and start rambling themselves, then another and then another until the whole place was nothing but noise and confusion.
“Just imagine if you were a newcomer or someone without this gift, trying to worship the Lord in this place,” Paul says. “Think of how uncomfortable that would feel. Think of how you might feel excluded, put down and certainly left out because such ramblings are of benefit to no one but yourselves.”
And I can imagine that some of you here today know exactly what Paul was talking about because it’s happened to you. If you’ve ever been to a Billy Graham Crusade or a Promise Keepers event, a Women of Faith convention or something similar you may have been close to someone who broke out into such a spiritual state. Chances are you felt uncomfortable. It might have distracted you from the message that was being shared. Perhaps you even wanted to get up and leave.
This was Paul’s concern. God’s people were blessed with incredible gifts of the Spirit, but they were using them in such a way that His church was not benefiting. The membership was fragmenting, some concluding they were more worthy than others who didn’t have this gift or that. It was stagnated with personal agendas. Worse yet, it was driving visitors away.
And it’s not just the gift of tongues that has the potential to do that. All of God’s gifts can be misused like this. Pastors and church leaders can use their gifts of preaching to toot their own horns. Members with the gifts of leadership and administration can use their positions of authority to advance their own agendas rather than seeking God’s plans and accepting His course. Those with financial wealth can use it to gain leverage and force their will on others. Those with special talents can use them in the spirit of, “Heh y’all. Look at me,” rather than to the glory of God and for the edification of the church. As a church body we’ve been given a rich heritage when it comes to our liturgy, our worship rites; but what’s their value if no one but us understands them? What’s their value if we won’t make the effort to help people follow along, or make them more user-friendly? Our church body has been gifted with a deep concern for the truth of God’s Word and the proper use of the sacraments; but what’s the use of that if we use that as a source of pride to put down other Christians instead of the tool of the Spirit to bring Christ to the nations and the nations to the church?
“That’s how children think,” our Lord reminds us. They think only of their needs and how they will be met. “Don’t be children in these matters. Edify. Build up the church. Be mature.” Christ would move us from such self-destruction to reconstruction by exposing the foolishness, highlighting His wisdom; but even more by pouring out further gifts to get us there.
Isaiah’s a case in point. Suddenly aware of His sins in the house of God Isaiah is filled with concern. He’s aware of His sinful past. He knows He’s come up short of using God’s gifts to His glory, and he thinks he’s ruined because he’s standing in the very presence of God and his holiness. Before God he felt like we might very well feel today confronted with our self righteous, selfish concern that’s been on display; even from within Christ’s church.
But then we see what God in His grace is prepared to do. He acts to cleanse from sin. He removes the cause for worry. He stills the fear. And what is Isaiah’s reaction? Free from any personal concerns, safe in the arms of God’s grace and love, he’s refocused on others. “Who will go and speak to this people?” God asks. And there’s Isaiah, “Ooh, ooh! Here. Here I am. Send me. Send me.”
It kind of reminds me of a story a friend of mine sent me last week about a carpenter who visited one of two brothers who had recently grown embittered with each other over a misunderstanding over the farm they had managed together for the past 40 years. The carpenter was in need of work; or so he said, and he asked the one brother if there was anything he might do to help him out.
"Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That’s my neighbor. In fact, it’s my younger brother! Last week there was a meadow between us. He recently took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I’ll do him one better. See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me a fence, an 8-foot fence - so I won’t need to see his place or his face anymore."
The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I’ll be able to do a job that pleases you."
The older brother had to go to town, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day -- measuring, sawing and nailing.
About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer’s eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There wasn’t a fence there at all. The carpenter had fashioned a bridge... a bridge that stretched from one side of the creek to the other, handrails and all! And the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming toward them, hand outstretched, meeting them in the middle, "You are quite a fellow, you know; to build this bridge after all I’ve said and done." Then hoisting his toolbox onto his shoulder, the carpenter departed. "I’d love to stay, but I have many more bridges to build.”
That’s just like the carpenter, isn’t it – that is the carpenter from Nazareth, our Lord Jesus Christ, who would tear down the dividing walls of hostility, not just between us and God; but between us and others too? It’s just like our Lord who bridged the gap of sin with His cross, and gifted us with His love that we might love one another more like Him. It’s just like our Lord who has spoken elsewhere of how he dispensed His Spirit so as to make “some into prophets, some into evangelists, and some into pastors and teachers so as to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, becoming mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). It’s just like our Lord to remake us, to recall us to such service, to restore us to the spirit of respectfully using our God-given gifts for His agenda and not our own. It’s just like our Lord who continues to build His church today by this same Spirit’s reviving through His Word.
He’s got many more bridges to build, bridges to reach others as He’s reached out to you. Just imagine the joy of knowing He would now build these bridges through you.
Brothers and sisters of Christ here at Zion, let us pray that we might excel all the more in using our talents, our gifts and all of our resources; our strengths, our positions of responsibility within this congregation, our very lives, that God’s people increase both in number and in the strength of their faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
