As people of faith we are promised transformation; that we will be changed beginning at our baptism. Paul’s epistles are filled with transformational images and ideas telling us that we are like Christ which is also a statement by Jesus in John’s Gospel, that we will do greater things than he. So let’s look at one promise Paul makes to us in several of his letter thru a focus on today’s Lectionary scripture 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. But to begin let’s get personal:
• There are many gifts that our relationship with God has brought to us. What have you received that you have been able to share with others?
• Think specifically about spiritual gifts, what thoughts come to mind about them?
Paul begins his discussion about spiritual gifts:
12:1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. The Message Version
• What does Paul want to talk about? How much have you thought about the Spirit? How does the presence of the Spirit fit into your personal theology? How have you experienced the Spirit’s presence?
• Do you agree with his assessment of learning about the Spirit? What does he urge us to use? What are some ways to gain understanding intelligently?
• Why do you think that he stresses using our intelligence? What should we look out for to insure that we are not living our faith life unintelligently? Can we find ourselves on autopilot?
12:4-7 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The Message Version
• What is clear about the gifts, where they are manifest and what is the source, what is the purpose of the gifts?
• So what does this mean to you? Do you believe that you have seen people empowered by God to carry out duties, tasks, or responsibilities? Have you seen or heard things that seem to be a gift from God (one of mine is Handel’s Messiah)?
• A key seems to be showing who God is, how does that impact your understanding of a spiritual gift? How would you know that an individual’s gift is the result of the Spirit’s presence?
• What is your reaction to the claim that every one of us has a spiritual gift? How do we go about discerning what our gift(s) might be? Is it important for us to discover what they might be? If so, why?
Paul now gets more specific about gifts both in 1 Corinthians and also another listing from Romans 12:
12:8-11 The variety is wonderful: Romans 12:6-8
wise counsel prophecy, in proportion to faith
clear understanding ministry, in ministering;
simple trust the teacher, in teaching;
healing the sick the exhorter, in exhortation;
miraculous acts the giver, in generosity;
proclamation the leader, in diligence;
distinguishing between spirits the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Tongues NRSV
interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when. The Message Version
• Paul probably did not consider his listing of gifts to be comprehensive but they may have been some which he found were present in the Corinthian congregation. His letter to the church in Rome came later with some other ideas. What is your reaction to the lists; do you see breadth and variety?
• Which of these gifts do you think that you have either experienced yourself or feel that you have seen in others? Why do you think that the gift was a manifestation of the Spirit? Have you ever felt that you have been moved by the Spirit to do something you might not have felt equipped to do or use something you were capable of doing in a new way?
• Are there some on this list that you would not expect to be present in a congregation today? Why might they not be present at this time? What gifts would you add to the list?
• How do you feel about the idea of faith healing? Aimee Semple McPherson was an evangelist and faith healer during the first half of the 20th century. She believed that all of the spiritual gifts were available to believers just as they were described in Acts. Read the story below which tells of her first healing and reflect on your reaction to it. Are any other gifts that you have questions about?
• Should identifying and using spiritual gifts be something that a faith community should focus upon in its life and programming? What might be done to help people search for and use their spiritual gifts? How might this change the scope and effectiveness of a community’s ministry?
From Sister Aimee by Daniel Mark Epstein - Corona, New York, 1916
She was preaching this text (Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever) one night in Corona when a taxicab pulled up to the door of the Free Gospel Church. Two people got out of the cab quickly and come around to open the curb door for Louise Messnick. You could hardly tell whether Louise Messnick was a little girl or an old lady the way she was scrunched down in the car seat. She looked as if she had passed out with her chin on her chest. But she was wide awake in pain, looking up out of the corner of her eyes through the car window above her head. Louise Messnick was a young woman in the advanced stages of rheumatoid arthritis…
Now the crowd made way for the twisted young woman on crutches… Sister Aimee had just been declaring that Jesus Christ was the same yesterday, today, and forever, with the same power to heal the body and mind, and deliver the gifts of tongues and prophecy via the Holy Ghost, as He showed in ancient times. The crippled Louise Messnick entered like a dramatic challenge to Aimee’s sermon…
Aimee tells us that before his night in Corona she had not discovered the gift of healing. “Indeed very little had been said about this great doctrine at the time.” Yet she had seen her own broken ankle healed in Findlay, Ohio in 1909…
The audience watched Aimee looking at the arthritic woman, as if to say… If He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why doesn’t He do something about this crippled woman in our midst? Are you just going to stand there and preach?
“Oh Lord,” Aimee cried out in her heart, “you are able to heal her.” And she realized she was going to do something she had never done before. It might disappoint everyone terribly if her instinct failed her. “How I did wish that I could begin with someone who looked a bit more mendable…” she recalled. But it was too late for such considerations. She was already caught up in the process that had begun in Louise Messnick’s body and in the body of the crowd days before…
Sister Aimee had called all these people together in the presence of the Holy Spirit, for the anointing, an infusion of the divine presence. Young and old, rich and poor, man and woman, became a single body. This was her gift as an orator, her charisma, which came from a deep understanding founded upon years of reflection and prayer. The crowd’s body was a healing body like that of Christ, the wounded healer. Now she had a vivid image of Christ’s body which she projected in their midst so powerfully that those who could not literally see it could still feel the Lord’s presence…
She laid her hands upon the woman’s head. As she did this, she felt an energy surge like an electric charge coming up from her heels right through her spine into her tingling fingertips. It seemed, as she closed her eyes, that the charge came from Christ’s image down through the body of the rapt audience and then up through her legs. This was pleasant and soothing, like warm water. It seemed to have an immediate effect upon Louise Messnick’s skin color,,. as well as her temperature. The woman’s cheeks flushed and her heartbeat increased… The hands went up until her arms were nearly straight above her head. Her chin, which had been fastened to her sunken chest so long, it seemed to have grown there, begin to move slightly to the side. Then it straightened again as her neck muscles relaxed… Louis Messnick gazed heavenward, her arms outstretched, and as Aimee held her, she rose to her feet… Louise Messnick walked out of the church that night alone, without her crutches.
The healings present a monstrous obstacle to scientific historiography. If events transpired as newspapers, letters, and testimonials say they did, then Aimee Semple McPherson’s healing ministry was miraculous. Since a miracle by definition is a thing which defies reality, there is no place in scholarly or scientific history for recurrent miracles.
Closing Prayer
O Holy Spirit, whose presence is liberty, grant us that freedom of the Spirit which will not fear to tread in unknown ways, nor be held back by misgivings of ourselves and fear of others. Amen.
From a prayer by George Appelton, Oxford Book of Prayer
Next Week’s Scriptures: Luke 4:14-21, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, Psalm 19, Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
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