Daily Devotion for Lent 2021 - Day 25

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 14

The earliest part of my life in the 60's and 70's was spent in the Assemblies of God which are Pentecostal in nature.  Tulsa, in particular, had a larger charismatic population due to Oral Roberts University being located there.  So I saw my share of people speaking in tongues as a child.

I remember one woman in particular standing up in the middle of the sermon and she started babbling and crying.  I asked my mom what was wrong with her.  Mom replied that it was okay for her to be doing this - there was nothing wrong with her.  I also got the idea that I shouldn't interrupt worship with any outbursts like this!

When I was eight, we became United Methodists which didn't emphasize speaking in tongues or other charismatic gifts like the Assemblies did.  As a young adult, I encountered a couple of young men just older than I was.  They were telling me about being Slain in the Spirit.  When they found out that I had not experienced this gift, I was obviously lowered in their opinion. 

Neither of these experiences were building up the church.  This is not to say that they can't or that they don't build up the church.  But they have to be measured in this way because that's how Paul measured them.  He starts out by saying, "Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts..."

If the consideration is on ourselves, we may miss the point.  This is why Paul counts prophecy as more important than tongues - prophecy is for the building of the community.

We have this almost throw-away verse about women being silent in the churches.  These verses are actually placed in slightly different locations in different ancient manuscripts.  Was it a footnote added by an editor making a copy of the original letter?  Unless we discover the original letter someday, we'll probably never know.  There are other places where Paul speaks of the leadership of women in the church.  He later will mention Prisca in this letter and includes her in other correspondence as a leader.  

The other notable point is that Paul refers to the Law within this section from which he previously proclaims our freedom in Christ.  We don't know the specifics of this context.  It would be nice to have the letter from the Corinthian church to Paul which would have explained the problems and issues they were having.

We know that the women were the first to proclaim the risen Christ.  

As we pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, I have been a witness to women and men proclaiming the good news with equal effectiveness.  Maybe as Paul speaks of tongues not being worth much without someone to interpret, we have to have ears to hear no matter who is preaching to us.  This is a gift of the spirit worth pursuing. 

Prayer for the day:

Gracious God, we like our categories.  We may even declare that we know what is right because we are in the Spirit.  Help us to pursue love more than righteousness.  And may we find that as love comes, righteousness follows.  We pray to you in Jesus' name, who rises for each of us.  Amen.

Photo by Guppydas via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.