Tuesday • 10/12/2021
Tuesday of the Twentieth Week After Pentecost (Proper 23)

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 120: Psalm 5; Psalm 6; Jeremiah 36:27–37:2; 1 Corinthians 14:1–12; Matthew 10:16–23

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93)

Riffing on Paul’s approach to tongue-speaking.

Ours is a conversational God. He creates by word. He instructs by word. He promises by word. He warns by word. He rewards by word. He punishes by word. How we respond to his words is of great consequence.

As bearers of his image, we are conversational creatures too. Therefore, what we do with words is also of great consequence.

If King Jehoiachim were not aware of the power of Jeremiah’s prophetic words, he would not have burned them. Whether he burns Jeremiah’s scroll out of sheer contempt for God’s words or out of an attempt to thwart them, Jehoiachim’s exercise is a “bonfire of the vanities.” Jeremiah’s predictions of doom come to pass

Unlike Jehoiachim, the Corinthians are not contemptuous of God’s words. Rather, they are cavalier with them. They have received God’s words gladly, embracing the truth of the gospel and reveling in the flourishing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit among them. However, for too many Corinthians, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is being pressed to narcissistic ends.

In his later letter to the Romans, Paul may hint that the gift of “glossolalia” (speaking in either angelic languages or human languages that a person had not learned) has the capacity to provide a safety valve for troubled souls. He says that the Holy Spirit releases groanings from our inner being (Romans 8:26). Paul describes the groanings as wordless (alalētoi), but many people argue that he has glossolalia in mind. If so, Paul holds out to individuals the prospect of therapeutic value in tongue speaking, as glossolalia could help us in the weakness of our inability otherwise to lift our subconscious struggles to the Lord.

In Corinth, however, such “private tongues” (as they are often called) are being used for egotistical ends. People are speaking out in uninterpreted strange languages in church. Paul says (I paraphrase): “Keep that stuff to yourself. At home, that practice allows you to speak in a mysterious way to God. In church, you’re just showing off, and ‘speaking into the air.’” What Paul wants us to see is that in church, everything we do—everything—is for the good of the group that is gathered. Church is where we look to build each other up, to encourage one another, and to bring words of consolation from God to broken and wounded hearts (1 Corinthians 14:3). That’s why Paul says that in church, tongues must be interpreted if they are to be spoken at all. Otherwise, words that are to be offered are to be as distinct, purposeful, and artful as notes from a well-played flute, harp, or bugle (1 Corinthians 14:7–8).

There are broad-ranging implications here for the ordering of worship services, and for the shaping of church life in general.

Ego needs to get left at the door. A person doesn’t get asked to sing a solo because they need to sing a solo. A person gets asked to sing a solo because the congregation will best be served by that particular voice paired with that particular song. Same with lectors who read, eucharistizers who eucharistize, and, of course, preachers who preach.

Stepping back another level, the church doesn’t call and ordain a person to ministry (or whatever a church’s governance calls their practice) because that person “needs” that call and ordination. Especially if a person “needs” said call and ordination! God gives gifts of ministry for, well, for ministry.

He gives us whatever gifts we have because he expects us to use them to serve others, not ourselves! “So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for the building up of the church” (1 Corinthians 14:12).

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Stained Glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida