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Your meditation for the second Sunday after Epiphany
Today's New Testament Reading was
27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
[Poll #911188]
Actually, last week's reading was the first part of that chapter, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, which is one of my favorite bits of the Epistles, because it can be read to justify the practice of magic and all sorts of other non-traditional spiritualities, as long as you do them in faith in Christ.
In other news, SNOOOOOW!!!!!
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
[Poll #911188]
Actually, last week's reading was the first part of that chapter, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, which is one of my favorite bits of the Epistles, because it can be read to justify the practice of magic and all sorts of other non-traditional spiritualities, as long as you do them in faith in Christ.
In other news, SNOOOOOW!!!!!
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I took away from it that everyone has a gift, and all of them are important in doing God's work, from the minister, to the choir leader, to the guy who takes out the trash. When one is doing well, we're to rejoice, when one is ill or having a hard time, we all have a hard time together. None of us is above the other, and none of us can survive when the others don't.
That's what I got...then again, I spent the first five minutes looking for hard candy in my purse and telling Eric not to put his shoes on the backs of the pews.
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It's just that (at least in the translation we use) Paul starts talking about how the "least respectable" members of the body are the ones which we "clothe in the greatest honor" I can't help thinking about body taboos and which "less respectable" body parts we are always at pains to clothe (not to mention "one member is honored and all rejoice together" which really could have come out of a particularly purple romance novel. Um.) And *then* he compares the teachers and apostles to those "less respectable" body parts ...
What denomination are you? We Lutherans have the same texts the same week every year, (with I think a three-year cycle in Old Testament readings) which have to do with where in the church year we are. Your church year should mostly be the same as ours, anyway, so it's not *that* much of a coincidence.
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As to your last point, I don't think it necessarily offers a black check of justification, but that and the whole Incarnation are the basis of that idea of the perfection and sanctification of human ritual. (Baptism was not invented by John, after all.) But there's always the question of how exactly nontraditional spiritual activities can be practiced in faith in Christ (is magic still magic if it's not "horizontally" homeopathic?) Then, of course, maybe no spiritual practices *are* strictly horizontal (so, we can ask *God* to place the voodoo curse)... or at least were, before the New Agers came along and corrupted them! I certainly haven't seen any human sacrifices lately!
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. . . have you ever read Pratchett's Small Gods?