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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-02-07, Page 13THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2019. PAGE 13. By Rev. JoAnn Todd Rector, Trinity, St. John’s and St. Paul’s-Trinity Anglican Churches The scripture about which I am writing is an excerpt from the first the two letters Paul wrote to the church in the city of Corinth (1Corinthians 12:1-31a). This first letter is “a fascinating window into the struggles of community of the movement that developed into Christianity,” (Oxford Annotated Bible). Corinth was the first major urban centre to which Paul brought the good news of Christ. With several co-workers, he spent a year and a half establishing house churches in Corinth, and they would come together every so often to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. After Paul left to go to spread the word in Ephesus, another missionary came to Corinth taking his place. Paul’s letter is his response to issues and concerns brought forward to him by the leaders of the Corinthian Church. He deals with several specific issues that needed resolving as well as general problems in terms of how well the Christian life of the community was coming together – or maybe wasn’t! It was, to be sure, an interesting mix of people who had joined to form this community in Christ: Greeks, Jews, slaves, freed people, men, women, rich and poor. It was an incredible undertaking; bringing so many diverse cultures together to work and live in a new way of believing and living out that belief in a faith that was so new it was still developing ways to practice and worship. Each one of the various factions had its own ways and traditions that members felt were the right way to worship, some of which were anything but Christian. What Paul and his fellow missionaries were trying to do was bring the unity of Christ to the diversity of peoples, joined by their belief that Jesus was the Son of God, their Lord and Saviour. For some people, this would have meant incredible changes! This is the very definition of faith development – a true work in progress! And we think we have differences of opinion about how things are to go in our churches. Paul’s instructions in this letter were incredibly influential. This time of development of the early Christian church became the very foundation of how churches function. It made a wide-reaching impact in terms of use of language for worship and interpretation of Christian belief into a way of life that “provided key bases for subsequent Christian belief and practices,” (Oxford Annotated Bible). Unfortunately, this also included the writings that biblical scholars today readily agree were later additions to Paul’s original text, particularly the instructions around the roles of women, which subordinated them back into the patriarchal structure of the society of the time. In this chapter, we read about how Paul addressed concerns brought to him about spiritual gifts that had been given to various people in the community. It seems some of these gifts were being viewed as having higher value than others; speaking in tongues, for example, was very highly prized. And as a result, a hierarchy developed around who was the most important person in the church. It dictated that some were more worthy than others because they had received the “better” gift. Paul reminds them that all spiritual gifts, whether it is the gift of healing, prophesying, wisdom, discernment, doing miracles, speaking in tongues or interpretation of tongues – all these are given as a gift from God, a loving grace from God given to each for the good of everyone, to benefit the whole community. One gift is not more worthy than another, nor is the person who has that gift more worthy than the person who doesn’t, because they will have another gift, and all are needed for the common good. We still do that, don’t we? We assign value to people based on their abilities and their gifts, and, in our culture, the resultant valuation based on the earning power that gift then brings. Here’s an example: who’s more highly valued in our society today: an athlete gifted with excellent co-ordination who turns that into a hockey career or the janitor in the arena who has a gift for tidiness and organization, keeping the space clean for all? I know that’s a very simplistic example, but you get the idea. Paul takes this analogy of everyone’s gift being a part of the larger common good one step further. His example is that the church is like a body that belongs to the risen Christ. And then he gets even more specific, describing the various parts of the body and how each is necessary to the functioning of all – that one part is not better or of more value to the whole body than the other, even those seemingly disrespectable parts that are hidden by clothing. Those parts of seemingly less value are to be equally valued. What I didn’t realize until I did some research on these verses is that “The body was commonly used in antiquity as a metaphor for human society... (and) was an image... exploited by (the) elite classes to justify inequality....” The ruling classes represented themselves as the head and the belly, as these were considered at the time to be the most indispensable and honourable parts of the body, (Oxford Bible Commentary). He goes so far to say that “...God has put the body together such that extra honour and care are given to THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS. OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Brussels: St. Ambrose Saturday 6:00 p.m. 17 Flora Street Wingham: Sacred Heart Sunday 9:00 a.m. 220 Carling Terrace Listowel: St. Joseph’s Sunday 11:00 a.m. 1025 Wallace Avenue N. huronchapel.com huronchapelkids.com huronchapelyouth.com 519-526-1131 ~ 119 John’s Ave., Auburn Wednesdays 6:30-8:00 p.m. HEIRBORN (JK-Gr. 6), Jr. & Sr. YOUTH (Gr. 7-12) Feb. 10 Newcomers’ Luncheon after worship February 10 9:30 a.m. Sunday School, 10:30 a.m. Worship Pastor Phil Delsaut “New Life in Jesus” (Col. 3:3ff) OFFICE: 519-523-4224 Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday ~ 9:30 am - 2:00 pm blythunited@tcc.on.ca Special Speaker: Sandra Cable Accessible Sunday, February 10 Worship Service at 11:00 am Blyth United Church Facebook: Blyth and Brussels United Churches Youre Invited to come worship with us Sunday, February 10 at 10:30 a.m. & 6:00 p.m. 650 Alexander St. (former Brussels Public School) Sunday School for children 4 to 12 years of age at 9:30 a.m. Childcare provided for infants and preschoolers during the sermon. Coffee & cookies after the morning service. For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621 Steve Klumpenhower 519.292.0965 Rick Packer 519.527.0173 Hwy. 4, Blyth www.blythcrc.ca 519-523-4743 Minister: Pastor Gary van Leeuwen BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH SUNDAYS Morning Service 10:00 am Evening Service 7:30 pm You’re Invited To Join Us In Worship The Regional Ministry of Hope BLYTH BRUSSELS Trinity St. John’s 9:15 am 11:15 am COME WORSHIP WITH US! Rev. JoAnn Todd, Rector 519-357-7781 email: revjoann@hurontel.on.ca The­Regional­Ministry­of­ Hope St. Paul’s Trinity WINGHAM 11:15 am These Anglican Churches Welcome You Sermon Series: The ABC’s of Anglicanism: Week one: A is for Anglican MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10 Nursery care available 519-887-6687 Fridays 11:30 am - 1:00 pm ~ Soup & More 2 - a free community meal held in Melville’s basement, and made possible by the Brussels churches working together. Worship & Sunday School - 9:30 am (*New time) Coffee & Snacks following the service We invite you to join our church family in: BRUSSELS United Church Worship and Sunday School Sunday, February 10 at 9:30 am Worship leader, Sandra Cable All are Welcome From the Minister’s Study We all play our part in Christianity: Todd Continued on page 16