1 Corinthians 12:12-31
So we've started in on the idea of cultural influence, looking at some ads and considering what "felt need" the companies wanted us to have to get us to buy their products. We saw some patterns, a central underlying message--
* the exalting of self: in nearly every ad there was a central character that we were intended to associate ourselves with. And the felt need focused on how such-and-such product would satisfy our lives, and bring order to disorder or meaning/adventure to boredom. The idea being that life is all about the next thing that I need for it to be satisfying to me.
* competitive/superhuman spirit: the characters we were to identify with were the kind that we should want to be like, perfect or exotic people. "The most interesting man in the world." Or, they were getting through life in an extraordinarily perfect, efficient way. Or, they were loved and adored. Or, they had something that no one else had, that gave them the edge on others. All in all, a message tapping into our desire to be perfect, or the lie that we can be everything, all the time, to everybody. And that we need no help from other people, or from any god.
* ideas on success/happiness: there are subtle pictures of what we should strive for. More comfort, more fun, less work. Bright, shiny things. Beauty and being desired. Noteworthy deeds and the envy of others.
All in all, the ads tap into our selfishness and striving for self-fulfillment (through things). It's a cultural influence that can make it hard to really embrace what Paul describes for the church. I hear 1 Corinthians 12 focusing on two points: diversity and unity. How the gifts of the Spirit are all uniquely different, but how they still flow from the One source.
Seems like ad men would have us isolated in our homes in front of TVs, with phone in hand to order the next thing to try to be happy, with delivery people dropping it at the door so as not to interrupt the cycle of watching, buying and delivering. If that went as planned, we'd all have Electrolux appliances, Jameson Irish Whiskey in the cabinet (along with the Dos Equis), a Camry in the garage and Febreeze in the air. Every household. That's not a very diverse picture to me. That doesn't leave a lot of room for the unique expressions of who we are and the power of the Spirit living in us. Paul passes on a counter-message: everything you need, God has given and is giving you. All different. All for the sake of the community together. By the one Spirit.
One way to describe it all, the working of God's Spirit in the faith community, is comparing it to the human body. That's what we find in this passage.
So given the Corinthians' culture, and their ideas about body/spirit in the last post, why use the body image? What does it tell us about spiritual gifts now?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
The start of a section in the letter to the Christians gathered in Corinth.
Lots of things intersected at Corinth. Money, people, power -- it was a business hub and a huge sea-faring town. And also ideas. The Greeks stand out in history for investing in thought, philosophy, education -- they had universities and forums and all that junk.
One huge part of Greek thought was that there is a strong difference between the body and mind/spirit (dualism). Some folks believed that anything that's physically real, matter, like our bodies, is more basic and essentially evil compared to the mind/spirit, and that the mind/spirit is pretty much pure and good.
This idea shows up all over the place nowadays, and seems to be present in Christianity - that the body has all these natural, animal desires that make us greedy and lustful and violent, while the spirit is that eternal part of us that is good, or some version of all that.
Anyway, maybe Greeks heard the gospel of Christ, heard about the Holy Spirit, and it made sense that humans are sinful (in body) and need to be ultimately set free. Some took this so far as to think that Christ had to die to be released from that evil body, and so after the resurrection he was just a "spirit-man" walking around. Weird, and the early church totally rejected this idea (because Christ came to redeem every bit of humanity, body, mind, spirit, 100%).
In Corinth, with these cultural ideas shaping their spirituality, it's easy to see where the struggles came from. One one hand, some new Christians said, "Well, my body is basically evil, and I'm trying to do better but it's just made that way. So why fight nature, I'll just satisfy my body's needs and commit my spirit to Jesus." They figured hungry people feed themselves, so horny people go see prostitutes, no big deal, and so on.
But then the other extreme group of people thought the gospel was a call to strictly control the body's evil desires. Maybe these were the folks that had sworn off their sexuality, isolated men from women in general, and even questioned the goodness of marriage (see all of 1 Corinthians 7).
So, overall, there was dispute in Corinth. And the dispute sprang out of the powerful influence of their culture over their spirituality. They struggled to understand and live a faith where body and spirit are united under Christ, and where the church body is completely diverse but also united in one Spirit.
How about us? How about the influence of culture? Just look at advertising, for one. Almost every ounce of media/information/idea that comes at us, all day every day, is powered by business. Even news programs that claim to strive just for unbiased news reporting, and shows that are most entertaining, only exist so that companies can advertise their products.
Sunday we'll take a look some ads like this one:
A teacher of mine has told me that every ad, every commercial, intends to raise a "felt need" in the viewer. As in, by the end of the ad we realize that we "need" whatever they're trying to sell - from cars to carpet cleaner - we never even knew we needed it, but we need to buy it. And usually that need is pictured as the one thing that will solve life's problems, and give us meaning, etc. etc. So, in the "Dos Equis" commercial above, with the "most interesting man in the world," how are they trying to make us need that particular beer?
And how does it influence us as people, and our lives, and our spirituality?
The start of a section in the letter to the Christians gathered in Corinth.
Lots of things intersected at Corinth. Money, people, power -- it was a business hub and a huge sea-faring town. And also ideas. The Greeks stand out in history for investing in thought, philosophy, education -- they had universities and forums and all that junk.
One huge part of Greek thought was that there is a strong difference between the body and mind/spirit (dualism). Some folks believed that anything that's physically real, matter, like our bodies, is more basic and essentially evil compared to the mind/spirit, and that the mind/spirit is pretty much pure and good.
This idea shows up all over the place nowadays, and seems to be present in Christianity - that the body has all these natural, animal desires that make us greedy and lustful and violent, while the spirit is that eternal part of us that is good, or some version of all that.
Anyway, maybe Greeks heard the gospel of Christ, heard about the Holy Spirit, and it made sense that humans are sinful (in body) and need to be ultimately set free. Some took this so far as to think that Christ had to die to be released from that evil body, and so after the resurrection he was just a "spirit-man" walking around. Weird, and the early church totally rejected this idea (because Christ came to redeem every bit of humanity, body, mind, spirit, 100%).
In Corinth, with these cultural ideas shaping their spirituality, it's easy to see where the struggles came from. One one hand, some new Christians said, "Well, my body is basically evil, and I'm trying to do better but it's just made that way. So why fight nature, I'll just satisfy my body's needs and commit my spirit to Jesus." They figured hungry people feed themselves, so horny people go see prostitutes, no big deal, and so on.
But then the other extreme group of people thought the gospel was a call to strictly control the body's evil desires. Maybe these were the folks that had sworn off their sexuality, isolated men from women in general, and even questioned the goodness of marriage (see all of 1 Corinthians 7).
So, overall, there was dispute in Corinth. And the dispute sprang out of the powerful influence of their culture over their spirituality. They struggled to understand and live a faith where body and spirit are united under Christ, and where the church body is completely diverse but also united in one Spirit.
How about us? How about the influence of culture? Just look at advertising, for one. Almost every ounce of media/information/idea that comes at us, all day every day, is powered by business. Even news programs that claim to strive just for unbiased news reporting, and shows that are most entertaining, only exist so that companies can advertise their products.
Sunday we'll take a look some ads like this one:
A teacher of mine has told me that every ad, every commercial, intends to raise a "felt need" in the viewer. As in, by the end of the ad we realize that we "need" whatever they're trying to sell - from cars to carpet cleaner - we never even knew we needed it, but we need to buy it. And usually that need is pictured as the one thing that will solve life's problems, and give us meaning, etc. etc. So, in the "Dos Equis" commercial above, with the "most interesting man in the world," how are they trying to make us need that particular beer?
And how does it influence us as people, and our lives, and our spirituality?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Isaiah 60:1-6
Quick recap: advent came to a close at sundown on Xmas eve, and we started the 12-day Christmas season as the time to consider and pursue what it is that God became a person. We talked about Isaiah's prophecy (9:2-7) in terms of what it meant to Galileeans in his day and in Jesus' that a Messiah would come to their war-torn, ravaged border-land.
Last week we saw Jesus grow up to age 12 in Luke 2:41-52, and wondered at the idea that God-in-the-flesh was one to ask questions, and learn, and grow in body/mind. Jesus had this desire to know God, and his connection to God was what made him standout, not just "boy-wonder" powers.
And now for Epiphany Sunday. It's still Christmas until Jan. 6th (Wednesday), but at Epiphany we shift towards how God-in-the-flesh, Jesus, affected everything, everywhere. So our text this Sunday from Isaiah 60 makes clear that a light has dawned.
This is the Sunday we usually hear from the wise men, the magi, because their coming from a foreign land connects to how Christ is a gift to the whole world, not just Jews or those in Bethlehem or Galilee. Even more, the magi followed a star, or comet or whatever it was - it was some heavenly body, showing us that the Messiah's coming is a big deal not only on earth but in terms of ALL THINGS, the whole universe.
So read Isaiah 60, and maybe 59, too. You can see there some of the cycle that most prophets roll through - words of warning or judgment to urge the people to be faithful to God, followed by words of hope to get them through, followed by universal language where the effects of the prophecy go far beyond just that time or place. The prophets almost always remind of future hope, and it almost always really has to do with earth-changing, universe-altering action by God. There is where we are at Epiphany, trying to understand and exalt how Christ Jesus came to and for ALL.
So, answer these questions: did Jesus' coming have effects for you? What effects did his coming have on the person beside you, the person you live with, the person you see at random, the person you hate or who hates you?
Quick recap: advent came to a close at sundown on Xmas eve, and we started the 12-day Christmas season as the time to consider and pursue what it is that God became a person. We talked about Isaiah's prophecy (9:2-7) in terms of what it meant to Galileeans in his day and in Jesus' that a Messiah would come to their war-torn, ravaged border-land.
Last week we saw Jesus grow up to age 12 in Luke 2:41-52, and wondered at the idea that God-in-the-flesh was one to ask questions, and learn, and grow in body/mind. Jesus had this desire to know God, and his connection to God was what made him standout, not just "boy-wonder" powers.
And now for Epiphany Sunday. It's still Christmas until Jan. 6th (Wednesday), but at Epiphany we shift towards how God-in-the-flesh, Jesus, affected everything, everywhere. So our text this Sunday from Isaiah 60 makes clear that a light has dawned.
This is the Sunday we usually hear from the wise men, the magi, because their coming from a foreign land connects to how Christ is a gift to the whole world, not just Jews or those in Bethlehem or Galilee. Even more, the magi followed a star, or comet or whatever it was - it was some heavenly body, showing us that the Messiah's coming is a big deal not only on earth but in terms of ALL THINGS, the whole universe.
So read Isaiah 60, and maybe 59, too. You can see there some of the cycle that most prophets roll through - words of warning or judgment to urge the people to be faithful to God, followed by words of hope to get them through, followed by universal language where the effects of the prophecy go far beyond just that time or place. The prophets almost always remind of future hope, and it almost always really has to do with earth-changing, universe-altering action by God. There is where we are at Epiphany, trying to understand and exalt how Christ Jesus came to and for ALL.
So, answer these questions: did Jesus' coming have effects for you? What effects did his coming have on the person beside you, the person you live with, the person you see at random, the person you hate or who hates you?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)