Foundry United
Rev.
“God is still speaking -
Reclaiming prophecy in our personal and political lives”
Sunday, October 9,
2011
Rev.
God's word – public and private:
The difference between spirituality and prophecy
I Corinthians 14:13-25
God is still speaking. God still speaks into human history and God still speaks into individual lives. The biblical term for God speaking into human history and into individual lives is prophecy.
One of the most important discussions in the Bible about prophecy is found in the 14th chapter of First Corinthians written by the Apostle Paul.
The 14th chapter of First Corinthians is probably the least read and studied chapter of the epistles written by Paul in the mainline churches. This is unfortunate because it teaches what I think is an essential principle for spiritual life.
The reason we tend not to pay much attention to First Corinthians 14 is because it talks about speaking in tongues, which is a spiritual practice that the overwhelming majority of Christians do not practice. So we think it is not relevant to us. But our mistake is we read First Corinthians 14 too literally.
Speaking in tongues or glossolalia is a spiritual practice in which people speak or pray in what sounds like another language. Speaking in tongues was a common practice during early Christianity at least in the Corinthian church, and it has appeared throughout the history of Christianity, often during times of religious revivals or awakenings. But it is not uniquely Christian. Speaking in tongues happens in other religions as well as Christianity. It is a spiritual practice. Most spiritual practices are universal. Different religions or cultures may emphasize different spiritual practices but, by in large, spiritual practices are universal. Every religion has prayer. Every religion has meditation, every religion studies sacred texts. Speaking in tongues appears in some form or another in most religions and cultures.
Studies have shown that 20 percent of people who hear someone else speak in tongues can do it if they want to relatively easily and 70 percent can learn how to do it if they work at it. I am one of the 30 percent who tried and couldn't.
When I was younger I tried to learn how to speak in tongues. If there was a spiritual practice that others were doing, I wanted to experience it myself if I could. I couldn't learn it.
A Pentecostal friend of mine did teach me how to fake it. He taught me to say: See my bowtie, tie my bowtie, my bowtie see, my bowtie tie. Untie my bow tie.
He said if I said that quickly it would sound as if I was talking in tongues.
Or he said, I could say: I bought a Toyota but I shoulda bought a Honda and it would sound as if I were talking in tongues.
But that would be just faking it.
Talking in tongues is an interesting spiritual practice but we miss the relevance of First Corinthians 14 because we think it is just about speaking in tongues. I want to suggest that it is really about all spiritual practices. Tongues is only an example, a for instance. What Paul says in First Corinthians 14 really applies to all of our personal, private, inward spiritual practices. The key is what Paul says in First Corinthians 14:4 – "Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves."
Speaking in tongues is just one example of all those practices that we do to build ourselves up spiritually. We all, I hope, have practices that we use to strengthen ourselves spiritually. Some people pray, some people write or journal. Some people read spiritual writings or poetry or great literature. Some people listen to music. Some people play instruments or sing. Some people walk. Some people run. Some people bike. Some people walk their dog. Some people do yoga. Some people do marshal arts. Some people paint. Some people throw pots. Some people meditate. Some people do transcendental meditation. Some people dance. Some people study the Bible. Some people memorize Bible verses. Some people hike. Some people garden. Some people canoe. Some people go on silent retreats. Some people cry. Some people fast. Some people pay attention to their dreams. Some people soak in a bathtub.
The point is whatever personal, private, inward practice renews you spiritually is what Paul is talking about here…not just speaking in tongues. What inward practice feeds your spirit? That is your spiritual practice. We all need spiritual practices.
Paul says these personal, inward, spiritual practices are very, very good and very, very, very important for our spiritual lives. They are important for our lives as human beings. Unless we have ways of nurturing ourselves spiritually, our souls will become malnourished. Paul says he spoke in tongues more than anybody else. (I Cor. 14:18) Paul had a rich and extensive personal spiritual life. He practiced spirituality more than anybody.
But the point he wants to make in First Corinthians 14 is that our faith is not primarily about our personal spiritual practices. It is about prophecy.
Spiritual practices are good and important, essential even, but it is not what our faith is primarily about. (I may be exaggerating this morning in order to try to make what I think Paul's point is, but I don't think so.)
Here's Paul's point -- Our faith is primarily about speaking potential, and truth, and justice, and hope into our world and into each other's lives. Spiritual practices build me up spiritually, which is great. Spiritual practices can bring me into the presence of the divine and the realm of the transcendent, which is great; wonderful.
But prophecy is more important. Prophecy builds up the community and it impacts the world which, more than being great and wonderful, is the point of the whole Jesus thing.
Pray in tongues, journal, take long walks in nature, listen to music, meditate, read poetry, see movies, do all of those things that spiritually build you up. We've got to do those things or our souls will die. But don't suppose that this is the point of following Jesus or being the church.
Following Jesus and being the church is what happens in community, in honest and vulnerable fellowship and conversation with each other and in relationship with the world around us.
Christianity is not a spiritual practice. This is one of the reasons that yoga and Christianity, for example, are so compatible. If running connects you with your own inner depths and with the world around you and God, running is a spiritual practice. Christians are free to use any spiritual practices that work to build us up spiritually. Christians, like all human beings, need spiritual practices but Christianity is not a spiritual practice and it is not primarily about private and personal spirituality.
Christianity is a community and it is a mission. Christianity is a community in mission together. Christianity is about being in relationship with God, yes, but Christianity is just as much, if not more, about being connected with each other and being connected to the world in a way that speaks truth, justice, hope, beauty into each other's lives and into the world. Prophecy. We can't love God unless we love one another and the world that God so loved that God gave God's only child to save it.
Paul is saying in First Corinthians 14 that it really doesn't matter if I am so spiritually enlightened that I glow in the dark or levitate into space, if I am not engaged in community and mission, I am missing the point of Jesus. It is about prophecy.
Here's another implication of what Paul says in First Corinthians 14. Worship is not enough. Going to church for the worship is not enough. Worship is wonderful. The music, the hymns, the prayers, the teaching, communion, worship is wonderful. Everybody needs worship. Worship is universal. Worship is part of what it means to be human. But worship is not the point of Christianity.
What happens between us, between people, and in the world before and after worship may be more important for us as Christians than what happens during worship.
Listen, there is someone within five rows or tables of you who would benefit more from a three minute conversation after the service in which you are attentive and thoughtful and fully present than hearing 20 sermons from me, no matter how intelligent and enlightening those sermons might be.
And a three minute conversation with you in which you are attentive and thoughtful and fully present every Sundays after service for the next month might make the difference between encouragement and being disheartened for them. Being in a small group with you over the next year might transform their life.
Because if you are attentive and thoughtful and fully present to another, God will speak through you. You may never realize it, but God will speak into someone else's life through you. That is prophecy.
Worship is not enough. Worship is essential. It is part of being fully human, but following Jesus happens between the services. Being Christians happens between the services.
We've been working with the goals committee of our congregational council here at Foundry and we have a new metric we are going to try to measure next year. One of our goals is to engage us as a congregation beyond worship in ways that will help us to grow – learning, loving, serving within the church and serving those beyond our doors and giving.
So we have an objective for next year of engaging 796 Foundry people in at least 20 hours of learning, loving or serving during 2013. Why? Because it is in these kinds of settings that relationship between people happen and God speaks into our lives through each other. We've got a new softwear program that will help us track our engagement in learning together, loving, and serving together. If we are learning together, loving each other, serving within the congregation and beyond our doors together, the Holy Spirit will speak prophecies into our lives. And we will speak prophecies into our world. And the prophecies will create the realities they prophesy.
God is still speaking. And God will speak through you into the lives of others. And God will speak into your life through others. God will speak in our honest friendships. God will speak in our small groups where we become open and vulnerable with one another. God will speak on mission trips we do together and mission work we do together here.
Margaret Wheatley in her book Turning to One Another writes: "We may have forgotten how to listen, or how to tell our own story, but these are the skills that will help us now. I have learned that when we begin listening to each other, and when we talk about the things that matter to us, the world begins to change."
She says: "All change, even very large and powerful change, begins when a few people start talking with one another about something they care about. Simple conversations held at kitchen tables, or seated on the ground, or leaning against doorways are powerful means to start influencing and changing the world."
That's prophecy. That's the point of all this. If we will share our hearts with one another God will speak. This is why the Apostle Paul says that he would rather speak five words in church that someone else can understand than 10,000 words only God can understand. (I Cor. 14:19)
God is still speaking. God wants to use you and me to speak God's truth into each other's lives and into the world. Our conversations will change the world.
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