Epiphany 5
February 9, 2025
What
should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a
lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done
for building up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at
most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. But if there is no
one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to
God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is
said. If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the
first person be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all
may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject
to the prophets, for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.
(As
in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches. For
they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also
says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their
husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Or did the
word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?)
Anyone who claims to be a prophet, or to have spiritual powers, must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. Anyone who does not recognize this is not to be recognized. So, my friends, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but all things should be done decently and in order.
Thanks to all of you, I don’t get around to a lot of other churches. But sometimes when I do, it tweaks one of my long-standing pet peeves. Say, for instance, if I’m the guest preacher. Some nice people will meet me at the door. They will show me around. We will chat about some necessary matters, such as, “Do you ask for the ushers to bring forward the offering plates for the offering, or will they be on the communion table?”
Then, of course, there is the follow-up question: “When everybody stands to sing the offertory, does the preacher retrieve them and put them on the communion table, or do the ushers turn around after the prayer, walk back down the aisle, and deliver them to the folks who are counting the proceeds?” You might think these are small matters, but the slightest bit of confusion can make for a moment that is awkward at best and paralyzing at worst.
It happens to guest preachers here. When the communion servers return with the trays of unused bread, do they sit down or remain standing when the preacher gives them bread? And how about the wine? Do those serving sit down then to receive the cup or do they stand? OR, as has happened here, do two of them sit while the other two stand? There can be a whole lot of drama missed by those who bow their heads and pray while all this is going on.
These things don’t upset me. In moments of anxiety, some of our worship volunteers have heard me whisper, “Just make it look like you’ve practiced all week.” We don’t want worship to be sloppy, but it’s OK if our humanity breaks through. Sometimes babies cry. Sometime choir members nod off to sleep. We bring all of ourselves before God in worship. Some of us showed up in snow boots today. Perfectly acceptable, since God is the One who sent us the weather.
But can I tell you what annoys me? It’s when I show up as a guest and the worship service doesn’t make any sense at all. There’s no order to it. Maybe there’s a call to worship, followed by ten minutes of announcements, then an offering, a children’s sermon, a prayer to thank God for the money. Then a scripture verse, followed by a hymn, then another announcement, a quiet organ piece, another song. Finally, eight minutes before the hour is up, someone points at me to say, “OK, padre, you’re on.” It’s chaotic. It makes no sense.
From the sounds of it, there was a lot of chaos in Corinth. We can only infer this by listening by listening to what Paul’s responding to. Yet it’s clear that young little church in the seaport city had a lot of issues. Especially on Sunday morning. People were talking over one another, some of them more enthusiastic than the next. Somebody over here was murmuring to herself in ecstatic bliss. The man next to her had no clue what was going in. As someone opened the scripture to interpret it, somebody else jumped up to say, “God has given me a song,” and started belting it out. The interruptions were irritating.
I remember the day I had a really good sermon. It was a while ago, but you would have known it was a good one. The mood was building. The Spirit was moving. Everybody was leaning forward, ready to say Amen – and these were Presbyterians! Suddenly, a man burst through the back door and yelled out, “Excuse me. I’m parked across the street. Somebody blocked me in. I’d like to get out. Let me give you the license place number: TP3 7VR.” Excuse me. I was talking. I finally had a good one. You know, really?
Interruptions happen. We know they happen. The bell choir is chiming perfectly. The notes are like crystal rain drops – and then, the Clarks Summit Fire Department blasts the weirdest fire alarm in the commonwealth.
Or we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper. It feels like the roof has opened and heaven has come down. It’s quiet. It’s reverent. It’s what most of us need. And suddenly, somebody’s cell ring plays “The Beer Barrel Polka.” You know, there’s a line in the worship bulletin. It says, “Please silence your cell phone.” There’s a good reason for that. It’s intrusive.
In fact, I wanted to change the line but got outvoted by our church administrator. I wanted it to say, “God is the only one who may call you while you’re in the sanctuary, and God doesn’t use Verizon.” Can’t you turn off the phone for an hour?
The apostle Paul calls it “order.” He says, “Do all things decently and in order.” I know the Presbyterians have stolen that line and written a Book of Order. But Paul was talking about worship. It’s “order,” not for the sake of control (Presbyterians need to remember that), but “order” for the sake of consideration. That’s what Paul was giving us in chapter fourteen in this letter. It’s a brief and somewhat primitive manual for worship.
He gives the Corinthians a few pointers. Be considerate of one another. Listen before you speak. Worship together, not independently. Let all things be done for “building up.” Let each person learn and be encouraged. Worship is for building up. It’s for spiritual encouragement. As one of my professors told us in class, “A room full of theology is a pretty good room. A room full of prayer is a holy room.” Worship is a group effort. Nobody gets to bully everybody else.
He says this to the Corinthians for a couple of reasons. First, they were a mixed house. Jews and Gentiles in the same church. The Jews present had a long-established order of worship, modeled after the synagogue. They gathered, opened the Word of God, responded to the Word, then left. The Gentiles didn’t know this. They were holding their bulletins upside-down, couldn’t tell an introit from a benediction. And the pagan worship practices were sporadic, emotional. When they got spiritual, they just let it fly.
We’ve already heard Paul say, “YOU are the body, the body of Christ. Pay attention to the body. Be considerate. Do the good work of worship together.”[1]
Yet there’s that other thing in the letter. Fifty-one percent of you are waiting for me to say something about that. He says, “Women should be silent in the churches.” Thank you, Paul, for your opinion, but I don’t know a lot of women who agree with you, including all my Sunday school teachers, several seminary professors, and some astonishing female preachers. In fact, I heard my mother give a testimony at a funeral in her church. No reason to silence any of them!
In fact, Paul, I’m not sure the Holy Spirit would agree with you. After all, didn’t you just say in chapter eleven of this same letter, “Now, women, when you speak in church (that is, when you prophesy), here are a few guidelines.”[2] Which is it, Paul? Be silent, which was the cultural norm? Or speak up when the Spirit says, “Speak?”
And the problem is exasperated if you were reading along in the pew Bible this morning. In the New Revised Standard translation, this little section (which seems to interrupt what he’s talking about) is placed in parentheses. As if to say, it is parenthetical and may have been added later. That happened sometimes. Paul wrote a letter to a congregation, but it became a community document. It was incorporated with other letters, other writers. It was hand-copied for generations. And the church put its fingerprints all over the text – because it had become the church’s text.
To our everlasting shame, a group of men later decided to isolate and enshrine this verse here while totally ignoring that the Holy Spirit of God was prompting women in the city of Corinth to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and respond to it with prophetic speech. It’s always been that way. Do you know who the first Protestant women preachers were? They were in the Assembly of God denomination, where they believe if the Holy Spirit tells you to speak, you need to speak. Especially if it’s for the benefit of the congregation!
So, we have a clue here as to what happened in Corinth. A lot of the speaking in church was getting out of hand. So, Paul gives his pastoral word, “God is a God not of disorder but of peace.” The worship of God is for prayer and praise, not tornados and chaos. The congregation gathers for encouragement, not interruption. The service is for God’s instruction, not the expression of human ego. In worship, people gather together, not splinter off as solitary individuals. A community is built, a community nurtured, a community is cared for.
For the benefit of that community, let all things be done decently, not indecently. We don’t trample on one another. We discern this is the Body of Jesus in this place, in this neighborhood.
And let all things be done in order: in a sequence that is helpful, in mutual respect that counters chaos, and in a liturgy that unfolds like a story. That’s what we do: we gather, we listen, we respond, we bless.
And if the Holy Spirit works among us to speak
or sing something that builds up the church, all praise to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. That’s who we are as a church: decent, in order, and alive to
God.
[1] “You (plural) are the Body of
Christ,” 1 Corinthians 12:27. “Discern the Body,” 1 Corinthians 11:29.
[2] 1 Corinthians 11:5, 10, 13. The
evangelical scholar Gordon Fee and others believe this section in chapter 14 is
a later interpolation added to Paul’s original text. See, for instance, https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/1156/is-1-corinthians-1433-35-an-interpolation
Posts
