June 2, 2024
In Corinthians 14:4 Paul says, “The language of ecstasy is good for the speaker himself, but it is prophecy that builds up a Christian community.”
I have been reading a book of Gordon’s sermons called By Grace Transformed and being newly inspired by them. One of them is titled “Called to Be Prophets.” In this sermon, Gordon says, “… each of us, as part of our belonging to Jesus Christ, is to render the service of prophetic speech.” He says we can’t shirk this duty and leave it to those who come by the gift naturally – maybe like our friend David Hilfiker. He said that isn’t fair. (p.109)
He goes on to say that sometimes prophecy is to bring a word of hope, as when Isaiah says, “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher and skill to console the weary with a word in the morning.” (Is. 50:4)
On the other hand, sometimes the prophecy is a word of challenge or judgment when we are “able to criticize that which we love – [our beloved community] an extremely difficult thing to do.” (p113)
He made my tongue his sharp sword, and concealed me under cover of his hand; He made me a polished arrow and hid me out of sight in his quiver. (Is 49:2)
Prophecy is the language of Pentecost. The flames came on each and every person in that room. Everyone had language to speak the word of hope, the good news to whomever needed to hear it at that moment. Sometimes the prophecy may be in a teaching, sometimes it may be in the group we are a part of. But I hope also that each of you who thinks they might have a word for 8th Day, will consider bringing a teaching to “build up the Christian community” and not shrink from that calling to prophecy as part of our belonging to Christ.
As I was reading another sermon, “Calling Forth Gifts” I was inspired to share these themes of Gordon’s with our community. As usual, I thought, “I really don’t have time to do another teaching right now.” However, the idea Gordon preached on about, ie: all of us being prophets, kind of got under my skin, so I felt like God was saying – “You have to share this inspiration with 8th Day – no excuses!” I do believe we need to be reminded of these ideas from the founding of the Church of the Saviour. So today, I don’t have much that’s really original, but I’m basically channeling Gordon in order to share some of these fundamental C of S principles I’ve gotten from the sermon on “calling forth gifts.”
But first let me read the Scripture 1Cor12:4-8 to consider.
There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are many forms of work, but all of them in all people are the work of the same God. In each of us the Spirit is manifested in one particular way, for some useful purpose….But all these gifts are the work of one and the same Spirit, distributing them separately to each individual at will.
Gordon emphasizes in his chapter on gifts that this passage in Corinthians is making it clear that the body is not complete without the gift of every person in the community contributing to the whole. He says, “The unity and maturity of the Body are in direct ratio to the diversity and multiplicity of the gifts in evidence within it.” Furthermore, he says, the failure to take Paul’s teaching on gifts seriously is responsible for the apathy and ineffectiveness of the church. (P. 95)
In order to call forth gifts in our community, we have to be freed from oughtness and obligation and from insisting that we need to keep doing things the way they always have been done, just “keeping the machinery going”. We need to be exercising our gifts in freedom and with cheerfulness. When that is no longer the case, maybe God is calling us to something different. One of my favorite parts in the chapter is Gordon’s comment: “All of us better find out what we really want to do and start doing it, with whatever it involves. If you have to give up your responsibility, give it up; if the church goes to pieces, so be it.” (P. 96)
I will admit that I have struggled with giving up the Worship Coordinator position, because I was afraid there would be no one to step up to the plate and take my place – and then, of course the church would fall apart! However, once I regularly began to feel “this is a burden,” then it was time to let go and see who else might emerge to take on that task. Or, maybe let things fall apart - - - and see how we coalesce around a new way of doing things.
I believe Gordon himself recognized this and was willing to “let the church fall apart” in 1975, when the membership of C of S reached 100 (which is considered a very small church in today’s terms). I think he realized he did not want to manage a large church and spend his days in administration. He urged the members to call forth the leadership gifts among them and form smaller churches to carry forth the mission of the Church of the Saviour. Gifts multiplied then out of necessity, as ten or so churches were formed out of the one Church of the Saviour. Multiple missions also sprang forth after this.
Gordon then eventually went on to form a small, quite different church of people who were in recovery and returning citizens, along with middle-class white folk. I believe in some way Gordon was returning to his original call to form small supportive communities as he did in World War II. This is, by the way, is what Moses did when the congregation of Israelites became too large for him to settle all the grievances that came to him. He divided the people into smaller groups, and leaders/judges were chosen to guide them. Gordon’s vision of small groups actively evoking leadership at the point of gifts is not so new after all!
When we begin to exercise our gifts with freedom, wonder and excitement, Gordon observes, “our essential true selves, which were tied up, traumatized, imprisoned, begin to come forth.”
Brenda Ueland writes: “You must become aware of the richness in you and come to believe in it and know it is there, so that you can [act out of your true being] opulently and with self-trust.” (p. 62 Fearless Creating, Maisel)
Gordon says further:
This new birth does not impose on the personality something that is alien to it; rather it brings into actuality, into fullness, that which was always there – those sensitive feelings, those yearnings, those tastes, that more tender dimension of our natures which somehow has always embarrassed us….A mysterious new being is fashioned, and at the heart of this becoming is the divine action. (P97)
From our lectionary [for this week -
“…the same God who said ‘out of darkness, let light shine!’ Has caused his light to shine within us, to give the light of revelation – the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We are no better than pots of earthenware to contain this treasure, and this proves that such transcendent power does not come from us, but is God’s alone.” (2 Cor. 4: 5-7)
It is essential that we exercise our gifts in freedom and with cheerfulness. When we are having the time of our life doing this, letting God’s light shine through our earthenware pots, then we may begin to call forth the gifts of others. Gordon says, “Since the calling forth of uniqueness is a mission of God, it seems self-evident that this is our primary mission as Christians. (p.97) In order to do this, we have to be able to let go of control of another, appreciate and accept them for who they are, and allow them to develop in their own way and time. Gordon reminds us, “The Holy Spirit will work if we just release the person and let any sort of strange concoction emerge.” (P.99)
One of the ways we encourage and evoke or call forth gifts is in our mission groups. In the New Creation Mission Group we see this as an ongoing process, by holding each other accountable for practicing our creative endeavors. Each mission group member takes turns regularly sharing in more depth once a month about where our spiritual journey and creative calling are leading us. The person who is heard in depth that week also does a “Creative Share” which is the accountability – usually with some demonstration of our creative gift. Our mission group has seemed to be a creative cauldron for people who come, discover a calling and then leave. Sometimes we think of ourselves a petri dish for discovering gifts and call.
Eric Maisel, in his book Fearless Creating, has a chapter on “Belligerent Commitment.” He talks about “Affirming” as one of 15 traits of an artist. He says:
The artist affirms her own voice and her own being. Out of an abiding humanitarianism, she also affirms the voices and beings of others. Both her self-interest and her other-interest may be attacked: on the first score that she is egoistic, grandiose, arrogant, and selfish; on the second score that she is idealistic and unrealistic. Thus she will be blamed for affirming, when of course she should be praised.
This saddens the artist but does not surprise her. She knows that affirming is a dangerous, disliked activity and that disappearing is much more acceptable. But affirming is life itself and she will not do less.
In a similar vein Gordon speaks:
Something unpleasant may occur in the process of the gradual release of the person who is being born anew through the power of the Holy Spirit. The real character of the new humanity is obscured for a time by the turmoil, the anxiety, the hostility, the downright hatred which also begins to emerge into consciousness….This can be a time of discouragement and despair. One sees with greater objectivity the unbelievably demonic shadows of one’s life, [and might I add, the world’s demonic powers] the indifference to the spiritual, the unwillingness to take the risk of faith, the inability to love… Even so, this becoming self is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Without it the new humanity, the new creation will not be complete. The creation will be forever incomplete without you, without your gift.
I hope that each of us hears this word and takes it to heart, as God’s word.
In the Bruderhof where I grew up, it was bad to praise another person. “Flattery” was considered very bad, and any kind of personal “pride” in oneself was the worst sin of all – which, of course, flattery would make even worse! What Maisel and Gordon are saying about calling forth and affirming one’s own gift and the gifts of others is the complete antithesis of the idea one should hide one’s gifts under the bed.
Even Jesus in one of his sayings said you don’t hide your light under a bushel (Matt 5:15), even when your light is in an earthenware vessel. Perhaps you can’t imagine light shining out of an earthen vessel. So you can think of this – a clay pot, leather-hardened, with beautiful shapes carved out into a design, so you can put a candle inside and it’s light will shine out of the cut out designs. We need to allow ourselves to be cut out, designed to the point where God’s light can shine out to the world!
And I agree with Gordon that the church needs every voice to be heard in prophecy, so I agree that every one of us is meant to be a caller forth of gifts. Perhaps we should each ask ourselves these questions:
- Am I exercising a gift for the community and the world?
- If not, what do I need to help my gift come forth?
- Whom do I need to help me identify and express my gift?
- If I am exercising my gifts, am I exercising them in freedom and with cheerfulness?
- How am I calling forth another’s uniqueness and gifts?
- Whom am I called to in order to call forth their special “charism?”
Perhaps as a community we need to see ourselves as nurturers of the gifts of others. How can we do this better? How can we include all of us in the process – the children and those closer to the fringes of the community?
I will close with a poem by Thomas Ryan, author of Soul Fire Accessing Your Creativity
Soul Fire
Throw open the door of that furnace
Where the flames come leaping forth
Like hungry hounds on the hunt,
Licking and lapping at every cue on the trail
Of the divine design for your life.
Ask not: where is it written?
It is written on your heart
In the colors of desire.
It is sung by the silent voices
Of your recurring dreams.
It is the refrain chanted
by the chorus of your accumulating years:
“If not now, when? If not here, where?”
And the only obedience that will set you free
Is surrender to the energy and fire
Congealed in your gifts.
Go forth and discover them!