![]() Our gifts are for our own edification, pleasure, gain, and reward.īut this way of thinking about spiritual gifts has no place in Christianity. To be gifted is to be set apart, elevated far above the ordinary. In many of our contemporary contexts, the end goal of giftedness is privilege, status, and adoration. We learn to think of “giftedness” as something we deserve - something we inherit at birth, or earn by sheer effort. We learn early on to hoard, compete, compare, and judge. The fact is, we live in cultures and communities that encourage us to envy, worship, or become religious superheroes. Don’t we have hierarchies of our own when it comes to the talents and abilities we admire most? In what ways do we equate giftedness with divine favor or blessing? Don’t we secretly believe that some Christians (the ones who preach, or pray eloquent prayers, or have the strongest leadership skills, or exhibit the most charisma) have a more direct line to God than the people who wipe down pews, run church nurseries, or order office supplies? Who in your church receives all the invitations and nominations? Whose gifts lie buried - unnoticed and uncultivated? But consider for a moment our own fraught relationship with giftedness. ![]() After all, most of us don’t spend our Sunday mornings fighting over the gift of tongues. A sign that they deserve more authority, status, and power in the church than those who don’t speak in tongues, perform miracles, or utter prophecies.Īt first glance, this toxic first-century mess in Corinth might seem irrelevant to us. ![]() These self-described spiritual “superheroes” believe that their gifts are a sign of God’s special favor. Congregants with flashier, louder, more “ecstatic” abilities (ie, the ability to speak in tongues) consider themselves superior to those whose gifts are quieter, less visible, or more mundane. Paul notices that the church assumes an implicit hierarchy when it comes to gifts. Which is to say, the problem of specialness. In the section of the letter our lectionary offers us this week, Paul confronts one of the problems dividing the community: the problem of spiritual elitism. The church is fraying at the seams, unable to handle - much less celebrate - its rich diversity. What does it mean to be special to God? Who counts as “gifted” - and why? Aren’t some spiritual gifts and abilities more remarkable than others? How can everyone be special at the same time?Īs a whole, Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth is an impassioned plea for unity. In it, Paul responds to an embattled congregation whose thorny questions echo Dash’s. I remembered Dash’s frustration this week, as I reflected on our reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. “That’s just another way of saying no one is,” he mutters. But Dash rolls his eyes at her democratization of specialness. “ Everyone’s special,” his mom replies, hoping to placate him. “I thought our powers made us special,” he complains to his mother. In one of the film’s telling scenes, the middle child in the family - a little boy named Dash - bemoans the fact that he has to hide his superpower (lightning speed) when he goes to school. Incredible, Elastigirl, and their three children), who are forced to hide their superpowers in accordance with a government mandate, and live quiet, “ordinary” lives in suburban America. Set in a fictitious version of the 1960s, the animated movie follows the members of a superhero family (Mr. When my children were younger, we watched them often, and to this day, The Incredibles is one of our favorites. For a reflection on this week’s Gospel reading, see “ They Have No Wine” from the JwJ archives. NOTE: This essay focuses on the reading from 1st Corinthians. ![]()
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