Did you Spot it?
Last Thursday the British Health Secretary said this at the daily briefing:
"Getting our children back to school is vital part of our national recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak. Our childrens' future depends on it. They will be the doctors, the teachers, the engineers of tomorrow."
Did you spot the enormous blindspot? I was outraged when I heard his statement! If you did not spot the blindspot please read it again!
Very few children will turn out to be doctors, teachers or engineers. Most will be factory workers, plumbers, cleaners, shop workers, gardeners, care workers, and a thousand other noble jobs.
But, or so it seems, the vast majority of ordinary people don't figure in the thinking of government officials, who are biased towards their own backgrounds and biased towards trades of the mind, rather than trades of the hands.
The education secretary should have said:
"Our childrens' future depends on it. They will be the road sweepers, the shop workers, the electricians and the cleaners of tomorrow."
Can you imagine the uproar?! That would have been the news of the day!
The education secretary - like most leaders everywhere - set a priority on gifts of the mind.
The Mind Gifts of the Church
In my long and varied experience of church life, this worldly thinking persists in the church. Where are the fishermen and plumbers in any of the leadership positions in any Christian denomination anywhere in the world? When a conference speaker is announced they have to splash those daft irrelevant letters after his name (letters which will be unknown in the world to come). "No working class fishermen welcome here" is the unspoken message.
When the church opts for the educated types, it is not right, and it does not represent the body of Jesus Christ, or the makeup of the first Twelve disciples.
How does all of this connect to 1 Corinthians 13?
Well look at the verses we end with today, and note carefully which gifts Paul says will pass away:
"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Coirnthians 13:8-13)
What was happening in the church at Corinth? They were all clambering for the Showy Upfront Mind Speech Leadership gifts. Prophecy. Tongues. Knowledge. Education Secretary gifts.
No-one wanted to wash feet or share food.
So in the poem of love, Paul has to humble those mind and speech gifts:
Prophecies will one day cease!
Tongues will one day be stilled!
Knowledge will pass away!
Set against our future heavenly understanding of truth, all the greatest doctrine a saint can know here below is at best incomplete, child-talk, dull-mirror reflection and partial knowledge! What a put down!
If the first part of this poem shocked the congregation, this last part would have offended some even more.
Notice Paul does not say "administration gifts ends, helping gifts end, encouraging gifts end, sweeping the floor gifts end, washing feet gifts end." These gifts also come to an end, but they're not on his coming-to-an-end list.
The One Big Takeaway
The great and single takeaway from this section of Paul's poem is that what the world thinks is important - mind gifts - are not that important in the Kingdom of God, unless they come with the greatest gift of all - which is love.
I remember talking to a former youth leader of mine many years after I had passed out of his youth group. I did not learn high doctrine from him. As we fondly reminisced on the past he said something that struck me,"We tried to love the young people in our care." It was almost apologetic!
When I see him again I shall tell him that what he tried to do was the most important thing any youth leader - and any follower of Jesus Christ can ever do. Love is the most excellent way and the greatest grace is to love.
To be famous for love is to be known for the best gift that can grace any believer.
A SONG AND PRAYER FOR THE DAY
I know we've sung it before, but here is my song for the day. It's a prayer too, so we end this poem of love with this as both our song and prayer.
May the fragrance of Jesus fill this place. (Men)
May the fragrance of Jesus fill this place. (Women)
May the fragrance of Jesus fill this place. (Men)
Lovely fragrance of Jesus, (Women)
Rising from the sacrifice (All)
Of lives laid down in adoration.
May the glory of Jesus fill His church. (Men)
May the glory of Jesus fill His church. (Women)
May the glory of Jesus fill His church. (Men)
Radiant glory of Jesus, (Women)
Shining from our faces (All)
As we gaze in adoration.
May the beauty of Jesus fill my life. (Men)
May the beauty of Jesus fill my life. (Women)
May the beauty of Jesus fill my life. (Men)
Perfect beauty of Jesus, (Women)
Fill my thoughts, my words, my deeds, (All)
My all I give in adoration.
SING ALONG HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment