Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of Proper 19: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 72; Evening, Psalm 119:73 to 96;
1st Kings 22:1 to 28; 1st Corinthians 2:1 to 13; Matthew 4:18 to 25:
“My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God:” (1st Corinthians 2, 4 and 5).
This is so true. Our faith must not be based on what limited scientific or geological things we can prove. God’s presence in our lives is so much more than human understanding. There is a different kind of wisdom in what God is doing within us. Paul continues, “Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory:” (1st Corinthians 2: 6 and 7).
This kind of secret knowledge is what the Gnostics of old preached in their faith tradition – that is that only a few who God chose had this secret knowledge. This theology is not accepted by most mainline Christian traditions. However, anyone, and everyone, who chooses to listen to the Holy Spirit of God will receive this hidden and secret spiritual knowledge. This hidden and secret spiritual knowledge is what Paul calls “These things.”
Paul says that “These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God:” (1st Corinthians 2:10). I think every now and then, Paul speaks the absolute truth, and it is directly from God. I am not a big Paul fan. But my ear has been trained to know the divine truth when I hear it.
Paul ends this passage with the idea that spirituality seeks out spirituality. He says, “And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual:” (1st Corinthians 2: 13). After the coming of the Holy Spirit on what the Church calls the Day of Pentecost, every human being may open him or herself to the Holy Spirit. We can, and should, listen to what the Spirit is saying to us.
As we listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, let us live to love, to serve, and to teach, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 