Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:23-24 – “If, therefore, the entire church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all.” (NRSVue)
As a Protestant of the Reformed and mainline traditions, I am used to a worship and faith style which is based on preaching and understanding the word of God. It tends to be cerebral, which as you might imagine I find interesting and comforting. But there are other forms of Christian faith, and one of them is Pentecostalism. Without getting into too many details, Pentecostals focus more on the Holy Spirit as a granter of spiritual gifts which then allow them to spread holiness to the world. Their worship style tends to be more upbeat and seeks more of an emotional connection to God than a purely mental one.
I think we have a lot to learn from Pentecostals by letting the Spirit touch us and shape us. However, there is one thing about Pentecostals that I have found off-putting, and that is speaking in tongues. This is when you let the Holy Spirit speak through you, which often comes out as a type of holy gibberish. To the original Pentecostals from around 1900, speaking in tongues was a sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence, which was necessary to share the gospel with the world.
I was thinking about this after reading the above passage from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Paul believed in the power of the Holy Spirit to unite and empower the community, but the Corinthians fought over whether those who could speak tongues were more important than others. So, while recognizing speaking tongues as a spiritual gift, Paul thought it was one of the least important. One way he demonstrated this was by putting forth a hypothetical where an outsider or nonbeliever walks into a church service and sees everyone speaking in tongues. They would think they were all crazy! But if the church was using the spiritual gift of prophecy, speaking truth in God’s name, they might listen and understand what they were missing in their lives.
Paul’s words got me thinking about how we engage in our spirituality. Is it for us or for others? This is not an easy question, because the time we spend in inner prayer and in worship with those like us is necessary to give us the spiritual and emotional energy to be Christian in a difficult world. But if our worship is too inward facing and seems like it is only for insiders, people will think we are crazy. Maybe not gibberish crazy, but certainly irrelevant. Paul invites us to use our emotional connection to God to prophesy, to speak the truth to power and to remind people of the ultimate dissatisfaction of selfish, cruel, and destructive behaviors.
What is our worship good for? Whether we focus on a deep study of the Bible or an effervescent experience of the divine, we need to channel that energy and wisdom into something that is more than our own edification. Think about what gives you peace or passion with God and then find a way to share it with the world so that all might know God’s glory.
Prayer: Holy Lord, send your Holy Spirit upon me that I might know you and share in ways that truly change lives. Amen.
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