The Second Sunday after the Epiphany (Year C)
January 19, 2025
Almighty God, whose Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that thy people, illumined by thy Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 62:1-5
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
Looking at the three passages assigned as today’s lessons by the lectionary, the theme that leaps out at us, of course, is that of marriage. It is almost automatic. It is the image to which the passage from Isaiah leads, and it is the setting of the selection from John. Indeed, we have been anticipating the latter ever since I began to use the Epiphany seasonal blessing I have been praying since January 6. Of course, most of that Gospel lesson – and the text in that blessing – focusses on the miracle of turning water into wine. However, as this event is used in the marriage rite to support the Church’s teaching that “the bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation” and that Christ “adorned this manner of life” by making it his very first miracle, we will all be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Whenever I hear this passage, my own Anglican soul’s first stirring is back to wedding service in the Book of Common Prayer – a text that I have heard quipped teaches the importance of scripture by quoting the Bible left, right, and centre. I am not sure, however, that the metaphor of marriage for Israel’s relationship with God, or Jesus’ presence at a party, is particularly helpful in exploring that theme.
So, I’d like to start in earnest by taking a look at today’s passage from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, and see where that leads us. Paul begins this chapter by telling the former heathens – whom he said had easily been “led astray by dumb idols” – that they need to be taught about what he calls “spiritual gifts.” He wants them to know what real spiritual gifts are, and how to distinguish them, true from false. Where he begins, however, is perhaps unexpected. Rather than launching into a lecture about these gifts themselves, he wants to people to know that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.” Spiritual gifts are many and varied. They all do not look the same, yet all are “given ... for the common good.”
And here he begins to enumerate this variety:
To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
“All .. are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. ” Each gift is different. Each gift requires different skills and talents. Each gift contributes to the whole, and all contribute together to make up a single body composed of many parts, the Body of Christ. And working together, with all these different skills and talents, the work of Christ’s Body unfolds across the world.
None of us can do everything ourselves. We each have different gifts, talents, skills. We have to work together, and this the theme upon which Paul elaborates as he continues:
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
We are a diverse body – made up of all the peoples of the known world – and the key to using our spiritual gifts is to work together as one so we may cooperate with God in his purpose.
Paul does not stop here, though. He wants to say more about the qualities of these spiritual gifts each of us has been given and that require us to work together to effectively do the work of the Body of Christ. Paul goes on to say that the working of these various gifts requires something special and are not really of God if they are lacking in it. This is, of course “love.” Each spiritual gift must be undertaken in the spirit of the Love of God in order for the body to function together as it should, and rather than leave it for us to define, he tells us exactly what he means:
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends....
Love is Christ-like. This is what he is telling us. Love is self-giving and generous. Love seeks the good of the other person, not for our sake, but for theirs. It is the very spirit of the Christ we meet in his passion, death, and resurrection. The gifts and talents and skills that God gives to each of us, and that allow us to function as a part of the body of Christ, are rooted in the “patient and kind,” hopeful, and enduring Love of God in Christ. This is the life to which we are called.
And so, our passage from Corinthians today leads us right back to the marital theme hinted at in Isaiah and John. When I read those words about love from Corinthians, I wonder how many of you thought about a time you’ve heard it at a wedding? It is, perhaps, the most widely chosen lesson for inclusion in the marriage service. That’s how I got there, why I followed Paul’s line of thought from teaching the heathens with their dumb idols about spiritual gifts, to the very love of God, a love to which we all have access.
Sure, lots of people may choose this passage because it puts into words some of our amorphous, feel-good ideas about love and God. But it is supposed to define love with words, to teach us. It tells us precisely what divine love looks like, and helps us sift out what actions are truly loving, and which actions may use “love” as a cover for actions and behaviours that stand in opposition to the workings of the Body of Christ. The love expressed in marriage – the love defined by Paul in this way – is related directly to the spiritual gifts that God has given us. So, whether or not Jesus showed up at a wedding and made sure there was enough to drink isn’t really the link that makes marriage a part of God’s work. Marriage is linked to the divine life by the gifts of the spirit, which, only by cooperating with each other, advance God’s works of love and reconciliation.
Marriage can be a microcosm, an outward and visible sign, of how people come together – independent, individual, possessing different qualities and talents – and forge a new life together working not simply practically, but on a larger scale, entwined by the love that must be at the heart of any and all spiritual gifts. This is how marriage can be a joyous image for Israel’s post-exilic relationship with God, rather than in that proprietary way in which the passage from Isaiah speaks. This is how marriage symbolises “the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his church,” as the parts of the whole work together to uplift God’s people and encourage their ministry in the unfolding Kingdom.
Today we are reminded that God’s gifts are many and varied, as varied as God’s people themselves. We learn that we can not work effectively in joining the movement of the Kingdom of God if we do not work together. We learn that if we do work cooperatively, exercising our diverse spiritual gifts in real divine love, uniting them one with the other we are forged into the Body of Christ.
Andrew Charles Blume ✠
New York City
The Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle, 18 January 2025
© 2025 Andrew Charles Blume