1 Corinthians 12 - Sermon

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This morning, we will be looking at the book of 1 Corinthians.  In addition to being one of the most quoted books by the early church fathers, the book of 1 Corinthians also happens to be one of my favorite books in the New Testament.  This morning we will be focusing primarily on chapter 12.

Initially, I liked the book because it’s the largest available treatise on spiritual gifts.  Being raised in the Charismatic / Pentecostal church, I tended to focus almost entirely on chapters 12 through 14.  I remember being both delighted and frustrated at Paul’s comments that we should “desire spiritual gifts…”  After all, during that time of my life, one of the most important things for me was the obtaining of the gifts of the Spirit.  I wanted to be able to prophecy or perform miracles.  Many of you might find this desire to be odd; however, given my goals and circumstances, this desire was a natural one.

As a teenager, I remember having a very strong desire to be “the best Christian I can be”.  Since I, and those around me, thought that the pinnacle of one’s spiritual life is to obtain spiritual gifts, naturally I sought them so that I could be spiritually fulfilled.  The logic was simple

1. I desire to be as spiritual as possible.
2. Obtaining the gifts of the Spirit is the mark of someone who is advanced in his or her spirituality. 
3. Therefore, I desire to obtain the gifts of the Spirit.

Augustine on Lying - Sermon

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I would like to elaborate a bit on what a lie is, on whether or not is it always wrong to lie, and on whether or not we can lie to ourselves. Rather than just giving you my own immature thoughts on the subject, I want to draw on the thoughts of St. Augustine. I don’t know that I fully agree with Augustine, but I think he is a good place to start. Perhaps I can do another sermon where we look at Aquinas’ view, Newman’s view, and Kant’s view.

My interest in this topic was stirred up by a book called “Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity” by Paul J. Griffiths. The Holy Spirit had already been convicting me of my own tendency to be dishonest, but this book helped clarify and sharpen my vision so that I began to see more clearly just how deep and wide my dishonesty is.

All of us know that it is wrong to lie, but few of us see how easy it is to lie and how entrenched we are in our own lies. In fact, if you made it your life’s ambition to never lie, you would probably be one of the most socially awkward people around. Many of our “social graces” rely on our ability distort our true thoughts. Even if we think someone smells funny, we usually shy away from telling them this. Anyone who just blurted out his thoughts without any sort of filter would be considered rude.