Thoughts for the Day

* Holy Spirit as a dove.

The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 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.

Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

‘For who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?’

But we have the mind of Christ.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

After a couple of years with two cats in the house I am beginning to learn "cat language". A dead mouse, rat or bird, laid in front of my car overnight means I am offered a tribute or present. No doubt very kind of them, but I could do without having to clear it up. A chirruping sound just as they are being fed means intense pleasure, while a cat that discovers my presence on the second floor of the house and winds himself round and round my legs means "Can I please be fed?" As for the rest, well so far it escapes me.

Yesterday we look at how Paul worked when he first went to Corinth by putting all his emphasis on news of Jesus Christ, crucified. He didn't use the arts of an orator, or theological arguments, instead he used simple language to help put right what had gone wrong in the Corinthian Church. He now explains how he was able to do this. Just as we understand human beings more than say cats, because we ourselves are human and have a "human spirit", so it is with God. It was the Holy Spirit, that intimate part of the essence of God, Who guided him. It was also, he says, the Spirit that helps us to understand the gifts that God has already given to us (1 Corinthians 12.4-11).

Paul realises that it is easy to get so involved in the world that we don't listen to the things of the Spirit, and he describes two kinds of people - those who have psyche* that is physical life, and those who have pneuma* that is spiritual life. Everything that lives, including cats, has physical life but not everyone has spiritual life. Paul reminds his readers, and us, that we have already received God's Spirit and it is our Lord who guides us.

* Greek.

Holy Spirit,
power of God,
You feed our souls,
and nurture our spirit.
May we never forget
Your role in the life of God
who is Three but One.
Feed and nourish us
and give us the gifts we pray
to carry out Your work,
in the places where we live
and work.
Amen.