Epiphany 3

The lectionary readings for Epiphany 3 in this Year C are 1 Cor 12.12–31a, and Luke 4.14–21, where Jesus returns from the desert ‘in the power of the Spirit’ and reads from Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth. If you are using the gospel reading, you can find commentary on that passage (together with a video discussion) here.

The passage in 1 Cor 12.12f flows directly on from last week’s reading, so if you are using this, then you will have a strong sense of continuity. The lectionary is not design to offer continuous readings, but it is nice when it happens! This does give the opening of the reading a slightly odd feel if you are reading it on its own, since it starts with a typically Pauline strong logical connective ‘For…’ or ‘Therefore…’ (Gk gar) ‘…just as…’

The previous section, from 1 Cor 12.4–11, has held together the diversity of gifts and ministries within the community of faith and their common bond by means of the image of the one Spirit giving many diverse gifts. Here, Paul shifts the image to make similar and related points by focussing on what it means to be ‘in Christ’; he does not use this favorite phrase in this passage, but this is the implication of being ‘part of the body’.

We are so used to the metaphor of the people of God as ‘the body of Christ’ that we fail to recognize how novel and striking this is.

Paul will go on in chapter 15 (which we will look at in two weeks’ time) to rehearse the things ‘of first importance’ which centre around Jesus’ bodily death, burial, and resurrection, and how so many, most of whom are still alive, saw Jesus in his risen body. So talking of the Christians gathered together in their meetings in Corinth as ‘the body of Christ’ is actually striking and jarring. Imagine talking about the church you are in as ‘the body of the vicar’! It would be rather startling.