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Karen Hollis | Feb 8th, 2026 Epiphany 4
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though God made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
Grant me your mercy,
my Redeemer, redeem me,
for I am yours –
the one who has come from you.
You are my mind –
birth me.
You are my treasure –
open for me.
You are my fullness –
receive me.
You are my rest –
give me unrestrained maturity.
I pray you who exists and pre-exists,
in the name raised up above every name,
through Jesus Christ,
the Lord of lords,
the King of ages.
Give me your gifts without regret,
through the Child of Humanity,
the Spirit,
the Advocate of truth.
Give me authority, I ask you.
Give healing to my body when I ask you,
through the one who brings good news,
and redeem my soul, enlightened and eternal,
and my spirit,
and open my mind
to the firstborn Child
of the fullness of grace.
Grant what no angel’s eye has seen,
and no ruler’s ear has heard,
and what has not entered into the human heart,
which became angelic
and was molded in the image of the living God
when it was formed in the beginning.
I have trust and hope.
And place upon me your
beloved, chosen, and blessed greatness,
the firstborn,
the first brought forth,
the amazing mystery of your house.
For yours is
the power and the glory,
and the praise and the greatness,
forever and ever.
Amen.
The Prayer of the Ambassador Paul.
In peace,
Christ is Holy.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
For the second week in a row, we get to explore a prayer from the early church. Last week was a prayer of thanksgiving, which was used in many contexts in the ancient world, perhaps even as a prayer before celebrations of communion. That prayer is almost all praise and gratitude to God. Only at the very end is there any kind of request or petition. This week’s prayer is totally different, written for a different purpose, and full of petitions.
The prayer attributed to the Apostle Paul is written from the perspective of one who is in pressing need of God’s presence. This is an apostle’s prayer, the prayer of one who is sent out to the world, one who has little other than God to depend on.
While we are familiar with the term apostle, this translation calls him an ambassador, which is a good word for the role – he is a representative of Christ to new communities all around the region. It’s got to be tough going from place to place sharing the gospel message to strangers – it’s hard enough standing up here week after week in a place where I am known – to go to unknown places where you don’t know who you’re going to find or what response you will get . . . that is a big call. And we know from the book of Acts how challenging it really was and how much trouble Paul and his companions encountered. So, given his itinerant life and his constant state of vulnerability, with only God’s presence as protection, as well as his visibility within the tradition through the distribution of his letters, it makes sense that someone would mark this prayer with Paul’s name.
The first couple of lines of the prayer are actually missing, due to the deterioration of the papyrus – not uncommon with these ancient texts. And while the prayer is new to us, the sources that influenced the author are not. The various names for Christ, for instance, are found in other Christian scriptures. Lord of Lords comes from 1 Timothy and Revelation. Advocate of Truth comes from John’s gospel. There are turns of phrases found in psalms, like “You are my rest,” and “the name raised up above every name” is also found in Philippians. “Child of Humanity” (or Son of Man) is everywhere in the Christian scriptures.
The two most prominent inclusions in the prayer are a few lines from this morning’s reading from 1 Corinthians - I’ll get to that in a minute – as well as a familiar pattern of words that appear at the end of the prayer.
The conclusion of the prayer says this: “For yours is the power and the glory, and the praise and the greatness, forever and ever. Amen.” That sounds very similar to the ending of another prayer in our tradition that we say together regularly. (I am leading you to . . .) The Lord’s Prayer, which, in the version we recite together when we’re not singing is: “For thine is the Kindom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen” In later manuscripts of Luke and Matthew, this doxology is included in their versions of the Lord’s Prayer. It doesn’t appear in earlier manuscripts, which means it was added later. This pattern of prayer is a doxology – a short hymn of praise – that was evidently developed in the early church and was used as an ending to prayers and hymns in worship . . . including the Lord’s prayer and this payer attributed to Paul.
The other prominent reference comes from 1 Corinthians. In the prayer with Paul’s name, we read: “Grant what no angel’s eye has seen, and no ruler’s ear has heard, and what has not entered into the human heart, which became angelic and was molded in the image of the living God when it was formed at the beginning.”
1 Corinthians says: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” Paul is referencing here Isaiah 64, which in itself is not a direct quote. This is something we’ve always done along the way – reach for a turn of phrase or an idea we’ve learned within our tradition and apply it or reinterpret it in another context. Here we see a kind of lineage of this practice.
Paul opens this passage of his letter to Corinth with a little explanation of the difference between the way he showed up with them and the fullness of his capacity as a leader. He says he simplified his message and relied on the power of the Holy Spirit to reach them . . . but when he is with mature disciples, he speaks with wisdom that is the mystery of God . . . this wisdom, he says, is difficult to perceive . . . no eyes have seen it, no ear has heard it, nor even the mind of the heart at the centre of our beings have perceived it. Though, through relationship with God and maturity in faith, the spirit reveals wisdom to us. In the United Church we are so committed to inclusivity that we might feel some discomfort with this idea that messages from the Spirit aren’t immediately for everyone. We might sit with such discomfort while listening to Paul. He seems to be teaching that there is some preparation needed to be able to hear the Spirit or to perceive her wisdom.
In my experience, we gain spiritual maturity through the constant process of discipleship and practices like self-honesty, offering our burdens to God, reaching out to God in prayer, and perhaps most importantly, placing God at the centre of our lives. According to Paul, as these kinds of practices shape us, we become more able to perceive the Spirit’s teachings. This practice and process is lifelong.
The prayer attributed to Paul invites us to consider the differences between being a disciple and an apostle or ambassador. The first is certainly preparation for the second, though they are two very different states of being. Discipleship is a posture of curiosity, learning, deepening, encountering ever more layers of self with the presence of God. Ambassadors are generally prepared to share the good news, share the story of Jesus, the meaning they make about Jesus – who he was, his relationship with God, how he saves – as well as one’s personal experience along the path Jesus leads. Ambassadors do a whole other piece of preparation to be able to meet people and articulate the message in a way people can absorb . . . my guess is a lot of ambassador training happened by trial and error. Remember, when Jesus sent the first ambassadors out, he sent them two by two. Both probably clinging to the other as they courageously lived out their “yes” to Jesus’ invitation. Perhaps as time progressed, the apostles adopted a new model of pairing a new ambassador with an experienced one – it’s a good model – so they could try things and debrief along the way.
With these ambassadors of varying experience in mind, it’s interesting to me that the prayer with Paul’s name includes a request for both “unrestrained maturity” and “authority.” Maturity to ground us and authority to engage those we meet. We all know that it matters how one shows up. If I stand up here and speak as one who embodies the role and the message – which, let me tell you, takes some repetition and soul searching – people are more likely to pay attention. Even if I’m new and learning, if I’m honest and genuine, some will still listen. In this prayer, the ambassador is praying for the grounding to stand authentically in the role and stand in the message to share their truth.
The other piece here that’s really important is the role of the Spirit. The Spirit is wild and unpredictable. She comes and speaks to those who can hear her, she shares the mysteries of God that Paul says are unknown to those who are not ready to hear. And . . . sometimes she surprises us. Sometimes she comes to us out of nowhere, causing us to stumble forward on our spiritual path. For instance, one might think, whew, I don’t need to worry about being called to be an ambassador – I don’t even know what it means for me to be a disciple! The Spirit might come along and say, “you can build a foundation under you later. Your presence is needed in this situation –go and say or do something that rings true.” In that experience, we may find that as an accidental ambassador, being a disciple takes on a whole new meaning. As much as we humans endeavor to keep order, the way of Jesus – certainly with the help of the Spirit – has always turned things on their head in a way that serves the moment. The Spirit doesn’t appear to care about order; she appears to be the work of love in the present. Never underestimate the Spirit, and whenever we can, let us follow her lead on this path that takes a lifetime. Thanks be to God.