Sermon for May 1

The reading

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Sermon for May 1

During my ministry and work, I have read and talked about these verses from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians many times. I have read 1 Corinthians 13 and talked about the central place of love in our faith and in our lives mainly during life passages like weddings, funeral services, and times of welcome.  At weddings, it describes the love we hope and pray the new couple will be able to share throughout their lives together, love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.   At funerals it celebrates and honors the lives of people who  have cared for their friends, family, church and community with a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.  At times of welcome, it is a promise that people are joining a group, a church and community that will try to treat each other with a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.   

This morning is not a life passage though, its just a cold, rainy May Sunday. We will not have a wedding, funeral or special day of welcome.   As I prepared, I had to think of this reading in a new way. Instead of looking at what this reading means during very significant moments, I wanted to look at it means for daily life.  This means looking at why Paul wrote these well known, poetic and beautiful verses to begin with.

Overall, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is written in response to crisis.  The letter is occasioned by two events. First, the church in Corinth writes to Paul seeking help with questions and issues that are dividing the community.  Second, Chloe’s people, likely members of a house church in Corinth led and hosted by her, report to Paul that there are fights and disagreements in the churches that are damaging the community and interfering with the sharing of the Gospel.  In both cases, most of the issues brought up center around divisions of people in the church.  People were claiming to have more status based on the prominence of whoever baptized them. Wealthy converts were incorporating luxury goods and foods into their community and faith practice while the poor had very little.  The conversion to Christianity, baptism and membership in the church did very little to change the social and economic divisions that filled all other aspects of life.  Those things were simply imported into the Christian life in Corinth. 

With today’s passage on love, Paul is not trying to simply address a few specific problems (which he does in other parts of the letter). Here, something much bigger is going on. He is trying to change the culture; the ways of thinking that have led to all these problems to begin with.  Paul addresses the motivations behind the actions of the church.  It appears that the community is doing all the right things, they are meeting for worship, celebrating communion, singing God’s praise, spreading the news of Jesus Christ, dead and risen for the forgiveness of sin, studying the scriptures and praying together.

Today, we would probably look at what members of the church in Corinth was doing and call it something like “going through the motions”.  It’s something we all do at times, we help only when it’s convenient or does not cost us anything. We have a particular job that we really do not want to do, some obligation we do not really care about but we have to do. Those things get done but not very well. At those times, it’s usually awkward, dull, boring, unfeeling and obvious that we don’t want to be there or do it. The people in the church in Corinth  have to sit together in the same room, but really not want to, They have to call each other brothers and sisters in Christ, but really do not think that’s the case, They have to speak with each other, but really just share some polite, empty words.   They study, worship and praise but it is not changing them or their worldviews. They were participating in the community but for the wrong reasons, for rewards, status or power.  Paul’s solution to this crisis is love.  He knows that if the community understood  one simple point, everything else would fall into place. Following Jesus was not about going through the motions, about saying the right words or prayers at the right time, about showing up enough or performing the right rituals.  This new faith was about life changing love. First,  God’s comfort and joy filled love for us, the stuff that brings the forgiveness of sin, promise of eternal life and power to make things better.  Then our faith based love for each other.  Those two things would make all those other problems disappear.

Today, we often talk about love, using the same word to express all different feelings.  At least a few times a day, we say things like “I love that song”, “I love my spouse”,” I love my children”, “I love Jesus”, “I love my mom”, “I love that restaurant”, “I love my church” or “I love that show”.  I am assuming most people do not have the same feelings for their family and for a restaurant they enjoy eating at.          

At the time Paul writes to the church in Corinth, there were several words used for love. Each one had a different meaning. (please bear with me if this is old news for you, many great preachers and theologians over the centuries have looked at these 4 types of love).  The main 4 were Storge, Phila, Eros and Agape.  Storge meant love or affection and was almost exclusively used to describe the natural connection felt between parents and children. Phila meant something like a strong, mutual friendship between equals or brotherly love ( Philadelphia literally means the city of brotherly love). It would also be used to say “I love that song”.   Eros was used for romantic or sexual love and attraction  (here we get the word erotic). The last one is Agape, now that is our word as God’s people.   Agape was considered the highest and most active form of love. The word occurs over 300 times in the New Testament and in very few other ancient Greek texts. The bible, the story of God’s communication with and love for the world, was one of the only places that had real examples of this love.  This type of love meant sacrifice, self-denial for the sake of others.  It was also unconditional, giving without demanding or expecting repayment or reward.  It was always been used to describe God’s love for us. Most human attempts at agape type love were attempts by the early church to show God’s love through how they acted, treated each other and engaged with society.

This  is the love that Paul places above all things,   To help explain this, Paul gets philosophical, referring to what we see and experience in the world as looking into a dim mirror, we can see the basic shape and size of God’s love but its fuzzy and incomplete,  surrounded by sin, greed, selfishness, and our good and bad attempts to live it out.   

I struggled quite a bit this week with thinking about how to end this morning’s message, writing editing and then and deleting at least 6 or 8 last paragraphs.  There are not too many examples of Agape in the world and it’s ridiculous to tell everyone to go out and just do this thing that God does. I finally thought of something that someone said at last week’s bible study. We were discussing our responsibility as people of faith and church to care for God’s creation. As we talked about practical day to day actions like avoiding Styrofoam, turning lights off, recycling and sustainable foods, someone reminded us all that stuff is well and good but as people of faith, we need understand, embrace, share and proclaim God’s love revealed through Jesus Christ and work from there.   Paul’s conversation on love is the same invitation.  We are called to be changed, overjoyed and motivated by God’s grace. Once that is done, we will see love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things