Sermon for May 15 (Pentecost)

Pentecost 2016

The readings

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

1 Corinthians 12:1-13

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

A note for online readers who were not at worship on Sunday, May 15. For worship, I completely changed the order of our service.  We started with a few hymns, then celebrated communion (which is usually the end of our service). After our sacred meal, we confessed our sins, prayed, shared the peace, had our readings and ended with this sermon)

Sermon for Pentecost 2016

If you are like me and accustomed to church being comfortable, with everything done a certain way and all of our rituals and practices in a particular order, then this has probably been a very strange experience for you.  For most of my life, as a Roman Catholic, then a Lutheran, then a seminary student learning proper worship and then a Lutheran pastor organizing and presiding over that proper worship, church has always followed a familiar pattern.  Today, virtually every part of our worship was shifted around.  We started with communion, are ending with this sermon and rearranged everything in between.  The pattern and ritual of worship is part of a very long tradition, going back to those first churches that apostles like Peter and James and missionaries like Paul founded in the years after Jesus life, death, resurrection and ascension.  Our worship is done in certain ways for good reasons, to help tell the story of God’s love, to provide people with a comforting and shared experience, to praise God by obedience, and affirm our connection to all the saints who have gone before us through worshipping God in the same way.   The changes today are not something I decided to do lightly and I owe everyone here an explanation of what just happened at church and why we celebrated Pentecost in such an unusual way.

Pentecost literally means the 50^th day and it is the Greek name for the Jewish festival of Shavot ( an important day in ancient Israel which celebrated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai).  For the sparse, confused, and hopeful Christian Community gathering 10 days after Jesus’ Ascension to celebrate Pentecost, everything was about change.  This feast would take on an entirely new meaning, their lives, the church and the world would never be the same. This particular Pentecost, the first one after Jesus resurrection, his followers experience the fulfillment of a promise spoken through the prophets centuries before Jesus birth, by Jesus throughout his ministry and in Jesus final minutes on earth, in the moments right before the risen Christ ascends to God. In the book of the prophet Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 14, we hear "I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it," declares the LORD.'". In the book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 44, verse 3  'For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;  In both cases, this promise is spoken to a broken people, to bring comfort to the anxious and reassurance to the suffering that God is still in control and God’s promises are still good. 

In  all 4 gospels, especially at Jesus Baptism and at the Ascension, we have that promise of the Holy Spirit 

At the end of Luke chapter 24, verse 49, Jesus tells his followers to wait, to not do anything until the Holy Spirit comes.  "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

In John, chapter 15, verse 26 as Jesus prepares his disciples for his death, resurrection and their work, , we hear "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,

In the start of Mark and Matthew, at Jesus Baptism, John the Baptist repeats this promise Mark Chapter 1 verse 8 “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” and Matthew chapter 3 verse 11 "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.

On Pentecost, this longed for, expected, promised, hoped for event happens, the Holy Spirit comes to the world.  Now this promise is not fulfilled with a gentle ocean breeze, or the soft whisper of a dear friend, it comes as a violent, disruptive wind and consuming fire.  Pentecost is not fully understood, quiet, private and well organized.  It is unsure, loud, public, and chaotic. The first thing the Holy Spirit does is cause this mysterious, attention grabbing  ability to clearly share the story of God’s love revealed through Christ in all different languages.  They are speaking about “God’s deeds of power”,  talking about God’s love, Christ’s resurrection, the power of God to act in the world, Jesus healings, miracles and signs, the invitation to baptism and a lifelong relationship with God.  This gets everyone’s attention. The crowds are amazed, in awe and very confused.  Some actually dismissed Jesus followers as drunk (which might make sense if they were just rambling incoherently. They are speaking properly in languages they have no business knowing). Peter, standing with the disciples, does the only things he can, he proclaims Christ, dead and risen for the forgiveness of sins to the crowds.  

None of the disciples could hide in a room, wait around, quietly pause to figure out what was going on, plan the next steps, write out and edit a message or argue over the best way to go from there. They could not simply do what they did yesterday.  Everything has changed.  They would have to speak, to explain, to open the scriptures and point to God’s love revealed by Christ.

During these moments, no one had any idea what was going on. The crowds and the disciples were not sure what was happening or what to do next.   The crowds knew something big just occurred right in front of them but needed help to understand.  On one level, the disciples knew Jesus’ promise would be kept, that the Holy Spirit would come, but I am not sure they were prepared for it.  When the Holy Spirit does break into the world, Peter and the others do not have time to think, stall, or wait.  Remember, a few days ago, this group of disciples were still hiding, locked in rooms, a little afraid and a little excited, trying to recover from the incredible emotional storm that was watching Jesus arrested, put on trial, being executed, rising from the dead and ascending into heaven victorious over evil, sin and death.  They are now the center of everyone’s attention.  There would be no hiding from Pentecost. Peter and the others are driven to do the only thing they can, to follow Jesus instructions in his last words “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”.   The sudden arrival of the Holy Spirit hits them unprepared, with nothing to lean on other than this Holy Spirit. That is enough though. At the end of Peter’s message, the first Christian Sermon, 1000’s are baptized and the church begins.      

That is at the heart of today’s changes in our worship.  Church is the experience of God breaking into the world, disrupting things and changing us. As God’s people, we do not lean on ritual, wisdom or always having the right words, we lean on the Holy Spirit.  We do not pray, worship and live out our faith in a stable world, where things always work out the way we want or even the way they should. Things are often a mess but at the center of this mess is God’s love for us, that is all we have which never changes. No matter what happens, God’s promises are still good. Salvation does not come from saying, doing or thinking the right things, salvation comes because Christ is risen from the dead and that is enough. When we do not know what to say, we say Christ is Risen. When we cannot figure out what to do, we listen for the Holy Spirit in the world.   

Sermon for May 8, 2016

The readings

1 Corinthians 15:1-26, 51-57

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,  through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.  For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.  Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.  If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being;  for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.  Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

‘Where, O death, is your victory?

   Where, O death, is your sting?’

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The message

Last week, we looked at 1 Corinthians 13 and I mentioned that the reading was frequently part of wedding and funeral services.  Our reading this week is also frequently part of funeral services, I can remember standing by many grave sides and sharing the verses ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  These words are shared at the end of one person’s life to bring comfort to many others, to reassure all those who mourn of God’s promised resurrection of the dead, that Christ is Risen and we will arise.    

This hope is at the heart of our faith.  For me, it’s how I understand why bad things happen, how there can be such inequality, unfairness, pain, violence, separation, sadness, greed and undeserved suffering.  We are set free from the power of death but not from the pain of dying.  We can pretend all we want but our world is temporary, our hope is for something better, our joy is to participate in this wonder, and our work is to show or create glimpses of God’s coming kingdom here and now. For Paul, the resurrection of the dead is also central to the faith that came to him through a blinding vision, healing and instructions about Jesus.  Today’s reading is actually a long argument constructed to convince the people of Corinth that there is the resurrection of the dead.  Some members of the churches in Corinth incorporated the teachings of Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew whose systems of beliefs taught that the soul was fully separable from the body.  The body was temporary and replaceable but the soul was immortal, since it held wisdom.   For Apollos, the resurrection of the body was a silly thought, the soul was what mattered and that did not die.   

Paul was highly educated and trained in Greek rhetoric. His proof of the resurrection of the dead follows an order and the traditional pattern of argument. Paul leans on logic, scripture, authority and the experience of God in the world to make his arguments for the resurrection of the dead. He offers 5 or 6 unique arguments, hoping at least one or two will convince the Corinthians to come back to the proper faith as revealed by Christ.  He starts off in verses 1-11 with the early creeds of the church, the message that originally brought the Corinthians to faith:  Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,  through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you . Paul goes on to recount the story of Easter, of Jesus death, resurrection and appearances to his followers and their authority as witnesses.  Paul moves on to a logical argument in vs 12-19, saying if there was no resurrection of the dead, Christ could not be raised. Since we are saved from sin and death by Christ’s resurrection, there could be no salvation and believer’s faith was in vain.   In vs 20-26 Paul argues the events of history and prophesy starting all the way back with Adam, all point to Jesus resurrection and the resurrection of the dead.

The Sections we did not read (vs 26 – 50)  include Paul telling the Corinthians they are foolish, ignorant and that those who say there is no resurrection have no knowledge of God (this line of reasoning, “if you don’t think like me, your stupid”, should sound familiar to us, we hear it a lot in our political campaigns). In these verses, Paul also looks at other proofs, including a metaphor about seeds: “what you sow does not come to life without dying”.   Our selected reading picks up again with verses 51-58. There we have a moment of prophesy or vision. This starts with the declaration “listen, I will tell you a mystery”. Here, mystery is a formal or technical term used in Jewish revelation to describe God’s plan for the fulfillment of history, something we might think of as the meaning or purpose of life.   As Paul ends his arugments for the resurrection of the dead, his use of the mortal / immortal and perishable / imperishable is a direct confrontation of Apollos and his followers.  They were familiar words to Apollos’ followers and indicated unbridgeable differences between body and soul.  Paul redefines them, aguring that since Christ lived, died and is risen, everything has changed. That distinction between mortal and immortal is gone, the body takes on immortality, through God’s grace, the perishable becomes imperishable. This is the close of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.  Chapter 16 is housekeeping stuff, greetings, acknowledgments, plans to visit and the collection for the saints (asking for money to support the work of the church and spread of the gospel). 

Just like the teachings of Apollos drew people away from the story of God’s love revealed through the death and resurrection of Christ in ancient Corinth, today our faith is often infiltrated by other ideas. It has taken on aspects of the society, culture and dominant world views around it.  Honestly and sadly they include greed, racism, violence, sexism, exclusion of others and harm to the people God loves. They include an embrace of the things we are hoping to be set free from. Even Paul himself seems to fall victim to this. Although all 4 gospels report that women (and only women) were the first witnesses of Jesus resurrection, telling all future generations of their bold faith, love for Christ and bravery, Paul leaves them out, implying that Cephas was the first witness to the resurrection and only mentioning sisters as witnesses of later appearances. This was probably done since the people he was writing to did not consider women reliable witnesses. Leaving them out prevented Apollos’ followers from attacking him on this point and just dismissing Paul’s entire argument.  Regardless of the possible reason, it was done.  

We are invited to look seriously at our lives, church and community.  We are required to spot the times and places when our world stops acting like Christ is risen from the dead. There are times when we are under attack from outsiders who doubt, have belief systems where God does not fit, cannot get over stories of the church being bad, who do not think Christ is Risen from the dead, or dismiss us as just another big, corporate business.  There are times when we are under attack from insiders, from priests, pastors, treasurers and secretaries who steal, churches built on exclusion and hatred, faith communities that replace hope with feeling good now, who hoarde money and resources instead of serving others and spreading the gospel, who hide, scared, hopeless and trying to hold on instead of boldly telling the story. Against all this we are asked to do something difficult and uncomfortable, to in the words of 1 Peter 3:15 In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.  This is not an “I’m smarter than you contest” or academic debate, this is about trusting in God’s promises, being led by the Spirit, and telling the others Christ is risen from the dead with joy and hope, through our relationships, joy, laughter, work, words and actions.   

Sermon for May 5 (the Ascension)

(I preached at the community service for Ascension at Trinity, Middle Village) 

The readings 

Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

 Ephesians 1:15-23

 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love* towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God* put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Luke 24:44- 24:53

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

 

The Message

 

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Joseph Mantovani and I serve as the pastor at St Jacobus Lutheran Church in Woodside.  I have been there for almost 7 years. During that time, our diverse church community has changed, survived, shared and served others.  I also took over as dean of our Northwest Queens conference last year after Pr Longan completed 8 great years of service in that capacity.  I am glad to be here with all of you here at Trinity, Middle Village and thankful for a chance to share some thoughts on this strange and complicated Ascension Day.

 

It really is a strange and complicated day.  The number of significant things happening and new ideas introduced in our readings can make it hard to focus on one and almost impossible to figure out how they all fit together.  We have the intense anxiety and emotional experiences of Jesus first disciples as they say goodbye to their teacher and assume responsibility for telling the world of God’s love.  We have the great commission, Jesus telling the faithful to proclaim Christ dead and risen for the forgiveness of sins, to pray, teach, heal and help. We have the 2 figures who appear after the ascension and remind Jesus disciples, “don’t just stand around staring into space, go do what you were shown, taught and told”.  We have some of the most important doctrines of our church, the divinity of Jesus (they worship him), the Trinity, how God’s presence in the world is understood and experienced, the power of Baptism and the opening of God’s kingdom to all.  We have the great promise of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit will come to guide, empower and enable the assigned work. We have a conversation about the end times, We have Jesus disciples, for the first time and just in time, understanding “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations”.  

To make things more complicated, we hear different accounts of the same exact event, by the same author.  In the Acts reading, they talk about the end times and 2 figures appear to further guide the disciples.  In Luke, they talk about the fulfillment of scripture and no one appears.  At this point, everyone’s head should be spinning a little, I know mine is.  All this places us right where the people who witnessed the ascension almost 2000 years ago were and more importantly, right where God wants us.  Over the past few years on Pentecost, I have completely changed our worship.  I choose a setting and hymns no one knows. The peace, prayers, sermon , confession, communion and offering all get shifted around.  It is a strange and difficult thing to follow because the Holy Spirit entering our world is a strange and difficult thing to follow. (plus it’s a great illustration of what Pentecost was like and what church can be like for new visitors). We are not supposed to make sense of these things on our own.  We are not supposed to get it instantly, have all the answers and be comfortable all the time.  Our faith, our encounter with God’s love revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, has moments of struggle, trust, mystery, prayer, faith and wonder.   

We are not left alone to figure it out. As different as the ascension reports are in Luke and Acts, they both center on the promise of the Holy Spirit. We are given the unchanging promise of God’s presence in the world to lean on, depend on and come back to.  We are prepared for being faithful in a complex and changing world by the invitation to trust God, look to the scriptures, love one another and depend on God’s grace.  

At my church,  we operate a preschool and part of my responsibilities include weekly Children's church services.   When we look at the story of the Ascension, of Jesus saying good bye to his friends, I get dramatic.  I climb up the steps to the balcony, share a version of Jesus last words for 4 year olds (remember God loves  you) and then vanish (duck underneath one of the pews) Since the Ascension comes towards the end of the school year, I also tie it together with leaving school. For many of the kids in our school, we are their first time away from home and familiar family, even for a few hours a day.  In September, it’s a mess. The rooms and halls are filled with the unfamiliar, with screaming, crying, occasionally kicking and uncomfortable children who want to go home or see parents.  Once the end of June comes, we see how much they have grown and changed..  By June those hallways are filled with laughter, excitement, joy and friendship.  As they leave we celebrate what they are leaving with, the knowledge of basic counting, the alphabet, colors, days of the week and months of the year. The social skills they learned and practiced, stuff like sharing, waiting for your turn, helping each other and following a teachers instructions. I also want them to leave knowing that they will always be part of God's family and welcome at our church.  If we do our job right, they leave prepared for kindergarten and aware of God's love.  We have no idea what they will encounter in another school or place   how they will adjust, thrive or struggle but they are ready.

The Ascension is that last day of school. Like my preschoolers from September to June, Jesus disciples have all changed a lot since meeting him. These disciples are the same group of people who constantly misunderstood Jesus teachings, feel asleep, could not stay awake and pray with Jesus in the moments before his arrest, who all deny him, publicly, boldly telling the other “I do not know that Jesus guy” and hiding in rooms due to fear. They are now awake and ready to confess their faith, boldly telling the others Christ is Risen from the dead, reporting what they witnessed, sharing the lessons Jesus taught and exhibiting the active joy that comes from knowing the story of God’s love.     

Finally, I want to share a few last thoughts by going back to the reading from Acts. In particular , these mysterious figures who tell the disciples “you are ready, you have heard the promises of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus return, you received the instructions to go and tell the others, don’t just stand here and glare at the sky, get out of here, go and be the people of God”.  That is the lesson for all of us too, we have received the promised Holy Spirit, we have the hope for Jesus return, we have received the instructions to tell the others the Christ is risen through our worship, faith, care for others and work for peace. It’s time for us to get out of here, to stop waiting around, staring at the walls and windows.  Jesus tells his disciples: Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.  Let’s Go and do it.

Do not try this alone though.  Go, with prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, Go knowing you are part of something much bigger, a church community of God’s all different people who will be here for you, Go, with the sure and certain hope in the resurrection and the forgiveness of sins, Go to prayer, sharing the peace, the communion table, lunch, school, home and work, knowing  Jesus is ascended into the heavens but God is still very much present in our world, in our churches and in our lives.   

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