January 30,2022: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Well, isn’t that every preacher’s nightmare – like Jesus, you offer a sermon and the people try to throw you off a cliff! Hopefully, that will not be my fate today, or any Sunday.
Now, if you have ever been at a wedding, you have heard this passage from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, right? I mean, there is even a great scene in that Rom Com movie “Wedding Crashers” about this very passage. In the movie, Jeremy Grey and John Beckwith are divorce mediators who crash weddings to hook up with women. And after attending a lot of weddings, most of them in churches, the following happens at a wedding: The priest, Father O’Neil, says “And now for our next reading I’d like to ask the bride’s sister Gloria up to the lectern.” And with that, John whispers to Jeremy “20 bucks, First Corinthians.” Jeremy replies “Double or nothing, Colossians 3:12.” The bridesmaid, reaches the lectern and says “And now a reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.” Jeremy hands over the cash. He was foolish to bet against this letter from St. Paul. I used it at my wedding too, and I bet many of you did as well.
Well, let’s do a little wedding crashing ourselves, because the thing is, St. Paul isn’t talking about romantic love, and wouldn’t have dreamed about this being read at a wedding – not that it isn’t good for folks at a wedding to hear – in fact, we all need to hear it!.
So, let’s first step back a bit and remember what we have already heard over the past the past two weeks in our lectionary readings from this first letter of St. Paul to the church in Corinth. First, he tells the Corinthians that all have gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit, but each will be different than another – some will be prophets, some will have wisdom, some will speak in tongues, some will be evangelists, and so on. Then, as we heard last week, he wrote that we need each other – no part of the body of Christ is better or more important than another. And today he is saying that all of those spiritual gifts are rooted in the same thing – love.
He writes “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.”
Well, that is really love-ly – see what I did there – and it is a good message for folks attending a wedding. But to understand why this is important for us today, we need to look at St. Paul’s audience, and at what sparked his writing in the first place, and what this message of love was all about.
The people of the church in Corinth was a community in Christ that perhaps had started out alright, but somewhere along the way they got sidetracked. First, we need to know that the people of the city of Corinth were not a monolithic bunch – nor was this congregation. These were people divided by economic class, educational differences, and even religious beliefs, including among those in this church in Corinth. They began to have disputes among themselves, with some feeling superior to others because they had certain spiritual gifts, particularly of speaking in tongues (which is why St. Paul was particular about that gift in this passage). There were others who were bringing lawsuits against their fellow Christians over disputes – which then made the divisiveness of this church community an example to the public of what it means to follow Jesus – nice, right? All of these divisions, and a few more things that St. Paul speaks about in this letter, were tearing the community apart, and he was absolutely appalled by it all. Yet, while he does offer some doctrinal guidance, the meat of his letter is what we hear today.
And when we look at what he wrote, we find that this isn’t about romantic love at all. In the Greek in which he wrote, St. Paul doesn’t use the word eros, which is the passionate love of two people like a wedding couple, nor does he use the word philia, which would be the type of love we have for friends or our siblings. We call Philadelphia “The City of Brotherly Love,” from this word – philia. No, he doesn’t use those or other words he in Greek for love. St. Paul chose to use agape – a different kind of love – the kind God showed in becoming incarnate. It is unconditional, and it is the love God has for each and every one of us. The kind of love God has been trying to show us from the very beginning of time. From before we are formed in the womb, to beyond the grave, God loves us – just as we are – unconditionally.
St. Paul isn’t calling us to love when it is easy – when we feel passionate love toward another – but when it is hard – and he does it in a most particular way too. Notice how he describes this love to which we, as followers of Jesus, are called. He describes love as patient, kind, and so on. Really, what he is saying is that we should wait patiently, act kindly, rejoice in truth… Love, according to St. Paul, is a verb – it is defined not in how we feel, but in how we act!
St. Paul is telling this diverse and divided community that no matter what gifts they may have been given by the Spirit, even the speaking in tongues, if it is not done in love it is useless – and that love is given to others in our actions toward them, not just in what we say. If only many would hear these words today, because we live in a world as diverse and divided, really more so, than was Corinth.
One of the things that I rejoice in is that I get to serve such diverse community of faith. Here we have what many in the church seek – for we are of many races, cultures, gender identities, romantic relationships, and family makeup. It doesn’t mean we all agree with one another, nor do we all believe in the same way – but we do rejoice in the inclusivity of our growing and ever changing quilt of humanity that is our parish family.
Yet we know that in the world in which we live out our lives in Christ when we leave here, while also diverse, is struggling to rejoice in difference. Today our country is challenged by many who have gifts– but use it, not for love, but for hate and division. Politicians who give speeches, news anchors who spout opinion, and yes – even some preachers in pulpits – they speak in tongues alright, but the purpose isn’t to build up, but to breakdown. Those that listen to them have taken to violence against the “others” they are taught to fear – Jews, people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants, Muslims, those who wear masks, and more. Sadly, many of these people…well most actually, would claim to be followers of Jesus! It makes me angry, and I suspect many of you as well. I am sure St. Paul was angry too about what he heard was happening in Corinth in the name of Jesus Christ.
Yet, if we listen to St. Paul here, he understood that he and all followers of Jesus, have a higher calling than to devolve into our baser instincts of anger. We are called to love – agape love – unconditional love. We are called to love not only when it is easy, but most especially when it is hard – not just those we like, but those who make our blood boil. He is telling the church that we are called to an audacious love – a love that acts across differences – the kind of love God has for us – the kind of love that is demonstrated in our acts. And that can be for us mortals a difficult journey.
That’s where the next part of this letter, the part that seems a bit odd, can really help us. St. Paul continues with “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.”
Now, I always find that part about putting an end to childish ways a bit odd – given that it isn’t children who start wars, and we aren’t born racist, or sexist, or heterosexist – we are taught that by adults. Not to mention Jesus saying we must be like children to enter the kingdom of God. But St. Paul is speaking to something else – something that is the only way to the kind of love we are called to. Something God demonstrated in emptying into human form to walk among us. Humility.
For no matter what things we are good at, how much money we make, or in his language – what prophecies we offer from our spiritual gifts – they all come to an end – but the love we offer in our time on this earth – that never ends. The love we offer, or do not, will be our legacy in the end. How does that change us?
When we also realize that no matter how talented we are, what miracles of prophecy and tongues we do, what achievements of humanity we accomplish – we don’t know everything, but see only dimly all that God knows – then we grow up enough to see that the world does not revolve around us, that we are but a speck in the greater cosmos of God’s creation. And if we can understand that, we will begin to grow in the humility that is required for the love we are called to embody – the humility Christ demonstrated for us, the unconditional love God has for us.
Because if we really think about it, we will come to know that the biggest obstacle to breaking down our divisions, to loving one another as Christ loved us, is our unwillingness to put aside our unconscious belief that the other is not deserving of our love – they are wrong, or do wrong, and we are the holders of the truth – we are the good ones – the righteous ones – the democrats, the republicans, the rich, the poor, the gay, the straight, the citizen, the immigrant – whatever it is we claim those others are not. We grow in our own arrogance and self-righteousness, and begin to see others as either deserving or undeserving of our love. It is a slippery slope to our own demise. Humility in all things, rooted in the understanding of just how little we really understand, and how great is our God, that we will find our way.
Humility, to be clear, isn’t about our allowing ourselves to be abused, for God would never want that for us – no one who loves us would want that for us. Humility is about knowing one’s own truth, about knowing we are God’s beloved, that frees us to love others, knowing that nothing will ever change that reality. When we truly understand how deeply we are loved, we grow in love ourselves, and hate has no place to reside in our hearts.
To love as God love us then requires that we humbly love unconditionally – not only in our thoughts and feelings – but in our actions in the world. Or as the theologian Thomas Aquinas put it, “To love is to will the good of another.”[1] And for all of us – that is not restricted to those we like. Think about this – think about how God loves. God loves that very person who drives you bananas as much as God love you – unconditionally and for all time. When we can embrace that, we can begin to shed our arrogance, and live in the reality of agape love – the love Christ taught us – unconditional love rooted in humility of knowing our own truth as children of God. It is this love, agape love, that will feed our faith and our hope – it is the love that will save us and all who know us.
And the reality is, poets and composers have been saying it for centuries, even while usually writing about eros, or romantic love. In the modern era, the Beatles had it almost right, “All you need is love,” Hal David and Burt Bacharach were also right “What the world needs now, is love sweet love, no not just for some, but for everyone.” Yet it was Andrew Lloyd Webber who nailed it on the head with “Love changes everything!”
Love does change everything – God’s love most of all – it is what we need, and what the world needs from us.
For we are a people of faith in Jesus, who loved us enough to die for us.
We are a people of hope found in the incarnation and the resurrection – of life over death.
We are a people of love – of the God who knew us before we were born, who loves us unconditionally, and who sends us forth to love and serve others.
“And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
Amen.
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[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica. On Prayer and The Contemplative Life. Moral Theology. Biography.
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
January 30, 2022
Epiphany 4 – Year C
1st Reading – Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
2nd Reading –1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Gospel – Luke 4:21-30
