Epiphany 4                          1Cor. 13:1-13                                     1/28/07
                                              "LOVE"
 
These verses from 1Cor. 13 are probably the second best known passage from Scripture and second only to John 3:16 in popularity. In fact, based on it being chosen so often as a text for weddings, it may be the most popular.
 
It’s too bad it doesn’t come a couple of weeks later in our lectionary so it could be used on the Sunday nearest Valentines Day.
 
The truth is though, that 1Cor. 13:1-13 is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused in Scripture. The truth is that the love Paul is talking about has little, if anything, to do with something one person feels for another, and even less to do with marital relationships.
 
This is a continuation of the lesson from last week and relates to how the spiritual gifts given by God to members of the community are to be used. After making the point that no gift is greater than another and thus there shouldn’t be conflict over gifts used in the church, Paul says, "And now, I will show you the most excellent way..."
That half verse is left out of the lesson both weeks, but it is vital to understanding what Paul is saying to the Church in Corinth and to the Church in Drakes Mills or any other modern day location. What we have - our status, our gifts, our contribution, our position - none of is important if we don’t use what we have in love.
 
Love is what community is about. Love is the hallmark of the community within the Godhead and between God and God’s people, and it is to be the binding force within the Christian community. It is how the body of Christ, the Church, is to be held together and to function. It is how the church is to relate to all of the world.
 
The people in Corinth needed to hear this message. Wrangling, competition, power plays, one-ups-manship, and just plain old conflict were tearing this community apart. If they weren’t arguing over who had the greater gift, they were fighting over which preacher (Paul or Apollos) was their greater beloved former pastor. We can only imagine what this was doing to God’s mission and what non-believers thought of their church.
 
Paul is calling them to a halt and to an examination of God’s priorities. God’s number one priority is that everything be done in love. Teaching, ministry, leadership, healing or speaking in tongues are not nearly as important to God as doing even the simplest act in love.
 
And this love is as far from what a couple have in mind as they prepare for their wedding as could be. "Agape", the Greek word for love used here and in 90% of the New Testament has nothing to do with feelings and even less with passion. Agape is not a feeling, it is an action. It is a conscious choice made first by God when He chose to sacrifice Himself for us even though we are undeserving sinners and then by us when we show care for others and put their needs before our own, whether we like them or not.
 
We all know the characteristics of love that Paul spell out in these verses. Patience and kindness are behaviors. Resisting the sinful urge to be envious, boast, be arrogant or rude, rejoice in wrongdoing has to do with exhibiting Godly attitudes rather than sinful one. Bearing, believing, and hoping are qualities to strive for.
 
It’s all about choice, attitude and action. It’s all so much more important than what the Christian has or does apart from love. The characteristics the members of the community are to resist acting out tear the community apart. The qualities like patience, kindness, bearing, believing and hoping build the individuals and the community up. And since community building (mission) is what God created the church to be about, the characteristics will either make or break that community.
 
A cartoon appeared some years ago that made its way into many Christian publications and was reprinted in quite a number of Sunday bulletins across the country.
It shows a man standing at the heavenly gate talking to a figure who is supposed to be Jesus and pointing downward at earth in the direction of a church of quarreling people.
The man explains why he never became a Christian when he had a chance: "It's not you that I had problem with," he says. "It's those darn followers of yours that got on my last nerve!"
 
Far more people are turned away from or driven out of the church by unloving (unChristian) behaviors and attitudes of members than by poor preaching, unfamiliar worship, unbelievable theology or membership expectations. And to make matters worse, some of these people are driven away from faith in Jesus Christ entirely because of the bad image Christians sometimes choose to give.
 
On the other hand, if you ask most people who join a church other than one of a denomination they were raised in, why they joined that particular church, you nearly always hear that it was because of love shown by one or more members. Love is what it is all about.
 
Today, we struggle not so much over spiritual gifts, but over program and structure. We agonize over how to compete with all the secular activities that put demands on people’s time. We seek to build the church through visioning and development projects. We focus on evangelism techniques and creating the kind of worship that attracts people.
While these things are useful, the number one, all important focus of this or any other church must be on developing an atmosphere of love - love for each other and love for those outside our worship community.
 
People are extraordinarily love deprived today. Couples are raising children far from extended families and all to often, those families that are close geographically are dysfunctional and don’t know how to show love. With frequent moves and demands of job and outside activities, few are able to develop intimate friendships. People often work in large corporate structures where it’s dog eat dog just to survive and the boss is some hardly known entity interested only in the bottom line and his own stock options. Where are they to get love?
 
God has the answer to that question and it is the same answer He gave through Paul. The answer is they will get it from God through us. We are the body of Christ and He acts through us to give love to others.
We give it first to each other by affirming, caring, supporting and lovingly correcting each other. We give it second to those outside our faith community but in our area by working for the needy, giving to good causes, helping a neighbor, listening without judgment or imposition of our solutions.
 
It’s hard to imagine being God’s love beyond those in our area. The internet and the media expose us to the needs of people all around the world and we feel overwhelmed. There are natural disasters, wars, ethnic hatreds and terrorist attacks, children starving in the Sudan and forced into prostitution in Thailand. Where are they to get love?
 
They too can get it from us. They get love first by our acts of love shown through agencies we contribute to. But, they get love also because the love we show to those close to us has ripple effects that can spread around the world, if we allow it.
 
Yes, the love Paul speaks of in 1Cor. 13 can be shared by a couple in their marriage, but it is about so much more. It is interwoven in our acts and attitudes shared with others as gifted members of the body of Christ. Let’s allow Christ to live through us and through us touch the world.
 
Listen now to a modern version of our second lesson for today and reflect on how we can show God’s love.
 
What if I could stand up here and say the most wonderful things, and sound impressive and answer everyone's questions, but I didn't love anyone - what would be the point?
What if we were the most incredible church where every pew was filled, the preaching was always inspirational, we had a choir that always sang perfectly and we served the best tureen dinners in NW PA but no one felt love - what would be the point?
And if as a community we teach our children lots of information and knowledge and they can recite the books of the Bible and know all the right answers but they don't know how to love, we've failed them.
If we pray every week for the poor of the world and yet we don't feed the hungry and reach out to the poor of Edinboro, Cambridge Springs and Venango, don't care for the sick and the lost in Meadville and Erie, where is the honesty in that?
If we don't love what's the point?
Love is kindness in action, offered simply and humbly.
Love is not meant to make me look good, score brownie points with God, or draw attention to ourselves.
Love is co-operative; there are all kinds of ways of doing good and God is happy to use every way there is.
Love only cares that what's needed is done; love has the best interests of the other in mind.
Sometimes we grow weary and give up - we can't think of what else can be done. But God never gives up; God's love continues and new possibilities are always appearing.
What we know now is never the whole picture. What we do now is never the whole story. In some ways we're like children: we do what we can and what we know to this point. But there's still more for us to learn, to grow into, to accept.
Some day we'll look back on where we are now, and wonder how we could ever have wondered and doubted and refused to accept what was happening.
In some ways, it's like looking in an imperfect mirror. There's a reflection there, but it's not quite right, not totally true.
We are the body of Christ, the image of God - but not perfectly, not completely, not totally truly .. not yet. The day will come when we will see. The day will come when we will know.
Until then, we live in faith, trusting God's love. Until then, we live in hope, hoping for God's love. Until then, we live in love, showing God's love as best we can. because love is the point of it all.
(adapted from a Loaves and Fishes resource sheet, Wood Lake Books, 1998)
 
Amen