Further Reflections on Love (Audio approximately 7 MB. Right-click to download.)

Further Reflections on Love

First Corinthians 13

The text of Scripture this morning is way too familiar. It is read at just about every wedding you’ve been to. It’s the 13th chapter of the 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthian people. The trouble of course is, What’s new to say about it? I was having dinner with Jana, my sister-in-law last night, and I asked her, "Do you have anything new to say about 1st Corinthians 13?" She said, "No."

But what I would like to say, is that it has a context. Paul has been talking to the people about spiritual gifts. And they’re very excited about the wonderful spiritual gifts that God has given to them. But what he’s trying to do here is contrast them, – to explain to them that they’re missing something essential in the center of all of that experience. Having said that, would you listen with me for the Word of God as it comes to us in the Scriptures.

"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but I don’t have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and I understand ALL mysteries and ALL knowledge, and if I have ALL faith so as to remove mountains, but I don’t have love. . . I’m nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but I do not have love. . . well, 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 it rejoices in the truth. It bears it all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love NEVER ends. As for prophecies, they’ll come to an end. And as for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it too will come to an end. For we know only in part and we prophesize only in part, but when the complete comes, 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 these childish ways. 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." Hear what the Spirit is saying to our church.

< ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Rome was consolidating its power in the provinces, and they weren’t exactly nice about it. They were brutal. Sometimes people forget that Jesus was not the only one who was crucified. Hundreds of others were crucified, and it was done in such a way as to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who wanted to violate Rome’s rule.

Israel, it made people disperse, it made them want to get out of town. There were refugees everywhere.

Rome, to avoid the violence in Jerusalem. Of course, when they got there, what happened? They found themselves interacting with other people who had other ways of thinking about God than they did. Does this sound familiar? So they began to get things confused. They began to take in some of what others thought, and their ideas began to shift and shape and change. They began to feel as though they were losing their identity. It was a time of difficult change. In fact, those Jews had a very hard time with Paul because Paul was saying, ’Well, it’s not so bad to let go of that identity.’ It was a time of change, a time of shifting.

U.S., then if I were to take a survey, about 40% of you would believe in reincarnation. That’s cool. I’m sort of an agnostic on the whole thing. But let’s face it: it’s not Christian. So our identity begins to shift and change. There are some things that are part of our traditional faith, and there are things that aren’t a part of our faith. We begin to lose a sense of what it means to be a Christian church. The same sort of things happens in Corinth.

Corinth it was a time of economic prosperity, or I should say of economic volatility. This was a town where there was a crossover of shipping lanes. It was a place where the Roman army came through. They had highways built. Don’t be thinking of cement roads with white lines, but they had smooth highways. They could transport their troops all over the Empire and be able to quell rebellion.

Corinth, we assume, because he was making tents for the army. But then the army got shifted away, and next thing you know he’s without a job. Unemployment was a problem. And there was no social safety net back then. No unemployment check to get you through. It was a shaky and difficult time. That’s what Paul was writing to.

church of Corinth? He found a group of people who were trying to connect to the presence of God . . . trying to get with some people who could sense the presence of God, who would feel fulfilled in their worship – who would filled strengthened and transformed by their worship. And they were quite excited. A number of them had been able to do that. They were able to speak in tongues. It may not be our cup of tea, but they were liking it. They were prophesying. Paul thought these were wonderful gifts, wonderful things to do.

People were looking for that ground beneath them to stabilize them in shifting times. So the Corinthian church decided the ground could be found in these spiritual experiences. Paul wrote and said, ’No! You have missed a point. Yes, you have received these wonderful gifts, this very fulfilling worship that you have together. But you have missed the most important gift. You have been gifted with the love of God.’

And that message comes to us here today.

We have wonderful experiences of worship. And Paul says, ’That’s not what’s important. What’s important is the gift of God’s love within you today.’

Now God’s love is not gushy. All you have to do is look around at a world that stresses, groans and is in pain as it tries to bring about the next. God’s love is not gushy. No, God’s love is active. It takes Paul fifteen verbs to describe love. Fifteen verbs. God’s love is active, and this love moves into each and every one of our lives. And that’s what gives us the ground in which to grow. That’s what we can stand on.

Our worship experiences, our economy, our health, all of those things that we try and depend on, those things are going to shift and change, says Paul, and you’ve got one thing left that is always and forever: the Love of God which is always continuing to unfold and grow within you.

That’s why he thinks it’s so important. He’s deeply concerned that the Corinthian people have missed the boat, that they’re simply trying to find something that will fulfill their own lives, rather than something that they can count on, which is the presence of God to live within them.

The tongues? Nothing. Not important. Prophesy? Doesn’t matter. Unless you are connected to the gift of love.

Holy Land. Moses sent 12 spies, ten of them said, ’No, we can’t go there.’ And two of them said, ’Yes, we have to believe that God is with us.’ And my intern supervisor preached a sermon that cast the session as the ten spies who were chicken, and cast himself as the faithful ones who believed in God. What a mess that was!

I’m really not trying to do that. You could say I’m setting you up because I’m saying that the forms of worship that we have are not important, as COMPARED TO the love that is lived out in each one of our lives. That’s the foundation that Paul is talking about.

But I’m not trying to say that our worship doesn’t matter. I’m simply getting the priorities, or Paul is trying to describe the priorities, getting us to recognize that what counts is that the God of Love, the God of Creation, is able to unfold within our lives no matter what.

So then the decisions we make about our worship, the decisions we make about lives, have less to do with our own fulfillment and instead with the expression of the love of God that lives within us. I don’t mean to say that there’s only one expression. You and I can disagree easily over what the expression of that love might be. But that’s what we’re after. That’s where we begin.

Corinth. Things are changing fast. People look for everything, every which way to try and find something, some ground they can stand on to make them feel as though they have a life that is steady and OK. There is no ground like that. The only ground is that love never fails. The only ground is that God’s unfolding in our lives cannot be defeated.

You and I are the ones that know that. This is what Paul is about. He knew all about that God. He read about that God in the Torah. The man was a rabbi. He understood that God is a God that POURS God’s love into us so that it can overflow and we can treat one another with that in mind. Paul understood that this was the God that his identity was wrapped up in.

Whether or not he stuck with the Jewish traditions or not, he nevertheless could recognize this same God in the presence of Jesus the Christ. It’s why with such energy and passion he was saying to these people, ’Don’t you get it? Love is patient and kind, not like you guys! It’s not jealous or boastful, not like you guys!

Paul focused on what constitutes an experience that makes you feel fulfilled. As for prophecies, they’ll come to an end. Tongues, they’ll come to an end. Organs will come to an end. Hymnbooks will come to an end. Maybe sooner than later. The reality is, that what STAYS in your life and mine, is the presence and the love of God. It’s that which we can’t let go of. It’s that which we can’t get rid of. Try as you might, you never will. Because the facts are, God is love. I’ve said it before and you’ll hear me say it a thousand times again: You can’t keep God from being God. God continues to give you the gift of Love as it unfolds within you life. It is that which we share.