Monday, February 4, 2019

Love Isn't

1 Corinthians 13
4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

As you might imagine, there’s a class they had me take in seminary where I learned how to serve Communion.  There are other classes where we talked about what happens in the Lord’s Supper and what it means, but those classes didn’t make me nearly as nervous.  

I remember the day we practiced doing the pastor’s part of the Lord’s Supper; I was scared to death.  It terrified me because I’d only seen it done before; done by an ordained, installed, and properly-sanctioned and full-fledged pastor.  I was not one yet.  I think there was something in my head that was afraid that, if I got the words wrong, it wouldn’t work; like if recited the incantation improperly, the magic wouldn’t take.  

Then it came to be my turn: I stood at the little table we’d set up and picked up the little loaf of bread they’d given me and was surprised to find that the words just came.  It turns out, when you watch a thing being repeated once a month for your entire life, you just pick it up.  In fact, I bet that with a little prompting, you’d find you know the words too.  Take the bread: Jesus said, “This is… [my body, which is broken for you].”  And then he said, “Do this... [in remembrance of me].” 

There are those two parts to it and both are important.  Why do we remember Jesus saying, “This is my body, broken for you”?  Well, that’s easy: that’s our salvation story; he gave his literal body so that we might have life.  But the other part may not be so easy: why do we do this in remembrance of him?  Well, that’s what this sermon’s about, but I’ll give you a hint: it may be the reason we do this at the start of every month; it may be the reason we repeat it so often throughout our lives that we memorize it without even trying; and it may be, as followers of Jesus, the very most important thing we do.  

So today we hear from the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.  I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear from First Corinthians thirteen, I instinctually look around to see if anyone is getting married.  I am sure I’ve been to a wedding that didn’t quote this passage, but then again, I doubt it.  This is the go-to wedding Scripture, right?  It’s especially true if the couple isn’t super-Christian: they’re getting married in a church because they think they’re supposed to or their trying to make someone’s parents happy.  And First Corinthians thirteen is perfect for that: God is not mentioned once.  Did you notice that?  If you do attend church on a regular basis, you probably just assume God in their somewhere.  You have probably heard the idea that God is love before—that all love is born of God—so when Paul starts talking about Love, you know the code; God’s right there.  But if you’re not-so-connected, this is just a wovewy scwipturwe about wuv.  

Only, it’s not.  Not only is Paul not merely talking about the kind of love  that will hold a marriage together, this love is counter-cultural, revolutionary, and even a little subversive.  Bringing this passage to a celebration like a wedding, is like bringing gasoline to a celebration like a bar-b-q; you’re asking for trouble.  

To understand the scope of what Paul is talking about in First Corinthians thirteen, you need to keep in mind what Paul was talking about in chapter twelve.  To a conflicted and diverse church, Paul calls them to live together as if they were one, united physical body; indeed the very Body of Christ.  He reminds them, as he would remind us, that we are different from one another by God’s design; that our differences allow us to function uniquely in this Body.  But at the same time, those unique gifts, abilities, and experiences come together to serve our Savior’s work in the world; that, bound together by His Spirit, we continue His ministry together.  

And as I alluded to earlier, that is the important message we take from this Table: that just as our Savior embodied this ministry for us, in remembrance of him, we are sent to embody it as well.  We are, as Paul says, the Body of Christ and individually members of it.  So what then do we do?  Knowing we belong together and that our gifts are used by God to continue our Savior’s ministry, how do we do that?  That’s what chapter thirteen is for.  

In chapter thirteen, Paul so excellently shows us that it’s all about love.  The gifts we use in the name of Jesus, if they’re not used in love, are worthless.  Love is the most important thing; Paul says love is somehow even more important than faith and hope!  But he’s not just talking about tender, warm-fuzzy feelings.  No, the love Paul talks about in chapter thirteen is the embodied love of God that we bring to the world in everything we do.  

I’ve been living with verses four to seven in a unique way over the past couple of weeks.  As I was preparing for this message, a couple of things struck me about these verses.  Mainly, that they are personal; that they are, in their own way, about me.  The way it’s worded is deceptive: Paul starts it with, “Love is.”  In my mind, talking about “love” in this way separates it from me personally.  “Love is patient; Love is kind; well, good for Love.  Keep up the good work, Love.”  But if we read these verses—as I think we clearly should—as Paul’s reminder to embody God’s love as the Body of Christ, these words can only be taken personally.  

I’ll talk more about this in a minute, but this thought challenged me to re-write verses four to seven.  I found it to be really helpful on a couple levels.  First, it was helpful because it made it more personal: instead of “Love is patient; love is kind,” my re-write made it, “Be patient; be kind”; I it more of a personal command, do you know what I mean?  But it was also helpful because it confronted me: you don’t even get through verse four before you realize that most of this passage about what love is, is about what love isn’t.  

As I read, and re-read, and re-read this passage, it became for me a prayer of confession.  (No doubt, you also noticed that it became our literal prayer of confession this morning.)  As I lived with my more-personal paraphrase of these verses, I was first confronted by the unfortunate truth that I have not embodied love.  If my wife wasn’t as graceful as she is, she would certainly confirm that: I have not been patient to her; I have not been kind.  I have insisted on my own way, I have been irritable and resentful, and so much more.  And it’s not just her: I have not embodied this love to my children, to my neighbors, and to you.  

But then, by the grace of God, something better started happening in me than just the guilt of my failures: I started to actually memorize those verses.  Something like hearing the words of the Lord’s Supper repeated so many times that you get surprised that you actually know them.  I found I could repeat verses four to seven to myself as I walked to and from work; and repeating them, I found I could do a bit better at embodying them.  Not perfect, but better.  Friends, let these words take root in our hearts: 
Be patient
Be kind
Do not be envious 
or boastful 
or arrogant 
or rude
Do not insist on your own way
Do not be irritable 
or resentful
Do not rejoice in wrongdoing,
rejoice in the truth
Bear all things
Believe all things
Hope all things
Endure all things

Friends, there is nothing in this world we can do that is more important than embodying God’s love in it.  In whatever we do as Christ’s Body, let us do it in love.  Wherever we go, whatever we do, and whomever we are with, may love be our goal, now and forever.  

No comments:

Post a Comment