4 Epiphany 2013

Epiphany 4, 2013

If any of you have been to a wedding at some point, it’s likely that you will have heard our reading from 1 Corinthians. This chapter, often called “the love chapter” is perhaps one of the more popular passages of Scripture for people, but is also perhaps one of the most misunderstood (contextually), as well.

It could very well be that this confusion comes from its use in the marriage liturgy—setting it in the midst of a commitment of love between two people. But there also seem to be some misconceptions beyond this usage. And this is perhaps due in part to our attention being on the mention of love—and less about what that love means in this context.

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we have really only one half of a conversation—specifically St. Paul’s responses to a letter that had been written to him, which contained a number of concerns about the young church in Corinth. And while I’ll not list all of them here, I can assure you that they are perfect fodder for daytime television talk shows.

But when we get to this particular chapter, Paul (as we know from last week’s reading) has just explained how the diverse Body of Christ, with all of its parts, is supposed to work together. So in this section he begins talking about spiritual gifts, or charisms, that have been given to the Church—and apparently we can intuit by Paul’s responses that the Church in Corinth had quite a few of these spiritual gifts bestowed upon them.

However, Paul points out to them that while all of these gifts of prophecy, knowledge, and tongues are a great and important thing—the most important thing is love.

The Beatles were right.

But what the Beatles miss, and Paul picks up on (this is St. Paul, not Paul McCartney) is that when we talk about love in the Church—specifically this kind of love, “agape’”—we’re talking about much more… Specifically, like Paul, we know that we can’t ever really talk about love without also talking about God. After all, God is Love—by God’s very nature as Three Distinct Persons in perfect hypo-static union (that means one being); God is the very image and being of Love. Love, which is both self-giving, and completely accepting among these Three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And while they are in perfect union—perfect communion through love—they are still distinct. (Imagine explaining that at a wedding.)

And while we can’t possibly talk about love in Church without speaking of God, who is Love; we likewise cannot speak of Love and the Church without talking about Jesus. Because in Jesus we see not only a perfect self-giving love among himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit—but we see his self-emptying love for all of Creation as he became one of us in our humanity, and gave himself as a sacrifice for all of Creation.

Finally, as Paul has said in other places, we can only speak of God and Jesus Christ rightly because of the Holy Spirit, which not only gives us the multitude of gifts to be the Church, but also teaches us to love one another, and conveys God’s loving Presence to us.

So, very simply put—Paul is not kidding when he says that love is the greatest of all of the gifts given. Because not only is God by God’s nature love, but also because love places all things in right perspective. Love is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, or rude.

Love doesn’t need to get its own way, it’s not irritable, resentful and doesn’t have any use for negative behavior, but always prefers truth.

Love puts up with a lot; it believes, hopes and hangs on—because love never ends. Effectively no matter what we do or try to do—love will always be bigger, and will always fully encompass us…a truth that is as wonderful as it is startling. We can never out-do love, and without love our actions are largely meaningless.

What is also interesting is that love doesn’t work all that well as an individual practice. In other words, I can’t only love myself in isolation—it doesn’t work. Love, as we know, naturally draws us into community—communion with others. The benefit of this, of course, is that in community, we’re naturally accountable to others for our actions, our gifts, and even how we use our gifts…and so, in this way, we continue, through love to be the Church.

Today, as many of you know, is our annual meeting. And while I know that everyone is always excited about the annual meeting—I do have to say that what this meeting is about (believe it or not) is just what St. Paul is trying to convey in his letter.

Because when we come together to speak of the church, and plan and discuss how we hope to live out this mystery of being the Church together; we have to consider our gifts and all of the various parts that each of us plays in the Body of Christ. And as any of you know, without love—without God, our work in the meeting, and our work as a church is meaningless. So it is important that we take our counsel in the church—and do our best to hold up the work that God is doing through us, so that love can shine through us.

  

So what this wonderful chapter in Paul’s letter is for the Church is far more than simply a nice reading about love for weddings. It is the reminder to the People of God that we can do and be nothing apart from God. What is equally important is the understanding that it is this love that teaches us, by example, to give of ourselves to one another and to this world, which God created and Christ redeemed. Because after all, that is what the Church is about: Love.