Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Theme: “Love Without All That Drama”
4th Sunday After the Epiphany
January 31, 2010
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau
+In the Name of Jesus+
If we want to get the most out of our time in the sanctuary at St. Andrew; if we want worship to be the enriching and life-changing reality that it is; if we truly seek to worship as Jesus desires it (which is to say, in Spirit and in truth), then we will have to get serious about a few things. It will do no good to anyone if we simply say that worship is the most important activity on earth -- and then not explain, or teach, why that is so. In the western catholic, Protestant, and Reformed way of being Christian, we worship liturgically; we worship traditionally – in a way handed down to us. And our worship is loaded with meaning. While we have wonderful musicians and singers on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, worship is not entertainment. They had entertainment worship at Mt. Sinai when the children of Israel sang and danced around the golden calf. But God judged it as idolatry.
Folks, I might be putting my neck on the chopping block by saying this, but one forty five minute adult inquirer’s class segment on why we worship the way we worship is not going to cut it in this day and age. We cannot simply assume that everyone that comes into this sanctuary has more than even a rudimentary of worship – unless they’ve been her for many a moon. If we don’t conscientiously, deliberately, and constantly explain it and teach it and stand up for it, particularly to the visitor and guest, it will be deemed irrelevant so quickly it will make your head swim. We don’t have to get technical about, we humbly explain worship in common language that people can understand.
By the way, the New Testament was written in koine Greek. Koine, translated, means “common.” It was the common, ordinary, every day language of the time. It wasn’t academic or scholarly Greek; it was koine, “common” Greek. One of the lesser known contributions of the Reformation age was the translation of the Bible into the language of the people. Thus, the Vulgate (or the Latin Bible, if you will) was translated into German. The Bible wasn’t only for the priests, pastors, and other educated types who knew Latin, it was for the people of God – all of them. If anything, the history of translating makes this abundantly clear.
Let me switch gears. If, like worship, there is a reality of life that could surely use some koine, or common language, that reality would be love. Leave the Bible out of the matter for a moment. Even without the Bible, love is one of the greatest – if not, the greatest – themes in literature and art. Some would claim that no one can live without it, but in the next breath they are at a loss to define it. Love has been so elevated – as in “Love is A Many Splendored Thing” -- and so belittled – as in “Love Stinks” by the J. Geils band, and it so demanded and so demeaned that it seems to avoid helpful definition. Love has been so seemingly understood and misunderstood that we’ve lost sight of what it is. Love suffers from paralysis by analysis. We’ve analyzed it to the point of confusion. What’s more, there is a great deal of drama surrounding love. Watch “The Bachelor.” But there is a lot less substantive truth. “All you need is love; love is all you need,” so say the Beatles. “What’s love got to do with it? What’s love but a second hand emotion,” sings Tina Turner. Who’s right? John, Paul, Keith, and Ringo, or Tina? Maybe Joni Mitchell is right. In her the classic, “Both Sides Now”, she writes:
Moons and junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feelAs every fairy tale comes real; i've looked at love that way.But now it's just another show. you leave 'em laughing when you goAnd if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.I've looked at love from both sides now,From give and take, and still somehowIt's love's illusions i recall.I really don't know love at all.
If the Spirit will illumine and if we will allow for it, the Word of God can shatter those illusions, gently sweep them away, and shine the light of truth on love. We can love without all that drama!
Now the Bible, specifically the New Testament, sets forth three understandings of love in the common language of the people. The first understanding is eros which goes into the English term, erotic. It has to do with physical love, sexual love. The Song of Solomon, in the Old Testament, is a kind of spiritual hymn to this kind of love.
Then, there is a second understanding of love that is called phileo. That word, interestingly, is part of the name of a famous U.S. city, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. It is the love that is at the core of genuine friendship. “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” the Scripture declare. While on the subject of phileo, it is interesting to note that the word “relationship” is foreign to the Bible. That is a term far more comfortable in the canons of sociology and psychology, but not so much in theology. The Rev. Dr. Norman Nagel, while at seminary, once told me: “Few people have a friend anymore – as in you and me. Instead, they have some third thing called a relationship.” People do speak of having a relationship with God or of Christ. And that’s fine, I suppose, as it stand. But the Scriptures speak of faith in God and/or faith in Christ.
The third understanding of love is agape. It is the love that is origin and source of all others. It is the sacrificial love of God for us. The Bible goes so far as to say that “God is love.” And speaking of sacrifice, Jesus says that “Greater love hath no one than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends,.” That’s agape love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” That’s agape love. And 1 Corinthians 13 is all about agape love.
Lets take a short walk through the text. St. Paul had just concluded a soaring chapter on spiritual gifts and the body of Christ and our part in it in First Corinthians. It’s loaded with glorious good news and no small amount of pastoral care. But if that weren’t enough, he goes on to write: “Now I will show you a yet more excellent way.” That’s the way it is with the Gospel, folks: there’s always more; the gifts keep on coming!
Our text begins: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels… .” Now, that’s dramatic! Tongues of mortals and angels sound like grand eloquence and polished rhetorical skills. All of it sounds great, but if it is not joined with love, with agape, it’s basically noise pollution.
“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains… .” Oh my, wouldn’t that be wonderful? Really! Prophetic powers? C’mon. If it meant I could see into the future, I’d be down for that. What about understanding mysteries? Count me in. Having faith? Absolutely. Most of the time I’m hoping for more than what little I have and hope I don’t throw it away. But it makes no difference. If I don’t have agape, all of that is nothing.
“If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast… .” It sounds like something an ultimate philanthropist would do! Just this past week, Bill Gates announced a gift of ten billions dollars from his estate to fund life-saving vaccinations for impoverished children in the world – certainly, a noble cause. But if those types of activities aren’t joined with agape, nothing is gained.
“Love is patient.” I forget that most when I’m in the supermarket checkout line or, worse yet, stuck in traffic.
“Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.” When emotions are fired up and we play the game of constantly trying to justify ourselves, we haven’t yet embraced what this means.
“Love does not insist on its own way,” writes St. Paul. When I seek my own way, nine times out of ten, I see that there are selfish reasons behind it. And whatever that is, it’s not love.
“Love is not irritable or resentful,” we are told. Irritations are a part of life. Sometimes you add a few of them up and they grow into resentments. But love doesn’t play on that field.
“Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.” Wrongdoing is plain to see; the nightly news chronicles to. But truth, these days, seems so hard to pin down. One person’s truth is another’s lie. What to do? Turn to the One who is the way, the truth, and the life.
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” The emphasis here is on “all.” You and I can bear some things, believe some things, hope some things, and endure some things too. But love does it all and doesn’t miss a beat. Love is strong enough to be vulnerable and vulnerable enough to be strong.
“Love never ends.” Prophecies, as wonderful as they are, will come to an end. The same goes for tongues and knowledge. All of that will end. And for that matter, we only do prophecy and have knowledge in a partial way. And even that will come to an end. But not love. When we were children, we spoke, thought, and reasoned like children. When we grow up, we set that aside. It makes perfect sense to me. Now we see in mirror dimly. And sure, we’d love to see more clearly. And the good news is that, one day, we will. All the confusions, doubts, and unclarities of life will give way to, “Oh, that’s what the loving God was up to.”
I know some things, but I don’t know fully. The same goes for you. But one day we will know fully – even as we are already fully known and loved.
Faith, hope, and love abide, these three. We thank our God for all the gift that faith is, for all the gift that hope is. But marvel of marvels, what honor to thank God for the greats gift: the gift of God which is, for us, the gift of love.
I saw that love early this past week. It was in the face of a teenage boy from Haiti. Nightly News with Brian Williams was interviewing an elderly doctor from the United States who volunteered to provide care to the wounded and dying. He had the camera crew focus on this teenage boy who sat with his head down with shock and horror etched in his face. The doctor said that he hadn’t said a word since they rescued him. The pain was literally unspeakable. They tried everything; he said not a word. Then the doctor, with tears in his eyes, said that the young man had lost his entire family in the quake. They were going to bring in a psychologist and a counselor to help him. The reporter asked the doctor how long it would take to bring him out of it. The doctor said, “I don’t know about how long. All I know is that someone must be present with him every hour of the day.”
Do you see or sense agape in that doctor? Oh, yes. But what about the boy? Certainly there is the look of devastation, of profound, indelible, and literally unspeakable loss and grief. But look closer. Don’t you see love as well? He lost his family that he loved. God, who IS love, knows what that’s like. For He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. That’s not Hollywood drama. That’s the way it is.
Amen.
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