Sermon given on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, January 31, 2010, at Wooddale Lutheran Church by Pastor Tim Rauk. Text is 1 Corinthians 13.
Two weeks ago, on the Second Sunday after Epiphany, the Gospel reading was the story of Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. When I meet with couples planning their wedding service, I include the story of the wedding in Cana on the list of possible readings for a wedding. It is rarely chosen. Because it is entitled, The Wedding at Cana, it is often the first text couples will look at when they are looking for scripture readings for their wedding, but almost always, they choose a different reading, because it really says nothing about how a woman and man should set out to create a good marriage.
However, the second lesson for today, from 1 Corinthians 13, is the most often chosen text. I have seen it referred to as, “The Wedding Text”. Or more often: “The Love Chapter.” And I would guess that 90% of the times I’ve read 1 Corinthians 13 in worship, it has been at a wedding.
The 13th chapter of Corinthians has a kind of romantic sound to it.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.
You can almost picture a bride coming down the aisle, dressed in a beautiful white dress.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
And imagines come to mind, of flowers, a unity candle, and tuxedos and bridesmaids dresses usually worn once and never again.
It is, a beautiful wedding text! It’s as if it were written for a wedding. with the invited guests all gathered together as spectators to a beautiful event. This is the day for the bride and the groom. They are the people for whom the day has been designed. They are the ones being honored. And 1 Corinthians 13 is what we wish for them.
“Love is patient, love is kind. Love believes all things, hope all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
It’s a nice sentiment, and it’s so … well … sentimental. We hope and pray, that when this couple gets out in the real world, that they will have a nice place at home where all these sentiments will apply, but don’t expect this kind of love out there in the real world. 1 Corinthians 13, a wonderful wedding text.
However, the circumstance that inspired Paul to write this insightful chapter was not a wedding. If you read all of the letter we know as First Corinthians – especially chapters 12 and 14, on either side of today’s reading, the reasons for Paul writing this chapter are dramatically different from a wedding. Paul is writing to a group of people who had found themselves locked in a conflict. And as is true with many conflicts, it wasn’t just one thing they disagreed on.
They disagreed on a whole host of issues. And in fact, the situation had deteriorated to the point where they were disagreeing on just about everything. The disagreed on who should be their leader. They disagreed on issues of sexual morality. They disagreed on issues around marriage. They disagreed on what foods were appropriate to eat. They disagreed on the meaning of holy communion. They disagreed on how worship should be conducted. They has lost sight of the most important foundation points of the faith. They had gotten to the point where they were tearing each other down around just about every issue that came up in their church.
The church in Corinth was very much like – politics in the United States. They had divided themselves into parties, they had chosen up sides, and they were hopelessly grid locked. They were arguing with each other about what spiritual gifts were the most important; whose spiritual gifts were most valuable to the church; and should therefore elevated them to positions of prominence and authority.
And if you recall the readings from that last two Sundays, you remember Paul pleading with the people of Corinth for unity in the church and an end to divisions.
You – together – are the body of Christ. The hand can not say to the foot, “I don’t need you,” nor can the ear say to the eye, “I don’t need you.” God created the body, to work together, so that there be no dissension within the body, but that the members may take care of one another. You are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
And into the midst of his plea for unity, his plea for people to build up one another rather than tear each other down, his plea to encourage one another, to offer one another consolation, all for the upbuilding of the church, Paul interrupts this impassioned plea for unity and says, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” And then comes – the 13th chapter.
But, I still haven’t really captured the power of this passage. It’s still someone else’s passage; written for someone else, for the couple getting married, or for the church wrestling with conflicts. I have no doubt, that if Paul were preaching from this text, he would say to us her today: This passage is for YOU.
I know YOU are struggling with some relationships in your life; I know there are people YOU don’t like; I know there are people you disagree with; I know there are people are estranged from. “Well” – Paul is saying to us today, “Let me show you a more excellent way.”
You see, 1 Corinthians 13 is not meant to be something for other people, only considered at weddings, or as ivory tower advice to be proclaimed from church pulpits. It’s not meant to be advice to others. I could easily preach a sermon directed to the congress of the United States, on the value 1 Corinthians 13 could bring to the legislative process at our nation’s capital. No, what Paul is inviting US to do, is to take LOVE: the very heart and soul of our faith, and bring it out into the world with us and apply it to the most difficult relationships in our lives.
“Let me show you a more excellent way;” And the more excellent way Paul is inviting us to embrace, is a truth that takes a lifetime to learn.
Love is – patient. None of us wants to be patient. Patience assumes that something has happened to us that we don’t like, and instead of fighting it, we slow down and think about the other person, not ourselves.
Love is kind. Not “kind” as a momentary, temporary response to someone going through a trying event, and they need a special moment of “kindness” but “kind”, as consistent caring, as compassion we know we can depend on; as gentleness that we know will always be there for us.
Every line of this chapter gives us something to strive for in our relationships that is, “a more excellent way.” And no, it’s not very realistic. It can be a tough world we live in out there, that doesn’t appreciate patience, and kindness, but it is “a more excellent way.” It is, “The Truth” Paul calls us to “rejoice in.”
Every line of this chapter gives us something that can be applied to every relationship we encounter, every day of our lives. And what Paul urges us to embrace, is the consistency of love; a consistency that is as consistent and as steadfast and as unfaltering as God’s love is for us.
Let me close, by drawing attention to your bulletin cover, and the last three lines of this translation. Love “always protects, always trusts, always hope, always perseveres.” NIV
the NRSV says Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Love is consistent. Love is dependable. Love never ends. Faith, hope and love, are the keys to life, Paul tells us, and the greatest of these, is Love.
