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Sermon: The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (C) - 31st January 2010
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-13; Luke 4:21-30
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a sounding gong or a clanging symbol.” It’s a phrase we all know so well. It’s a truth we all acknowledge. How many stories have we read or heard about that ended in failure because this truth was ignored. No matter what we achieve in life, somehow it is robbed of its meaning if there is no love. There is the classic story of the father who works long hours to make his family comfortable. But he never actually spends time with them, so they remain strangers. He has given them everything but he hasn’t given himself.
The point of the quote is that we can be so focussed on one thing that we forget the truly important. We forget the primacy of love. This has always been a major problem in the church. Paul was writing to the Corinthian Church where they were arguing over spiritual gifts. Paul’s point was they were forgetting the priority of love. The early church was marked by many disputes. These arguments resulted in the formulation of the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. These formularies were a summary of Christian doctrine. At some point we must have them so that we can define what is the Christian faith as opposed to many other beliefs.
But the problem with the creeds is that it can lead us to the conclusion that belief in the creed is all that’s required of us. Its easy to be like the rich young ruler who asks Jesus what he must do to be saved. Jesus said he must keep the commandments. “I’ve done that since I was a child,” the man boasted. “Well,” said Jesus, “sell everything and give it to the poor.” The man went away troubled. Love of his money took precedence over everything else.
The Corinthians thought they would be all right if they could sort out their doctrine as if that was all they had to do. But Paul is attempting to widen their vision. Christianity cannot be reduced to a number of topics in a doctrine manual. It must be more than that. It must be about how we live – what we do. What we have in 1 Cor 13 is in fact Paul’s manifesto of Christianity. It is not a set of doctrines – its about what we do and the central action of all is love – love not expressed in terms of a feeling or a motivation – but love in terms of what we do.
Some like to say that love is a New Testament idea, that the Old Testament is about the God of war while the New Testament is about the God of love. But that doesn’t really work. New Testament ideas of love come directly from Old Testament teaching. One of the earliest expressions of the duty of a person towards God is found in Deuteronomy 6. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The Jews added to that Leviticus 19:18 – “Love your neighbour as yourself.” So from early on the duty of each person was to love God and to love their neighbour. This was the essence of the faith.
The word for love here was just the common everyday word used for love. Nothing special about it. But what about God’s love for Israel? There a very different word was used. This word was used in the context of Israel’s disobedience and their failure to love either God or their neighbour. The word used for God’s love includes the idea of commitment, faithfulness and forgiveness. Israel was commanded to love in the simplest sense. But God will recognise their failure and yet continue to love them, to be faithful to them and to forgive them. From this arises the idea that we understand the nature of love best in the behaviour of God towards Israel in spite of their failure to love him. And of course, the highest expression of that love of God is that he sends his own Son into the world, to die for a dying world. The highest expression of that love of Jesus is his willingness to go to the cross to rescue the nation.
This manifesto of Paul regarding love can be compared to Jesus’ own teaching on the subject. You remember what Jesus says regarding love in the Sermon on the Mount. But in Luke’s version of the same material it is sharper still. In Luke 6:27 we read, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
What is so confronting in these verses is there is no mutuality in this love. The command is to love in spite of the consequences, to continue loving even while people are cursing you. At first glance this seems an unworldly way to behave. Yet on reflection, notice how Jesus words on love actually echo the events of his crucifixion. He dies to rescue the world, yet the world abuses him while he is in he very act of doing it. And so its here that the idea of loving is stripped of any idea of emotion, or an intent to act, or a theoretical concept of the nature of love. The crucifixion is all about action, and the determination to love no matter what the bloody consequences.
In less dramatic language Jesus expects his disciples to copy his behaviour. In Jesus final parable regarding the sheep and the goats, the faithful are described as those who gave the hungry something to eat, or a drink to those who were thirsty, or hospitality to the stranger, or clothes to the naked, or nursing to the sick or visiting those in prison. Love again is purely in terms of actions performed and again love shown to those who are powerless to reciprocate. In each case, it is love shown to people who can offer nothing back. Even in those situations we might expect to see gratitude. But apparently, that is not what love is about according to Jesus’ standards. He means it when he says, “Bless those who curse you.” This is a very radical form of love.
But it is with Jesus words ringing in our ears we can begin to understand Paul’s definition of love. Paul explains love both positively and negatively. Put positively, look at the dedication that love requires. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. We don’t like to put an “always” next to love. We try loving but then we wait for a positive response. If we don’t get it, then we reconsider our actions of love.
But Paul then also defines love negatively and perhaps the hardest is Paul’s claim that love in not self-seeking. Where often for us, the motive to love is almost completely self-seeking. We know we can have a happier life if we are loving. If we are loving then perhaps others will be loving to us. So it will be good for us. Any wise husband knows that “a happy wife is a happy life.” But is that the depth of our love or is there more to it?
Paul finishes his description of love with one very bald statement. He says “Love never fails.” That is, love just never stops loving. This is how God loves us. The word for God’s love is steadfastness. It just never gives us.
Paul concludes by asking us to examine our options. Many things we commit ourselves to in life will never last. Things we may try to understand we will never grasp – its like looking into a dark distorted mirror. So what will we put our energies into? He considers the important thing is life are faith, hope and love. Each on has its place. But there is no doubt the most difficult one is love. The command to love is the hardest of them all. But in the end – it’s the only one worth committing our lives to.