28 January 2007

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Are you always patient? Always kind? Are you never envious or boastful or arrogant or rude? Do you not insist on your own way? Are you never irritable or resentful?

It’s a tall order to love, according to Paul, who authored the words about love that we heard this morning. But I think that Paul hits the nail on the head this time. No one ever said that being Christian wouldn’t involve tall orders.

The trouble with this scripture is that it’s too familiar. We’ve already assigned it to the Hallmark division of our minds and have it tucked away for Valentine’s Day and weddings. But we’d miss its power if we were to do that. Though, yes, it does apply to those august occasions when romantic love is at the forefront, this passage also applies to every moment of our faith-filled life.

And it applied most assuredly to life in the church at Corinth to whom Paul was addressing this letter. For this church was in need of some love in its midst. Though Paul and God loved this group at Corinth, they apparently couldn’t find it in themselves to love each other.

If you remember from last week’s reading in Corinthians 12, Paul compares the church to the body. The body of Christ is just like a human body. We can’t have a body that’s just an eye, because we wouldn’t be able to hear. The head can’t do without the feet. The body of Christ is made up of many parts, as well it should be. Paul reminds the church in Corinth and us that there is a need for all the parts of Christ’s body: teachers, preachers, those who speak in tongues, those who interpret those tongues, etc.

There was clearly a lot going on in that church at Corinth at the time. We can infer from Paul’s writings that there were factions within the church, all arguing about who had supremacy. Some were followers of Apollos, a church leader of the time. Some put themselves in Paul’s corner. Others were claiming allegiance to another leader while some felt that they were followers of Christ. And each group tried to gain preeminence over the other.

There were deep divisions in Corinth. And Paul knew it. He addresses this letter to them in an attempt to heal some of those divisions. First he says that no group has supremacy and all have gifts that are needed in Christ’s body. Then he goes on to explain how they might get along: with love.

That’s the context in which we should read this chapter: as the antidote to divisions and arguments within the church. Love holds Christ’s body together. Love is the glue that keeps the church as one, in spite of differences, in spite of arguments, in spite of divergent thoughts and ways.

The folks in Corinth really needed this message. They were split into several factions and all of them were arguing for the top spot. They needed this message of love.

What’s that got to do with a congregation in San Carlos almost 2,000 years later? We don’t have followers of different leaders. We don’t argue about the gifts of the members of our church. We are relatively conflict free, aren’t we? So why do we need to hear this message on this January day in 2007?

Well, let me ask you again: are you always patient and kind? Do you never boast? Are you never rude? Do you bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things?

Perhaps we do need to hear this. Perhaps we may act this way in our congregation but need to remember to act it out in the world. We can do love with our friends and family but do we find love in our relationship with strangers? Can you truly say you love a street person or the person who just cut you off on the freeway?

This love thing is difficult, no matter what the upcoming Valentine’s Day cards say. It takes work to love one another: even those we are supposed to automatically love. It takes patience and kindness and all those other attributes that Paul listed. It takes overlooking dissimilarities and accepting the differing gifts that are needed to make up our world.

Love is talked about, discussed and sung about. John and Paul, not the apostles but the Beatles, remind us that “love is all you need.” And Hal David and Burt Bacharach proclaim that “What the World Needs Now is Love.” Of course, there are myriads of other songs I could quote. And that’s part of the problem. While the sentiments I’ve just quoted are true, many reduce love to just the romantic feeling of being attracted to one other person.

What Paul is getting at is different. It’s the love that transcends barriers and overcomes the arguments that we humans get into. It’s loving the person who is least loveable.

This is all a mirror of God’s love; the love that God has for each one of us. The God who loves unconditionally; who loves us through and in spite of our foibles and failings. Can we love each other as God loves us?

Well, the very next words that Paul writes, in chapter 14 of 1st Corinthians, are “Aim for love.” Paul recognizes that we are human and we may not reach the perfect love of God in our attempts at loving each other. We may try to be unconditional in our love but we usually attach conditions to our love. Conditions which limit our love…and our lovability. For that’s the thing about love; the more we do it, the more lovable we become. And we all want to be lovable, right?

Be patient and kind. Don’t be envious or boastful; arrogant or rude. Don’t insist on your own way nor be irritable or resentful. Don’t rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoice in the truth. Bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. In short, love.