May 17, 2009
1 Corinthians 13
John 15: 9-17
"The Most Excellent Way"
Jesus commands. Paul explains.
The risen Christ shows.
Jesus commands his disciples, and hopefully that includes us, to love each other as he loves them. We know this passage: it is the heart of the Maundy Thursday event, Jesus' mandate to the disciples to love each other as he loved them. We hear it but we may not stop to think how strange it is.
No one, not even Jesus, can command someone to love someone else. We know love and we know that it is a matter of the heart, a great passionate mystery over which we seem to have little control. It is something we fall in and out of; not something we command someone else to do. Yet, Jesus commands his disciples to love as he loved them.
For many of us, the command means one thing: Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is willing to lay down his life for those he loves. In truth, his love is demonstrated in this one central fact: His proven willingness to lay down his life.
We understand this and we appreciate its nobleness and courage. But, there is not much doubt that no one here today will be called upon to lay down his or her life for the person next to us. There is not much reason to believe any of us will be called upon to demonstrate our love in such a dramatic way. Jesus' standard of love remains beyond our lives.
In this way, Jesus' command to love as he loves us becomes largely an intellectual or spiritual concept. It is a description of an act of love that exists only as the remotest of possibilities. So, how are we to bring Jesus' command down to earth so it applies to our everyday lives?
We can look to Paul and his dealings with the church in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 13 is beautiful and powerful and most of the time it is associated with weddings. That's where I read it the most, where I hear it most often. When buried beneath the planning, passion and joy of a wedding it is indeed beautiful but it is not truly heard. If it were, I am sure our marriage success rate would be much higher.
Paul did not write for a wedding. He wrote in the face of a major conflict in one of his precious churches. At the heart of the matter lies the human tendency to seek self first, to seek personal greatness and satisfaction even to the detriment of the whole. The communion meal had become an opportunity for the wealthy to demean and deceive the poor. The gifts given to certain individuals by God had become the cause of intense arguments over whose gift is most important, who has the better gift and therefore the stronger claim to control the Church. The Church at Corinth was angry, bitter, feuding and falling apart.
Paul writes to say that these gifts, the gifts of prophecy, of wisdom, of healing and preaching, the gift of speaking in tongues and interpreting the speaking tongues are important. The Church needs all the gifts that God has given. But just like the parts of the body, every gift must be used for the common good or the body will not survive.
Paul then takes his argument to the next level. All of the gifts in dispute are good and necessary, but they are never the point of the Church of Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ is to be known for one gift and one gift only: The most excellent way of love. The way of love is not just one more important talent, a nicer gift from God, a fine compliment to real expertise. The way of love is the essential ingredient in the Church of Jesus Christ. Without love, the church of Jesus Christ does not exist.
Paul describes this Christ-like love in very real, concrete terms. The love Paul describes is the same love that Jesus showed to his disciples, the same love Jesus commanded them to show to one another. It is love that always evidences love of the other first. Never self first; always the other first.
If you do not evidence love of the other first, then nothing else means anything to God. Everything else, without love, is worthless, meaningless to God. You can possess all knowledge, be all wise, foretell the future or move mountains with your faith, but if love of the other is not at the root of all you do and know, your greatness means nothing to God.
You and your church can do great acts of charity, you can offer yourself in sacrificial ways but if not out of love for the other, including your enemy, your charity and sacrifice are worth nothing.
What is this love? Love is patient, love is kind. Awfully weak, these two words. These are words we do not use anymore, but Paul uses them. What dos he mean?
"Patient" means to endure, to last, and to be permanent. Love is not going to run out or run away. Love is tenacious. Love that is present will always be present. Christ like love has tenacity in the present grounded on its absolute confidence in the future.
"Kind" means actively giving to the other, paying attention to the other first. To respond first in kindness always means that the other is considered first. Love is patient and love is kind.
Just in case the Corinthians cannot see what is missing in their church, Paul lists what love is not: it is not rude, ambitious, proud, boastful, envious or irritable. It does not insist on its own way. Every single self-centered type of behavior is antithetical to love. One cannot boast and love, cannot envy and love as Christ loved.
Love does not keep score. Think on this for just a moment. How different would this church, every church, be if we did not keep score, if we did not gossip, talk about each other, remember old slights and wrongs, shut people out because of old deeds and words. Of course life would not be as interesting and the satisfaction of getting even would be sorely missed, but just imagine what it would be like if everyone approached you without a scorecard; if you approached everyone without a scorecard; if we did not keep a record of wrongs to use against each other.
All the gifts from God are important and necessary to the body of Christ. But as we mature, as we become more Christ-like, we see that our talents and abilities, our anger and finely honed sense of righteous indignation are temporary and fleeting. We grow to see more clearly that all that matters to God is that we love as Christ loved us. One day we will know as we are known by God and on that day we will love as Christ loves us. We will find the most excellent way.
May I offer an example? Christ is risen. He is standing on the seashore, inviting his disciples to come and share breakfast with him. He faces Peter: the one who argued with Jesus, who said the Messiah would never be crucified, who proudly boasted in front of all the disciples, "I will never betray you even if it means my life", who denied Jesus three times as he watched and listened as Jesus was flogged in the courtyard. Peter, in all his arrogance, self-centeredness and bravado stands in front of Jesus.
What does Jesus the Christ do? He forgives Peter. It is not all fun and games. Jesus is hard. Three times he asks Peter, "Do you love me?" Three times he forces Peter to answer, a deep reminder of the three questions put to Peter in the courtyard. Jesus asks, Peter answers, and three times Jesus says: "Feed my sheep. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep."
Jesus forgives Peter the sin of betrayal by placing him over the sheep of his flock. This is not just forgiveness of words, it is forgiveness by action by placing the deep needs of the other first, of restoring the betrayer to a position of trust and service. It is forgiveness not based on Peter's abilities or skill or his own puffed up sense of self; it is forgiveness offered solely from grace out of love.
Jesus forgives and Jesus reconstitutes friendship. He invites Peter to be with him, to sit with him. He offers Peter fish and bread and he sit sits eats with him. In the world of the Bible and in our own world, to sit and share food with another is an act of friendship. To do so after that friendship has been tested and deeply scarred is to resurrect friendship. The shared meal, in the presence of Christ, is the reconstituting of a deep and lasting friendship.
Jesus commands that we love each other as he loves us. Paul explains what that selfless love truly is. Jesus the risen Christ, in offering forgiveness and friendship, shows us that we too can love as he does.
We too can offer forgiveness and friendship to all, enemies included. We can love each other just as Jesus loved Peter. We can do this just as Jesus commanded.
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