Sermon - Epiphany 4 - 1/31/10

4th Sunday after Epiphany – Year B
January 31, 2010
I Corinthians 13:1-13

The Greatest of these is Love

It isn’t often that a preacher gets to preach on I Corinthians 13 - outside of a wedding. This chapter of scripture has been so completely associated with weddings, that it is difficult to hear it and not remember some wedding or some bride and groom.

When I am asked to preside at a wedding where this passage is selected, I make it a point to point out that this passage is not about two persons, entwining their lives with one another. This chapter speaks a word too universal to limit it to a relationship between two persons. If I am going to disrupt the flow of a wedding with such assertions, then I ought to at least make the same claim when dealing with the text during a Sunday morning. And, who knows, the assertion might be heard in this setting, whereas it is seldom heard by those gazing into one another’s eyes on the big day.

Remember where we are in the wider context. I Corinthians, Chapter 12 spoke of the variety of gifts given to the people of God. As Pastor Hartsell pointed out last week, this variety of gifts was given in order to make the Church stronger. It is when we appreciate the gifts of each, and incorporate them into the common task we share, that we are truly able to do the ministry Christ hopes for. We do not all possess the same gifts. We have each been given gifts for the common good. We share our gifts, so that the witness will be strengthened.

After discussing the variety of gifts, Paul points out that no one of us possess all that is needed. In the latter verses of Chapte 12, he writes, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? … Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues?” To which the obvious answer is, “No.” We do not possess the same gifts. God does not intend for us to do so. We cannot make ourselves possess that which God has not intended us to possess. However, there is something we can do.

Chapter 12 ends with Paul’s instructions, “But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

This more excellent way, this way which can be striven for, is the gift of love. We may not be able to teach; we may not be able to speak in tongues; we may not be able to interpret tongues; but we can all have love.

“But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

Perhaps you have heard, in other sermons or in other settings that while English only has one word for “love,” in Greek there are several. Whether you have been presented with them as a group, you have no doubt heard of them. The Greek word used throughout I Corinthians 13 is agape. You have probably heard the name agape assigned to various church institutions. There is a Lutheran camp in North Carolina called Camp Agape. Let’s come back to this option.

Another of those Greek words is philia. The meaning of this Greek word is revealed when we speak of Philadelphia. That Pennsylvania city’s tourism office interprets for you. We know that the name represents what the city hopes to be – the City of Brotherly Love. Philia is sometimes used for the relationship between lovers, but it is more often associated with the love which binds us together as a community.

Eros is another of these words. Thi is the same ancient root which gives us the words associated with eroticism; this is the passionate love which arises out of sensual desire and longing.

I would make a footnote that this type of love, very much a gift from God, is the love most often misused and abused. If you have not read the Human Sexuality Social Statement adopted at last summer’s ELCA Assembly, I encourage you to do so. It speaks powerfully and candidly of how we have allowed our society to commercialize this gift from God, leading to abuse and opportunities for exploitation.

Less known is the Greek word, storgē. This is the love one would hope to find within a family. It is the love a parent would have for a child, and a child for their parents.

Eros, philía, and storgē. All words for love, but not the same as the love of which Paul writes. The love of which Paul writes is agape.

It remains forever impossible to know exactly what a word meant to an ancient culture, but biblical scholars have come to accept that the love spoken of as agape love is that love associated with that which is divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful. This love, like all the others, is a gift from God. It is the same, but it is different. This love is not expressed in the tight confines of a human commitment of one person to another person. This love reveals its nature as it allows those who observe it to see the One who gives the gift. This love - divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful – is the greater gift.

We may not possess some of the spiritual gifts we see and admire in others. We may be envious of those others and their gifts. We may desire those other gifts, but they cannot be obtained. What we can strive for, Paul says, is this gift – this agape love. This love which is kind, not envious, never boastful or arrogant or rude.

There is, of course, an application of this kind of love to the bond between two persons. So, it is okay when this chapter is read at the establishing of a covenant of matrimony. It is okay. But it is far too limiting. The love beautifully spoken of in this chapter is a love to be sought in all of our lives. It is the greatest of all possible gifts God desires to give us. And Paul would encourage us to realize that this gift is ours for the taking.

“Strive for the greater gifts. And …. a still more excellent way” will unfold before you.

Amen.