This week was intended to be St. Peter’s annual congregational meeting, but between Christin, Micah, and I all having covid this week and others in the congregation and church council also having it, we decided to postpone the meeting until next Sunday and cancel in-person worship services for this week. So, this sermon video is the extent of our congregation’s worship services this weekend.
For this third week in 1 Corinthians, I found helpful Matthew Skinner’s Dear Working Preacher column, this commentary at Working Preacher from Melanie Howard, and Debie Thomas’ lectionary essay at Journey with Jesus. This is the 4th Sunday after Epiphany, and the sermon text is 1 Corinthians 13.
At the beginning of the year, I noticed we’d have three weeks in a row of readings from 1 Corinthians, all focused on how the Church is the Body of Christ, which seemed like a great topic to focus on leading up to our annual meeting.
So, two weeks ago I talked about the promise in 1 Corinthians 12 that God has given each of us spiritual gifts, and in the church are all the gifts we need for the mission God calls us to.
Then last week, we heard Paul continue by comparing the church to a physical body, talking about how each part of the body is important, each person in the church is needed; we’re church together. If you missed either of those weeks, I encourage you to go back and watch the sermon videos – 1 Corinthians 12 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.
Today is part three, chapter 13, and my intention was that this would be a great reading to lead right in to our annual meeting. But, for the second year in a row, we’ve cancelled in-person worship for this week and postponed the annual meeting. Last year it was for weather, this year it’s because there’s far too much risk that I could give covid to anyone I’m in the same room with. So, for the second year in a row, here’s an annual meeting sermon without the annual meeting!
It took us two weeks to get through chapter 12, but chapter 13 is much shorter. And you’re probably familiar with at least some of these verses. Here’s today’s Scripture, chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth.
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 all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
If this reading sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve heard it at a wedding. I counted, and literally 50% of the weddings I’ve done have included this reading. It makes sense, because Paul is talking about love, and weddings are about love, and if you’re married, you should be patient, and kind, and not envious or boastful or rude or resentful.
But Paul is not talking about marital love here. This reading is great for weddings, and that’s fine, but that’s not what Paul had in mind. Remember, he’s writing this to a church that’s been going through conflict. They’ve been fighting about whose spiritual gifts are more important, dividing into different factions, and fighting about the right way to worship. And so after talking about the importance of different spiritual gifts and how they’re all in this together as a community, Paul spends an entire chapter reminding them why they’re here in the first place, what their mission is. And that mission, Paul says, is love. Their mission and our mission today as church is to reflect God’s love.
And what is that love? This chapter is a description. God’s love is patient. God’s love is kind. The love of God is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. And our call as Church, our call as followers of Jesus is to reflect that love, to share the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Our call is to imitate Christ’s love.
Everything else is secondary to that calling. Love is the most important thing. The Beatles said, “All you need is love.” That’s not quite what Paul’s point is, because there are other details that important too, but love is certainly the most important thing you need.
The problem comes when we lose that focus on love, when we make other things more important than love. That’s true for all of us as Christians, and it’s especially true for churches.
I’ve been listening to a great podcast from Christianity Today called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. It’s about a huge mega-church in Seattle that started in 1996 and by 2013, grew to over 12,000 people attending each weekend, then in 2014, the church imploded, declared bankruptcy, and closed. Part of their hypothesis is that the church imploded because the focus became the pastor’s ego.
The goal became growing as large as possible at any expense, not worrying about who got run over in the process. The focus became growing and sustaining this massive, prestigious institution, rather than sharing the love of Jesus. It’s a painful story to listen to, but it’s a really detailed, interesting podcast, because a lot of it’s understandable. It’s so easy for us as Christians to drift away from God’s call to love as our primary mission.
And it’s not just a problem for megachurches, or for people in Corinth two thousand years ago, right? Plenty of churches fall into the trap of worrying more about their building than about their neighbors. Plenty of churches hold onto worship styles and traditions even when they’re unfriendly to newcomers, without asking if it’s loving.
If you took a survey of unchurched people and ask them what the first word they’d use to describe Christians would be, would it be love? Sometimes, it might be. I hope so. But too often, Christians—including us—get caught up in insisting on our own way, judging and condemning others rather than reflecting this love of Jesus, yelling rather than loving. There are plenty of noisy gong Christians clanging in the world today, just like I’m sure there were in Corinth.
Our congregation can make all the right decisions at our annual meeting next week. We can elect all the right people to church council, have the best constitution and by-laws; we can do a great job maintaining our building, install the most up-to-date technology, and none of it matters without love. None of it matters if we lose sight of why we’re doing it. We are here because God has loved us, so that we can share the good news of God’s love with our neighbors and the world.
I hope you’ll give an offering this week. That’s one of the challenges whenever we have to cancel in-person worship, and January is always a low month for offering, so if you feel called to give, you can mail in an offering check, drop it off, or give online through the link in the video description. But only if it’s out of love. Not out of fear of the church falling apart, or out of guilt, or anything like that. Only give if it’s in response to God’s love for you and God’s generosity towards you.
Paul’s talked about all these great spiritual gifts, like teaching, prophesying, speaking in tongues—and I’d count giving and generosity in that too—but none of it, he says, serves God’s mission if it’s not done in love. The best music in the world, the most engaging preaching, making the most beautiful prayer shawls, the tastiest fellowship treats, even being willing to sacrifice yourself for a cause, all that’s great, but without love, it’s meaningless. Without love, it’s nothing. As Matt Skinner says, “Any gifts we’ve received for ministry are temporary and incomplete, meant to help us navigate our way through a dim world. It’s love that matters. Love isn’t a gift; it’s the point of all the gifts.”
Love is what we do with the gifts. One of the things I learned this week studying this chapter is that everything Paul says here about love is verbs. It’s actions, not just descriptions, which can be a little tough to see in our translation. Love is patient is really, “Love waits patiently. Love acts kindly.” Paul is describing God’s action towards us, the way God loves you. Our love is lived out in the way we act towards our neighbors and towards each other. That’s what reflects Jesus. That’s our witness.
And of course, we can’t do it perfectly, no matter how hard we try. We make mistakes too, both as a church and as individuals. The love Paul describes here is God’s love. The best we sinful people can do in this world is a poor reflection. The image he uses is seeing in a mirror, dimly, and the kind of mirror they’d have been using in first-century Corinth wouldn’t be nearly as nice as our mirrors. Think of looking at your reflection in a spoon, or something like that. The outline is there, but not the details. And that’s ok.
One day, we’ll fully grasp the love with which God has loved us; one day, we’ll see God fully. In the meantime, when we make decisions, let’s do our best to err on the side of love. When we make mistakes, let it be because we were too loving. I think God will be ok with that. When everything else comes to an end, love remains.
Sisters and brothers in Christ, may you know the love God has for you, a love that is patient and kind, a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And may you be moved by God’s love for you to act in love, to love your neighbors, to share the love you have been given.
Let’s pray.
God of love, you have made us out of love to be your people, and you have called us to shine your light into the world. By your Holy Spirit, give us all we need to carry out your mission. Stir us to use our gifts together to build your kingdom. Forgive us when we lose sight of your purposes and try to go our own way. Keep us focused on the love you have revealed to us through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen