What's Love Got to Do With It?

A Love Onion in my coffee from the Frothy Monkey

A sermon on I Corinthians 13. I preached this years ago (and sang a bit during the sermon as well - thus the italics and stage direction. lol.). I also rewrote the passage in a new "version" toward the end. 

What's Love Got to Do With It?

 The last time I stood here, I felt it only right to recap Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers before discussing some of the salient points about the Shema from Deuteronomy. We are in the Narrative Lectionary after all. So when Paul asked me to preach for him today, he told me that “the Scripture reading wouldn’t be anything odd,” which came as some relief, until I saw two things 1) our reading in Mark is Jesus reminding us of the Shema “‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰ you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ³¹ …[and], ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” and 2) the main reading is I Corinthians 13.

What is the other moniker for I Corinthians 13?

The Love Chapter.

Or as one commentator said it, “Awwww, the Love Chapter.” 

There is a bucolic musical rendition of this chapter which we will be singing right after I finish preaching. It’s to the tune of “The Water is Wide,” and it sort of fits our idea of “Awww, the Love Chapter.” Sing a little bit of it here.

Though I may speak with bravest fire and have the gift to all inspire. . .

We think of weddings, the joy of new love, and the – hopefully - warm and fuzzy feelings that accompany a new future with bright possibility.

Awww, the Love Chapter – 

Thanks, Paul – I know you listening.

All joking aside, this passage is probably the one passage from the Bible most people have heard in some way and in some form, usually at a wedding. If we only think of the passage in this way, it could be associated with other cultural touchstones – like the Beatles and “All you need is love.” 

The problem is that this is not the soundtrack best suited to the tenor of the passage. I propose that instead we hear Tina Turner singing, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” possibly Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield.”

While we can only construct the scenario at Corinth from Apostle Paul’s exhortations to the Corinthians - it seems, “What’s love got to do with it?” might be their theme song. Paul mentions a number of things throughout the letter – a son is sleeping with his father’s wife, members of the church are cheating and doing wrong to people in the church, they are exercising their freedoms to the detriment of those around them, they are seeking their own good over the good of others,  - scandalous - and Paul tells them, “When you sin against your brother or sister in this way, you sin against Christ.” He also has a classic line in 4:21 where he says, “Shall I come to you with a whip?”

So as we approach an understanding of I Corinthians 13, it is a passage spoken into a church situation that is divided and divisive.  There are no warm and fuzzy feelings – the members were arguing over which group followed the correct teachers – did they get their information from NPR or Fox News? Did they think the Pope was okay or did they tune their TVs to the Trinity Broadcasting Network? When they brought a potluck, which at the time concluded with the Lord’s Supper, the wealthy would gobble down their food before the poorer of the church could partake. They wanted to keep the social divisions intact. Then, there were the spiritual gifts. 

From what Paul writes, it seems speaking in tongues was all the rage. If you could speak in tongues, then you had the gift of all gifts. It didn’t matter that no one could understand you; it did matter that you were spiritual enough to have a prayer language. Sure, there were other gifts, but the prized gift was speaking in tongues. Paul’s reply – and you can hear the frustration beginning to build? “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as God wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?. . .The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ and the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’. . .If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now y’all are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. Eagerly desire the greater gifts.”

In 2 Corinthians, Paul comments on 1 Corinthians. He says, “ I wrote [the first letter] to you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears.”

As we come to our reading for today, then, we have to hear it with this emotional backdrop – distress, anguish, tears, not the sunshine and roses emotion of “awww, the Love Chapter.”

The question, then, is why was Paul distressed and anguished as he wrote this letter?

When Paul was struck blind by the glory of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, his focus became knowing Christ, preaching Jesus’ death and resurrection, and proclaiming the new life we receive through Christ Jesus. His main concern for the churches was that they had the same understanding and mission at their core as well. 

As one commentator said, for Paul, the event of Jesus Christ is summated by Love, not grace, not forgiveness, but first and foremost as an expression of God’s love, which must be embodied in community. So as Paul heard about all the division at Corinth – between wealthy and poor, between educated and non-educated, his heart was broken. Did they know the love of Christ? Did they get it – did they get that Christ died because he loved them and wanted to bring the Kingdom of God into this world through them? 

And so, he says in 12:31b, “And now, I will show you, I will teach you, the way that is beyond measuring – It’s a way that isn’t about who has more or who’s in and who’s out – it is a more excellent way.”

Now we come to the reading of today’s passage, but it is a rendition of Paul’s words, but it is still meant to be in Paul’s voice.

And with distress, anguish, and tears, he begins: 

"I can speak in tongues – those of the nations and those of the angels, but without love – I’m your two year old banging on pots in the cupboard. I have been caught up into heaven; I’ve seen mysteries of which you can only dream; I can discern the truth and tell you what it is . I have faith that has brought a man back from the dead – but who cares?  If I don’t have love, all my experience and all my abilities are worthless. I make myself poor giving money to others. I offer myself for beatings and burnings, but what do I gain from it if I don’t have love? Nothing.

Love shows patience. 

Love acts with kindness.

Love doesn’t want what others have.

Love doesn’t brag on itself.

Love isn’t proud – it will accept help.

Love isn’t rude.

Love doesn’t say, “Me first!”

Nor is Love easily angered

Love doesn’t keep score for future reckonings

Love doesn’t want any part of evil

Instead, love pursues truth and delights in it

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never falls down on the job.

But be certain, the prophecies will cease; the tongues will be stilled; the knowledge will pass away.

You’ve got to understand: all that we know, all that we prophesy – they are whispers, hints of something much more real. When the real appears, all this make-believe with disappear.

It’s like when I was a child – I would pretend to be like my Dad, go through the motions of doing adult things. Yet when I became a man, the pretend of my childhood was put away. I didn’t need to pretend anymore.

In a similar way, we see only a dim reflection in a foggy mirror – we don’t see God completely, we don’t know ourselves completely; we do the best we can with what we have to work with, but there will be a day that the reflection is clear and the fog is lifted. I will see God face-to-face and I will know God and I will know myself fully, even as I am fully known. I hope you can say the same.

In these days, three aspects of the church remain foundational – faith, hope, and love. But the one that will remain - when our faith is made sight and our hope is fulfilled - is love.

Follow, then, in the way of love, and eagerly desire spiritual gifts.”

Brennan Manning was an author and speaker whom I mainly came to know through the Christian singer and songwriter Rich Mullins. He has a quote that gets at the heart of I Corinthians 13. He says:

“I am now utterly convinced that on Judgment Day the Lord Jesus will ask one question and only one question, “Did you believe that I loved you?”

The call of Paul to this “up at dawn, feet on the ground, tools in hand, working kind of love” is not meant to be pull yourself up by your boot straps and just do it kind of love. Its very essence is in believing to your bones that Jesus loves you and loves the person next to you, the person that drives you bananas, the person/persons that live in your home.

And this is what is at the heart of our ability to keep the Shema, the greatest commandments, that Jon read for us in Mark today. It is at the core of our belief system, particularly in the Reformed tradition, that we love because we were first loved by God. It was not our action first, but God’s action, that then enabled us to move toward God and to move toward one another, in love.

We are not called to this kind of love out of our own resources. This is a gift that God has given us and desires to give us every single day. This is not to say, however, that it will feel like “All you need is love,” many times it will feel like “What’s love got to do with it?” and in those moments, we ask God to give us the umph to show the love we have been shown to the person/persons with whom we have a division. Because, if we take Paul at his word, this is our mission, it is our goal, to be conduits of the love of Christ first to those in the pews around us and then to the world.

What’s love got to do with it? Everything. If you aint got love, you ain’t got nothin’.

(May 2016)

Strangers Among Us

The hot springs que at Miette in Jasper.

Another sermon from the book of John (20:1-19). This was the reading for the 3rd Sunday in Easter a few years ago. It's more a retelling of the story from the disciple's point of view and then possible "lessons" gleaned. Likely the longest post yet (be warned!). 

Strangers Among Us (John 20:1-19)

No one knows exactly how much time had lapsed between the previous two resurrection stories of John and this possible addendum to his gospel, but the story may have gone something like this:

It was the bravest thing they could do – to go out after being in hiding – even out in the Sea, totally exposed. Yes, it was night, when murky vision could mingle with shadows and dusk – when the gathering darkness of the sky above was mirrored in the sea below, but still they had ventured out into the world that had been brutal and destructive just days before. In the days when they wondered if crucifixion by association was possible or if another traitor lurked among them, waiting to turn them over to the Teachers of the Law who would banish them from any community they had ever known.

So as the dusk gathered, they went out to the Sea as all their other options for gaining the bare necessities were drying up. If so, maybe they weren’t brave at all, just hungry, needing enough fish to salt and dry to get them past this period of unwanted notoriety, and then they could decide what to do next. 

Whatever their motives, they were on the sea overnight and hadn’t caught anything. Then a voice – of some stranger they did not know – stating the obvious, “Children, you have no fish, have you?”

As they had not wanted to be noticed, they answered tersely, “No.” But the stranger continued, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” They looked at each other – they HAD been fishing on both sides of the boat, right? Why would it make a difference now, but again, they didn’t want to cause a stir, so they did as the stranger encouraged.

No sooner had the net had time to sink, than 153 large fish jumped right in, as if ordered to do so. While the rest of the men tried to figure out how in the world to gather the net back in with all those fish, the perceptive one of the group – the disciple who Jesus loved – John – told Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now John, being one of the Sons of Thunder, was always trying to pull one over on Peter, but Peter could tell by John’s pure enthusiasm that he wasn’t joking. 

So Peter put on his clothes – he had gotten too sweaty casting out and hauling in the net all night – and he jumped in the water – maybe he was expecting to walk on it again, but instead he sank right in and began paddling toward the shore. 

The other disciples watched Peter’s commotion, while dealing as best they could with the fish, and they shook their heads, laughing, and began following him ashore, though with some difficulty. They really had an abundance of fish, and they were trying to gently bring them in, so their net wouldn’t break. Really, they were surprised that it hadn’t broken already.

Once on shore, they came round the fire and saw fish and bread grilling. With their energy spent and their stomachs suddenly growling, they wanted so badly to grab what fish and bread were there. Yet this man . . . they kept looking at this man whom they thought to be Jesus. Though he felt right, he looked so different , and this raised in them some doubt and consternation. 

Jesus, attempting to break the anxiety of the group, said, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught,” and Peter, always needing to move and be active, went to their boat and hauled the net ashore. 

As Peter busied himself with the fish, the other disciples talked amongst themselves, recalling how Jesus first came to them, asking to use their boats to get some distance from the crowds in order to teach the crowds more easily. In that first meeting, they were in a similar circumstance, they had not caught anything all night, but when Jesus told them to cast their nets again, they had an abundance of fish. And then when they had been with him, far away from town, with a multitude of hungry mouths, and only two fish and 5 loaves  - well, the whole crowd – 5000 + - was fed from that, with 12 baskets of fragments left. Abundance from scarcity- it was too coincidental to be coincidence. This had to be Jesus.

When Peter returned with as many fish as he could carry, Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Then Jesus walked over to the fire and took the bread, and like a servant, He brought it to them, one-by-one, being sure that each was served. Then he did the same with the fish. They remembered Jesus washing their feet, the night he was betrayed. They remembered his words, “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

With food and time, the conversation grew easier. Jesus asked them how they were, assured them that he was indeed himself, reminded them of the Scriptures, and all the many promises of God. He reminded them that he was with them, always, that he was the Way, the Truth, the Life – that he came so that they could have life abundantly, but also so that those around them could have life abundantly – even those they felt were enemies, maybe even especially those they felt were enemies.

Peter sat quietly throughout the entire meal. He stared into the fire, remembering the fire where he sat when he denied he was a disciple of Jesus. How could he talk to anyone about abundant life? How could he encourage others to be good disciples when panic and pressure had caused him to cave and to deny his discipleship?

He got up after breakfast, walking away from the fire and into the morning sun. Jesus followed him.  “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

Simon, a bit perplexed by the question, turned and looked at the sea and said, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” 

“Feed my lambs, “ was Jesus’ reply.

“Whatever,” Simon thought and continued to walk away, caught up in his thoughts of failure.

He heard Jesus again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” 

He turned and looked at Jesus and said, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

“Tend my sheep,” Jesus said.

Peter stared into this man’s eyes – this was Jesus, right? He knew what a coward he had been, right? What could love do at this point? Yes, he loved this man so much, yet even love had not kept him from doubt and fear, from stumbling and hiding, from denying any relationship with or to Jesus. He turned and looked back at the sea, wading in his thoughts.

Jesus said a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

An ache shot through Simon’s heart, for as the question was asked again, it sunk in and he remembered what he had said those months before, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” This was his confession, his binding promise to go with Jesus wherever it would take him. 

Simon answered, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” 

Jesus replied, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.”

Years later, Simon Peter would remember this day, the sun rising over the hills, the cool breeze on his face. He remembered the words feeling weighty, but not burdensome. As Jesus said to him, “Follow me,” he knew that Jesus was asking him to be more than just Simon Peter. Jesus was asking him to be Jesus to the world around him – to participate in the “greater works” that Jesus had said his disciples would perform.  He knew that Jesus was calling him to carry forward the great love of God that had sent Jesus to die on a cross, and he knew that he was being called to even lay his own life down for the lives of others. This was discipleship, this was ultimately following Jesus.

Two thousand years later, on this third Sunday after Easter, what does this story say to us? 

Pay attention: The hazy recognition of Jesus is an important element of the story. The text tells us that the disciples were afraid to ask him “Who are you?” because they knew it was Jesus, but because the story even mentions this, it hints that Jesus did not look like the Jesus they saw twice in the last chapter. It’s as if his appearance shifted ever so slightly each time they saw him. 

If this chapter is a late addition to the gospel, it may have been added to speak to a community of Christians that were no longer having the intimate, detailed conversations with Jesus that the disciples had. This story was a lesson to the disciples of the disciples – or in other words , us - on training our attention and our instincts as well as our trust. Yes, the disciples went back to their livelihood, but Jesus brings a new dimension to the day-to-day. The original disciples, the disciples to whom John wrote, and we are to listen for Jesus, to look for him in a stranger on the beach or on the road as we travel. It is a story beckoning us to trust that Jesus is still at work in the world and inviting us to welcome the strangers among us as Christ himself.

Trust in God’s Abundance: John is a gospel that begins with the basic tenet that where Jesus is, there is abundance. We see it with the fish in this story, but John also tells of the feeding of the 5,000 and the wedding at Cana. John’s Jesus says there will be a river of life flowing through us and he came so that we might have life abundantly. Again, in this story, the disciples seemed to recognize Jesus only because of the way circumstances fell into place when he was around – and they fell into place in an abundant way.

This isn’t to say there isn’t loss, suffering, pain – Jesus doesn’t say he is removing those, but he does say, in John, that he has not left us orphans and he has not left us comfortless. He has given us his Spirit and he has given us each other. We are agents of God’s abundance to each other both within the church and to those outside of the church. 

Finally, Jesus doesn’t give up on you or anyone else: Peter had messed up, he knew this, and Jesus knew this, but Jesus doggedly pursues him in this passage and ultimately places on him Jesus’ mantle of being the Shepherd of God’s people. Jesus was defining Peter’s worth and identity. Jesus was bringing him back into the fold. 

One of my favorite parts of the Presbyterian liturgy is the Call to Confession and Assurance of Pardon – every week, we have the opportunity to come before God and each other, confessing our sins and then hearing those blessed words that In Christ Jesus we are forgiven and are being made whole. God sees us as we are, but because of God’s love and Christ’s love, which is so high and wide and long and deep – God will not give up on us – on any of us.