|
Jeremiah 1. 4-10, I Cor. 13. ff., Lk. 4. 21-30 President Obama gave his first state of the Union address
Wednesday. The press and the media were quick to point out his failures. For the last two Sundays we have heard how Jesus gave his
“state of the Gospel” address, traveling to On this Sunday we hear the initial applause turn to boos,
hisses and anger… a lynching is in the making. Why the reversal?
Matthew's and Mark’s account of this incident tells us that when he was
asked to do some miracles for the hometown crowd, Jesus could not and the
reason he gave them is that they did not have love in their hearts. Paul writing to a congregation that he had organized some
years earlier encounters a similar problem. What we heard read today is an answer to letters (7.1) “Now concerning the matters which you wrote”
and in (1.11) “it has been reported by
Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you”… This lesson from I Corinthians is often used at weddings.
Maybe it doesn’t matter if we take something beautiful like these words out of
context, but on the other hand, it might be edifying to know what Paul was
really talking about. Remember this letter was written to a congregation in
conflict. Listen what Paul says about
them in Ch. 3 “I could not speak to you as spiritual people but as infants in Christ.
I fed you with milk not solid food for you were not ready for solid food. Even
now you are still not ready…” Over time these words from the once-persecutor of the church
became the scripture of the church. On They were charged with being terrorists. As evidence against them their accusers had brought a
scroll. What is in these writings, asked the governor, and they
answered “the letters of Paul, a righteous man.” What was so threatening to the Empire that they became supporting
evidence against these people? Remember that these words were addressed to a Christian
congregation only 20 years after Jesus' crucifixion. For one thing, Paul addressed sexual promiscuity that makes
today’s swingers look like puritans. Paul also addressed spiritual
one-upmanship. There where those who could speak in tongues while others
wouldn’t or couldn’t. Each gift is precious Paul tells them but “earnestly desire the higher gifts” with
the highest gift of all being love or agape as it is translated in our lesson. Greek is a very exacting language. Greek has several words
all of which we now translate as love. There was Eros from which we get erotic, and agape, which in
the KJ was translated as charity. Since we have only the one word that can translate both
agape and Eros, it is easy to see why the two are sometimes confused. Eros reaches upward, like an infant reaching up toward its
mother to be fed or held. Eros is Cleopatra’s love for Anthony, Romeo for Juliet, a
sinner for a gracious God. The poet William Blake engraved the picture of a tiny human
figure with a ladder reaching up toward the moon. Underneath in CAPITAL
letters, he wrote “I WANT, I WANT…” Those are the words of Eros. Not so with agape. Agape does not want, it gives. It is not empty; it is full,
full to overflowing. Paul strains to get it right. Agape is patient, Eros chomps at the bit. Agape puts up with anything, Eros insists on having its own
way… think of a control freak. Agape is kind, never jealous, boastful or rude. It does not love because…, It simply loves the way rain falls on the just and unjust
alike. It “bears all things” including its own crucifixion. The power of agape is best seen in the story of Beauty and the Beast. Where beauty does not love the beast because he is
beautiful, but makes him beautiful by loving him. Agape is God’s love for each of us. That is why for 2,000
years the church has taken a helpless bundle of EROS, I want, I want, I want,
and given her or him the ultimate gift of heaven called baptism. Only as God’s gift, are we able, at rare moments, to love
that way ourselves, unconditionally, no matter what. When Paul says “love never ends” he is not being
sentimental. Eros ends when what we desire is no longer desirable. Agape
is without end as God is without end. That is what happened when Paul saw, not as through a glass darkly but face to
face, when he met Jesus on the What he saw was love, agape love. And he understood as he
was understood. The Apostle ends this letter with these words (16.11) I Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has
no love for the Lord – let him be Anathema (to hell with him). Maranatha – our
Lord come. The grace of the Lord be with you. A curse, a prayer, a benediction… in that order. They are
all mixed up in Paul, as they are all mixed up in us.
But then he ends with – my love be with
you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. The most precious thing he both received and
gives away. Based on “Paul sends his Love” by Fred Beuchner in The
Clowns in the Belfry, Harper, 1992. |
