1 Corinthians 13

I suspect that this passage from Corinthians is very familiar to you. It’s the apostle Paul’s great treatise on Love. You’ve probably heard it preached before… and you may have studied it in Bible study. It’s very popular…especially on Hallmark wedding cards… and for years I carried it around myself on a card in my wallet. I decided to pair it with today’s assigned Old Testament lectionary text from Isaiah for a particular reason … I believe that there is a very definite connection between these two apparently very different passages…

Several weeks ago I officiated at the memorial service of the husband of one of my oldest and dearest friends. Merrilu is here today and I have asked her for her permission to speak today of these things. Merrilu’s husband Luther fought a long and courageous battle with cancer and over the years I came to know him well. I had plenty of time to reflect on what I would say at his memorial service when the time came. The traditional funeral texts didn’t seem to fit Luther or his life… and my thoughts came back  time and time again to this passage from Corinthians… back to the deafening simplicity of the apostle Paul’s message in this chapter.

You see, Luther was a simple man – not in the sense that he was in any way deficient – far,far from it – but simple in the sense that Luther chose to order his life around simple truths. No amount of material success or achievement or community acclaim, all of which he had in abundance, none of this ever deterred Luther from simple faith, hope and love. And the message of this passage has stayed with me since the memorial service…which is why I bring it to you today…

Faith , hope and love…this passage reminds me of what’s really important in life.

One of the problems with this text is that we hear it so often that we might be tempted to think that we have it all buttoned down – that we’ve heard everything that it has to say to us – we’ve quoted it so much that we no longer hear the message. One of my great concerns is that in our world of self-indulgence and instant gratification we’ve diluted and devalued the word “love” – we love everything from cereal to hairdo’s to the latest T.V show.

But that easy come easy go infatuation isn’t what the apostle Paul is talking about – Paul is calling us to something so much deeper…which is what the prophet Isaiah is also trying to say to us. Bringing the two texts together might seem at first glance to be a little odd – they’re very different, I know – but only on the surface…

We hear Isaiah, booming his prophetic message of judgment against a morally defiled Jerusalem…

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord” in v11

“I have had enough of burnt offerings…bringing offerings is futile…incense is an abomination to me”

“Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow…”

Orphans and widows were often oppressed In ancient Near Eastern societies because of their powerlessness.  And so Israelite law extended special concern for their protection – something Isaiah’s audience has apparently forgotten.

“Forget the fancy ritual” is the message – “do what’s right, take care of the least among you…”

A not so very different message from that of the apostle Paul…

No amount of high sounding words, Paul says, no complicated ritual, no list of do’s and don’ts that make us feel good about ourselves…

None of this means anything if we don’t first live the Love

But the love about which Paul speaks isn’t the Hallmark card, “sprinkle fairy dust ”… kind of love. The Greeks were so much wiser than we are…for our one, overused, much exhausted word they have three words…

Eros for romantic love

Filia for the love of family and friends

and the Greek word used over and over again in our passage is agape… the highest form of love… self-giving, unconditional, steadfast love, the kind of love that doesn’t wax and wane with emotion or circumstance… …

Agape is the attitude of God toward God’s son Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ …the kind of love that God gives to us. It’s the kind of love that involves commitment and responsibility…God to us…us to God…us to neighbor…no matter what the circumstance.

The equivalent Hebrew word is chesed…this is the love that seeks the welfare of all. It’s the love that Isaiah demands to be given to those who perhaps don’t look or behave like we do, but who nevertheless are loved by God every bit as much as we are.

No lofty words, no dramatic ritual, no rigorous intellectual theology means anything…says Paul…if they aren’t first grounded in love. Sometimes it’s the most difficult thing in the world to do…don’t we know it… but if we have any hope of maturing as Christian people of faith we must lead with our hearts focused on God.

It’s all quite simple – love God, love neighbor…it’s we who make it complicated…

It’s at once simple and yet very complicated for we mere mortals who can only hope to see through a mirror dimly in this life.

For now we must keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ, on the incarnate love of God. In Jesus Christ we are heirs to the hope and the promise, through faith, of seeing God face to face one day.

And in the meantime, we must live the love…the deepest and most committed kind of love…chesed…agape…even though it often won’t come easy….

and we will have to look way beyond ourselves for the strength to do it.

Let us pray

Loving and righteous God, help us to see and hear those things that take us beyond the comfort of ourselves.

Help us to live as you would have us live, and love as you love us.

Amen