Fourth Sunday after Epiphany -- 3 February 2013

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

• This is the answer to Paul's exhortation to “strive for the greater gifts”, the teaser phrase we heard last Sunday. Unless we read ahead or knew what the next verses in the letter said, we might wonder what the greater gifts might be. Compared to apostleship, prophecy, teaching, healing, wonder-working, and pastoral ministry, what could be greater?
• Paul is very clear that love is the greatest of all these God-given gifts. He goes so far as to say that without love, tongues, healings, the working of wonders, the knowledge of mysteries, and even the martyrdom of poverty or blood are worthless without love. All those wonderful thing are counted as nothing in Paul's view, if they are done without love. He say that some of these thing might be done for the sake of boasting, which only sets those things apart in a different and poorer way.
• If effect, the reasons why a Christian exercises the gifts they have received makes all the difference in the world. Hear again Paul's words: 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.
• Paul does not in any way down-play these gifts within the church. If anything, he reminds the Corinthians of their power. At the same time, he tells the truth – what is done out of self-interest, pride, or a desire to show off has less value than the simplest thing done with love, no matter what might be done in either case.
• In a poetic fashion, Paul speaks of what love looks like in the real world. It is kind and patient, gentle and mild, enduring and truthful. To be otherwise would not be love.
• After Paul spent so much time outlining the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the churches of his time, he speaks of this higher gift of love. The Corinthian Church was a fractured congregation and appears to have opposing factions pulling in a number of directions. What we heard last Sunday was Paul's attempt to let this troubled church know that their gifts were valuable and each fulfilled some indispensable function or role within the body of Christ, the term used since that time to describe the church.
• As he continues his letter, he lets the people know that what is even more important to the life of the church is mutual love in the congregation. All the other gifts might be present and in use, but if love is not found there, they will avail to nothing.
• It is the mutual love within the Christian community that is the hallmark of the Christian life and that's what makes the difference.
• Paul uses Epiphany language in writing to the Corinthians. In one translation, he says he will 'show' them a better way. What he shows them is not simply a project to be completed or a goal to be achieved. He's showing them nothing less than a new way of life, a new reality. It is not a rehashing of old values or a new paint job on “the way things are.” It is a whole new way of being, grounded in the grace and love of God.
• Right here and right now, this is to be our way of life as well. The gifts of the Spirit that Paul outlined are here among us. There are fine leaders and inspired teachers. There are willing spirits and sharp minds. We might not have apostles and we might not recognize prophets among us, but there are healing hands and wonder-workers of their own kind. And, having said that, what we always, always need is a renewal of the gift of love among us. It's there, it really is, and it still needs to be renewed.
• Notice that in his letter, Paul never says that the higher gift, this “better way” is easy. Look again at what shows love and what love consists of - patience, kindness, humility, truth, selflessness, faith, hope, endurance. None of these are easy and few of these virtues come easily to us. Yet, these are the marks of the gift of love.
• I read an article a few days ago by Derek Penwell, entitled “'So What?' The Nightmare Christians Should Be Having.” It was a powerful and troubling piece of writing and we'll talk about it more another time. I think what he had to say fits here. In discussing the increase in the number of people who identify themselves as having no religious affiliation, he says this:

“Think about this for a minute, though: What if part of the reason the "Nones" are so underwhelmed by organized religion isn't because they don't find Jesus interesting, but because it appears to them that Christians don't find him sufficiently interesting enough to take seriously?”

• Do you and I want to take Jesus seriously? If so, we will have to go beyond believing to acting. We will have to believe and act like we believe. Paul shows us the way and in the words of the King James Bible, the “better way.”

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.