One Thing

Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus isn’t selfish or rude. He doesn’t keep score. He never gives up. The greatest of these is Jesus. If we want to know how to embody agape, we don’t have to look any further than him.

For the past month and a half, we’ve journeyed through Paul’s pastoral letter to the young, and struggling church in Corinth.

Along the way, I hope it’s invited you to reimagine what it truly means to build a community of love in the space between us— not just here in church. But in your heart and out there in the real world where love is the antidote to all the mess we are finding ourselves in these days.
 
Someone told me last week, “You talk about love a lot.” I do. Because at its core, that’s what this is all about—life, faith, worship—they’re all rooted in love.

And so are we.mI imagine I’ll keep talking about it until we all begin to live it—fearlessly and faithfully.
 

We might fail along the way but that’s okay. One of the sweetest fruits of love is grace. The kind of gentle mercy and forgiveness that starts and ends with the One who created all this beauty for us. So as we bring this series to a close, we return to the center of it all. Ending where it all beings: with Love.

 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; it keeps no record of wrongs; 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. 

                                                                                                                               1 Corinthians 13:3-8

Theologian Adolf Harnack described  this chapter as, “the greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote.” And G. Campbell Morgan, wrote “If one examined this chapter, it would be like dissecting a flower to understand it.  In the process, one would tear the flower apart and lose its beauty.”

My goal here isn’t to dissect Paul’s perfectly penned words, but to find our place—and God’s power—within them. To the person who said all I talk about it love,  this chapter is for you.
 
But let me just say it’s not about the kind of love I have for donuts, or even the deep affection I hold for my family and friends. Paul uses a very particular word here: agape. A rarely used Greek term for a kind of love that’s altruistic, undeserved, and entirely unearned.
 
The ancient Greeks believed agape was divine because it was too pure, too selfless for humans to pull off. Maybe that’s why Paul chose to use it. Remember, the young church in Corinth was cracking under the weight of ego and comparison. Some folks were using their spiritual gifts to climb higher on the holiness ladder.
 
As Paul taught us, love isn’t about puffing yourself up. It’s about building each other up—together—as one body. Paul says the way to do this is Agape. It sounds simple, but we now, it ain’t easy. Agape requires letting go of the things that stop us from truly embracing and embodying a deep and divine way of life.
 
As scripture tells us, this life and love begins with God. The Apostle John wrote, those who live in love, live in God. And God in them. This love, like Paul writes,  never ends. It’s woven and connected to everything.

To see this, just replace the word love, with God: For example, God is patient and kind. God is never jealous or envious, boastful or proud. God is not selfish or rude. God rejoices in the truth. God never fails.
 
It’s a stunning portrait of who God is—unshakable, steady, and always leaning toward love of the other, and not self. And yet, if you’re anything like me, you might hear this and think, “How could I ever live up to that?” How could anyone?
 
Like Paul reminded us at the beginning of this poetic letter, that’s the beautiful, upside-down nature of God’s love. It’s full of grace. And this grace isn’t something  we earn. It’s given to us freely so we can stop worrying about perfecting things and be more present reflecting this image of God in the space between.

God doesn’t love us because we’re good. God loves us because God is good.
 
Like Richard Rohr always like to say, “God cannot not love what God has made.” That’s our assurance—our sacred anchor—that no matter how far we wander, we are never beyond the reach of God’s love. A love that comes to us in the flesh and blood of Jesus.
 
While the primacy of agape comes from God, the character of agape is Jesus… who shows us how to set God’s love in motion. 
 
And again, the best way to illustrate this is by replacing the word love with Jesus: Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus isn’t selfish or rude. He doesn’t keep score. He never gives up. The greatest of these is Jesus. If we want to know how to embody agape, we don’t have to look any further than him.
 
The gospels give us story after story of how Jesus reveals God’s love in every day life. He touches the untouchables, eats with the uninvited, forgives the unforgivable. He stands up against injustice, and practices equality. He goes to margins and brings those society has pushed away back into the center, back in to community.

This is what agape does. Like Jesus shows us, wherever such love is practiced, God is present.
 
While love like Eros, or Philia is more of a feeling or emotional thing, agape is love in action …more of a verb than anything else. It comes alive through our connection and presence with others. Which is why it’s always needed - today as it was back when Paul wrote this letter.
 
Today, the body of Christ seems so fractured and divided - over politics, dogma, and the like. We seemed to have exchanged agape for things like pettiness, power, and greed. We keep making it about us, demanding to be right, instead of welcoming the other, and the gifts that they offer. Gifts that reveal God to us.

This is especially true about the one’s Jesus calls the least of these. Love is “not a feeling we fall into—it’s a practice we rise into.” When we give ourselves freely to others, not only do we continue the mission of Jesus, but we give the world a glimpse into God’s heart.
 
While the character of agape is Jesus, the enduring presence of agape is us. Here’s the thing. Not only are we loved,… but we’re called to love. To quote Thomas Merton, “Love is our true destiny.”
 
Agape is more than just saying, “I love you.” It’s a relational wholeness, grounded in presence. It’s a reflection of God moving through us. The other night my wife and I were enjoying a glass of wine. Out of the blue, she said, “I love you.”

I looked at her lovingly and asked, “Is that you or the wine talking?” 

She said, “It’s me. But I was talking to the wine.”
 
I fear that we throw the L word around so much that it has lost its depth and beauty. Which is why I want to end this sermon series with this chapter. We need to really embody these words, and make them apart of who we are. Both as a community and as people.
 
I learned a great way to do this, when I read a post from a mother whose daughter had a habit of falling hard and fast for every new boyfriend. When her daughter was getting involved with someone she wasn’t sure about, she handed her a copy of this reading. And wherever love was written, she wrote the boy’s name. Jason is patient. Jason is kind. And so on…She told her daughter, “If he can live up to this, he’s worthy of your heart.” Long story short, Jason didn’t pass.
 
Imagine reading your name in the passage. How might it change the way you view yourself, or how you show up for others? Jesus didn’t say worship me. He says, “follow me.” His is an invitation to participate in heaven right here, right now.  He invites us to be the living, breathing embodiment of God’s love in the flesh.
 
Jesus made love the first and last commandment. The kind of love that kneels to wash the feet of others. The kind of love that stays when betrayal’s in the air. That bleeds sacrificially, not symbolically. Love defines who we are. And reveals who God is. To practice love, even when it’s hard, even if we suck at it, is one of the greatest acts of worship we could offer God.
 
John of the Cross wrote, “Where there is no love, put love—and you will draw love out.” This is our call. It’s who we are to be in a world where such love seems foolish. It’s in this holy space - between us and them - where Jesus walks, and love never fails. It’s a sacred invitation to put your name in this scripture. Embody it. Live it. Be patient. Be kind. Be agape.
 
Because God is love. Jesus is love. Together, we can build a community where love endures, now and forever. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
 
 
 
 
Work cited:
Bartlett, David L. and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 1. (Westminster John Knox: 2009) pp. 302-306.
Garish, Jim. Word of God Today. http://www.wordofgodtoday.com/1-corinthians-13 (accessed Oct. 23, 2019)
God Vine. My Daughter’s Boyfriend Test.  https://www.godvine.com/read/love-verse-insert-boyfriend-name-test-relationship-951.html (accessed Oct. 23, 2019).