March 28, 2020
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
13 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. 2 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. 3 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.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
We have all heard the cliché that all
good things must come to and end, but to those that must suffer through three
months of winter in Northeast Ohio, not many will call winter a good
thing. But at least we can be sure that
winter has come to an end. The crocuses
and daffodils have bloomed in my flower beds, reminding me that I need to get
outside and clean them from leaves. The grass
that was once brown and ordinary is now sprouting daily it seems, reminding me
that grass cutting season is near. The sky
is full of Canadian geese flying north for the spring, robins looking to build
nests and pollen driving my nose and eyes obscenely crazy. Winter is over and now Spring has begun.
In our text from 1 Corinthians, Paul writes about other things that will come
to an end. He writes, but
as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For
we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;but
when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. Paul is talking about that when the
Kingdom of God comes in Jesus Christ, certain temporary things will not be
needed. The things the Church needed for
the time in between the first and second coming of Jesus Christ will no longer
be needed, because the journey is over.
No longer will the church need prophecies, because the future is the
present and because Jesus will speak directly to us. Tongues and knowledge will no longer be needed,
because having arrived at the destination, the Spirit will so fill us with
life, we have all them. Knowing in part
becomes superfluous, because we will know and be known completely. The interim time has come to an end and no
longer do we need those temporary things, they have come to an end.
Except love that is. Paul writes that while everything else comes to an end, Love
never ends. Love is not just the temporary
companion of the Church on its journey forward, but Love is both the motivation
for making such a trip and also the goal and final state of all things. To
enjoy the love of God in Christ Jesus is the eternal state of blessedness for
all time. The things on the way are
needed for the journey, but when the destination is reached, we put aside those
things to enjoy the forever things. We
are told that the three great Christian pillars of our discipleship are now
faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the most important word is
perhaps now. Because we are still
making our journey, faith, hope and love are important we are not yet there. So, we must still believe and hope, but when
Christ comes, we can put away our faith and hope, we will not longer need them,
because we now have Christ face to face.
But the verse has another phrase ever so important, and the greatest
of these is love. Because
while in eternity we will put away our faith and hope, having come to and end,
love is the greatest of the three, because love will remain forever. Our faith and hope are only necessary on our
journey of discipleship, but having reached our eternal state, the love with
which we loved God and our neighbor on the trip, will dwell forever.
This means my friends that not only will our faith and hope come to an end
because Jesus Christ will return, but it also means that this time of
quarantine will come to an end. The days
of self-isolation will come to an end and we will once again see face-to-face. The days of worry and anxiety will come to an
end and we will once again enjoy the peace and security which only Christ can
give. The days of scarcity and conflict
will come to an end and we will enjoy the abundance and harmony that only God
can create. This temporary circumstance
demanding faith and hope and love on our part will come to and end, but love
will not.
So who are you loving now? No doubt we
are struggling with our discipleship in this difficult moment with prayer and
study and online worship and service, but who are you loving while doing those
4 great Christian Practices? Paul writes
that 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.
In this time of quarantine, what good is our prayer life if we don’t
have love for the people on whose behalf we pray? In this time of self-isolation, what good is
our studying scripture and theology dwelling in right truths and
understandings, if we aren’t moved to love God and our neighbor with all that
we have and are? What good is our acts
of service if we despise the ones we are trying to help and judging guilty the
ones that won’t help? What good is a
thousand online worship services and streams if the Church of Jesus Christ
doesn’t end up obeying the command to love God and our neighbor? If we don’t love we are noisy gongs, clanging
cymbals, and ultimately nothing. So, who
are you loving now?
Even though that question was quite difficult and uncomfortable, we have
a quite harder one put to us, the question of how we love. What if currently and in this place, someone
is needing my patience and I don’t have any?
What if that same person or even another is needing my kindness and I
keep it to myself? What if a third is
tired of my boasting and incessant pride?
What if I am rude, or self-seeking (which I am)? What if I am easily angered, keeping records with
whole bookcases of every wrong done to me?
What if I delight in evil and wickedness? What if I am not interested in protecting
those that need my protection, what if I have trust issues, what if I am not
interested in justice for the other, what if I cannot hope and have my hopes
dashed yet again, what if my perseverance quits on me? What if my Love isn’t really Love but
something else?
The good news of the Gospel, brothers and sisters is not that we must conjure
or actuate a latent ability to love like this, the good news of the Gospel is
that through the work of the Holy Spirit, you and I have been baptized or
immersed into the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Because God has surrounded and penetrated us with this love first, we
can now share in that love, and at long last come to love. Because God has first loved us, we can now
come to love. Because we share in God’s Love,
we can now share love. Allow me to
reword my question “who are you loving and how are you loving them because God
has loved you and loved you like that?”
All things come to an end, when Christ comes to end the old age. When the complete comes even our faith and
hope will cease because we see and enjoy Christ face-to-face. This means that even this virus and our
quarantines will come to an end. But
love will never cease, Love will exist without end. So, if now faith, hope and love abide these
three. are you loving God and your
neighbor and are you loving them as you first have been loved by Christ? We have been shown the most excellent way
of discipleship, now is the time for us to take responsibility and step into and
onto that way and love! Amen.
Prayer
O Holy and Loving God, we thank you for the love that never lets us go, for the love that imparts life, for the love that lifts us above the drudgery of our lives. We ask now that through our open and willing hearts, you would spread that love to those in need around us until at your Son’s coming, we may love and abide in love without end. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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