“Love and Other Surprises”- Sermon on Feb 3, 2013
February 3, 2013
Scripture:
1st Corinthians 13: 1-13: 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Luke 4: 21-30 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Sermon: Love and Other Surprises
By Rev. Doreen Oughton
This morning you heard three of the lectionary passages recommended for today. There is supposed to be a thread that connects the readings to each other. What do you suppose that thread is? First there is the story of the call of Jeremiah, a boy who hear’s God’s words telling him that he has been known by God since before he was born, that he has been chosen for a special purpose, and that God would be with him and equip him to do whatever he is asked to do. Then we have the Gospel of Luke, the story that picks up right where we left off last week – Jesus in the synagogue of his home town, reading the words of the prophet Isaiah and proclaiming that those prophetic words were being fulfilled right then, in their hearing. At first, people are pleased, Jesus speaks so well, they’ve heard about the miracles and healings he’s done in other villages. They can’t wait to see what he will do for them, his peeps. But Jesus seems to be telling them they don’t get it, they haven’t heard him correctly if that is their reaction. And this challenge to them angers them so much that the chase him out of town and want to throw him off a cliff! And finally we have the beautiful reading from Paul’s letter, about the centrality of and characteristics of love. What thread ties these readings together? (any thoughts…)
I wonder if one thread tying these readings together is the idea of surprise. How surprised must Jeremiah have been to have that experience. Can you imagine, God talking to you so directly, telling you clearly that you have been chosen for a special purpose, imagine having God touch your lips and promise you that Divine words have been put in your mouth for just when you need them. What a surprise! I bet it was a surprise to others, also, that God would choose a child – I’m not sure how old Jeremiah was when this happened, but people were considered adults at a fairly young age back then, maybe 14 or 15, so he was likely younger than that.
In the Gospel reading, the people of Nazareth were certainly surprised when Jesus seemed to turn on them, provoking them, dismissing their praise, calling them out. Was Jesus surprised when they got angry and chased him out of town? I wonder. And Paul’s letter, those things he said about love being the most important thing, that must have been surprising to the people reading the letter. He was writing to people who were members of a church he started in the city of Corinth. People in the church were arguing with each other about whose gifts were most important. Some people could prophesize, they had a gift for understanding and sharing what God wanted of God’s people. Others had special knowledge and understanding, perhaps about the scriptures or traditions. Others were able to speak a special language of the spirit, and others were able to understand this special language and interpret it. And so people were arguing about which gift was most important to the church and most important to God. Maybe they wrote to Paul, who was found of the church. Maybe they all agreed to let him decide which gift was most important. And I’m pretty sure they weren’t expecting the answer they got. His answer was that NONE of these gifts were as important as love, none were as important as the way they treated each other and all people.
I wonder if he had told them that in person if they would have wanted to run him out of town. They just wanted to know who did the best job of serving the church and the Lord, and he didn’t really give them an answer. Do you think that would have been annoying? They wanted the matter cleared up once and for all, and instead they get all this murky business about love.
Do any of these readings surprise you? If not, then it is probably because we distance ourselves from them. We don’t see how the messages in them apply to us today. When I truly think about it, I AM surprised by the idea of children making such a difference. I loved reading about these inspiring young people, but I tell myself they truly are the exception. More often I hold the belief that children are not really called to start movements, to act to really change things. They just go to school and learn and have fun, and maybe when they are older they can do something important. Too often I believe that it is not important to listen to the voice of a child – I must know better than a child. I mean I will listen in a caring way and be supportive of them sharing their feelings and needs. But would I ask and take their advice? Surely God’s words won’t come from the voice of a child. And so when I really open myself to the surprise of Jeremiah’s testimony, I am challenged to think differently, to act differently, and it makes me a bit uncomfortable.
And how interesting that we have Paul’s words about love being the most important thing today, when two football teams will face off to see who will be the champions of the football season. Do you think the coaches will be in the locker room advising the players that love is the most important thing? Do you think the fans at home will be looking to see who is treating others with the most kindness, who is most patient, who is most humble? No, of course not. What do people think is the most important thing about this game? Who wins, right, or who wins the pool or the spread. Winning or money, or maybe partying. What’s the most important thing to us when we are in a rush to get somewhere? That people get out of the way, right? We don’t think it is important to be polite, kind, patient. No, we beep and curse and swerve.
I haven’t seen it happen here, but maybe in some churches today there are arguments about which gifts or ministries are most important – should we fix the building or give more to the poor? Should we hire some singers or sponsor a mission trip? Should we have the church look a bit messy because it is being used in a new way, or keep it clean and neat so it makes a good impression when people come in. If these churches wrote to Paul, how would he reply? None of that is as important as love, as treating each other with kindness, patience and humility. He would say you can give your whole budget to the poor, but if you don’t do it with love, it means nothing. He would say you can have the most beautiful building, with all the leaks plugged, heat radiating throughout on cold days, gorgeous floors, airtight windows, but if you don’t have loving behavior going on in there, it is no special thing to God or to anyone. Love is patient; love is kind. 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.
And with the Gospel reading, how do we hear that in a surprising way? Basically what Jesus is saying to the people of his home town is that they get no special favor from him or from God. They are no more special than anyone else, so they shouldn’t feel entitled or self-righteous. Christians are no more special to God than are Jewish people, Muslims, Buddhists, even atheists. People who worship in churches are no more special to God than people who sleep in and read the paper, or who find God in the sunset. People who rob and steal and are violent are no less important to God than those who volunteer and tithe and feed the hungry. God goes to those people, God heals those people, God calls even those people. Think of the person or group of people who are most offensive to you, have been the most cruel or unkind to you. Jesus says God loves those people just as much as God loves you. Does that surprise you? Does that make you angry?
I wrestle a bit with this passage, not so much, I don’t think, with the idea that God loves all people, even the ones I don’t like. I wrestle because it seems like Jesus is being so harsh with the Nazarenes. Where is the love for them? Love is patient; love is kind; love is not 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. Jesus seems neither patient nor kind here. He’s a bit rude, too, I think, though we don’t know what tone of voice he is using. But it sure upset the people. I think the key here is the part about not rejoicing in wrongdoing, but rejoicing in the truth. He didn’t like the agenda that the people had. They didn’t understand what he had come to do, and he didn’t want to be patient with this misunderstanding. He wanted to correct it. He wanted to rejoice in truth and to call them to rejoice in truth as well. I guess they weren’t going to understand it that day.
But the Lord is patient and kind. God won’t insist on God’s own way, but will continually, eternally invite us to read the scriptures, to pray, to discern the surprising truth of God’s love for all. If we don’t get it today, we have the chance tomorrow. The people who chased Jesus out of town did not throw him over the cliff, but he was, as we know, killed later for his crazy teachings on love. But that wasn’t the end of it, oh no. Because love wins, Christ returns, Christ says to us over and over again, these words are fulfilled in your hearing. May it be so.
