February 15, 2009 Sermon

Agape
I Corinthians 13

We just read the “Love Chapter”, often heard at weddings. For once, I support something done in our popular culture. Reading from I Corinthians 13 at a wedding ceremony gives everybody present—the bride and groom, the witnesses, the clergy—the chance to hear a deep truth. This chapter expresses the spiritual reality of true love. Its message boils down to five words: love as you are loved.

Love as you are loved. The Greek language in which the Apostle Paul wrote has several words for love. One, phileo, refers to the affection found in friendships. Another, eros, refers to sexual impulses. The word Paul used throughout I Corinthians 13 is the Greek agape, and this matters.  Agape refers to sacrificial, pure love. Agape means that love that gives without seeking any return. Agape is the word the authors of the New Testament used to describe the love of Christ. As Paul himself wrote in his letter to the Romans, “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” As Jesus himself said, “Greater love has no man but that he lay down his life for his friend.” He proved his perfect, pure love, his agape, for us with his death on the cross. He paid the price for our sins demanded by God's perfect justice. Then his Holy Spirit poured that love into our hearts. What shall we do with that love?

Love as you have been loved. I Corinthians 13 follows, remarkably enough, I Corinthians 12. There, Paul discussed spiritual gifts. He noted that these come from the Holy Spirit, which gives us talents, interests, abilities that we can give in return. He emphasized that no gift has more importance than any other. He concluded by insisting that the Church, the Body of Christ, needs every gifted person (and in Christ we are all gifted people) to give his or her gifts in ministry. As majestic and challenging as all this is, it serves merely as an introduction to Paul's treatment of the greatest spiritual gift of all: agape love.

Our chapter begins with the statement that no matter how gifted a person may be, if they do not have agape love they sound like a clanging gong. The Corinthian Christians lived in a city filled with all sorts of temples to all sorts of gods. Many of these religions incorporated bells and gongs into their worship rituals. Paul's Corinthian audience would have understood that he meant something particular with this gong comment: if we do not love with the love of Christ, we are pagans. We worship false gods. We do not belong fully to the Body of Christ.

Do you remember the Gong Show? On the surface it was a talent show. On a deeper level it was an exercise in humiliation. People with a wide range of talents (including no talent at all) would do their thing. As they “performed”, if a judge decided they were terrible he or she would pick up an out-sized mallet and hit the gong. The contestant would have to leave the stage. It was a cruel show. Sometimes judges would pick up the mallet and, as the contestant sang or danced his heart away, would fake hitting the gong, prolonging the agony. And people would laugh themselves silly. I cannot say that I ever watched more than a few moments of it. It bothered me in the same way that American Idol bothers me today. Both prove that people will endure humiliation in pursuit of celebrity, a false god. I will say this, however: though each one of us deserves to get “gonged”, God has loved us deeply enough to die for us.

God asks us to love as we have been loved. In the middle of this chapter Paul fleshes out what that kind of love involves. Agape love is patient and kind. Agape love does not insist on its own way, grow irritable, or rejoice in wrongdoing. Instead, agape love rejoices in truth, endurance, faith and hope. We mentioned how frequently these words appear in wedding ceremonies. I once performed a wedding for Barbie and Ken. Literally. In fact, the bride was actually Barbara Ann and she could do a terrific rendition of the Beach Boys' classic song of that name. Barb and Ken came to me because one of the other pastors at our church had counseled them and recommended that they not get married. He had uncovered a profoundly threatening issue they had been only dimly aware of. They had been too afraid too deal with it honestly. When they approached me they told me none of this. They were banking on the idea that my colleague, bound by confidentiality, could not alert me to the issue. (I think they were probably also banking on me not being astute enough to uncover it.)

As it happened my colleague did not breathe a word to me. But by the grace of God I stumbled over their problem. Bound by confidentiality, I cannot say more about that issue. I can say this: in order to deal with it Barb and Ken had to discover agape love within and between themselves. They had to decide whether they still loved each other even after digging into the problem. Problems in relationships are like tooth decay. They often start small. They are hidden. Because we do not immediately notice them they have the chance to grow. They start to hurt. When we feel the pain we know—often only unconsciously—we ought to do something about them. We ought to dig in there. We ought to clean out the decay before its destruction spreads. But because it hurts we avoid dealing with it. In relationships, we avoid digging because we fear that the pain it causes might kill the love that binds us together.

Agape love does not flee in the face of pain, or of sin. Agape love hangs in there no matter what. Barb and Ken dealt with their issue. They got married. They still had to deal with their issue. They stayed married. The last I heard they were parents and had served as very popular, effective youth group advisors for over ten years. For all I know they still have to deal with their issue. But through the healing love of Christ they served as role models for a generation of church youth. As Paul puts it, “Love never ends.” By now we ought to know to make the automatic translation: “Agape love never ends.” Valentine's Day, hearts and flowers and chocolate love ends. Agape love never ends. The love of Christ is eternal. It lives in us and will do so forever so long as we receive this great gift from the Holy Spirit.

Love as you are loved. Paul built up to the climax of his love chapter by pointing out that all the other spiritual gifts end. Prophecy, knowledge, all of them will eventually die out. Some commentators find in this passage a reference to the second coming of Christ. The Bible does state that time itself will end when Jesus finally returns. Yet Paul made the audacious claim that love will never end. He pointed out that in this life we exercise our gifts only partially. We are imperfect sinners. We are limited by our life-spans and abilities. But the complete is coming, Paul insisted. And when that complete comes, when Jesus comes, we will know no limitations. For now, we act like children. We think immaturely. Then we will understand completely. For now, we see dimly. Then we will see as clearly as if we were standing face to face with Jesus. Who knows? Maybe we literally will.

Love as you are loved. Jesus loves the world so much he died for it. If that's not true love, I don't know what is. Jesus has promised that at some point he will return and establish his perfect kingdom. Until he does, we remain his representatives in this reality. We are the Body of Christ. We must try to love as he has loved us.

The timing of this weekend strikes me as a God thing. We have just finished our new building addition. We have started hosting Safe Harbor, in which we invite the homeless to be our guests. And yesterday was Valentine's Day. By now we should understand that agape love has nothing to do with receiving jewelry and everything to do with giving a hot meal and a cot to a person who otherwise might go hungry before sleeping under a bridge. By now we should understand that agape love has nothing to do with receiving candygrams from people we hope might come to “love” us and everything to do with giving hugs to people we would normally avoid like the plague.

Love as you have been loved. The Holy Spirit of God has been poured into your heart. You can love with the love of Christ because you have received the love of Christ. Wise teachers require that children give Valentines to everybody. (Actually, the wisest teachers would probably try to prevent the giving or receiving of any Valentines.) The most Christ-like thing we can do is express the love of Jesus to people who have been made to believe they are unlovable.

In that youth group that Barb and Ken helped sponsor was a young woman named Louise who one day would become Miss Missouri. Once, on a canoe trip with that youth group, her twin brother told her that another girl in the group was crying. The group had pulled onto a sandbar in the middle of the river for lunch. This other girl had walked a short distance away and sat, sobbing, behind a boulder. Louise immediately sought her out. A little perspective will set the story. The sad young lady was quite overweight. Most of the young men and women were wearing only their swimsuits. But the heavy girl had kept on her t-shirt. She felt that her body was fat and ugly. She did not say this to the future beauty queen. In fact, she said nothing. But the other young woman saw the problem. She returned to her canoe, put on her shirt, and matter-of-factly told the group, “We're all going to wear our tops now.” She did not explain why. Many of the youth probably never understood. It did not matter whether they saw clearly at that moment. It was an agape loving thing to do.

When we are honest, we are all ugly in the sight of God. We are all sinners. Yet God loves us so much he died for us. He saved us from ourselves. Love as you have been loved. Use whatever gift you have to love as you have been loved.