1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Click here to watch the sermon "Faith, Hope and Love" 

 

Like any new parents, as we were waiting for Lucy’s arrival we began putting together her room. As we discussed possible themes and ideas we thought of things like: Narnia, the magical series her name came from. We thought of the classic jungle and animal themes, but we kept coming back to the song “What a wonderful World”, by Louis Armstrong. Perhaps it was because her dad and I’s first dance at our wedding was to Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s Somewhere over the rainbow/what a wonderful world mashup. OR maybe it’s  because, a professor from Columbia Seminary told the crowd at a conference I was at that her husband sings that song to their children every night, not just as a lullaby but as a prayer. And her words stuck with me, for years until I had my own child and sang her to sleep with the same prayer. Either way,  our daughter's nursery was filled with tributes to “What a wonderful world.” It was our prayers of deep faith, hope and love for not only her, but also our community and this world.  

Our scripture today picks up where we left off in Paul’s first Letter to the church of Corinth. Corinth was a commerce and religious hub about 40 miles south of Athens. While it was located in Greece it was a community where Roman law was upheld. Between the Roman occupation and the surge of wealth for the upper classes, Corinth was also known as a community with little to no cultural identity. In other words Corinth forgot who they are, who they were called to be. There was no social cohesion, the rich kept getting richer while the poor suffered. People were divided with no common thread. That’s when Paul writes this love letter to the church. This letter is like a manual for how to live in hard times.  

Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  

It is no secret that our country and our world is in such a tender place. We are grieving the lives lost in two airplane crashes. We are weathering a significant change in national leadership. We have experienced extremely cold nights and will soon experience nearly 70 degree days. It has been hard to know what is up and what is down. Maybe, just maybe we might understand a bit about the Corinthian community. Maybe we have forgotten who we are, where we are headed. Maybe we have forgotten who we are and whose we are. Maybe, just maybe Paul’s proclamation of love is something our souls and the soul of our nation needs right now.  

There are countless church rituals and ideas Paul could have offered, but Paul turns to love. He grounds the Corinthian community in love. He tells them you have come from love and you are called to be love. Love is who God is and love is who you are called to be. However, he does not stop there. He clarifies what he means by love. He doesn’t leave it up to each church member, he states explicitly what love means. “Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful. It is not 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 Truth. Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” 

It always comes back to love. This would have been a deeply political and if not divisive statement. This would have shocked the community. This would not be the verse someone would read at their wedding in those ancient days. This monologue on love would have caused a stir because it is so counter cultural. It would have defied custom to offer mercy, to live in a way that honored this understanding of love. This kind of love would have been revolutionary. Much like the love Jesus himself proclaimed that had him executed by the state and hung on the cross.  

Love never ends.  

It always comes back to love.  

Scholars remind us that this whole focus of this letter is on love, but this is the pinnacle of this conversation, smack dab in the heart of this letter. Right before it Paul uplifts the gifts of the spirit and how we are called to live together as the body of Christ. Immediately following this chapter, Paul dives into the ways this community is fractured and hurting. Love is the fulcrum of this letter and that is no coincidence.  

It is as if Paul himself is reminding the Corinthians who they are. Telling the story of how love wins again and again, so that their hearts will know this truth deeper than their bones. We cannot survive this life without love, without receiving love, without living in love, without giving love.  

If I give away all of my possessions, but do not have love then I have gained nothing.  

The Greek word for love here is agape. It means unconditional love. It is the highest form of love and is associated with the love that comes from God. It is not romantic love.That’s Eros. And it is not family or friend love that’s Philia. This is divine love, Good Friday, Easter Sunday kind of love. In fact Agape was what the earliest Christians called their house gatherings, “agape” or love-feasts. A time of nourishing one another and living into the love that calls us together as people of faith. It is the sound of our heartbeats, the well from which we draw living water.  

The love spoken of here is the love we return to when everything falls apart. Love never ends. 

In an interview a long time ago people asked Louis Armstrong and the writers how they could write the song “what a wonderful world” at a time when it was basically a crime to have black or brown skin. The song was written by two white men for Louis Armstrong and they wanted to write a song that painted the picture of how Armstrong’s music was able to bring all kinds of people together. and while the song pays tribute to Armstrong’s legacy, the words also paint us a picture of what could be. while the words are sung in the present, it is also singing of what is to come, if we let love lead. If we remember who we are and live our lives from a place of God’s divine love. And when we do, we will catch glimpses of the beauty in Armstrong’s song now, in our daily lives, but in God’s kin-dom we will see the fullness and beauty of the “bright blessed day and the dark sacred night. And we will all be able to think to ourselves, what a wonderful world.”  

Love never ends.  Not ever.  Not now.  May we live like this is true. Amen.