After a snow hiatus last week, we find ourselves continuing in the series traveling with Paul on the calls in our lives. Paul traveled extensively throughout the Ancient World sharing the gospel, encountering open hearts and conflicts, often in the same place. As we talk this morning about one of the most familiar names and the passages of Pauline scripture, I lean again on the book, the Call and the resources associated with it. I would like you to take a listen to this video with Adam Hamilton as he share a bit about the city of Corinth and shows you some of the geography and how it shaped the city.
(show video)
The call to love came from a deep place in which Paul had experienced the division between followers of the Way and traditional followers of Judaism. Paul had even encouraged others to raise stones against those who believed differently. Paul was changed by the transformative presence of God and called to share this completely different way of living with God’s people. The gospel of Jesus was not a bit of memorizing a few verses and hoping you did alright. Paul lived and struggled with how challenging these acts of love truly were.
Paul speaks these words, not in a marriage ceremony, where two people are choosing to commit their lives to one another in every circumstance. Paul speaks these words to factions of people who cannot see how they have anything in common with people who have chosen or who acted differently. It is the Sharks and the Jets who see their divisions rather than their common humanity. It is the Montagues and the Capulets, the Bloods and the Crips, the jocks and the nerds, the haves and have-nots, it is those who support Trump and those who support Bernie Sanders. It is us and those we wish we not at all a part of our world. Ouch!
Paul’s chapter on love is how Paul’ s response to failed community love. This is Paul’s blueprint to us for each time that you and I have failed to walk well with our brothers and sisters. This chapter of love is for each time we have valued ourselves exclusively and forgotten that God created all people, not just those we prefer. Paul writes to the fledgling disciples at Corinth, who have known plenty of ways that are ungodly and seem to miss the ark even when they try for the ways of God. They sound like every one of us who feels the conviction of our hearts and souls, knows the movement of the Holy Spirit in worship, experiences the glow of possibility in worship and then exits the church to the real world. The world in which the kids are reflections of our least desirable characteristics; the world in which our spouses always push the wrong buttons and ignite our ire; the world in which co-workers are still not pulling their weight and make off-handed remarks that simmer within us; the world in which facebook “friends” post in ways that make us worry about them; the world in which neighbors will vote for different political candidates; the world in which the political answers to the larger problems leave us wanting. What was the kind of love that we were called to live out, again?
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Love does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
The kind of love that Paul called the Corinthians to live out was not about getting their own way or making sure their objective was realized. It the kind of love that makes no sense to those who are keeping score, seeking to get ahead, or looking out for number one. Moreover, it is the language and lifestyle of love that brings about God’s different way of living – the kingdom of heaven on earth.
It is no mistake that Jesus’ proclamation to begin his ministry in his own town is paired with Paul’s list of love notes. Imagine the hometown boy is growing up and even reads Torah in the synagogue. Can you imagine that the gathered crowd begins with pride? One of their own is one of God’s own! There is always pride about a hometown preacher until then open their mouths! He sits down to begin to expound on the word. He does not list through the customary thank you’s like the Oscars. He does not offer an account of his transformative years and how he has grown. He does not choose a safe, familiar reading of a beloved scripture. No. Jesus proclaims that the scripture has been fulfilled and will be fulfilled through him!
Jesus even grounds his proclamations in the tradition of the prophets who have come before him. He recalls the miracles and ministries of Elisha and Elijah. He tells the scriptures of the Torah and compares himself to the prophets of yore, and we know that he is claiming even more than a prophet – He is God’s very son. Jesus is God! It is right at the beginning of his ministry, that the Son of God is changing the world and announcing in his hometown – the hometown crowd could not believe the incredulous of Joseph’s boy to speak in such seemingly pompous and presumptuous ways. They are ready to push him off a cliff. They want no part of this fanciful kingdom is coming, scripture is fulfilled in your hearing mumbo-jumbo. They want him GONE! 1
But Jesus describes what this love looks like. God’s way is love. God’s way found in Isaiah 61:
bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn 2
Jesus announces that he is living out God’s love. Perhaps, we could understand why it was so upsetting to the good people of Nazareth if we reframe it in terms that are more modern:
The Spirit of the Lord anoints us bring good news to the oppressed.
– To bring the most colorful and healthiest food selections to those who can only afford to eat off the dollar menu at McDonalds.
– To forgive all of your student loans, even those you have carried longer than your children.
– to give clean water to the people of Flint, Michigan, Haiti, Rwanda, and around the world where cloudy water seeks to pass as drinkable.
– To restore dignity and worth to all people, employed, underemployed, unemployed, and retired.
The Spirit of the Lord uses us to bind up the brokenhearted
– To those who are missing and wishing for a loved one who is remembered everyday
– To those who wonder about their grown children that they no longer hear from
– To those who carry the scars of abuse in the marrow of their bones, even after the bruises have healed from their skin.
The Spirit of the Lord sends us as the hands of Jesus to bring liberty to captives
– Those who are captive to the bottle and to the pill, to the needle and to the laptop, to the smartphone and to the unattainable
– To remove feelings of worthlessness from those languishing in the corners of crowded rooms
– To provide rest to those caring for others through the day and night, babies and elderlies alike
– To free the captives of unjust justice.
– To give a sense of belonging to the alienated
– To forgive the sinner
– To remove all resentments from those who can’t let go of the past
Because the Spirit of the Lord has come to bring recovery of sight to the blind.
– to forever change the way we see those whose abilities differ from our own.
– To illuminate to us how human sin tears at the fabric of humanity
– To give us a glimpse of heaven in the here and now. To show us that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
– To show us what it looks like to love what God loves
– To allow us to see ourselves as God see us. So that we see how there really is no longer a “them” there is only an “us”. 3
You and I – we are called to that kind of love. Love that will only continue when it is patient. Love that will only impact the world when it is kind. Love that cannot envy, boast, or be proud. Love, that is of God, and not from our human instincts and impulses. You and I are called to that love. Love that changes the world. Love that brings about God’s way. Love that IS God’s way.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
1The painting is Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1886-1894. 2Isaiah 61:1-3 3http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2016/01/if-jesus-was-your-preacher-a-sermon/
New Testament Lesson: 1 Corinthians 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.
Gospel Lesson: 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.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, January 31 ~ Saturday, February 6
Sunday: “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.” 1 Corinthians 13:2. Love is the necessary string that connects our good impulses. Pause today to thank God for the model of love God has given us in Christ.
Monday: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant” 1 Corinthians 13:4. The very character of love is countercultural. Love that is patient and kind takes much of us. Offer this to those you love and those who challenge you, today.
Tuesday: “It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13: 7. Where is God calling you show acts of love in your daily life?
Wednesday: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13. Love may be the greatest, but it benefits from the presence of faith and hope. Let your love for others be infused with your faith in God and your hope for goodness.
Thursday: “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?’” Luke 4:22. When Jesus spoke in his hometown, people were amazed at the difference between who they expected him to be and who they experienced him to be. How is God calling you to loosen your expectations and experience others you know?
Friday: “He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” Luke 4:23. The expectations of the crowd were that Jesus would replicate his activities in every place. However, not every place was open to God. Prayerfully consider how God calls you to respond, before you do.
Saturday: “But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” Luke 4:30. When the crowds sought to do Jesus harm, he did not retaliate, he moved on. Where is God giving you permission to move on from?