A Moment of Reflection – September 4, 2022, Combined Service
Psalm 27, I Corinthians 13
September 4, 2022
I was looking through my records the other day. And I found that a year ago, I used this passage from I Corinthians. And I remember saying at that time, that it was unusual. Because as often as I’ve read these words at weddings – and you’ve heard them – I haven’t read them very often on a Sunday morning.
As I think about that, and as I think about these words, it seems to me that these are very important words, maybe even more so in our world today. And maybe we should read them a lot more! Because it seems like our world is a little short on love, as Paul describes it here.
As I’ve said before, some scholars have tried to say that this chapter is out of place. They’ve said it’s like something got jumbled up somehow and misplaced somewhere along the line as it was being transcribed. They say that, because it comes in the middle of a long letter that was all about Paul giving the Corinthians a lot of practical and spiritual advice. He was spending a lot of time – and ink – trying to tell them how to “get along with” one another in this new “community” they were now in called “the Church.” And some would say this chapter on love somehow got dropped into the middle of all that.
Well, I don’t see it that way. I often describe this chapter as being a “pausing place,” a “moment of reflection” for Paul. It’s a time when he sat back from his writing, put down his pen, thought a little, and then said, “Let me take a moment to tell you something.” “And this is so important that, unless you understand it, the rest of this letter isn’t worth the paper – the parchment – it’s written on.” “Everything in this letter depends on this!”
Maybe we need to do that from time to time. Maybe we need to pause from the busyness and the craziness of this life, and take just such a “moment of reflection,” and think about love, and how it relates to everything we do. The other thing I thought about this week is what I read in an one article about this psalm we started with, Psalm 27. The title of the article said, “Slow down, and grow closer to God.”
Now, coincidentally – or actually not – these thoughts came to me on the same day I was reading another article about what the author called “The three biggest stressors in our world.” And we do live in crazy world, don’t we? There’s a lot of stress and tension in our world! And the author stated that the three things that cause the most stress in our world are these:
- The pandemic
- Political division
- Racial tension
I would say, maybe more accurately, that the effects of the pandemic, with its fear, its isolation, and its uncertainty, have served to intensify the other two. Because some would say, “Oh we’ve always had political divisions and racial tension.” And that’s true. But there’s something else going on here. It seems like these things are worse somehow, since the pandemic, doesn’t it?
And the pandemic has added stress to just about everything hasn’t it? And the effects of the pandemic just seem to linger on. And I’m not just talking about the physical effects, like new strains and variants. I’m talking about the controversy and the stress over how everything has been handled.
Through this whole time, we’ve all longed for things to get “back to normal.” But there are still lingering symptoms. It’s almost like the world itself is exhibiting symptoms of “long covid.” We have these symptoms that continue to plague us, and we can’t seem to shake them. And sometimes I think the world is in denial of these things. Like a person who has a disease – like covid – but refuses to acknowledge it.
I’ve heard recently that it appears that covid will just become a chronic thing, like the flue. We’ll see it pop up again and again, and for the most part it won’t be as severe as it was at first – thank heavens! Maybe the symptoms of our society will do the same. And I don’t think we can ignore them.
So, with all these stressful things in our current world, maybe we should pause and reflect more often. Maybe we should read these words more often! Maybe we should slow down and get closer to God more often. In the middle of all the controversy and conflict Paul was dealing with in the Corinthian Church, (Yes, they had it, too!) he paused, and then he wrote, “But I will show you a still more excellent way.” And then these words about love.
By the way, if you read older translations of this passage, you don’t find the word “love.” Does anybody remember what word was used? Charity! And on one hand, where I don’t think that word “foots the bill,” it does attempt to get us to think beyond the world’s understanding of the word “love.” I’ve often said that “love” is the most misunderstood word we have in our world. In our world, “love” is often confused with the desire to be loved. Or, in many cases, just desire. Too often it’s about the “self.”
But as Paul describes it here, love is focus on the “other,” not the self. That is at the heart of everything in this chapter. And it’s at the heart of everything in this letter. He starts out here by saying, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” In other words, if I act in spiritual ways, but have not love, I am nothing. Then he says, “If I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have enough faith to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” “And if I am so sacrificial that I give away all that I have and even sacrifice my body, but have not love, it’s nothing!”
He’s saying, “I could be the most spiritual, the most knowledgeable, the most faithful, the most sacrificial person – any or even all of those things. But if I don’t have love – Nothing!” If you do everything I’ve written to you about in this letter, and follow everything I’ve said about being good Christians, but have not love, it’s all nothing! I hope they saw how important this was! And I hope we do, too. And I hope we remember that, “they’ll know we are Christians,” not by how spiritual we act, or how much we know about God, but “by our love.”
Then look how he describes this love. And notice, that nowhere here does he say, “Love is deep feeling and passionate.” No. Look what he starts with. “Love is patient and kind.” Think about those two words! If everybody in this world worked on just those two things, think about how much less stressful our world would be! Do you remember the “Random acts of Kindness” movement? Do you remember what a great message that was, and still is. And I would only say, maybe kindness should not be so random! Maybe it should be more intentional!
Paul completes that thought by saying what love is not. “It is not the opposite of patience and kindness,” he says. “It is not what a lot of people in our world are!” “It is not arrogant or rude, it is not irritable or resentful.” Maybe he should have said, “Love does not get so easily offended!” Wouldn’t that be a great message for our world! Everybody is offended by something these days!
He goes on, “It does not rejoice in wrong but rejoices in the right.” In other words, love doesn’t say, “I told you so!” I would add to that one of my favorite thoughts here. And I think Paul would agree with me. “Love does not look for the worst in people and criticize it. Love looks for the best in people and encourages it!” I don’t remember where I first heard that, but it fits in with this so well!
Then this line that I love so much! “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Love is a powerful thing in that way! If love rules in our hearts, we will bear all things! We will believe, hope, and endure all things. Love brings us to that level!
Then at the end here, he puts it all in the perspective of eternity. He gives them the “big picture.” And I love this! He says, “In the end, it’s all going to pass away, anyway.” “Prophecy, tongues, knowledge, it will cease.” “And besides,” he said, “We only see in a mirror dimly.” That may be the one line I’ve quoted most often from Paul! “We see in a mirror dimly.” We think we know everything, and we’re always right, but “We see in a mirror dimly.” “We only see in part.” He was telling them, “So many of the troubles you are facing come from your own viewpoint and your own opinion. And, inevitably, that clashes with someone else’s viewpoint.” “But,” he says, “we really only see in part.” Isn’t that an important message to our extremely opinionated and disagreeing world?!
That’s one of the reasons I always try to see the big picture in things. To try to understand all points of view. Too often it’s clinging to the narrowness of viewpoint that leads to narrowness of mind! At the very least, it’s important, and again, Paul would agree, that we try to respect other people’s views, even if we disagree with them, just like we try to respect the person, even if we disagree with them!
And how do we do that? It’s hard! Well, we start by striving to be patient and kind. That’s what Paul started with here. And if we have trouble holding on to all of the other things he said in this chapter at any given moment, we can at least hold on to those two words. “Love is patient and kind.”
Yes, the world is in turmoil all around us. The pandemic has intensified many thoughts and feelings about politics and race. And those problems will not be solved so easily or any time soon. But even as we experience all of that, we can be people who take that “moment of reflection,” and think about the love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” And, in the end, we can know that “the greatest of these is love!”
Prayer
Eternal God, you so loved the world that you gave your son. And your son showed us how to love the world. Help us to have the strength to follow him, to live and to love the way he did, that the world might see the light of your love, and that light might spread through us. For these things we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.