The Greatest Gift (1 Corinthians 13)

Does today’s scripture sound familiar to you?

Reverend Michael Bos, senior minister of West End Collegiate Church in New York City, says he can never hear this scripture without thinking of the movie, Wedding Crashers.

I don’t remember much from that movie, but Michael Bos reminds me that, in that movie, the two main characters are played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. In one scene, the two are at a wedding ceremony; and when the pastor announces that the bride's sister will now read scripture, Owen says to Vince, “Twenty dollars, First Corinthians.”

It’s a safe bet. The 13th chapter of First Corinthians is the most popular scripture read at weddings.

And sure enough, in the movie, The bride's sister takes the podium and begins, “And now a reading from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.”

Maybe that’s why I’ve never actually preached a sermon on the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians in the nearly eleven years I’ve been here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church. I’ve alluded to it; I’ve made references to it many times; but it’s never been our focus scripture for Sunday morning, even though both Protestant and Catholic churches have it listed as one of the readings for this fourth Sunday of Epiphany in year C of the lectionary cycle.

Some people call the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians the “love chapter.” And maybe some of you aren’t too excited to hear a sermon about love.

A movie I’m a little more familiar with is the Disney movie Brother Bear. At the beginning of that movie, Kenai is ready to receive his totem. His two older brothers already have theirs: The eagle of guidance and the wolf of wisdom. But when Kenai’s totem turns out to be the bear of love, he is disappointed. To say the least.

Maybe you were hoping for a sermon on wisdom today, or a sermon on guidance. Maybe you were hoping for a sermon on strength and power. Maybe you were hoping for a sermon on faith or hope or courage.

Maybe a sermon on love doesn’t really sound all that interesting to you.

If so, keep in mind that in Brother Bear, Kenai didn’t understand how powerful love truly is - and, like Kenai, many people today underestimate the power of love.

One person who didn’t underestimate love’s power is Martin Luther King, Jr.

King knew that in Greek, the language of the New Testament, there are actually three different words for love, each with its own meaning.

One of these words is eros.  During a speech he gave at U.C. Berkeley in 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Eros is a sort of aesthetic love.  It has come to us to be a sort of romantic love and it stands with all its beauty.”
    Eros love is a gift from God, but King quickly moved on to the second type of love. He said: “The Greek language talks about philia and this is a sort of reciprocal love between friends.”  It’s the kind of love that we in the church have for each other.  It’s the kind of love that you scouts develop for each other. It’s brotherly love. Sisterly love. The love of family and friends. Philia.
    Then King said: “The Greek language comes out with another word, and it is agape.  Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all… It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return.”
In other speeches and writings, King pointed out that agape love recognizes that all humans are interrelated, that there is some of you in every person, and it recognizes that both you and that other person are created in the image of God.  That’s why agape is a love you show even to your enemies.
    All three types of love are powerful.  All three types of love are good. All three types of love have the power to change lives.  But I think it’s safe to say that only agape love has the power to change the world.

Agape love is the love that develops when we learn to see the world through the eyes of others. In Brother Bear, Kenai hated bears, until he literally learned to see the world through the eyes of a bear. That changed everything, didn’t it?

What the apostle Paul is actually talking about in First Corinthians is agape love. Which means it is about much more than the love two people who are getting married have for each other. Paul is talking about the love that shows itself in acts of kindness; the love that leads people to do things for others, for strangers, without asking for anything in return. The kind of love that leads people to volunteer in their community, to do acts of service, to donate to churches and non-profit organizations that benefit the community.

It’s the kind of love that convinces a man or woman to be a scout leader to boys he or she may not have even met yet.

It’s the kind of love that leads a church to sponsor a scout troop for families in the community.

It’s the kind of love that convinces a person to forgive the person who murdered his son. Have you ever met someone who forgave his son’s murderer? I have. His own son’s life was destroyed because of that murder, but because he was filled with agape love, he didn’t want that killer’s life to also be destroyed. So he reached out to him, forgave him, and worked with him so that he could redeem himself from the terrible decision and action he made.

Hey, I didn’t say agape love was easy.

It’s the kind of love that convinced Martin Luther King to resist racism and oppression nonviolently. King wasn’t just seeking the liberation of Black Americans, but also White Americans. He believed that those who are oppressed as well as those who do the oppressing are enslaved by racism, and he sought redemption and freedom for all.

It’s the kind of love that Jesus showed. Often, throughout scripture, Jesus encountered people who were sick or excluded or looked down upon, and the scripture says he had compassion on them. He felt for them.

Why? He had never met them. What were they to him? It’s not like it was his mother, or his brother, or his friend - these were people he had never met…

And when Jesus and his disciples gathered for the meal we call the Last Supper, Jesus invited them all to eat with him, and then, afterward, he did the unexpected: he took an apron, the symbol of a slave or servant, and put it on. Then he began to serve his disciples. He showed them kindness. He washed their feet, which is a task of a slave or servant.

And you might say, well, he did that because these were his friends. Except that Jesus knew that, very soon, they would all desert him when he needed them the most. They would abandon him. They would deny him. They would betray him.

He knew this. He knew they would fail him and turn against him.

Yet he still showed them this act of love.

That’s powerful stuff: showing love like that to those who would turn against you…

Notice that there’s a difference between showing love to those who are against you, and allowing them to walk all over you. Martin Luther King showed love to every person, but he didn’t allow them to walk all over him. He confronted their attitudes that led to racism and militarism and poverty.

William Barber, a Disciples pastor (like me) from North Carolina, is doing the same thing today. Confronting the evils of society… but always doing it with love for others and even love for one’s enemies.

In the book of First Corinthians, the apostle Paul is talking about spiritual gifts. Here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church, we heard last week from chapter twelve, in which Paul says there are varieties of gifts. Within the church, one is given the gift of wisdom, one is given the gift of knowledge, one is given the gift of faith, one is given the gift of healing, one is given the gift of communication, and so on. We don’t all have the same gifts, and that’s OK.

But the greatest gift, Paul says, is agape love. Which is why the very next chapter - chapter 13, the one we’re focusing on today - is all about the gift of love.

And this gift - the gift of love - is available to all.

And this gift - the gift of love - is what gives all the other gifts their power.

That’s why Paul says “I can teach, I can lead, I can heal, I can perform acts of great faith and power, but if I don’t have love, I gain nothing. Because the greatest of all these gifts is love.”

So there you go. I hope you aren’t too disappointed by a sermon about love. I hope you see the tremendous power of love when it is boldly shared with strangers and even enemies. And I hope you are able to incorporate a little more of this self-less, generous, radical agape love into your life.