Don't Underestimate Love (1 Corinthians 13)

 I want to start by asking you a question: How many of you have seen the Disney movie Brother Bear?

I love the movie Brother Bear. I’m offended that the critics at Rotten Tomatoes, when they ranked Disney’s animated films, put Brother Bear in 70th place—70th out of 74! 

That is an unfair assessment. It's a travesty, is what it is!

That’s lower on the list than The Black Cauldron, a movie so bad that, for a while, Disney tried to pretend it didn’t exist.

Brother Bear deserves better. 

I love Tanana, the shaman in the movie. Of all the depictions of spiritual leaders in movies, she’s my favorite: The way she leads sacred ceremonies with reverence, yet welcomes the interruption of a curious child. The love she has for her village, and the love they have for her in return. Tanana, from Brother Bear, is the type of religious leader I want to be.

But the real reason I like Brother Bear so much is the circumstance surrounding my first time seeing the film.

The movie Brother Bear was released in the fall of 2003. My two children, Ethan and Tristan, were 6 and 2 at the time. I took the two of them to see this film in the theater; it was the first time taking them both to a movie theater.

Sometimes I wonder: can that be right? Do you really take a two-year-old to the movie theater?… But then I remember that Tristan was always old for his age, so I think that my memory is, in fact, correct.

In the movie, there are three brothers. Which means I’m taking my two sons, who are brothers, to see a movie about brothers.

The younger brother in the film—Kenai—is about to have his coming-of-age ceremony.

The two older brothers, Sitka and Denahi, have already had their coming-of-age ceremonies, in which they each received a totem from Tanana. 

Sitka, for his totem, was given the eagle of guidance. Denahi was given the wolf of wisdom.

As his ceremony is about to begin, Kenai is full of anticipation. He’s excited. He really hopes and expects that his totem will be something really good, something really special, like a saber-toothed tiger of bravery, or strength.

But instead, he gets…(what?) the bear of love.

What a disappointment! The bear of love? What teenage boy wants to be the bear of love?

He mutters under his breath: “Who wants to trade?”

But Tanana bonks him on the head and says: “There is no trading!” (You gotta love Tanana!)

So he’s stuck with the bear of love as his totem.

Tanana tries to convince him that love is the most precious of totems. But Kenai doesn’t believe her. He wants to be a man. And what use is love to a man?

Like many people, Kenai fails to appreciate the power of love.

But, by the end of the movie—with the help of a new, adopted, younger brother—he finally learns that love is, indeed, the greatest, most powerful gift of all.

I have on a shelf in my office a rather large book called A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

It’s amazing how often Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote or preached about love. Not in a vague, general—or sentimental—sense, but really delving into the biblical definitions of love, and ways that God calls us to practice love in our world today.

King was well-acquainted with the three main types of love that appear in the ancient Greek language. Each, in fact, has its own word in ancient Greek. 

One of these words is eros.  During a speech he gave at U.C. Berkeley in 1957, King 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, and it’s the type of love we associate with Valentine’s Day; but in that speech 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 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 only agape love has the power to change the world.

What the apostle Paul is talking about in First Corinthians is agape love. The scripture is often read at weddings, and everything it says about love can be applied to love in marriage, but Paul has in mind an even bigger love. 

Paul is writing about agape.

Which means 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. 

Agape is the kind of love that convinces someone to spend a week keeping our Helping Shelf stocked, or to do any of the other things that so many of you do, because of your love for our church and our community; the love you have for people you haven’t even met.

Agape is the kind of love that convinces a parent to forgive the person who murdered their child. Can you imagine having your child murdered, then reaching out to the murderer to offer forgiveness?

I once met someone who did just that. The life of this man’s own son was destroyed because of that murder, but this man was so filled with agape love, that 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.

I didn’t say agape love was easy.

It’s the kind of love that convinced Martin Luther King, Jr. 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.

Agape 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. He did that act of love for them…

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.

So I think it was the power of agape love that enabled him to do that.

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

It’s the most powerful force in the world.

It’s the one thing that can overcome injustice.

It’s the thing that can bring us fully into the reign of Christ, the kingdom of God: the world of wholeness and shalom that God intends for us.

But because it is such a challenging thing for us, we need to practice it. We need to meditate on it. We need to pray that the Spirit might grow this gift within us.

I don’t know about you, but there are some days when I just don’t want to be loving. I get tired of trying to love everyone. It’s so much easier to judge, or mock, or just hide away from the world’s problems. 

That’s why Paul wrote a whole chapter on this one spiritual gift. And that’s why love is talked about so often by Jesus, and by the other epistle authors, who even say that God is love; that love is the very essence of who God is. 

Something else Martin Luther King, Jr. said about love: he said that love must always accompany power.

King said that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

I also heard someone say recently that “love oughta look like something.” After his resurrection, Jesus asked Peter—the disciple who denied Jesus three times—if he loved him. “Peter, do you love me?” 

“Yes, Lord,” Peter said.

“Then feed my lambs.”

Then Jesus asked Peter again: “Do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Then tend my sheep.”

Jesus asked Peter a third time: “Peter, do you love me?” Peter was upset that Jesus asked him a third time, and said, “You know I love you.”

And Jesus replied, “Feed my sheep.”

Love is more than sentiment. Love is action. Love is tending and feeding the sheep. Love is compassion, shown concretely to those who are vulnerable. Love is working for justice, which is just another way of saying working for what is right. Love is good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed, as we heard last week…

In the movie Brother Bear, it takes the whole movie for Kenai to learn what it means to truly love. He makes many mistakes along the way, and faces many trials.

It’s no different for us. We are all on a journey of learning how to love; how to love like Jesus; to grow in love with every step we take, so that, hopefully, we are able to express our love in action a little better today than we did yesterday, and a little better tomorrow than we did today…

…And we keep doing this, day after day, until one day, at the end of our journey, we will have finally learned what love truly is, and we will experience that final loving embrace of God, whole and complete. 

BKCC Past, Present, Future (Jeremiah 1; 1 Corinthians 13)

 Jan 27, 1946

The last Sunday of January, 1946, was a foggy, drizzly morning i n Long Beach. On that day, 76 years ago - in the building that is now our Fellowship Hall - Bixby Knolls Christian Church held its first worship service.

Some of those present would eventually become members of the new congregation, but many were supporters from neighboring Disciples’ congregations. A total of 277 worshipers signed the guest book that day.

On the following Sunday, there was a thunderstorm; and, since many of the roads in the neighborhood were unpaved, the roads were muddy, and getting to church was difficult. That was just one of the many challenges our church faced in its first few months.

At that first worship service 76 years ago, a statement was read in which this congregation affirmed its commitment to the whole community. This church was not founded solely for the benefit of its members, but for the benefit of those who are not members.

This sentiment was reaffirmed in our recent “New Beginnings” process. We continue to seek ways to serve and love our neighbors.

It takes a lot of energy to start a new church; and it takes a lot of energy to keep a church going. We face some of the same challenges as 76 years ago, but many of the challenges we face are new.

Yet God calls us to continue building the church, and finding ways to love and serve our community.

It’s tiring work. We may be tempted to protest, like Jeremiah did. “Ah, Lord God! What do we know? We are just a small church. There’s just a few of us, and often, we have no idea what we’re doing!”

But God responds, “Do not say, 'we are only a small church'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.”

And somehow, by God’s grace and strength, we keep doing just that. We keep speaking God’s love; we keep proclaiming God’s desire for justice; and we keep finding ways to love and serve our community.

In the book of Revelation, God says: “I am the Alpha and the Omega [the first and the last], the one who is and was and is to come.”

This suggests that God transcends time, that God is present in the past, present, and future. As we look to the past, we see God present. As we look to the future, we see God present. 

The future toward which we are headed - the future which may fill us with anxiety, fear, or dread - God is already present in that future. God is already there, just as God is here, right now.

That future which seems so uncertain to us - God is already there, waiting for us.

We Welcoming All to the Lord’s Table

At that first worship service 76 years ago, our congregation affirmed its intention to be a welcoming and inclusive congregation. 

Over the years we have taken that commitment seriously, and we have grown in understanding. We have expanded our welcome.

And we continue to grow in understanding, and we continue to seek ways we can become even more inclusive, welcoming, and affirming of all people. And it all began with a commitment made 76 years ago.

That, I think, is the key to understanding why it’s good to pause and look back at where we come from, and what we stood for when we started, and reflect on how we have or have not lived out the intentions we first set forth.

It’s like how, every week, we gather around the Lord’s Table, which gives us reason to ponder its significance, and reflect on how our lives are changed because we’ve accepted Christ’s invitation to gather and partake.

It’s like how we are invited to reflect on our baptism - even if the day of our baptism was many, many years ago. As I reflect on my own baptism, and the commitments I made that day, and the overwhelming grace of God that was affirmed in my life, I continue to grow in understanding of just what it all means.

Love is Everything

As part of our learning and growing as a congregation, we often give deep thought to what it means to love. The most well-known Bible passage on love is from 1 Corinthians 13, and in our memories it begins, “Love is patient, love is kind.” But there are actually three verses that come before that in chapter 13, the three verses that were read for us.

“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.”

Which means that if your theology is correct - if your understanding of atonement is correct, for example, or if you have the right understanding of the resurrection, or if you have the right interpretation of scripture - but you lack love, then everything you have is meaningless. It’s all meaningless without love.

Love is challenging. Love is bold. Love is courageous. Throughout our congregation’s history, we have shown love and affirmation to people of different races and nationalities. We have shown love and affirmation to refugees and immigrants. And we learned, over the years, to show love and affirmation to the LGBT community.

But we’re still learning how to love. We’re still learning what it means to be welcomed, unconditionally, at the Lord’s Table, and how we are called to pass on that welcome to others, and to proclaim God’s radical love in word and action.

What Kind of Church?

I don’t know about you, but I’m still learning how to show love when someone asks me, “What kind of church is it, that you belong to?”

What I want to say is that we are a church that loves others and does its best to follow Jesus.

Unfortunately, people have a lot of ideas about “church” these days - a lot of assumptions - and you know as well as I that not all the ideas people have about church are positive.

The reasons for this are many. The media often present just one image of church, rather than the spectrum and diversity that exist within the body of Christ.

And, too many churches have, in fact, harmed people rather than helped them. 

So when people ask about church, we might feel tempted to say, “... but we’re not that kind of church.”

OK, then, what kind of church are we? 

I’ve started using the word “progressive” to describe us. I’ve resisted doing so for a long time, because I just really don’t like labels. 

I remember when I heard Gustavo Gutierrez speak - the “father of liberation theology.” He said something that surprised me; he said: “it wouldn’t bother me one bit if liberation theology disappeared tomorrow, because I wasn’t ordained to preach liberation theology; I was ordained to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Well, I wasn’t ordained to preach progressive Christianity; I was ordained to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

William Barber is another one who feels uncomfortable with certain labels. Many consider him a leader of progressive, liberal Christianity, but he describes himself as a “theologically conservative liberal evangelical biblicist.” In a speech he gave a few years ago, he said, “I know it may sound strange, but I'm a conservative because I work to conserve a divine tradition that teaches us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.”

Clearly, using a label like “progressive” - or, any label - isn’t perfect; but if all I say is that I’m a Christian, or that I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, people are going to make assumptions. Right? They’re going to paint a picture in their mind, and it’s likely that it won’t be a picture I agree with.

I wish I didn’t have to clarify that I’m a Christian who actually believes that Jesus wants us to care for the poor, to reach out to the outcasts, to welcome immigrants and foreigners, and to affirm every person that is condemned by society. I wish I didn’t have to clarify that I’m the type of Christian who believes God desires healing over punishment. 

But because of the assumptions that are made, I’m feeling more and more that I do need to clarify these things. And one of the easiest, simplest ways to do that is to say I’m a progressive Christian.

Another option would be to just keep quiet, to just not talk about it at all. In fact, I’ve been in gatherings where I’ve told people I’m with, “Don’t tell anyone I’m a pastor,” because I just don’t want to have those conversations. I don’t want to have to explain that I’m not that type of Christian, I don’t want to have to defend myself against someone who might challenge me for being too liberal, and I don’t want to have to defend the church to someone who has become anti-church because of all the things they’ve heard.

And yet, I do want to live authentically. I want to live out my truth. I don’t want to hide this about me. And I believe that God does call me to proclaim the gospel - the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of love, the gospel of healing, wholeness, and salvation.

God has put a word within me, and God doesn’t want me to hide it.

BKCC - Past, Present, and Future

And if there is one thing that the queer community has taught me, and one thing that the queer community can teach the church, is the importance of living authentically, of coming out to the world.

I’m an introvert. I once described our congregation as an introverted congregation. Meaning, that it’s our nature to be quiet, to not go around talking people’s ears off about who we are or what we do.

But Elizabeth Edman, in her book Queer Virtue, made me realize that maybe it’s not just that we’re an introverted congregation. Maybe it’s that we are a congregation that’s still in the closet. Maybe it’s that we are a congregation that hasn’t quite yet figured out how to live authentically, how to proclaim the truth about who we are, what we believe…

And maybe that’s how God is calling us to grow in the years ahead.

Fortunately, we have 76 years of growth behind us, which fills me with confidence that we will continue growing in the years ahead.

Fortunately, we have a legacy of love for our neighbors in our community and around the world, and that love will guide us in the years ahead.

Fortunately, we have the encouragement of the one who said to Jeremiah and who says to us “Do not be afraid; I have put my words in your mouth; and I will be with you.”

Because I am the God who was, and who is, and who is to come. I am the God who was with you in the past, who is with you in the present, and who is already with you in the future that is coming.

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.