Jeremiah
1: 4–10; Psalm 71: 1–6; I Corinthians 13: 1–13; Luke 4: 21-30
This is the homily given
at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, February 3,
2019.
“LOVE IN THE BIBLE”
(Homily text: I Corinthians 13: 1-13)
Our
Epistle text appointed for this morning is drawn from St. Paul’s first letter
to the Corinthians, chapter thirteen. It is, perhaps, one of Paul’s most
familiar writings, and one we hear quite frequently, particularly at weddings.
Paul’s
subject, set before us this morning, is about love.
Love
is a subject that those early Christians in Corinth needed to hear much about.
It is a subject that we, today, also need to hear much about.
Since
there seems to be some question about love, and about what love is, in the early
culture of the city of Corinth and in the age in which we live, perhaps it
might be good for us to pause for a moment and remind ourselves – by way of the
dictionary definition of love – about the nature of love: Here, then is the
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary definition (which I offer only in
part):
1.
A
profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2.
A
feeling of warm, personal attachment or deep affection.
3.
Sexual
passion or desire, sweetheart.
4.
A
person toward whom love is felt.
5.
(used
in direct address as a form of endearment, affection, or the like, as in,
“Would you like to see a movie, love?”
6.
A
love affair, an intensely amorous incident; amour.
7.
A
personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid;
8.
Affectionate
concern for the well-being of others, the love of one’s neighbor.
9.
The
benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due
from them to God.
10. Strong predilection, enthusiasm or
liking for anything, as in “Her love of books.”
As
wonderful as the English language is, it has only one word for love. So in
order to distinguish between different kinds of love, we have to add an adjective.
For example, we may speak of “Selfless love”.
The
Bible too, has much to say about love. Greek, the language of the New Testament, offers
us a richer variety of words to describe love. The New Testament uses two of
the three Greek words for love:
Phileo: This is the love between friends, or perhaps
brotherly or sisterly love, as in the city of “Brotherly Love”, Philadelphia.[1]
Agape: This is self-giving love, the love that loves
even if there is no benefit to the one offering the love. It is the sort of
love that God has for humankind in the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ.
There
is one other Greek word for love, which is not found in the New Testament:
Eros:
This is romantic, sexual love.
With
a clearer concept of what love is, let’s turn our attention to the situation
which existed in the early Church in Corinth. In truth, the Corinthian church
must have qualified as the toughest group that Paul had to lead and manage.
To
set the stage, we need to return to chapter one of Paul’s letter.
There,
we find that a “party spirit” had infected the Corinthian church. Some claimed
to be followers of Peter (Paul uses the Greek name for Peter, Cephas). Others claimed to be followers
of Apollos (one of Paul’s coworkers). Others claimed to be followers of Paul.
Still others - perhaps in a bid to outdo everyone else - claimed to be
followers of Christ.
A
little further along in his letter, in chapter eleven,[2] Paul has
to set the Corinthians straight about their worship, for their Eucharistic
celebrations had devolved into picnics, where well-to-do families would sit
down to a sumptuous meal, while poorer members of the church nearby were
neglected.
Paul
has to remind these Corinthians Christians that everyone is valuable for the
work of the Church to go forward. He uses the image of the human body to
explain how each person has a part to play in the overall working of the body.
For example, he says, “…the body does not consist of one member, but of many.
If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’
that would not make it any less a part of the body.” (I Corinthians 12: 14 –
15)[3]
Now
the stage is set for Paul to define, very clearly, what love is – and what love
is not.
“Love
is patient, love is kind,” he says. “Love does not envy or boast,” he adds.
(Perhaps
Paul is addressing the very behaviors he’d been told were taking place in the
Corinthian church.)
The
Greek word that Paul uses throughout his treatise on love is agape, that self-giving love seen most
clearly in God’s gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.
You
and I, it seems to me, are living in much the same sort of world that the early
Christians experienced in the first century in the Roman Empire.
Life
in that world was harsh and often uncertain. There was a severe shortage of
love for one’s neighbor (phileo
love), and probably a shortage, as well, of agape
love, that love that holds another in love for the sake of the welfare of that
other person.
Because
life was uncertain, often short, and often filled with hardships, many decided
to “eat, drink and be merry”, for who knew what tomorrow would bring?
Immorality was rampant, or so the New Testament’s letters tell us.
Does
this sound like the world you and I are living in?
I
think it does.
Life,
for many today, is uncertain, and harsh. Love of any sort that redeems and
uplifts is in short supply. I speak of phileo
and agape love, of course.
And
so, many today choose to “eat, drink and be merry”.
In
the process, what happens is that love (love, really and actually) get confused
with what a person might want to do, things like “eat, drink and be merry” for
the sake of “eating, drinking and being merry” for their own sakes. Many make
the same decision as many in the ancient world did because today is what a
person’s got and who knows about tomorrow.
Love
then becomes synonymous with permissiveness, as in “If you really love me,
you’ll let me do whatever I want to do.”
But
true love – and now I am speaking of love in the agape sense – wants what is best for that person who is loved.
Oftentimes, that means that simply saying “OK” to whatever attitudes and
behaviors arise isn’t in that loved person’s best interest.
Agape
love isn’t some pie-in-the-sky, altruistic, love that is connected to
philosophic musings. Agape love is
concrete, and is directed at some specific object, a person. That is the sort
of love that God has for you and me, the sort of love that singles each one of
us out, so that God can send His love into our hearts.
Because
the time, the culture and the age in which we live is the
way it is, we would do well to be reminded about the definition of love, true
love, and not be deluded into thinking that love is pretty much the same as
permissiveness.
It
is a sobering lesson we should revisit from time to time.
AMEN.
[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shares its name
with an ancient city of the same name. it was located in Asia Minor, now
western Turkey. The writer of Revelation addresses a letter to the church in
Philadelphia. See Revelation 3: 7–13.
[2] Paul’s description of the events of the Last
Supper constitute the earliest written record we have of those events,
predating all the Gospel accounts, including Mark’s, by perhaps ten years or
more.
[3] This is a text we heard last week.
