The Love Chapter Soon Will Be Making Another Run...

 

 

The Love Chapter Soon Will Be Making Another Run

 

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
13:1 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.

13:2 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.

13:3 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.

13:4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant

13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

13:6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

13:7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13:8 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.

13:9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;

13:10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

13:11 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.

13:12 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.

13:13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

 

Dara and I have been on a couple of sea cruises, and are looking forward to another one to New England, come October of this year. Our fascination with cruises probably goes back to the earliest years of our marriage, when, as newlyweds with hardly any money, we enjoyed the cheap entertainment of watching the TV show, “The Love Boat,” produced by Aaron Spelling. It was a romantic comedy staged on the Pacific Princess, what would be a “par three” cruise ship by today’s standards, but was the height of luxury in the late 1970s. The cast included a guy named “Gopher,” who would one day become a Congressman, Captain Stubing, who would go on to fame with the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and a weekly series of “cruisers” who would make a Who’s Who of Hollywood, any day. The show’s theme song, sung by lounge crooner Jack Jones, included the lyric, “The Love Boat soon will be making another run…”, which was appropriate, as the syrupy plots typically followed a “couple in love—couple has difficulties that threaten their relationship—couple solves their problem and falls in love again,” all thanks to the Love Boat experience. The underlying theme of the TV show was that love was never as easy as Hallmark makes it seems, that serious relationships require regular and on-going maintenance, and that love really DOES mean saying you are sorry and backing it up with more than lip service. This formula sustained the TV show for over ten years, as each week’s new slate of “love dramas” required the Love Boat to make yet another “run.”

 

Today’s scripture text is most usually labeled “The Love Chapter” of the Bible. Paul’s words about love are popular fare at weddings, and even the occasional funeral of a beloved soul. Truth be told, it has a lot more in common with the scripts of “The Love Boat” TV show than you would believe. The early Christian church, and most especially its “branch office” in Corinth, was a serial exercise in demonstrating just how hard love and serious relationships are to create, sustain, and draw together to accomplish a vision of ministry. Corinth was a very diverse church in a prosperous seaport city, one of the largest and most affluent in ancient Greece. Paul himself is considered the founder of the Christian church there. His letters to the church at Corinth had to deal with all kinds of difficulties, some related to the church’s diversity of language, nationalities, differing social and economic status, and most certainly, great differences in religious heritage. Many of the fledgling Christians in the church were Jewish converts, while others were from the various pantheistic and pagan traditions prevalent in Greece at that time. Some were adherents to Greek philosophical thought. While the power of the Gospel to transform lives is legitimate and long since proven throughout history, Corinth was one of its first proving grounds, and transformation is rarely an instantaneous event, even in the later heyday of the Christian church known as “Christendom.” It is more true that most of us tend to “blend” our prior philosophies and faith leanings with our appropriation of the Gospel for a time, and this may set us at odds with other believers who are either more “mature” than we are in our faith, or those who are behind our spot in the curve. This was happening at Corinth, only on steroids, as they say.

 

Paul expertly uses a number of ideas, inspirations, and teachings in an attempt to draw the Corinthian Christians into a unified “team.” He elucidates on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, explaining how they are designed to work synergistically, and to edify and strengthen the church, for even these gifts had become a kind of “talent competition” in Corinth. He introduces the powerful metaphor of the “Body of Christ,” taking his lead from the Eucharist, where Jesus instituted it as emblematic of his body and blood. In last week’s text, Paul lays out this concept for the church, and it made so much sense, we still harken to it today. In chapter 14, Paul continues to teach about the spiritual gifts, but this time, he explains how they may be used in worship, again as something that creates unity, rather than divides. One can see Paul’s deep passion in wanting “his church” to survive and thrive. His teachings, correctives, and even chastisements are all aimed at helping the Corinthian Christians become a healthy “body.” Again, today we turn to Paul to teach and lead the church. Paul’s writings are largely responsible for turning the church from just a movement into an organization—an institution. And regardless of what we think of that institution, we must acknowledge that the church would not have flourished for over 2,000 years without effective organization. We believe the Holy Spirit has been the driving force in all of this, and we believe that Jesus Christ himself planted the seeds of this development when he chose twelve disciples to teach and train as those who would begin the process of carrying forth the message and managing the ministry he instituted. But Paul sets the standard for all we know and believe about the church today.

 

Right in the middle of two of these important sections, we find the “love chapter”—chapter 13. Whether Paul himself plopped this down to divide his more academic teachings in 12 and 14, or the order was different, as some Bible scholars suggest, the fact is, his words about love, which were aimed at the church, have been venerated and preached for centuries to cure a multitude of relationship ills, fits, and starts. It begins with poetic phrases and ends with a famous hierarchy of virtues, the greatest of which Paul proclaims as love. There are several significant “love is nots” in the middle section of the composition: 

 

·      Love is not envious – beyond leading to breaking one of the ten commandments (coveting), envy displays one’s dissatisfaction with one’s own gifts. If we believe our spiritual gifts come from the SPIRIT, then love will lead us to be happy with the gifts we have to share with the church!

 

·      Love is not boastful or arrogant – genuine love between Christians—or even just two people who proclaim to love each other—is never a competition, excluding, of course, the biblical unction to “outdo one another in love.” Arrogance and boasting says, “I do this better than you,” in the least, or “I’m a better person than you,” in the extreme.

 

·      Love is not rude. In the church, this rudeness was playing itself out by being intolerant of the religious traditions others and/or insulting them by belittling them for being less “mature” in their faith. Obviously, at the interpersonal level, rudeness may indicate intolerance toward another, or may be rooted in a feeling of privilege or entitlement. 

 

·      Love does not insist on its own way. No matter how “right” someone may feel they are, if their being right disrupts the church when compromise—or even letting another’s plan or solution win the day—will promote unity, this is ultimately what love demands. Interpersonally, and most especially when a couple is in dispute with one another, giving in to the desires or wishes of the other is the more loving way, even if one feels their way is superior. Love leads to wider acceptance and peace; demanding one’s own way leads to division and tumult.

 

Of course, Paul does give us quite a laundry list of what love IS or DOES:

 

·      Love is patient

·      Love is kind

·      Love bears all things

·      Love believes all things (meaning it gives others the benefit of the doubt)

·      Love hopes all things (meaning it joins others in hoping for the best outcome)

·      Love endures—this may be the most powerful aspect of love of all! Paul lists lots of things that were dear to the Corinthian Church—prophecy, speaking in tongues (about which there were many disputes over), even knowledge, which was just about the most precious thing to anyone of Greek heritage. Paul says love will outlast them all, and by association, he meant that love trumped them all, in the mind of the Divine.

 

Paul writes that love does not “rejoice in wrongdoing,” but rejoices in the truth. This has come to be a point of great debate in our time. Our former President had a penchant for falsehoods, and uttered them with impunity, believing that the end justified the means. Unfortunately, many came to believe he was right. I’m not arguing whether his policies or politics were right or wrong, as this is the purview of each citizen to decide, but the sinfulness of his method of using falsehood to get his way is not open to debate, in a religious sense. Truth is a Christian virtue, and always has been. If espousing and protecting the truth does not permit one to carry out one’s agenda, then it may be time to reexamine one’s agenda. This is exactly what Paul is trying to get through to the Corinthians about.

 

Another takeaway from this point could be that Christians don’t “rejoice” when someone falls on hard luck, even if the one “falling” is an enemy. I’ve been reading “The Book of Joy” by the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu. The Dalai Lama contrasts the German idea of schadenfreude with the Buddhist concept of Mudita. Schadenfreude is rejoicing when another—especially an enemy—fails, making one feel superior. Mudita is rooted in compassion, and promotes suffering alongside the one who is suffering, even IF it is an enemy. I think this is where Paul was going with his narrative about this aspect of love, and mudita is certainly in keeping with the teachings and example of Jesus!

 

There is no doubt that Paul’s discourse on love is not describing something easy to do, nor is he suggesting that genuine love EVER is. This is a love borne of sacrifice, selflessness, and a desire to live in unity and peace with others. This love “does not demand its own way,” ever. Dr. Shively Smith, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Boston University School of Theology, writes:

 

Make no mistake. The love Paul is talking about here is not passive and fluffy. This kind of love is an up at dawn, feet on the ground, tools in hand, working kind of love. It builds communities. It nurtures positive social interactions, and not just social networks (which many of us have come to prefer). Paul’s declaration of love unifies. Love is the way by which we talk to each other (1 Corinthians 1:5; 16:20), eat with one another (1 Corinthians 8:13; 10:27; 11:33-34), fellowship together (1 Corinthians 11:20), and affirm all (1 Corinthians 16:15-16, 18). Love transcends our self-imposed caste systems and personal biases. It forms whole and holistic people, who are anchored in the well-being of others. Love will not let us down if we genuinely live in it together (1 Corinthians 16:14).

 

So, when the going gets tough—in the church, in your family, or in your most significant relationship—the Love Chapter is available to “make another run.” It will always serve as a unique and Holy Spirit-inspired reminder of how love works WHEN it works. If what you are currently doing and calling “love” is not having the results you intend, or if it is just not working at all for you, revisit Chapter 13 of First Corinthians! Amen.

 

Here's a sad little epilogue for you. In 2011, Dara and I were on a “Lands of the Bible” cruise—our first cruise—with a large group from our Methodist Conference, sponsored by Educational Opportunities, a Christian educational travel group. Our huge cruise ship, the “Norwegian Jade,” pulled into a port in Turkey, and there, docked near us, but there to be cut up for scrap, was the “Pacific Princess”—the “Love Boat” of TV fame. While God’s love will never end, the final “run” of the “Princess” had come at last.