Love

The Readings

1 Corinthians 13:1-13


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.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 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. 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.


The Gospel
Luke 4:21-30

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

The Sermon

I believe the most beautiful passage ever written in the bible is this chapter from first Corinthians. Paul is talking about love and he speaks eloquently. He writes that we could acquire all kinds of things from speaking in tongues, to possessions, to knowledge, to even faith but without love we have nothing.

While I am writing this the Beatles song 'Can't Buy Me Love' keeps running through my head. And, they are right. Love is a gift. You give it away and it can be given to you. You cannot buy it.

This passage is often read at weddings because it is so beautiful and so full of hope. It holds a promise that the day will come when we will fully understand the love of God. Paul writes that “for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.” Paul knows that when his day comes he will know fully the depth of God's love.

Jesus wasn't feeling the love from his own people in Nazareth. They wanted to push him off a cliff. Those cliffs in these small middle eastern towns were where people would throw their garbage and Jesus had so irritated them that they wanted to put him there. With the garbage.

What happened. What did he do or not do? Was it what he said? I think it was both. They wanted a miracle like the ones they heard he had done in Capernum. This carpenter's son needed to prove himself. The Nazarenes were skeptics. Maybe he could change water into wine again. That was a good one.

Then, rather than performing a miracle he starts to lecture them. He talks about Elijah and the widow at Zarephath, a Phonetician city. He then talks about how the leper Naaman the Syrian was cured by Elisha. They did not want to hear this. First, neither the widow nor Naaman were Jews. He was telling them that God was God for everyone whether they were Phonetician or Syrian or Jews. To them this was blasphemy and they did not want to hear it. They wanted exclusive rights to God plus they wanted a miracle. They did not want to be bothered by faith, or hope, or love. They just wanted a certified miracle. So, off to the cliff with Jesus.

What about us. Are we waiting for some kind of miracle to cement our faith. I think to some extent we are. When I think of passages from the bible the first thing that comes to my mind are the miracles. Jesus was less about miracles than he was about the message. What he stressed in his mission were parables and the message they taught.