1 Corinthians 13:1-13 / Luke 4:21-30

4th Sunday after Epiphany | January 30, 2022 | 1 Cor 13:1-13 and Lk 4:21-30 | by The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills |

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

¹If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And 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. ³If 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.
⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸Love 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. ⁹For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹When 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. ¹²For 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. ¹³And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love (NRSV).

Luke 4:21-30

²¹Then [Jesus] began to say to [all in the synagogue in Nazareth,] “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ²³He 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.’ ” ²⁴And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. ²⁵But 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; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹They 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. ³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way (NRSV).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

This morning, two weeks before Valentine’s Day, and on the day of our annual congregational meeting, we hear: “Now faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest of these is love,” paired with those immortal words about love that we all know from a hundred weddings, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal,” the words of St. Paul in First Corinthians 13, the so-called “Love Chapter.”

“All you need is love,” the song goes, and “love is all you need,” and when Jesus returned today to his hometown to preach for the first time in front of his friends and neighbors, the people he’d known and loved all his life, at first it seemed like the beginning of a love-fest, the congregation couldn’t get enough of their local boy made good: “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked proudly, all spoke well of him, all were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.  Give that boy a scholarship to the seminary, let’s have a special coffee hour in his honor, sign him up preach again whenever Rabbi is on vacation, all of Nazareth loves him!  All went well, he had it made, until Jesus turned the focus of his sermon to love.

Jesus says, “I know you wish I would do a miracle here, just like I’ve done in other places, I know you want a special sign of God’s love unveiled right here just for you, right in front of my mom and my family, right here before my childhood rabbi, right here with my old school friends.”  “But,” he says, “look at how God’s love works: don’t you remember, there were lots of hungry widows here at home during the time of prophet Elijah, and yet God sent him far away, to feed a foreigner, an outsider.  And there were lots of local folks suffering from leprosy during the time of the prophet Elijah, and yet God sent him to heal a foreigner, an enemy, a pagan, Namaan, from Syria.”  “Don’t you see,” Jesus says, “God is bigger than just you, bigger than this little place, God’s love is wider than your narrow grasp, don’t you remember the song? He’s got the whole world in his hands!”  Our God was born in a humble manger, and worshipped by dirty shepherds and weirdo wise men, our God dies on a shameful Cross between two convicted criminals, can’t you see his love reaches out for each and for all, as far as it can go, farther than any of us want, to all who are not worthy, even as far as you and me, as far as two arms open wide, nailed upon a Cross?

Preachers call this moment ‘crashing and burning’, Jesus has preached a little too close to home for his hometown crowd, the love fest is now off: cancel the coffee hour, revoke the scholarship, there is no love lost now between Jesus and his hometown listeners.  In fact, his listeners were filled with rage, we’re told, they got up from their pews, and led Jesus up to the brow of the hill on which Nazareth is built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff and kill him.  And you thought your annual meetings used to be bad!

Why did Jesus tick them off so much?  Why did they try to kill him, pointing the way for the death he was to die for us all?  Isn’t there something in each of us as human beings that sees ourselves as a little more deserving than everybody else?  All are equal, of course, but some are more equal than others, especially yours truly!  Like children competing for the love of a parent, we worry that more for you means less for me.  If someone else gets a big piece of the pie, that means my piece is going to be smaller.  If God loves far away widows, and enemy generals, then he must love me less.  This is what enraged Jesus’ listeners, and this is what can make us upset.  How about a miracle for us faithful folks here at Trinity in New Haven, Lord?  How about you take care of us first, and then worry about the rest later?

When my cousins and I were little we would gather at my grandparents’ house every summer, and I have hazy memories of us cuddling up with our grandpa to each ask him in turn, “Grandpa, who’s your favorite grandchild?”  And he’d always answer straightforward and honestly, looking right at you, “You are. You’re my favorite” And then to everybody else down the line, they would say, “and you are and you are and you are.  You are each my favorite.”  If there is no limit to a grandparent’s love, if there’s enough for many individual favorites, how much more room is there for God to keep you as the apple of his eye, as well as your far-off neighbor in equal need of his grace, how much more room is there to keep this congregation called Trinity in his special tender care, along with all the other ones too?!  This abundance, this infinite reservoir of divine love is why St. Paul writes his love chapter today, to show us a more excellent way, a way where something good for you doesn’t mean something bad for me, but a way of life where when you rejoice, I can rejoice too, a way of life where God’s love for each and for all is wider and deeper and broader than we could ever imagine.

No matter what my gift or ability, Paul says–if I can speak beautifully, if I can understand everything, if I have faith so as to move mountains, if I give away everything, if I do everything, but have not love, then I am nothing, then I gain nothing, then it’s all worth nothing.

So the love of God, for each of us, for all of us, when that love is at work within our congregation, when we live in the abundance of that love that is there for you and there for me, that love marks us a community, as a church family that is patient, and kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  That love makes us not insist on our own way, it’s not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing against each other, but rejoices in the truth.  That love at work among us bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

For love never ends.  God is love, and God never ends, so his love never ends. Everything else in this world ends, all too soon, but his love never ends, and what we do in love for him and in fervent love for one another, that never ends, but finds its place in God’s Kingdom forever.

Paul says today, “when I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child but when I became an adult I put away childish ways.”  The childish ways of thinking that there is not enough love to go around, that his love is not as real for you as it is for me.

No, Paul says, “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, now we see by the darkness of faith, but then, someday, around his throne, we will see in glory, we will see face to face.  Now we know just in part, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  Fully known by the God who was born in a manger for me, and died on the Cross for me, fully known by a God who gave his own Son for me; who gave himself to death so that you and I might be given eternal life.

“And now faith, and hope, and love abide—but the greatest of these is love.”  As we gather today, as we begin our 156^th annual gathering as his people, may that infinite divine love be at work in us, may that love for each and for all be our hallmark here at Trinity, the love we know in our creation and sustainment this day, the love we have known on the Cross, the love that comes to us in the bread and wine, his body and blood broken and shed for you, the love we have for each other in this congregation called Trinity, and the love we have for our all neighbors, far and near, for there is more than enough to go around, for me, for you, and for all.  “For now faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest of these, is love.”

And the Peace of God which passes understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills

New Haven, Connecticut

Pastor@TrinityLutheranNH.org