The reading from 1 Corinthians is a favorite of many people, commonly called the love chapter. In it, the apostle Paul talks about what love is - and is not. in the gospel lesson, the ramifications of Jesus announcing himself to be the fulfillment of prophecy come to be, as the church leaders intend to push Jesus off a cliff. It was not yet time, though, and Jesus walked away unscathed.
The lectionary texts for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany are:
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30
Here we are, in the third message in this set of three and this is the part where I review what has come before, like the little scenes shown at the beginning of the second (or third) episode of a “To Be Continued” tv show:
First, there was an underlying theme of many gifts coming from the one God who feeds all of the kinds of hunger that people can have.
Next there was contemplation of the way we are all part of one body. That just as bodies have eyes, and years, and toes that all have different jobs but are still part of the body, so we are the body of Christ and we all contribute to each other and love each other in different ways.
And a little review of some facts:
Who is hungry? Everyone.
Whose hunger are we called to feed? Everyone’s. Even yours. But not only yours!
And if we all bring good news in our own particular way, who benefits? Everyone.
As a result, whose gifts are important? Everyone’s.
But don’t we get confused about that? It’s so easy to think it’s good to help “the poor” until you meet actual poor people and realize that they are poor because of mental illness, or chronic health conditions, or worst of all – for no reason at all. We want to cry out “yeah I want to help the poor… but not THESE poor people!” And yet… Jesus did not qualify to which poor he came to bring good news.
We think “oh, gosh, yes, prison ministry is so important!” until the prisoners come and they are broken after years in a grinding system. Or they were convicted of murder or some heinous crime against children. Or they were found to be wrongfully convicted but we just can’t quite believe the system could get it that wrong so we decide anyone who ends up in jail or prison must have done something really bad at some point. We want to say “oh, well, yeah, prison ministry but these people were BAD!” And yet… Jesus did not qualify that only the not-so-bad prisoners should be freed from the captivity of their actions, or cell walls.
We honor and excuse and reward those with deep spiritual (as opposed to physical or financial) needs, and give them power to act in callous ways and turn human lives into pawns in a game of power and money even as we overlook some very real spiritual needs.
And yet, money and power are necessary to function in our society. Money and power determine how resources are allocated and to the degree that money and power are more or less evenly distributed across the population, people are more or less likely to have their needs met. If our hungers arise because we are lacking in something - food, money, personal power, social respect, compassion, community - and if we are ALL hungry…
Then how do we know where to put our priorities? How do we know if we are using our gifts in the way Jesus would?
Well, Luke and Paul have some suggestions for us in this week’s texts!
In Luke, Jesus notes that a widow (that is, someone who did not have the privileges and protections of a husband and his family) from some land other than the land of the Israelites is the one who was fed under miraculous circumstances.
And who received healing (or said another way, the best health care)? The local leaders and Highly Respected Elders? Nope. It was an arrogant Syrian called Naaman who came from another country, an immigrant traveler.
We don’t have to go far to find other examples either:
* Rahab the prostitute, who was saved (along with her family) when the Israelites began their occupation of the Promised Land
* Mighty King David who got his start in life as the baby in a large family, sent to the fields for the simultaneously boring and dangerous work of watching sheep
* Ruth, a Moabite, who had the baby that kept the line of King David going until Jesus himself was born!
What do all of those people have in common? The widow at Zarephath, a Syrian, a prostitute, the baby shepherd, and a widow living with her widow mother-in-law in a foreign country?
They were outsiders.
When Jesus said he came to bring good news to the hungry, the poor, the captive, blind, and oppressed, he did not qualify that. He didn’t say “even the outsiders!” In fact, the message of Jesus is much more like “even the insiders – although it can really be hard for insiders.” Of course, inside and outside are determined by where you set up the wall. But it does seem that Jesus consistently stood on the side of people who were not of the dominant cultural group.
For all those outsiders, the gifts they received were motivated by one thing only. They did not deserve it. They could not count on the culture to carry them through a rough spot. They had to count on grace. What they actually received was… LOVE.
So! Maybe that is the answer to how we set our priorities! Maybe we just make sure that we set priorities based on Love!
Ok.
Glad we got that settled.
That’s easy, right?
Wellllll….
How do you know if you are loving? Did anyone ever try to do something really kind for you… and it felt terrible and you did not want it and it did not feel loving at all. Or you knew JUST WHAT SOMEBODY NEEDED! But it turns out that is not what they needed at all.
This might not be as easy as we wish it was.
But look! Paul has some helpful hints about what love is and is not!
Love is
* Patient
* Kind
* not envious
* not boastful
* not arrogant
* not rude
* does not insist on its own way
* is not irritable or resentful
* does not rejoice in wrongdoing
* rejoices in the truth
* bears all things
* believes all things
* hopes all things
* endures all things.
* never ends
Notice that it does not say anything about being deserved. It does not say that it depends on where you were born, or how well your body or mind works, or even whether you are pleasant to be around. It certainly doesn’t say anything about being deserved, or making judgments on who to love or not love.
Let’s look at some of the characteristics individually: not rude. But rude is culturally determined! So, we are tempted to think, if it isn’t rude in my culture then I don’t have to worry about it and those outsiders just need to do it the way we do it here!
Oh. Wait.
Love does not insist on its own way. That’s on the list, too. So maybe we have some responsibility to learn about and respect other cultures. Even of immigrants. Even of people from outside our own communities. Learning about them instead of just assuming they want to be just like us.
And love DOESN’T END???? What?? But what if I really love somebody and then they make me mad? What if they break my stuff? What if they embarrass me?? What if they want to use my good stuff and don’t take care of it! SURELY I do not have to do all that love stuff in that case… SURELY it’s not all on me?? Don’t they have SOME responsibility in this?
Wellll… yes and no. Since we are all called to love, then we all have the same responsibilities. But perspective matters. And if you are the one with more stuff and more power and more privilege, then it might mean you have to give up some of that. It might mean you have to share some of your power so that others can be empowered.
It might mean some sacrifice, and giving up the sense of knowing how things should work. Or it might mean opening yourself to relaxing into the awkward love being offered by someone who doesn’t quite know how to do it.
It might mean giving up everything you know about who matters the most – and the least.
But no matter what the situation, it means paying attention. One of the things we learn from the life of Jesus (as found in reading and studying Scripture) is that Jesus ALWAYS paid attention. That’s why he always had a knack for knowing what people needed to hear even if it was not what they wanted to hear.
Now Jesus paid so much attention to so many unempowered people that it became a threat to the people who had a monopoly on the power. And as a result, Jesus died a terrible death on the cross. The ultimate sacrifice.
Fortunately, you will probably not be asked to make that sacrifice. Chances are good you will not even be able to love well enough to be that much of a threat. But there will be smaller sacrifices, and it might lead to awkwardness and people who do not know why you are doing what you do.
But as you sacrifice, you can know that death did not keep Jesus down, and because of Jesus’ Resurrection, your sacrifices will not be for nought. You are saved in that Resurrection.
So go ahead and feed the hungry – all the people who are hungry in all the different ways.
Know who you are in God’s eyes – loved, redeemed, gifted.
And love! Love the “outsiders” and the people who are hardest to love. Love in a way that is
* Patient
* Kind
* not envious
* not boastful
* not arrogant
* not rude
* does not insist on its own way
* is not irritable or resentful
* does not rejoice in wrongdoing
* rejoices in the truth
* bears all things
* believes all things
* hopes all things
* endures all things.
* never ends
Love knowing that God is love and that in even the tiniest act of love you are throwing open the gates so that God will shine through.
Amen.
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