If your church follows the lectionary, there is a good chance you will hear this passage during your Sunday morning service. I find it fascinating that these words are read on the same Sunday where the Gospel reading is one where Jesus is threatened with death by his hometown. Lot’s of love in the Gospel passage this week.
Most often, this passage has been devoted to being read in weddings, where we have cast these words as some kind of descriptor of romantic love. However, Paul just concluded a long section on spiritual gifts and roles in the church. We know that 12th chapter pretty well, too. You know… “If the foot would say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,…” It’s a great statement about he important of every member of Christ’s Church. Paul concludes the 12th chapter using rhetorical questions to show that there are many gifts, but the last verse says there is a more excellent way.
To remember the 12th chapter while reading this week’s passage, helps me to remember that Paul is not working for Hallmark or Mardel’s. I see the Apostle to the Gentiles telling us that all of these gifts we just read about are superseded by Love. Paul then tells us how to recognize this “more excellent” love before reminding us of something very important.
Love is outside of us.
By the time we get to verse 8, Paul is bringing us back to something that grounds us. He is remind us of the gifts of tongues, our knowledge, and our prophecies are all internal and temporary. There will come a time when they will be no more, but the love described in verses 4-7 will continue on. Love is complete and whole, though we are not. It’s a powerful message. Much more so than just when it has been used as a platitude for a wedding.
Is there a way we can read these words anew? Can we bring them into our context, so far removed from Paul’s 1st century world? I think we should. I believe the preacher is doing that they take to the pulpit. Jesus did that in last week’s Gospel passage when reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
What if when we put 1 Corinthians 13: 8 into our context it looked something like this:
Our preaching will pass away.
Our theologies will cease being productive.
Our cooperative programs will dry up.
Our church buildings will crumble.
The Pew Research Study where the “nones” were brought into the fore of church conversations has everyone terrified over the future of the church. I understand that. My wife and I have a vocational connection to the church. Without that connection, I must confess that we don’t really know what to do. We love our churches, and find fulfillment in serving the local congregation. But it’s hard to deny the facts. These local havens that we have devoted our lives to are changing. While there are still megachurches, the majority of Christian communities are much smaller, and shrinking with each successive generation.
It’s not the first time the Church has changed.
And it will not be the last.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is telling us that Love will continue. That through all of the past changes, Love has carried on. It’s wholeness is not contained inside of our institutions, and so when they pass away, Love will remain. It’s a scary place to be, watching something you love die. Personally, I feel myself to be in the early stages of grieving. I’m scared of a world where the church is resurrected different from what I’ve known, and so I consciously deny what I know to be true. I feel left out, and afraid.
But Love endures all things.
Love never ends.
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