Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

Sunday, January 31, 2010
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

 

SECOND READING: 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. 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.

Paul to the Corinthians, Part III

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

The congregation was squabbling again.  Internal strife defined its weekly worship.  There was not only trouble at the door, it followed the members inside. 

There were arguments erupting about who had the better spiritual gift, and which among the congregation were really the leaders, or should be.  Nastiness was the golden rule of the assembly. 

And it all came to a head around the Table of the Lord … the very central part of the worship where they had been taught that Jesus met them and they met him and so also met each other … but in this congregation the holy meal had turned into something quite not holy and unrecognizable as a sacred event. 

When the bread was passed around some grabbed it before others and tore off huge portions for themselves leaving little bits for the rest that were deemed (at least by the grabbers) as not worthy enough.

And the horror of some taking the full chalice of wine and draining it before anyone else had a chance to have a sip … made this congregation famous in its infamy of faith.

Reconciling in Christ was not a phrase that could be applied to this group of ersatz followers of Jesus prideful and full of their own prestige as they were.

The rest of the church wondered about this group and its members and sent word to their former pastor and he – in great distress – sat down one day, sighed a prayer, and began to write to them.   And in his letter he addressed fully and forthrightly the problems, the issues, the disappointments of faithfulness … not only addressed them but chastised them in love to a better way.

All this was midway through the 1^st Century CE, the congregation was the congregation in Corinth in Greece, and the writer of the letter was Paul of Tarsus.

We have been reading sequentially for three Sundays the portion of that letter in the 12^th and now this morning in the 13^th chapters.

The portion we heard this morning is known to most people only by its being read at weddings …

“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.”

These words are read, usually by a family member of the bride or groom, everyone listens intently and smiles as love floats over the couple and all present.  I Corinthians 13 has triumphed once again in securing the blessing of God for this new husband and wife.

And most people hearing the words at a wedding never know that they were composed 2,000 years ago and sent to a congregation in strife and follow paragraph upon paragraph of accusation (loving accusation yes, but accusation none the less) of a group of people who had turned from love and turned themselves into something horrible.

But the words were so written.  And we read them this morning in their context, which we have been talking about for the last two Sundays.  And we read them this morning on this Sunday which is Reconciling in Christ Sunday in our Church … how absolutely appropriate!

For this is the Sunday when we not only celebrate the fact that the movement of Reconciling in Christ congregations is growing as a way of welcoming fully (the emphasis upon the fullness of the welcome) … fully into the life of the body, into the assembly of the faithful, into the living of the congregation, the church … all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or identity … it is not only the Sunday when we celebrate that, it is the Sunday when we pray for this reconciliation to become a realty for all followers of Jesus.

₊₊₊

Sadly and recently in a distant part of the church I discovered that one of my friends had just ended his call in his congregation.  One wonders why?  Since his coming to that group of people, the youth group had grown from 0 to 15, new families had joined the congregation, the place was beginning to take on life after several years of staleness.  But there were some who did not like the changes, and they did not like the sort of people who were coming inside the walls of their beautiful church building, and they did not agree with how they looked and what they said and how they acted.

And in time the issues and stresses became ever more of a burden, not just to the pastor but to the whole congregation, and one day one of the pillars of that assembly announced publicly to the pastor, “I will starve you out!”

And he did … arranging things so that the pastor would not receive his salary or not in time, and even after the Synod stepped in and all agreed to a severance package, the checks were not coming.  And so, the pillar of the church triumphed, and the pastor left.

How sad.  How infuriating.  How un-reconciling.

+++

It does not have to be so, and in fact, followers of Jesus know better.

Then why?  I wonder … why is it that in the midst of such great loving and compassionate advances of the Gospel … just in our church, in our ELCA … are there those who are fighting so vehemently against that love and compassion?  What is it that makes some leave the family in anger and hate because not only have we as a Church affirmed the validity of sexuality and orientation, but affirmed the vocation of those who are in same gender relationships and called to service in the Church.

What is it that makes some run from this great gift?

Fear … I think.  A desire to have the answer to all questions.  But, fear … fear of disappointing a God who seems to be full of wrath and judgment and punishment, like an angry parent who rules by saying “Because I say so!”

And yet, the Bible contains the story not of a damning God, but a loving, forgiving, compassionate, inclusive, understanding, welcoming God … and for us who claim to be Christians, we see that and know that because of the words and actions of the one we follow, Jesus of Nazareth … who spoke openly … not about condemnation and exclusion, but about affirmation and welcome.

+++

So what then is the substance of our celebration today?  Do we rejoice that we are done with the task of reconciling in Christ?  No.  Because we are not finished.

It’s a bit like dusting the house.  When you finish dusting the furniture, the lampshades, the picture frames, the top of the mantle … you look over your shoulder to see that where you began, dust has begun to accumulate.  And you learn that dusting is a continuous task.

So it is with reconciliation.  It is a continuous task of the Gospel, it is our continuous task of the Gospel … and it is never over until every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender person finds a place at the table with everyone around the table … welcomed, included, loved, and cherished.

As Paul wrote to that congregation two millennia ago, so we will continue to say, “ … faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

Let us pray.
Eternal God of all Creation,

who gives to us the gift of Reconciliation:

Breathe upon us the Spirit of Love and Compassion,

Breathe upon us the Spirit of all things holy as we pray for congregations, and we ourselves, to be led anew into the Way of the Gospel, and in the path opened to us in the footsteps of Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III

Pastor

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