GROWING IN GOD
Amos 5:8-15
I Corinthians 13:1-13
Stephen A. Hamilton Wright
First Presbyterian Church, Wausau, Wisconsin January 31 2010
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As I grow older, my thinking is changing. I don’t know about you, but I find that as the years go by, there are fewer things about which I claim absolute certainly, and more things that raise questions, and, frankly, many that I just don’t worry about anymore. I grew up as a preacher’s kid. We lived just down the hill from the Presbyterian Church in Alpena, Michigan, probably a hundred feet from the back door. I went to church school every week, and worship, youth group and confirmation. I remember the smell of the kindergarten room, with concrete block walls and a carpet that held the vaguely musty smell of a room that never dries out completely. I grew up believing that God watches everything we do and is always ready to help with our most serious needs. We were taught that God is different kind of being than we are, but still, I pictured God mostly as a kind and powerful old man with a big white beard. I don’t believe that any more. Now that I am approaching middle age, some of the things I thought as a child don’t seem to hold water. The image of God as an all-powerful cosmic king who actually looks a lot like I will a couple of decades from now doesn’t work. More seriously, I have come to doubt much of what I understood as a child. The idea that there is an individual spirit being listening to our prayers who cares as much about our minor medical complaints as the war in Afghanistan or the devastation in Haiti does not make much sense. That is possible, but it isn’t the way I see things now. As I said, I’m finding fewer and fewer absolutes. I think this is part of what the apostle Paul means when he writes that he no longer reasons as a child does. Our thinking changes.
It’s alright. Love is more important than knowledge. It’s okay not to be sure always about what you believe, or even to have those beliefs shift. Love is what counts, and really, who can truly understand much more about holy ways than that? Writing to try to end the bickering in the Corinth church, Paul labels love the most important of all gifts. It is more important than inspiring speeches, more than knowledge and understanding all mysteries, more than sacrificial stewardship, even more than faith. There are a several words for love in Greek: eros, phileo, and agape. In this chapter, the word is agape, a heart-felt, deeply concerned, self-sacrificial commitment that is ongoing. Does anyone remember how this word is translated in the King James Version? Charity. Charity is not just giving money away, either. In Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, when Mrs. Cratchit objects to the toast her husband proposes to Mr. Scrooge, Bob Cratchit responds, “My dear, have some charity.” It gives a different sense to read “If I give away all my possessions . . . but do not have charity, I gain nothing.” There is nothing specifically Christian about this way of thinking. At the same time, this is the very heart of Jesus’ teaching about how believers should live, and Paul gives this whole chapter to it. We don’t know exactly what the arguments were in Corinth. It seems to come down to who was most spiritual and who knew the best way to be Christian. So Paul wrote that it doesn’t matter what doctrine you have, or whether you can speak with great eloquence or preach inspiring sermons, or you give all your money to the church; if you don’t do those things because of love, because of charity, they don’t matter at all. Please notice that balancing the budget and having cash reserves doesn’t even make his list. What really matters is love.
There is a Spirit that moves us to love. There is a Spirit that raises love in us. It might not be the Old Guy in the Sky with the long white beard, that cartoon picture of God. I do believe that within the Mystery, there is a Reality that connects all things, including all human beings. We exist within that connecting Spirit just as surely as we live in the air around us and the vast universe beyond. The difference is that this Spirit Reality also encompasses and connects that whole universe. That is the most helpful way for me to think about God these days, to the extent it is possible to understand the Holy at all. I do sense the power of that connectedness, and it is that Reality that moves us to love. Without the sense of communion with people and objects beyond our individual selves, there would be no impulse to love; in fact, there would be no sense of self, because everything would be simply an extension of our own individual existence. We are connected, though, and that prompts the movement of love as well as our thoughts about a God who is the Life in which all else exists. Within this mysterious weaving of relationships, our prayers take effect, mostly by forming our own actions and intentions, and also by binding us more closely and consciously to Ultimate Being. From that purest Love, from that all-encompassing and most mysterious Spirit, Jesus came into our world once upon a time to be the living example of how we relate to all around us. Through His example, we are led to understand and claim our eternal connection to this great Web of being. It all depends on love. Love is our response to the connections that define us. Love is our movement toward the Spirit that is God.
Our goal is community. If love is the greatest gift, and the main Christian value, then the goal is community. We belong together. Paul lists characteristics of behavior motivated by love, and every person in this room would do well to internalize them. Love is patient: that means that some of us who want to convince the Finance Committee and the Session that keeping the budget balanced is not the most important priority need to chill a little, and just keep nudging and persuading and also loving people about whom we sometimes think less than gracious thoughts. Love believes all things—actually it could be translated as love shows faith or love trusts in all things—does not mean that all things are true, but it means a generosity of spirit and intellect that is willing to consider knowledge from many sources, giving benefit of the doubt to many points of view. In other words, love does not exclude people based on their beliefs or presumed motives. We are starting a conversation in this congregation about core values. Love is a core value of Christian life, if anything is. Everything we do should be designed to include and build up this body. That isn’t easy. The longest and strongest marriages have their challenges. The most loving families still have their squabbles. Love works hard to keep them together. Beyond that, families that are really committed to one another seem to attract other people. Some of you grew up in homes that always had other people in them: neighborhood kids and adult friends, too. In that spirit, I want to encourage every person here to bring one new person or household to worship at least once this year—not to get more members, not to increase the budget, but first of all to reach out in love and build up this community. Bring one new person or new family with you to church at least once this year. Love your neighbors. Love your neighbors in this church. Love is our value, and community is our goal. We belong together.