Life Together in the City

August 23, 2009

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Deuteronomy 6:1-9; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13; Mark 12:28-34
The Reverend Cathy S. Gilliard

Listen to part one of this sermon

Listen to part two of this sermon

In one of his finest hours, the Apostle Paul wrote the masterpiece we just heard Dan read. It is beautiful and poetic. Its elegance is such that we can almost gloss right over the deep meaning of it. I think it safe to say that most Christians are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13. It ranks with the likes of the 23rd Psalm in terms of favorite scriptural readings, for it hits at the core of our life’s work, of who we are and are striving to be. I cannot tell you how many times couples ask me to speak on it for their wedding.

Paul says, “But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” Most people begin the reading with the first verse of chapter 13 but you can see how this one line from chapter 12 sets us up for the good news that is to come. Strive for greater things and I will show you a more excellent way.

The city of Corinth in Paul’s day was somewhat like our own city of New York. It was robust, energized and filled with all sorts of goings-on. It was one of the principle cities in Greece and a major center for trade. Many a traveler passed through there. In addition to trade and commerce, Corinth was known for the arts and sports such as the Isthmian games which were second in importance to the Olympic Games. It was a city rich with diversity, opinion and thought.

Inside the church there were varying opinions about almost everything and because there was such cross-section of background and circumstance relationships became severed and there were divisions and strife among them. Questions arose about marriage and divorce, idolatry, the Lord's Suppers and spiritual gifts. In Chapter 12 Paul addresses the issue of spiritual gifts: which gifts are of greater importance? Speaking in tongues? Interpreting what was spoken? Exercising great faith? Healing? Prophesying?

And so Paul writes this letter to help them understand something better. He picks up Jesus’ theme in Mark 12 where controversy had arisen over the issue of resurrection and marriage and which brother would claim which wife in the end time. And one of the scribes asked Jesus about which commandment is first of all, to which Jesus responded: “the first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength." And the second, ‘You shall love our neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.’

We know it well for it is the mission around which we center our lives together here at Christ Church and it keeps on calling us to matters of faith, integrity and truth. It sounds good but we also know the challenges of living it out day by day up close and personal – not out there somewhere in the abstract. But when we begin to do the real work of loving others it causes us to reach way down in the deep places of our very being.

Thomas Reynolds puts it this way: "Indeed, compassionate regard and self-giving care do seem easier and more alluring as general ideals rather than as practical realities. For, once we encounter other human beings and acknowledge their genuine difference from us, recognizing the peculiar ways they call us to respond to and affirm their uniqueness apart from our own agendas or expectations, it is difficult to love. At close range, face-to-face, the little details get in the way. But it is only at close range that love becomes active and real. Love is life-giving generosity, a compassionate regard that draws near and attends to the beloved for its own sake and with its good in mind. And such generous concern requires that we adjust or even give up our hold on reality as we see it and open ourselves to the unfamiliar, strange, perhaps threatening presence of another without imposing conditions that restrict or exclude their own particular capacities and ways of being.” [1]

And so Paul writes this masterpiece for all time about how we might have life together. It’s about how to exist and tend to one another. He reminds us of the good thing that is possible for us humans. How we can be led beyond the orbit of our own self and celebrate the value and humanity of the other. Paul says that love is the supreme attribute. Better than anything and everything else. Love is the way. And not some sentimental overly romanticized something that comes and goes but a way that leads to life for the giver and the receiver and for all those who come near.

I think it bears repeating: “Strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. 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. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but not have love, I am nothing.

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.”

I encourage you to type this out and hang it somewhere. Perhaps for the next few weeks over the remaining days of summer we can go on a journey together and make this part of our daily meditation. Take one line or phrase at a time and just sit with it. Examine it. See how you are living into it or not. What are the challenges that come up for you? What is at stake?

For example take the line: love does not insist on its own way. What is really at stake for me if I do not insist on getting my way? What are the risks? How will others perceive me - as weak? A push-over? And so what if they do? How can I establish and maintain my presence without being rendered invisible if I fail to insist on my own way? But most importantly, what is God’s word of love for me in order that my way might also respond to the way of the other so that we both are heard and valued?

And where are those places where I arrogant or rude? And with whom? Those I claim to love most because I know for certain that others will not tolerate that sort of behavior?

Or what about the line, “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 an end to childish ways.” Where in my life and I being childish? In what areas do I need to grow up and become a mature adult and take responsibility for my own actions and reactions? Stop throwing tantrums?

You can see how some time on this passage can be transformative can’t you?

“Love never ends,” Paul writes. “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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. For 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

As some of you know, our dear friend Marilyn Clyde passed away on Monday. Her funeral was yesterday at Chatham United Methodist Church. We will have a memorial service here for her in a few weeks, but it’s hard to read this passage and think about this theme: Life Together in the City without saying a word about Marilyn and Jim.

They were married almost 40 years. I think they have been attending Christ Church for about nine. It’s interesting that they live in Chatham only about three blocks from her home church and five blocks from his Catholic Church. Yet, they crossed the state line every Sunday morning that they were not traveling to come and be with us. Often theirs was the first face many of us saw as they greeted at the door. Over their 39 years Jim and Marilyn figured out a way to live together; to “be” and to belong to one another. They had a “life” and their life gave life and they modeled something beautiful, precious; almost holy for us. They were generous to a fault; loving neighbor and crossing all boundaries. No walls separated them from any of us. This past week people said to me, “Cathy, when I was in the hospital, Marilyn sent me a card everyday.” Everyday? They gave money and sponsored people to go on work trips; they gave gifts and attended events and countless other acts I’m sure we will never know.

Never sounding brass or noisy gong or clanging cymbal. Never preachy or overly pious. Never a harsh word or needing to be the center of attention. As far as I know, they never asked for anything but gave themselves, their warmth, friendship, and love. They followed the way and I - we are better because of it. And you - so many of you have responded over the past few days with calls and cards and presence at the wake and funeral - it was beautiful to see. And all around us people were amazed that in this city we could have such a life together. You see how it works? Thank God for Marilyn. And thank God for you and our shared life in this beautiful city!

________________
[1] Thomas E. Reynolds, Love Without Boundaries: Theological Reflections on Parenting a Child with Disabilities, Theology Today, Vol. 62, 2005, p. 194.

Previous sermon: God and Money in the City • Next sermon: Trash and the City

All past sermons