Over the
past several weeks, we have been exploring the theological concept of
stewardship at Christ United Methodist Church in Lincoln. In our reflections, we have defined stewardship
as the role and task of caring for those gifts, with which God has blessed us.
Most regular
church attenders are familiar with stewardship in two contexts. First, we speak of our role as stewards of
God’s good Creation, believing that God has set us aside from all other species
to care for all of creation. Secondly,
we frequently speak in the church of good stewardship of our financial
resources and the importance of supporting our church financially with our
offerings.
Two weeks ago,
in my sermon, I suggested that we needed to expand our concept of stewardship to
recognize and include many of the additional gifts and blessings God has given
us. For instance, I suggested that we
needed to be good stewards of our physical bodies, by eating properly, exercising,
and getting enough sleep. Or, suppose
that God has given us some special talent, such as a gift for teaching. Then, part of being a good steward would include
developing our gift for teaching, by going to school, practicing, and learning
from other teachers.
Last week
in my sermon, I focused on financial stewardship as a form of spiritual
discipline or practice. By sharing our
financial resources with the church, then we open ourselves and become more vulnerable,
which helps us develop a greater trust and reliance upon God. In this way, we grow closer to the Divine,
with an even deeper love for God.
Further, in my blog last week, I
suggested that there were four primary motivations why people give financially
to the church:
1. Out
of a sense of duty, obligation, or guilt.
2. To
honor or glorify themselves or another person.
3. Out
of a sense of gratitude and love for their church
4. Because
they believe that their gift will make a difference in God’s ministry to the
world.
On this final reflection on stewardship,
I would like for us to think further about giving out of love for our
individual community of faith—the third motivation in the above list for giving
financially to our church.
My scriptural text this Sunday will be 1 Corinthians
13. Among Christians, the nickname for
this passage is “the great love chapter.”
Traditionally, it is read during weddings. While it is certainly a very, very
appropriate scriptural passage for a wedding, that was not the Apostle Paul’s
intent when he wrote these 13 verses.
Instead, Paul was trying to address and heal severe divisions within the
Church of Corinth.
For instance, there was a deep
division between wealthy and poor Corinthian Christians. And, there were other divisions between the
different church members based upon their “spiritual gifts.” Some church members felt that they should be
honored because they had the spiritual gift of “speaking in tongues,” whereas
other church members “only” had the gift of teaching or caring for the poor.
In this
thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul attempts to address these
divisions head on, by encouraging the various Corinthian church members to love
one another. To accomplish this goal,
Paul adopts the literary form of an encomium
on love. In the literary world of Paul’s
day, an encomium was a literary
praise for a certain moral virtue; in this case, love.
In the encomium’s prologue (verses
1-3), Paul seeks to establish love as forming the core of a faithful life. He does this by listing some of the major
qualities which the Corinthian Christians had come to highly regard in the life
of a Christian. Paul begins by listing
“speaking in tongues,” or glossolalia.
Then he lifts up prophetic ability and knowledge. Finally, he lifts up faith and sacrifice for
God. In each case, Paul proclaims that
if these actions are not performed out of love, then they are nothing; they are
just hollow accomplishments.
In the next
section, Paul describes what love is, as well as what love is not:
Love is not
·
Envious
·
Boastful
·
Arrogant or rude
·
Irritable
·
Resentful
·
Domineering, insisting on its own way
Love is
·
Patient
·
Kind
·
Bears all things
·
Hopes all things
·
Endures all things
In commenting on this chapter, the Biblical Scholar R. Paul
Sampley writes, “…love is never held alone in one’s self; love always involves
another; love always links one’s self to another. …Love is a two-way street that provides a
context of mutuality, understanding, and relatedness between each person and
others, between God and believers, and between believers and believers.”[i] Thus, despite their internal differences with
one another, the Christians in the Corinth Church must learn to forgive and
love one another.
In his
third and final section, Paul asserts that unlike prophecies, knowledge, and
even languages—which inevitably end—love
never ends. Love sustains. Then, in
keeping with the encomium formula, which he is using, Paul concludes by
comparing love with two other virtues, faith and hope. He writes, “Now faith, hope, and love abide,
these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (v. 13) For Paul, love is preeminent because love is
the principal characteristic of God. For
Paul, God’s love makes possible our faith, understood as right relationship
with God, and our hope, which we have through our faith. Therefore, love is foremost. Love is the most important virtue, especially
for faith communities.
This
Sunday, as we make our estimates of financial giving for next year, I am going
to ask my congregation to reflect 1 Corinthians 13, as the Apostle Paul originally
intended it to be read—not as a reflection on romantic love, but rather as a
reflection on how God intends for faith communities to live together. To love one another; to be patient and kind
with one another; to bear and endure all things; to believe in one another; and
to hope together. I believe that our
congregation already loves one another in these ways, but I want to challenge
us to look for new ways in which we can love one another even more, as brothers
and sisters in Christ.
If you live in the Lincoln,
Nebraska area and do not have a place of worship, then I invite you to come and
join us at Christ United Methodist Church this Sunday, October 27th, as we reflect
on the importance of love for one another in Christian communities of
faith.
Christ UMC is located at 4530 “A”
Street. We have three worship services
on Sunday mornings at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00.
The 8:30 and 11:00 services feature a traditional worship format and the
services are held in our Sanctuary. “The
Gathering” at 9:45 is held in our Family Life Center (gym), and it is more
informal and interactive.
Come, join us. Everyone is welcome and accepted because God
loves us all.
[i]J. Paul Sample, Commentary on 1 Corinthians in the New Interpreter’s Bible, vol 10, (Nashville,
Abingdon Press, 2002), CD-ROM Edition.
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