Sermon: More Excellent “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” What follows, we know, is this more excellent way and spiritual gift of love. For me there is something bothersome in this sentence – something that sounds a bit odd to my ears, and maybe to yours. It’s the words “more excellent” – still a more excellent way.” How can something be “more excellent?” To describe something as “excellent” is to say it is superior, eminently good, first class – exceptional, first rate, tremendous, superb. What could be “more” or “better” than that? More superb, more first rate? I wonder how the English teachers among us would comment if one of their students used these phrases in an essay? When I was in high school, I felt really good when I received a grade of “A” in a given subject. I suspect this is still the case for students today? A’s on the report card – parents happy. I never got one in math, but I would sometimes in English and history – and in music. Getting a grade of “A” meant that your work for that grading period was excellent. Getting all “A’s” would give you a 4.0 - the highest Grade Point Average you can get. That’s really excellent! That’s full college scholarship material. Maybe an A+ is “more excellent.” But an A+ is nearly impossible to earn. I don’t recall ever getting one from any of my teachers – and my guess is that such a grade is given “few and far between” – if ever - by the teachers I know around here. I suppose we could take out our red pencil and circle these words of Paul here in chapter 12 – and give him a lower grade on his writing. Or then again, if we were better teachers – “more excellent” teachers - we would conclude that in this sentence Paul is engaging in hyperbole. That’s a $10 word, hyperbole – it means to exaggerate, to go beyond, to exceed - in order to make a point. And that’s exactly what Paul is doing here. Interestingly enough, our English word excellent comes from the Greek language – it is the very Greek word that Paul uses here – it is the word “huperbole” (hoop-er-bol-ay)' – which sounds familiar, doesn’t it. It is also our hyperbole - “to go beyond – to exaggerate - to go on to excellence.” What is the superior, first class, exceedingly excellent way to live and to be in the world is, of course, the way of love. And Paul goes on in chapter 13 to describe this way of living and being in the world. Paul’s description of love is likely among the most well known and often heard words from the Bible. Like Psalm 23, and the Lord’s Prayer, I Corinthians 13 is among the most well known Bible passage in our culture. We hear it most often in wedding services. And unless the pastor at the wedding says anything about this passage, you might conclude that it’s about marriage, and how married couples are supposed to love each other. The harsh reality is I doubt Paul even had marriage in mind when he wrote these words. Paul himself was not a big fan of marriage – he thought it better to remain single, and to get married only if you can’t control yourself. Go back to chapter 7 in First Corinthians and you can read all about it. So at most we can say that this chapter relates to marriage only in a secondary or indirect way – but you probably won’t hear that said at a wedding. Primarily I Corinthians 13 is about you and about me – not our relationship with our spouses – but about our way of living and being in the world as a community of believers, as a church. It is about life together – our life together as Beulah Presbyterian Church, as a denomination, and as brother and sister Christians of all stripes and colors. It is the highest and best and “more excellent” gift that the Holy Spirit gives to us, so that we can live as God would want us to live, as a community of faith. Maybe now we know why Paul uses hyperbole here. And it is the one and only time that Paul uses these words “more excellent” in his letters. This is tough stuff. This is “more excellent” stuff – eminently good, A+ Christian living. It is most difficult to achieve. Eugene Peterson, the Presbytery writer who has written “The Message” version of the Bible, this wonderful paraphrase, translates the middle portion of chapter 13 like this: Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. This is how I am supposed to live with others in the church? “O come now Paul – you have got to be joking. Care more for others than I do for myself? Don’t force my way and what I want on others? Don’t strut? Love others here like that? Sacrificially like that?” Let’s face it - we don’t even like some people in the church, so how are we supposed to love them like this? And there are some other Christians - Presbyterians even – who read the same Bible I read, and they come up with the strangest interpretations – never mind the Pat Robertsons and the Jerry Fallwells who just make my blood boil. And – let us be honest here – there are times – I am quite sure – that I really annoy some of you – something I did – something I didn’t do. Now of course the opposite is never true – none of you all ever annoy me. Love like that? Yes – this is what Paul calls us and challenges us to do and to be. This has very practical implications on how we work together here. Today we are ordaining and installing new church officers – and in our leadership work there will be times of disagreement. How are we going to talk with one another in those times? And what if the leadership makes decisions which others not currently serving in leadership don’t like? How will we talk with and about one another then? How will we still love another as Paul describes it? This is not easy stuff. One pastor I read this week interprets this more excellent way of love as “Godly respect” – as much as we might not like some others, as much as we disagree in certain matters with others, we are always to have a “Godly respect” for one another. And this too can be a real challenge. I do suspect Paul knew that we could not attain this “A+” grade of Christian living, this “more excellent way.” It is, after all, a gift of the Holy Spirit, one we need to ask for continually. But Paul gives another hint here by what he writes in the very first words of chapter 14. This is something else you won’t hear often at weddings, unless it is a wedding here, because I’ve gotten good at slipping this next verse into the readings – it is verse 14:1a – the first part of verse one in chapter 14. We know well the last words of chapter 13: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” But then, the next words, in chapter 14, comes these words: “Pursue love” Another translation puts it: “Make love your aim.” Eugene Peterson writes it: “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Pursuing love, going after a life of love takes effort, striving, energy and vigor. We have that – and when we run low, we have others to help us out. And in our baptism we all have the presence of the Holy Spirit – who has an inexhaustible supply of this more excellent gift – who gives of that abundance when we ask. May we all pursue love, and ask for more of it when we run low. And all God’s people said. Amen. |