January 30, 2022 – 4th Sunday after Epiphany
Agape love is essential for Christian disciples to be able to express their gifts to the benefit of others. It’s a kind of spiritual ‘vitamin D’ that we can generate from being in the light of the Son
Let us pray. Living and loving God, we thank you for the gift of your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us gathered here and in the many places that we are gathered this day. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living word for us this day, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
So, we have a very interesting set of readings today. The First Reading details a person’s call by God to be a prophet, and it’s a daunting call at that. He will be empowered to “pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow.” The Gospel Reading we’ve just heard from Luke is a situation where another person, Jesus, almost gets killed by an angry mob for being a prophet – for speaking God’s prophetic words to the people of his day. And then, sandwiched in between these, after a portion from the Psalms about a religious man crying out to God to protect him from the clutches of an evil doer, we have this delightful passage from St. Paul about love.
So we have passages about prophets being told to destroy and overthrow; a prophet almost getting murdered for doing his ministry, and then this inspiring poem about love. It’s an interesting challenge for the preacher! And then, we can “season” those readings with a mixture from the Collect Prayer that refers to “the poverty of our nature” and our need for ‘the riches of God’s grace,” with the result being that the impact of God’s grace on our impoverished nature will “show the glory of God” to other people. So let’s dig in and get started.
Clearly, from knowing God’s purposes in prophecy – to warn, to bring to repentance, to change behaviour precisely to avoid the negative consequences of that prophecy - that’s love. It may be tough love but it is love just the same. And then in Jesus’ encounter in the synagogue in Nazareth, he is effectively “shaking the congregation” and saying, ‘Don’t think that in sending the Messiah and initiating the Kingdom of God, that God is only interested in you, Israel. God cares about all people – even the Gentiles.’ Expressing that truth is a kind of love also. So there are connections.
And now, let us look at that beautiful Second Reading from 1st Corinthians 13. First of all, the Greek word for ‘love’ in this passage is “agape.” It’s not “eros, or “philio”, or “storge” – other Greek words for love. Agape connotes a perfect, unconditional love – as God loves. And from Paul’s description, we can see it seems that even gifted, spiritual people can have all sorts of amazing, even miraculous, gifts and abilities, but if they don’t have agape love they don’t amount to anything. And while Christian disciples are capable of expressing this agape love, they are not capable of generating it themselves. It is a gift from God. And when I reflect on my own experience, I think this is true. From time to time, I think I may have expressed a little bit of that agape love to, or for, someone else. But it’s fleeting - it’s temporary. It feels more like it’s flowed through me than something that I’ve generated. And yet, the Second Reading makes it very clear that this agape love is absolutely essential for us to be faithful followers of Christ – to accomplish anything of lasting value in our lives. When all the other gifts have outlived their usefulness, Paul says agape love will be what remains.
So how can we get a handle on this agape love? With what can we compare it that acts similarly in our lives and our experience? I think I’ve got it. (Don’t laugh.) It’s “vitamin D” – vitamin D. Let me explain. Vitamin D is a group of vitamins - they call them ‘secosteroids’ – that are very important to our life and health, because they help us absorb calcium, magnesium, and phosphates – all critical. The body can’t produce it on its own. We can get small amounts of vitamin D in various foods. But it’s not really enough, and the quality of your health and life are adversely affected in a major way with a deficiency of vitamin D. However, through your skin your body can produce vitamin D when it is exposed to sunlight. And when, in the winter in northern latitudes like ours, there is not enough exposure to the sun, you can take vitamin D supplements. So from our analogy – when we open ourselves to the Son (spelled s-o-n) – the living Christ, the Son of God - we can become capable of expressing agape love. And when we’re going through difficult times – illness, tragedy, loss, discouragement – we can take supplements – prayer, Scripture reading, encouragement from others – which is the product of the “Son” in their lives - being able to share that with us.
Now, the purpose of the Collect Prayer, I think, becomes clearer. Agape love is absolutely critical to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Our own nature is deprived of it and so we pray “transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace.” Open yourself to the “Son.” Let Christ shine in and on you. And then, the Collect continues, “… in the renewal of our lives make known your glory.” As we are capable of sharing agape love with others, God will become known to them – they will receive some “Son-shine”, and they will be touched by God’s love. And as the witness of the First Reading and the Gospel reveal, sometimes expressing that love is tough. It’s difficult – just as the vitamin D that captures calcium in our bodies makes strong bones – sometimes those bones are called up on to do tough work and to carry heavy loads. Agape love is not all sentimentality and sweetness. It is true and selfless – entirely for the benefit of the other – even if they can’t see it that way at the time.
Today’s Gradual Anthem that we heard beautifully sung (and a very difficult setting at that) – in the 2nd verse – we read in English: “As we are gathered into one body, Beware, lest we be divided in mind. Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease, And may Christ our God be in our midst. Where charity and love are, God is there. Alleluia.” That is perfectly addressed to us as the Church. Evil impulses, controversy, grudges, misunderstanding, are like dark clouds that blot out the sun/Son and hinder the production of that “spiritual vitamin D” – the expression of the essential agape love. And then in today’s final hymn, we’ll sing at the end of each verse these words – this prayer:
“… with the Spirit’s gifts empower us, for the work of ministry.” - and the gift that makes all the other gifts effective – agape love.
So get out in the sun/Son. Let Christ’s light manufacture the “vitamin D” of agape love in you and in me. Take the supplements regularly – prayer, bible reading and reflection, sharing with other disciples for guidance and encouragement. Then, with our lives being renewed, we can express that love to others – whether that’s prophetic tough love, or the gentle healing love of forgiveness and encouragement.
So the vitamin D of agape love is our essential vitamin that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” This is God’s never-ending gift and desire for you and for me.
Amen.
