Altered by the Spirit of Love – Ash Wednesday 2024 - Pastor Pam
Ash Wednesday and Valentines’ Day do not often land on the same day. However, it has happened before. My internship pastor, Vern, told me that after one Ash Wednesday service he overheard a woman who worked at Bachmans complaining about how tired she was after spending the whole day on her feet, making bouquets. Curious, he asked her, “Really? Do many people send flowers on Ash Wednesday?” She took one look at him, shook her head, and went and found some flowers to make a bouquet for his wife. She gave the bouquet to him and whispered: “It’s February 14 – Valentines’ Day? Give these to your wife.”
Tonight’s preaching scripture is 1 Corinthians 13, otherwise known as the “love chapter.” I don’t think that I’ve ever preached on it other than at weddings. But when Pastor Colin, one of our Wildfire pastors told me that he was going to use this scripture for this Ash Wednesday/ Valentines’ Day mashup, I couldn’t resist following suit. Our theme for our mid-week Lenten series is “Altered” by the Spirit” – and there is nothing that “alters,” changes, and transforms us more than God’s love.
After describing the great variety of gifts that people are given to share and the need to value and celebrate each gift, rather than competing for which one is best, Paul writes, “Let me show you a more excellent way…” This is an invitation – not to compete – but rather to follow, together, the way of Jesus.
While we may be used to hearing 1st Corinthians preached at weddings, Paul was actually writing to a congregation, a church community who was having some challenges. But whether we hear this scripture as a way to begin a healthy and loving marriage or as a way a community can come together – despite the disagreements, factions, diversity of ideas, culture and politics that surrounded the Corinthians and also surround us today – Paul shows us a more excellent way. This way, the way of love, is Christ’s way.
To show us this way, Paul turns to the language of poetry. Somehow, the beautiful words and cadence of poetry and music can disarm us, soften and warm our hearts, expand our minds and touch our soul.
I’d like you to turn to the second paragraph of 1st Corinthians 13 and read it with me: “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.”
This is beautiful tribute to the power of love – and I love this passage. But we always miss something when we translate. What we miss hearing in this sentence is that all the verbs are active. There are seven things that love does: Love shows patience; love acts with kindness. Love rejoices in truth. Love bears. Love believes. Love hopes. Love endures. There are also eight things that love does not do. Love does not act out of envy. Love does not act boastfully or arrogantly or rudely. Love does not insist that it is my way or the highway. Love does not act out of irritation or resentment. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing. As theologian Brian Peterson wrote, “love is a busy, active thing that never ceases to work. It is always finding ways to express itself for the good of others.” 1
So if, as Paul asserts, we as followers of Christ, are called to seek out and act in love for the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ and if we are to extend that love to the communities we live, work, and play in, and if, together, we are to extend that love even further to encompass of of God’s creation … what does this look like? How can this be anything other than aspirational? 2
If love acts with patience… what does that look like? Perhaps it looks like a daughter, a son, a parent, a friend sitting by the side of an ill mother, father, child, or neighbor in the ICU.
If love acts with kindness…. What does that look like? Maybe it looks like the woman who visited another in a temporary care unit – a TCU. A TCU is a place to be when you out of the hospital but not well enough to go home, and so, sometimes, a TCU can be a depressing place. But, from what I heard, this visit started out with a little chat and it ended up in yet another patient’s room with the whole group laughing and enjoying one another’s company. Who knew that “ladies aide” could happen in a rehab room?
If love does not act with envy or arrogance, then it must act humbly and generously. Maybe it looks like women with artistic gifts providing materials and tools and encouragement so that – regardless of artistic talent or lack thereof – all were all were able to make beautiful Valentine’s Day cards for our homebound members and RobbinsWay neighbors.
If love does not insist on its own way… what does that look like when we disagree? Maybe it looks like a woman who told me that when she is on a group chat with her relatives – and they often disagree – she listens first before suggesting, politely, that perhaps the issue could be seen in another way. By having listened first, she has not only honored her relatives but has also created an environment in which they may be more open to hear her point of view.
Paul never said that the way of Jesus, the way of love, would be easy. But it is a more excellent way – because it is the way of Jesus Christ.
We begin our journey to living the way of love, Christ’s way, by looking at ourselves. It’s not always easy to do. Paul writes, “now we see in a mirror, dimly. In Paul’s day, they did not have mirrors like we have today – which reveal sometimes more than we wish they did about our physical appearance. One could only catch one’s reflection in a window – or maybe in a shiny spoon. But it isn’t one’s physical appearance that Paul is referencing here. Rather, it is looking inside of ourselves to see the times in which we have acted in ways that are not in keeping with Christ’s way. It isn’t easy or comfortable to look within and see the times when we said a cruel or hurtful word, the times in which we acted out of jealousy or self-centeredness, the times we have been boastful or arrogant. Nor do we like to see the times we have selfishly kept our gifts to ourselves, whether out of insecurity or false pride; the times we have not dared or been willing to use the gifts God gave to us to share.
Friends in Christ, God sees our whole self - the good and beautiful and the bad and the ugly. God sees it all – and loves us – no buts. And, God wants us to see ourselves and confess the times we have failed to be the people we yearn to be so that God can set us free from the things that bind us. When we empty ourselves of the sin, guilt, shame and fear that we have been holding onto, then God can fill us with Christ’s own body and blood and we can be transformed, altered, freed to love as Christ loves us. We will be free to pursue love – just as Christ has pursued us. Amen.
1 Brian Petersonhttps://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-after-epiphany-3/commentary-on-1-corinthians-131-13-5
2 Karoline Lewis