January 31 - Christ-like love = “U before I”

When Jesus preached in his home town, some in the congregation whispered: “Isn’t this Joseph’s son” That comment could be a source of genuine appreciation—look how far our local boy has come! But it could be asked with a real edge to it, with derision. “Joseph’s kid? He was a nobody back in the day and he’s a nobody from a no-account family now. Why should we listen to him?”

And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum -heal the sick and work miracles.' Luke 4:23

Maybe they had heard about Jesus at the wedding in Cana. I’m waiting for the TV commercial for some high-priced new California Chardonnay wine. Jesus is standing there, palm trees behind him, mid-eastern music in the background, and he holds a bottle of the new wine. “When I transformed water in wine at Cana, this is what I had in mind. Try it today.”

Jesus not only tells the folks in Nazareth he won’t do any mighty act for them, but that they have no special status before God. He reminds them that in the past God sometimes favored outsiders over them – and that will be his agenda. When there was a famine in Israel, the prophet Elijah gave food only to a non-Jewish widow and her son. And the prophet Elisha healed Naaman, a Syrian army officer of leprosy, although there were many lepers in Israel.

And that really got them mad. They thought Jesus was being anti-Israel - un-patriotic - in implying that God loved and cared for that Canaanite woman and that Syrian army officer. He portrayed the work of God as a wide reach beyond the bounds of their definition of who was favored by God and who was not.

Paul had a similar problem with that congregation in Corinth. Some thought they were especially favored by God – and therefore were superior to other members. And that attitude caused dissension in the congregation. Paul countered by telling them that they were all equal members of the body of Christ - all were necessary and each was vital.

But by itself that thought was not enough. For the diverse members to be coordinated and work in harmony, something more was needed. So he said they should all strive for the greater gift. What gift? He replied: I will show you a still more excellent way. Then he launched into the passage you heard read as our second lesson: Paul's famous Hymn of Love.

Some insist this chapter from Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth is the most beautiful chapter in the Bible. This chapter establishes love as the essential ingredient in the Christian life. One cannot be a Christian without love. "If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing" 1 Corinthians 13:2

You’ve probably heard this passage read at weddings. But Paul was not talking about the love between husband and wife, even though it applies in marriage. Rather, Paul had been explaining how the Christian community works – how all these diverse folks with varying talents can somehow serve and fellowship together.

Love is the key to Paul’s understanding of the way members of the Christian community ought to relate to each other. Using his metaphor of the church as the body of Christ, it is love that binds the members of the body together. It is love that allows the body to function harmoniously.

When Paul uses the word love, he had in mind something a little different. The Greek word he employed, Agape, was not the common Greek word for love. Maybe love isn’t even the best way to translate it into English. In the old King James Bible it was rendered “charity” – doing something for someone else without expecting anything in return.

So Christian love, Agape, is a self-giving love – and a love that gives without wanting to get back. Unlike other words for love, agape does not refer to a feeling of the heart, but an act of the will. It’s a decision you make.

For example, Paul says the kind of love he is talking about is not irritable or resentful. That doesn’t mean that stuff won’t irritate you – sure it will - or that you won’t feel resentment – you will. But when those feelings spring up within you – you can make a conscious decision not to display them – and not let them drive your behavior.

So this Christ-like love is the decision to put “U before I.” Sounds simple: “U before I”.

But the problem is putting you before I doesn’t come naturally. Self-interest is a naturally occurring phenomenon in every human being, to some degree. Honestly, I have to struggle against the urge to think of me first.

We know it’s central to our Christian faith to love our neighbor as ourselves - to have compassion, but it just doesn’t come that easily – especially if that neighbor has wronged us. We have to work at it.

And we have to work at it, not until we finally get it right, but over and over again. That ingrained tendency to think “me first” doesn’t go away just because we start following Jesus.

For example, suppose I go to an AA meeting and stand up and say, “I’m Jeff and I’m an alcoholic.” They welcome me and give me a copy of the twelve steps. Does that mean I’m cured - not an alcoholic anymore?

Not at all. That’s only the first step in a long process. It will be a lot of work and learning. I’ll need support from my sponsor and other members of the group.

That reminds me of the story of the Baptist pastor who had been preaching against the evils of drink. He was so successful that business at the local bar was down.

But then someone told him that a few of his members had stopped drinking - stopped drinking at the local bar and moved to a roadhouse several miles out of town.

So one evening he visited that establishment - and saw a few of his members. He went up to one and said, Do you want to go to heaven? -- “I do preacher.” --Leave this bar right now.

He saw another member Do you want to go to heaven? -- “Sure do, reverend.” -- Then leave this den of Satan.

Then he walked up to the third, Do you want to go to heaven too? -- “No, I don’t.”

Shocked, the preacher said You’re telling me that when you die you don’t want to go to heaven?

“Oh, when I die. I thought you were getting together a group to go right now.”

Like the members of AA, we really need encouragement to continue in Jesus way of love. Remember, Paul was writing to a congregation of committed Christian believers. They, like you, had heard this before – Paul had been their preacher for a couple of years. Even so, he found it necessary to again show them the “more excellent way”. It’s easy to say I know all that – and yet at times our behavior doesn’t match what we know. So Paul gives them 16 specific examples of Christ-like love – 16 ways it is expressed.

U before I

It’s silence when your words would hurt.

It’s patience when your neighbor is curt and sharp.

It’s deafness when others gossip.

It’s thoughtfulness for an other’s woes.

It’s courage when misfortune falls.

Paul writes: Love doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. He went on to say that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and that love never ends. Jesus showed that sort of love on the cross, by enduring the worst human beings can endure without resorting to hatred or blame.

Some of you have been following Jesus’ way of love for so long that it does begin to come naturally. You’ve learned His way. And found that learning His way can be a source of personal satisfaction. And that’s the thing about living His way. It is self-validating. You find out for yourself that it really is then better way. As you practice it you can see how it improves your relationships.

There is an old Quaker adage “Let your life speak”. It captures the two-fold nature of our call. First it’s about who you are – your identity as a follower of Christ, a bearer of His Spirit. Second it’s about how you might influence others’ lives.

A Quaker saying: “I expect to pass through this day but once. Therefore any good work, kindness or service I can render to any person, let me do it now. Let me not neglect or delay it, for I will not pass this way again.”

So we pray:

Jesus, Jesu, fill us with your love,

show us how to serve the neighbors

we have from you.