Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Video of Divine Service

The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany  

Jeremiah 1:4-10 (17-19)      

1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13        

Luke 4:31-44 

 

                   A More Excellent Way

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

In chapter 12, the Apostle Paul instructs the church that each member’s spiritual gifts and talents are for the benefit of and the building up of the whole congregation. These gifts are not an opportunity to claim the spotlight or to elevate one congregation member over another. All gifts are a grace from God and are for the purpose of edifying and strengthening the community to which one belongs. While certain gifts may catch people’s attention or be valued more readily than others, none of the gifts used within the Christian community are complete without love.  Paul turns the catechesis toward the “still more excellent way” of love in our Epistle reading today. 

Paul calls love the “still more excellent way” because more than anything else, Christian love, agape is the word in Greek, reflects the love that God persistently extends to us. Moved by love, God created the universe, this world, and us. When Adam chose to disobey God’s one command in the garden of Eden, God responded lovingly. He could have simply eliminated humanity from existence, but chose instead to let us live and gave us the means to flourish.  Yes, life is hard, but there is so much joy and beauty too. God gave us the gift of one another in order that the burdens are lighter. God created a beautiful earth in which to live and provide for our daily sustenance. God gave us imagination so that we can problem solve and create and make life better. 

Jesus is born for us because of God’s love. In this season of Epiphany, the Gospels reveal to us the many ways in which Jesus embodies the love of the Father and the Spirit through his actions. Jesus’ love is a force to be reckoned with. His love bears authority over every kind of being. Jesus silences the demons when no one else can. Jesus restores the wreckage the demonic produces with peace of mind. Jesus has authority over the viruses and bacteria and genetic issues that lead to sickness. In love, Jesus ministers to the sick, the broken, the wore out, and the desperate. He heals fevers, broken bones, deformed limbs, and casts out the effects of disease. In love, Jesus ignores his own exhaustion and he pushes on. Everyone needs the Good News. Everyone needs to experience first-hand the impact of being touched by Jesus and transformed by the power of God’s love.    

In love, Jesus continues his slow but deliberate journey toward Jerusalem where he will die on a cross for our sakes. In love, Jesus receives the nails in his hands and feet and the spear in his side. Our sin, Adam’s sin, was a sin of the body. Adam and Eve physically touched and held what was forbidden. They ate of the forbidden fruit that they admired so appreciatively. They ingested their sinful choice into their own body. 

In love, the son of God is incarnate in Jesus. The Son of God enters our humanity. He is surrounded by sin and all its manifestations. On the cross, Jesus receives unto His body the punishment of our sin that we perpetuate with our own bodies. From the cross, He forgives us. By his cross, we are declared righteous. In faith, we receive the good news that the God-Man Jesus dies for us so that we are forgiven, and we receive His righteousness. 

Jesus shows us the “still more excellent way” of love. As Paul describes the love that is the foundation of our life together, he uses Jesus as a model to paint a picture of what Christian love looks like. It’s a mirror image of the love that Jesus demonstrates and is reported to us in the Biblical record. “Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

Jesus is all those things. Except of course, He did insist on His own way, but when You are literally the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the One through whom a person must go to meet the Father; well, we are grateful for His insistence.

The Apostle says, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Yes, faith is important because this is how we connect with the promises of God in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit creates faith within us through the proclamation of the Gospel. Yes, hope is important. Hope enables us to move toward tomorrow. Hope emboldens us to dream of a more glorious time and place. Hope that is placed upon Jesus is a hope that seeks fulfillment. 

Faith and hope are critical in the life of a Christian. But, love is the greatest because love comes first from God. Because of God’s love for us in Jesus, we have faith in that which saves us and we have hope for eternal peace with God. The love we have is the love of Jesus. His love fulfills us and sets us free to serve and love.  

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.