Paul's Song, Letter and World

 

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled Paul’s Song, Letter and World. My focus is our Epistle (1^st Corinthians 12:31b-13:13). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

“Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honali.” I open with these words for two reasons. First, when Cindy and I celebrated five years of marriage, we travelled to Hawaii, and one of the sites we visited was Hanalei on the north shore of the island of Kauai. Fewer than 500 people live in Hanalei, a village smaller than one square mile. Hanalei is often associated with the song popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Second, one member of the trio who sang Puff the Magic Dragon also wrote a song we requested for our wedding. Paul Stookey wrote Wedding Song in 1969 and performed it at the wedding of Peter Yarrow, the other male singer of the trio.

Shortly after his Christian conversion, Yarrow asked Stookey to “bless our wedding with a song.” According to Stookey, “the melody and the words arrived simultaneously and in response to a direct prayer asking God how the divine could be present at Peter’s wedding.” Drawing almost verbatim from Matthew 18:20, the original lyric is “I am now to be among you at the calling of your hearts; rest assured this troubadour is acting on My part. The union of your spirits here has caused Me to remain for whenever two or more of you are gathered in My name, There am I...There is Love.”

Concerned that the wedding guests might misinterpret his intention, Stookey changed “I” to “He” until 1990 when he ‘officially’ restored the original lyric.

The first two lines of the second verse, “A man shall leave his mother and a woman leave her home. And they shall travel on to where the two shall be as one,” paraphrased Genesis 2:24: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

Believing he could not take personal credit for composing "The Wedding Song", Stookey set up the Public Domain Foundation, which since 1971 received the song's royalties for charitable distribution. … If you have time this week, listen to Paul’s song. You will enjoy it.

Couples request many songs and readings for their weddings. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians is one of the most popular. As a pastor preparing to write a sermon for their wedding, I ask couples why they choose their readings. Often, they reply, “Because we like them.” If couples knew the background of Paul’s Letter, they might choose another passage.

Corinth’s Christians were a mix of Jews and Gentiles from various economic strata. That the rich were shameless and the poor were wretched led to ethical and liturgical problems.

Although not the founding pastor of their church, Paul made several trips to Corinth. In essence, he fathered the community and took great interest in its well-being. The experience of Paul’s second trip, however, left him heart-broken.

Sexual immorality, legal disputes, Eucharistic abuses and controversies about the resurrection of the dead were some of the problems Paul encountered. Yet, the real problem was two-fold: Gnosticism and behavior. The Gnostics were people who thought that they were wiser than everyone. The others thought they could do whatever they wanted.

Chapter 13 concerned itself with behavior that caused serious dissension within the community. While the people causing this dissension were spirit-people or charismatics, Paul addressed the entire church. Paul based his ecclesiology, his teaching of Church, on his Christology, his teaching of Christ. To be Church, Christians were to imitate Christ in their relations with one another. They could not see themselves as wiser nor could they do whatever they wanted.

In chapter 13, Paul pointed out how the Corinthian Christians did not reflect Christ’s love. In verses 4-8, Paul listed what love is and is not. It is not about personal preference. C.S. Lewis said that to love and to like are not the same. I can like some people more than others, but I am to love all people.

To illustrate that love, Paul used the term agape, one of three Greek words for love. Eros is passionate love that desires the other for itself. Philos is love of the gods or good friends. Agape has neither the magic of eros nor the warmth of philos, but is an unmotivated, active love.

Paul understood the differences among the three types of love. After all, he grew up as a typical Hellenistic Jewish student, and as a Christian, understood Jesus’ teaching of love of God, neighbor and enemy. We find all of this in chapter 13, but rather than define love, Paul personified it. He chose verbs that involved another person in order to highlight the virtues that the Corinthians neglected. They were not patient and kind. Some insisted on their own way. The community rejoiced at wrongdoing.

Citing himself as an example, Paul spelled out the characteristics of love in such a way that the Corinthians could recognize it for what it was – the foundation of the Church. In a community where jealousy and rivalry ruled their hearts, hearing that love is not jealous, pompous, inflated, rude, self-seeking, quick-tempered, calculating or joyful in lawlessness or wrongdoing was imperative.

For Paul, love was not a gift from God like other virtues. Love was not a legal command to be fulfilled. The love of which Paul wrote was beyond compare because it was the Spirit of God at work in the Church. As he wrote in chapter one, the Corinthians lacked no skills, but skills without love matter not in a faith community awaiting salvation from their Lord.

At the time Paul visited Corinth, there were about 50 Christians. Gathering 50 adults into one house church would have been difficult, awkward and uncommon. More likely, families, servants and a few friends met in smaller groups fostering an intimate family atmosphere that tended to promote divisions within the wider community.

When these smaller groups came together, divisions were played out. The host group sat in the innermost rooms, while the visitors gathered on the porch. The host group gathered for an early meal, while hungry visitors arrived later. Such liturgical abuses fostered resentment among church members.

While the love of the Trinity should have bonded and energized the Body of Christ, the Church, family ties and friendships tore it apart. That said, why do couples choose Paul’s Letter? That leads me from Paul’s Letter to Paul’s world.

By Paul’s world, I mean, my world, your world. Your world and mine share a common denominator. Each is populated by people. A vast array of people we know and love, know and do not love, and do not know or love populates our worlds. The population is so vast that we cannot consider everyone in a short sermon or a lengthy dissertation; however, we can draw a sampling. Allow me to relate one group of people to our reading: friends and family.

Starry-eyed lovers preparing for marriage relate well to Paul’s song and Paul’s letter as their wedding day approaches. Newlyweds love one another, as they should. The world of newlyweds often consists of one other person – the person they love. In love with one another, they – like we – learn that love for one another may not last, may not suffice. For that reason, couples and families must also love the Other (with a capital O).

The Other – God – gets along perfectly well without us. Can we get along without God? Some argue that we can. They say we can get along without God when our needs are met. They have money and all that it can buy. They have a strong body and healthy mind. They are independent and self-reliant, and have someone to love, and family and friends.

However, what happens when friends get busy or distracted? When family members move away, get sick or die? What happens when loved ones contract cancer or Alzheimer’s? When they lose their job or health? Can they get along without God at those moments? Personally speaking, when my dad died suddenly and when my mom contracted cancer, suffered for a year and then died, I needed God more than ever during those moments for my world suffered from the faults of sin and death.

Personally, I am still learning more than I ever have about the importance of Paul’s Letter as it relates to how I view and treat people. Paul’s song is about children who outgrow their imaginary friends. Paul’s Letter is about adults who have yet to grow into Christian maturity and their relationships with one another as Church. Paul’s world is about how we – beloved children of God – personify Christ in terms of First Corinthians 13.

In my relationships with the people I love, am I patient and kind, benevolent and modest, humble and polite, calm and joyful? Do family and friends see Christ in me? Do people see in me someone childish or mature? Do they see a person of faith, hope and love?

Friends, no simple ditty or wedding song will transform us into mature, thoughtful, loving Christian men and women. But as we ponder the meaning of God’s Word and the importance of God’s Sacrament, may we put away childish ways and see in a mirror who God has called us to be. May God’s Word and Sacrament embodied in us transform us into His sons and daughters who see and treat one another as Christ’s brothers and sisters. As we do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.