Rev. George Miller
April 21, 2024
Acts 17: 1-9
Love is patient; love in kind
Love is not envious or boastful
or arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way;
Love is not irritable or resentful.
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing,
But rejoices in truth.
Love bears all things;
believes all things,
Hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends.
These are the words of the Apostle Paul.
Words that were written to the Corinthian
Church.
Many people make the assumption that Paul
is talking about romantic love, so we’ll often hear this read at weddings or see
on Hallmark cards.
But that is an understandable mistake.
The love that Paul is actually talking
about is the kind of love that exists within a church; the kind of love that
exists between believers of Christ.
When Paul states that love is patient, he
means that members of the same congregation should be patient with one another.
When Paul says that love is not envious or
boastful, he means that as siblings in Christ we are not to flaunt our faith or
our blessings in a way that makes anyone feel less than.
When he says that love is to rejoice in
the truth, he means that as Citizens of God’s Heavenly Kingdom we should be
filled with joy based upon the Good News.
As Believers bound together by the Resurrection,
it makes sense that faith-based love never ends, because the Resurrection of
Christ means that Jesus’ place in the world has no end.
In Mark, Jesus told us very plainly that
the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor.
So as long as we love, as long as we love
God, as long as we love neighbor, there is no end.
Only new beginnings, new chapters, new
opportunities.
Moments may end, eras may end, but love,
love never ends.
So it is heartbreaking when we encounter a
reading like today and witness when there is the absence of love.
No longer waiting patiently in Jerusalem,
the apostles have branched out all over the world, sharing all they know about Jesus
Christ.
Paul and Silas have headed into the Wild
West, into a land in which many faiths exists,
where Greek gods and goddesses are adored,
and Roman rulers are seen as having
supreme power.
Paul and Silas are out amongst people who
have the kind of faith in which what they believe is tied to their politicians,
and their politicians are tied to their
faith.
So for Paul and Silas to speak about and
share their knowledge of Jesus is quite controversial.
The more they talk about the Kingdom of God,
the more they refer to Jesus as the Messiah, the more they are seen as a
national threat.
They are in a place and time in which those
in power have let it be known- if you preach or teach about anything that does
not elevate us and fit into what we believe-
You will pay the cost.
But this does not scare away Paul and
Silas. See- they are filled with
love.
Love for God, love for neighbor, love for
the Good News of Jesus.
They talk so persuasively, passionately,
that some of the Greek nationalists start to follow them, as do a whole bunch
of women who are the trendsetters of their day.
Think of that- the Good News of Jesus
being so powerful that some of the most popular women become believers.
And no doubt, these Madonnas, these
Beyonces, these Maryl Streeps get to take on a more prominent role in this
community based on the teachings of Jesus.
So what happens?
The people in power, those who feel that
they must have control, those that feel threatened by the message of love,
act in the most unloving of ways.
They do not rejoice; they become envious.
They do not act kind, but become
irritable, resentful as they hunt down Paul and Silas.
They engage in blatant wrongdoing as they storm
Jason’s house and drag him out, simply for giving Paul and Silas a place to stay.
They are so threatened by the Good News of
Jesus Christ that they need to hurt someone, anyone to alleviate the envy and
arrogance they feel.
The commandment of Jesus to love God and
to love neighbor is so strong, that even after Christ has ascended to Heaven,
the world still feels the need to Crucify him again and again and again.
It is a wonder that Christianity ever
survived.
It is a wonder that the Good News ever
made it through.
It is a wonder that 2,000 years later we
are gathered here today because the leaders, the kings, the politicians of the
world tried over and over to silence us, shame us, shut the Gospel down.
But…
But as Paul says-
Love.
Never. Dies.
The love that Jesus talked about, the love
that Jesus demonstrated, the love that Jesus embodied
every time he
reached out to a mother,
lifted up a sister,
ate with someone who was differently
different, spoke to someone in a field, by the shore,
in a graveyard,
is the kind of love that cannot be silenced,
cannot be shamed,
cannot be shut down.
That is the kind of love that bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things.
Endures all things.
The love that Jesus showed, the love that Christ
calls us to have for God and to have for our neighbor.
That is the love that never ends.
That is Kingdom Love.
Heaven Love.
Timeless Love.
Amen.
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