& to reach her destination

is to simply cease to be

A sermon on 1 Corinthians 13 and life mid-pandemic

One of the hardest things about life right now has to be how all of our usual ways of measuring a week have gone straight out the window!

Planning things is nearby impossible anymore. Families have been especially hit hard. “Will there be a zoom class today? And if so, when?” 

Each day is up for grabs. 

And even if you haven’t suddenly been thrust into the role of homeschool teacher, I bet your routine has been upended. The regularly scheduled program you used to evaluate the rest of your week against. 

In the past, Friday was my day off. So the goal was to have the sermon more or less finished by Thursday. If it was more finished, I knew I was ahead. If it was less finished, I knew I was behind. 

But either way, I had some thing to measure my progress against each week.

But now, all that’s out of pocket! 

Currently the goal is to have the sermon written by Wednesday so we can mail it by Thursday. But we don’t even actually record the service until Friday! It’s so unusual! 

Each day I have to stop and remind myself exactly what day it is, and what I need to accomplish. 

And I bet it’s no different for you, either. Is it?

…Do you know what, though? 

I bet, if we could all just cajole ourselves into accepting this, into packing up our barometers, I bet then all these disturbances would be a lot less disturbing.

…Of course, good luck with that. Like most advice that’s true and good, it’s easier said than done. 

The truth is, we aren’t just creatures of habit. We’re creatures who rely on those yardsticks we’ve put up to make sense of the world, and our standing within it…

This is nothing new, either. It’s what the members of First Lutheran in Corinthian were doing nearly two-thousand years ago, too.

…Now, units of measurement are highly contextual. They depend upon your place in life, and your social group, too. 

For instance, many of the things you thought were important in high-school, don’t really matter once you hit middle-ages. And, what matters to you in your middle-ages and thereafter is largely determined by what lot you throw yourself in with. 

If you’re a runner, then the measurement is how many miles you put in. And if you’re career-minded, it’s how far you’ve climbed the ladder. If you’re family-minded, it’s how many kids you have. Or, how you’re raising them. Or, how well they’re doing. 

But it doesn’t matter who you are, or where you are in life, we all have these benchmarks we measure ourselves against. 

For the Corinthians, it was, of all things, spiritual progress…

Now, the thing about our penchant for measuring is, it aways goes awry. 

This happens in a lot of ways; like we’re experiencing right now, how easily all our standards go haywire and how they do, take everything else along with them. 

But there’s also how our increments AREN’T hard and fast! How, no sooner do you gin up to one mark, then you’ve got to reach the next.

And there’s the way our benchmarks quickly become a litmus test others must pass. And woe unto them if they don’t.

The thing about all that, though, is we all already know it! We already know it, and yet we still persist in our measuring!

…Apparently the cure to our habit is something more than knowledge. 

After all, there’s no discernible problem monitoring our fitness, career-advancement, parenting or even spiritual development. In fact, tracking our progress in those areas usually seems like a good idea!

The trouble, though, is when our progress becomes an end in and of itself. Which it always, inevitably does. 

No amount of knowledge can stop this from happening.

That’s what happened to the folks in Corinth. Who, by the way, had a  reputation for their wisdom. 

It all started well enough. A simple Bible-study here. A little time in prayer there. But before long, the point wasn’t scripture or prayer anymore. It was how much progress had been made in these areas.

And the further they climbed the ladder, the more distant they became from one another.

Sure, they could quote scripture with the best of them. But instead of teaching each other, they were ranking each other’s biblical knowledge! And yes, their prayers were profound. But instead of offering them up for each other, they were judging each others prayers!

Even something as noble as prayer and Bible study had fallen victim to the worst impulses that resides within each one of us! It truly doesn’t matter what you’re measuring, in due time the whole scheme will go sideways…

Now, at this point we’re awfully close to the heart of Paul’s theology, how Sin has even coopted the best we have, by our worst instincts. 

As Paul will say in other places, that old game of measuring has come to its end in Jesus’ once and for all perfect sacrifice on the cross and his earth shattering resurrection three days later. 

But, that’s not what he says here, at this precise moment! No. Here, Paul offers up no theories. In fact, he holds up beauty. The beauty of the this alternative yardstick of love.

It’s as if Paul is saying to the Corinthians, “if you’re so keen on measuring, try measuring this; love.”

Because the thing about love is, you can’t measure it. It has no end!

And what’s more, love itself doesn’t measure! It just bears all things. Love has no use for that tired, old game of score-keeping!

Now that God has done something world altering at the cross, declares Paul, the only only measurement that matters anymore is the immeasurable riches of God’s grace (Eph. 2:7)! The breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ (Eph. 3:18-19)!

In Jesus Christ, God has done away with all those old measuring rods. And, even better, God’s given us the very thing that takes away their sting, love!

Love which has no use for our trivial measurements! Love which itself cannot be measured!

In Jesus Christ, God has not only met every single last measurements there is, in the once and for all, perfectly complete sacrifice at the cross. God has even suffered the punishment for failing to live up to them, self-imposed or otherwise!

In Jesus Christ, God has taken it all, the measuring up and the failing to, too, and just died. Let it come to an end, once and for all. 

In death there’s no more measuring left to do…

BUT then, three days later, God raised Jesus from that death! 

Now Jesus stands on the other side of all those old measurements! In his resurrection Jesus reigns from the place where none of those standards hold any sway anymore! 

And what does he do from there? He just turns around and GIVES us the goods!

You don’t have to wait for what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ! It’s yours! Right now! By right of the simple rite of Baptism! (And if you haven’t been baptized, reach out to us. We can take care of that. It’s the easiest thing in the world). 

You don’t have to earn or achieve what Jesus has accomplished on the cross! His perfect sacrifice was made for you! There's nothing greater than it (Jn. 15:13), nothing to add to it. When Jesus laid down his life, he did so for you! And when he picked it up again, he did so for you, too! (Jn. 10:18) So that he might turn around and hand you his new life lived free and clear of all those old benchmarks!

This thing Jesus has accomplished for you and me, it’s the only measurement that matters anymore. And it can’t be measured!

This complete, perfect act of love can’t be content on any scorecard, and it drowns out the voice of every measurement that accuses you, too! 

Now, all that’s left is the voice of Jesus saying your name in immeasurable love from the other side of its marker, the grave!

This abiding love. This redeeming love. This measure-breaking love, it’s all that matters anymore. And it’s all yours, right now!

Without this love, nothing else matters. But with it, everything does; even our humble, little, every day moments become infused with the eternal, the heavenly love that knows no end!

…The temptation right now, as all our usual measurements are breaking down, is to try and make some new ones. But resist that temptation. In due time they’ll prove futile, anyway. 

Believe me, I know how it feels like we’re out to sea without all our old depth-finder. But the truth is, they were never reliable, anyway. Plus, we already have everything we truly need! 

It’s more than a sonar or the knowledge how to use it. It’s what abides even after all those things have ended, God’s limitless love!

Now faith, hope and LOVE abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.