"LOVE IS NOT BOASTFUL"
a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens
Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.
September 22, 2024
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 NRSV
If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And 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. 3 If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
I had a hard time trying to write this sermon, because, I mean, its not like anyone ever boasts anymore, right? I mean you never hear, for example, a political candidate for President boasting about what their going to do, or what they have done, do you? Well, of course I am being facetious, if not ridiculous.
George Eliot is quoted as saying of someone, “He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.” And another writer once said, “There is nothing quite so dead as a self-centered man – a man who holds himself up as a self-made success, and measures himself by himself and is pleased with the result.” That sounds like someone who boasts, doesn’t it?
But I believe that the real reason behind the Apostle Paul’s words – “love does not boast” - is about more than just being egotistical. It goes beyond just the kind of boasting someone like Muhammed Ali was famous for: “I am the greatest!” His reasons are in those first verses I read a moment ago. Paul chose those words for a specific reason. He was writing to a group of people who were proud of their newfound faith. They were filled with excitement about finding the love of God, and seeing it in the message they had received about Jesus. But their excitement had turned to a kind of competitive bragging that was hurting their church and causing conflict.
. They bragged about who spoke in “tongues” the best, who had more “secret spiritual knowledge,” and who gave more to the church. So, Paul repeatedly reminds them that all that pales, all that is worthless, if it is not done out of love – love of God and love of one’s siblings, more than for oneself. And he urges them to realize that loving God, and loving Jesus are best shown by their love for others. Otherwise, it is all worthless. He says it plainly:
“If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And 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. 3 If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
In short, it is a waste to try to boast about whatever you do to prove your faith, if it is done for your own glory, rather than as a true act of love.
There was one kind of boasting Paul approved of, sort of. In another letter to some other Christians Paul said, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14) Boasting about the Cross is a difficult thing to understand. It was basically Caesar’s electric chair. Crucifixion was used to execute criminals or threats to the Empire. And too much of Christian theology has used the cross to glorify retributive violence. It has been used to do violence to people of other religions, races, and political views. We are not saved because God killed “his” son because we are evil and God needed to punish someone. That is some weird theology. That is a weird God to worship. I believe we are saved from that if we truly believe in and follow the way of Christ in our daily living. I believe the resurrection is the sign that God’s love is more powerful than all the armies, all the Caesar’s, every cross that crucifies, and even death itself. Love is the mighty power of God.
Those original followers of the way of Christ didn’t go around killing people for not believing like they did, or bragging that they were better than others. That came later. And it still goes on too much. The first followers didn’t boast “our God’s better than your God.” They served people, loved people – even those who were different than them. They actually lived by the ethic that Jesus taught them: Love one another as I have loved you. Forgive as your Abwoon in heaven forgives. Serve one another as I have served you. In fact, he taught them that true greatness didn’t boast about their superiority. True greatness was this: the greatest among you will be the servant of all. And to serve one another you have to love one another.
Paul heard that message. He was transformed by that message and by his own encounter with the Risen Christ. He went from being a hate-filled religious fanatic to an Apostle of Love. He was transformed from someone ready to kill those he opposed – these followers of Jesus – to leading hundreds who led hundreds who led millions to become followers of Jesus. If anyone had reason to boast it was Paul. Yet Paul in another place tells us he only boasts about his weakness!
Paul tells these Christians in Corinth that he boasts about being imprisoned, beaten, being hungry and thirsty, all for serving Christ. He was shipwrecked! He had been chased out of town by angry mobs. He says he knows it is silly, but he is trying to teach those who were boasting about how great their faith was to stop. He says he boasts about his weaknesses, because he knows he cannot depend on his own strength, but he can always rely on God’s strength. The mighty power of God is love, love shown in Christ Jesus.
You might be tempted to think you can’t do anything great to show the love of Christ. How can we find a way to show the love of Christ? I think the best way to show the mighty power of God’s love is in compassion for others. If I am more concerned about someone else’s hurting, someone else’s need, someone else’s brokenness then I don’t need to boast to them about my faith. I need to show them that I hurt with them, that my heart is broken with them, that I am willing to be with them. My job isn’t to solve their problems. Sometimes all I need to do is simply sit and suffer with them silently. There are a lot of angry people out there. They are hurting, and they don’t think anyone hears or cares about their hurting. We are called to be the ones who hear, and see, and care about their hurting. And we don’t do that because we are so great, but because we have experienced a love so great it gives us the strength to suffer with them. That is compassion. That is love. And the only way you and I can truly do that is if we depend on the love of God to make a way in our hearts to do it.
So while we may not be big boasters, are we doing what we can to show others the real, authentic power of God’s love? You might be more tempted to think you don’t know any way to do that, than you are to boast about what you do. But, remember this: when the way seems impossible it is God’s love that can make a way. When there is no way God’s mighty love will raise up a way. We don’t need to boast, we just need to trust that love. It is God’s love that is our way maker.
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