1 Corinthians 13
Psalm 33:1-5
I have three weddings coming up before the end of this year, and so this passage from our first reading has been following me in every spare moment of thought I have. It is the great wedding passage. Not in the least because you get to tell everyone what love actually means without lecturing them about it – the apostle lists all the attributes of true love for us. It is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude, it bears, believes, hopes and endures all things. More helpful marriage advice cannot be found anywhere else.
But I think it is also a great funeral passage. For look at how St Paul ends – we are looking in a mirror dimly (that is to say, through a glass, or through a window-pane). “Then” we shall see clearly. Once this race is run, and we are taken to the Lord, faith, hope and love will remain, the greatest of them being love.
I think he’s also giving us a way of seeing heaven in this life. St Paul is always thinking about heaven – you cannot read more than a few sentences in any of his letters until you run into something about it. While he loved this life, because it meant doing the Lord’s work, he also loved the promise of future glory.
So when we are considering love, and in particular what the Psalmist said about the earth being filled with the loving-kindness of the Lord, we might find it easy to point out how difficult it is to find that love. And you wouldn’t be wrong! There are plenty of situations in this world where love is absent. But let us consider our own lives, for that is what we have most influence over.
The kingdom of heaven is described as having being inaugurated by Jesus at his first coming, but not being consummated until his return. It has begun, but it is not yet complete. Heaven on earth is pulling up at the station, but it has not completely stopped and the doors have not yet been opened. That is to say, we can see heaven here and now, in spite of all its opposition. We see it, as the apostle says, through a glass dimly. And we see it when we see the type of love he describes in this passage. So if you are looking for heaven on earth, look for the love that is patient, humble, courteous, and so on. Then you can say you have found heaven on earth.
Not only that – the Lord has given us the means to participate in bringing about heaven on earth. When we show the love described in this passage, we are bringing heaven to earth. We are fulfilling our mission as Christ’s soldiers, breaking down the gates of hell.
And finally, it is the type of love that God has lavished upon us in Jesus Christ. Here is a man who is both perfectly honest and yet wonderfully loving. He is a roaring lion to those who would hurt us, and a gentle lamb to those he loves. He is patient with his disciples. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices at the truth. He bears all things; indeed, he bore our sins on the cross. He endured all things: he endured the wrath of God against sinners to its completion, so that we can say with full confidence that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. When all is said and done, we place our faith in him, we place our hope in him, but greatest of all is our love for him, and his love for us.