Love: The Indefinable

Devotional Reflection, Monday, October 11. 2021

Proper 23, the week of the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. . . . 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Philip. (See below.)

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 988)

AM, Psalms 1-3; PM, Psalms 4, 7

Jer.36:11-16; 1 Cor.13:(1-4), 7-13; Matt.10:5-15

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Epistle, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

13:1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And 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. 3If 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.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

David's Reflections

One of the most profound writings about love I’ve encountered can be found in a chapter from Bruce van Blair’s book, A Year to Remember. I especially resonate with his way of articulating that love eludes our pat definitions and preconceptions. “What then is love? When that question hits the brain-circuits, it blows all the fuses. Something twitches, expands, explodes. . . . Love has no definition. . . . Only God knows, and even God could find no word of definition—except a Word made flesh.”*

What do you regard as most basic and most important in the life of the Christian community? Would it be that everyone discover and welcome their spiritual gifts? That might well have been the answer of the Corinthian ecstatics against whose views Paul argues in 1 Corinthians.

Paul's answer to that question comes in today's epistle reading. Paul mentions several spiritual gifts--tongues, prophecy, faith, knowledge, and martyrdom in the first three verses. Yet, for him the life of the community demands something even more basic than the exercise of spiritual gifts. He does not try to define love; rather, he describes the behaviors that typify love and he places love at the top of his list of values, even above faith and hope.

He gives us here one of the most profound poetic reflections to be found anywhere in his letters or anywhere in Scripture. In Galatians 5, when he listed the fruit of the Spirit, Paul put love first in that list. Again here, he calls for the exercise of unconditional love as the most fundamental need within the church.

This love does not alter itself or withdraw in response to the person being loved. What they do and who they are do not matter. This love simply persists. If is not mere warm, fuzzy sentiment; rather this love acts for the benefit of the one loved, no matter what the cost and no matter whether the object of that love responds appropriately or not. This love does not require that we “like” the other; in fact, “like” could well be dropped from our Christian vocabulary, because “like” means there’s something in the other that commends them to us. Love lives in another category altogether.

Such love comes from God. Such love expresses God's love layered under and within it. Such love brings God's love into our experience in a sacramental way. Such love is a visible sign of the invisible grace of God's love. Such love comes to us as a gift of God if we are willing to receive it and share it and bear with its painful consequences. And, even that willingness finds its energy in God's grace when it is afraid or tentative, energy to continue loving and risking. This is the love with which God loves us. This is the love we see lived out in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

This love demands a cruciform way of living, and none of us practice it nearly as fully as we might think or imagine. If we seek to avoid pain, we cannot love in the way 1 Corinthians 13 articulate.To love in this way stretches us far beyond our resources and demands an ongoing repentance for failure and a hope for a better day tomorrow.

"Love goes out on a limb. Love spends the whole wad. Love goes for it all. Love burns bridges, kills the fatted calf, sells all it has for the pearl of great price. Love is a risky, daring, caution-to-the-winds . . . sort of thing. . . . Love goes for it all, dares the loss of all, puts all of its weight on what it cares and believes in: not life ignorant of realities, life in scorn of consequences.”+

(Note: If abuse typifies an interpersonal relationship, the person receiving the abuse may well have to withdraw to survive. However, they still will face the challenge of releasing anger and becoming free from that past. If you are experience abuse, please seek counseling from someone who specializes in dealing with abuse. Feel free to reach out to me via email for a referral and for support.)

*Bruce Van Blair, A Year to Remember, 2d ed. (Port Townsend, PA: Xlibris, 2004), p. 216.

+Van Blair, p. 222.

Collect of the Day, Proper 23, the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, pp. 234-235)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Philip, deacon (New Testament)

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Philip_Deacon.htm

Collect of the Feast of Philip

O God, who has made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that we, following the example of your servant Philip, may bring your Word to those who seek you for the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Collect for the Renewal of Life

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)

For Those Who Mourn

Merciful God, whose Son Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus: look with compassion on all who are bound by sorrow and pain through the death of N. (or a loved one). Comfort them, grant them the conviction that all things work together for good to those who love you, and help them to find sure trust and confidence in your resurrection power; through Jesus Christ our deliverer. Amen. (Enriching Our Worship: 2, pp. 65-66)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, creator of the changes of day and night, giving rest to the weary, renewing the strength of those who are spent, bestowing upon us occasions of song in the evening. As you have protected us in the day that is past, so be with us in the coming night; keep us from every sin, every evil, and every fear; for you are our light and salvation, and the strength of

our life. To you be glory for endless ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)