Lauren Winner's Sermon, 5/19/10
1 Corinthians 13:1-13, "Corinthian Cross-Stitch"
1. We see this passage from First Corinthians everywhere--on bags, pens, notepads, cross-stitch patterns, etc. We have domesticated it to the point it is meaningless. Yet, if we undomesticate it and reread it again with new eyes, we will find one of the most powerful passages in all of Scripture.
2. Paul spends the beginning of First Corinthians leading up to this passage trying to explain that it doesn't mater which teacher you follow to get in on the Gospel, but what is important is that Love patterned after Jesus' Love is the key to entering the Gospel.
3. One way to enter into the power of this passage and undomesticate it is to read it in other places besides weddings. Read it in Court Rooms, Jails, among the Homeless or Mentally Ill. She heard it read last on Maundy Thursday this year as some protesters gathered outside a Immigration Detainee Deportation Office in Cary, NC. Jesus' love looks very different, and much more like the Gospels and Paul's writing, when it is read as our neighbors are being deported to a "home" they do not know or understand.
4. Paul is trying to help people experience transformation to be people who are capable of Love like Jesus' taught.
5. Take a moment to reread 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and replace the word love every time it appears with the name Jesus. It's amazing how well it works and also how powerful it becomes.
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