Sermon: Everything Else is Second

2007

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Sermon: "Everything Else is Second"

1st in the "What is Real Spirituality?" series.
Delivered May 13, 2007 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3

Sermon Series: "What is Real Spirituality?"
We live in a world where the word "spiritual" can be defined so broadly that we lose sight of its real meaning. Most definitions involve a "higher power" and an understanding of oneself in relation to others, so what does real spirituality entail?

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Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Don't think about of what I am going to ask you as a recruitment opportunity, okay? I am not recruiting. I am now taking a talent assessment, okay? That is all this is. So when I ask you to raise your hand don't feel like you are saying yes to anything okay? Does that feel safe, okay, good. How many of you here today have the God given ability to be able to place an orange cone out in the parking lot? Raise your hand if you do. There is a lot of hands up. There are some hands not going up though. I am a little worried about that, okay. Let's say; this gets a little tougher. How many of you could place an orange cone three feet from the curb and then have a whole bunch of them in a row three feet from the curb, how many of you could do that? Yeah, that's not too hard. Okay, now this may be a little harder. How many of you could place all those cones in a row three feet from the curb and not get hit by incoming traffic, let's see your hands? Okay, good. We have such a wealth of talent here today at Central Church.

We are talking about spiritual gifts in this next few weeks. Today we are talking from 1st Corinthians 13 in a certain way. We are not covering the whole chapter. Next week we are going to talk about 1st Corinthians 12, which talks about the body of Christ and how everybody is an important part of it. And in two weeks on Pentecost Sunday, we are going to talk about from 1st Corinthians 14 a chapter that we don't really look at a whole lot and how about the Spirit of God has blessed us for a certain purpose. And in this spiritual gift series we are going to be talking about how each one of you is extremely important, how each Christian has been given a charisma; that's the Greek word for gift, a charisma by the Holy Spirit that's inside of you. If Jesus Christ is inside of you then you have a spiritual gift, at least one that you are to be using for the building up of the body. We are going to be talking about all of that, but what we need to start out with, the frame for the picture that we need to start out with today is that none of that matters if we don't do what we do with a heart of love.

So imagine somebody who volunteers for cone duty at 8 o'clock in the morning doing it without a heart of love. What will happen? I will tell you what will happen. The cones will go in a nice straight line three feet from the curb and be very functional for a while. But then before long, because it's just either not the gift or it's being done with a heart of love, people will call. They will call and say to Cheryl, our outstanding first impressions leader, "Cheryl, I am sorry. I can't make it today. Could you take care of the cones?" And then before long somebody is burdened because others aren't carrying out their role with a heart of love. Or even worse, somebody could be doing this and take over as a drill sergeant and become the cranky cone person. In other words, people would be walking and they would start yelling at people, they would say, "Sir, sir, please do not touch the cone. Ma'am, step away from the cone." That is what it would get like and so it would be like cone duty completely wrecks our welcome to other people, even though the function is being performed.

Now this is not a cone. This is not an orange traffic cone. This is a 21st century symbol of foot-washing. This is doing something that is so basic and so medial and yet it can be such an expression of love when done from the heart with the right spirit and the right context; a lovingly welcome guide. So what we need is not a person to do cone duty, we need someone with the gifts of helps who will welcome and lovingly guide those who need a safe path. It's important to discover our gifts. But we can't talk about that without talking about the motivation for the gifts, because Paul, the people that Paul was dealing with 2,000 years ago, they had it all gift wise, but they were failing in terms of love. Now, the irony in all of this is that those who were failing to act in love really thought they were spiritual. They really did. In fact, one of the most often repeated phrases in the whole letter of 1st Corinthians is when Paul says things like this; "If anyone thinks they are spiritual" in other words he was challenging their view of spirituality so he says, "If anyone thinks they are spiritual" and whenever he uses that phrase, he then offers a corrective.

For instance, in 1st Corinthians 7 he is talking about people who are married and the people who thought they were spiritual told people refrain from sex and marriage, don't have relations with your spouse, because we have reached some heavenly place. So Paul says, "No, do not refrain from sex long term with your spouse. That is not spiritual at all. That is not reflective of the humanness of who we are and how we have been created in the image of God" or in 1st Corinthians 15 which Pastor John preached on not too many weeks ago. They were talking about how we will kind of be like in some kind of heavenly existence, floating spiritual beings and Paul said, "No, we are going to have resurrection bodies just like Jesus." You see, the people he was challenging thought that they had already reached the vestibule of heaven, they had already reached a certain spiritual height. One commentator calls it an over-realized eschatology. Eschatology is a study of the last things, of the end days and they have an over-realized eschatology. It's a fancy way of saying they already thought they had arrived in heaven and they thought that was spiritual.

We throw the term 'spiritual' around a lot in our culture today. People say things like, "I am not religious, but I feel like I am spiritual." And by that they mean; well we don't know what they mean. We don't know what they mean. It's just vague. It's like, "well I think that I like respect a higher power and I like to be a responsible person" or other people think that spirituality equates with tolerance with a capital 'T.' Paul is saying that spirituality; when really the whole book of 1st Corinthians is his trying to answer the question; well what is it? What is it? For Paul it wasn't some ecstatic spiritual experience or removal from present earthy existence. He thought that in spite of our weaknesses, in our full humanity that Jesus Christ has come by faith to live inside each of us and all of us together in the power of the Holy Spirit and that real spirituality when God's spirit is working inside of us leads to healthy, productive, loving, responsible relationships with each other to the glory of God, in his family called the church.

See, the church is not a building. The church is you and me who know Jesus Christ. It's a movement. It's a wave. It's a state of corporate love trying to impact the culture. And so, Paul's total aim was to help his friends to remember that love as Jesus taught it and as Jesus lived it and as Jesus empowers us in it, love makes every other thing second place; everything else, it doesn't matter what, your gift, your title, your role, your experience, everything else is second place to love.

But he doesn't say to not pay attention to the gifts. See, this sermon is not about describing love. It's about what is the relationship between spiritual gifts and love. So turn with me to 1st Corinthians 13 look at the end of 1st Corinthians 12 and the beginning of 1st Corinthians 14. It's almost like 1st Corinthians 13 is a parenthesis, because at the end of 12 and the beginning of 14 he says almost the exact same thing about spiritual gifts. At the end of 12 in Verse 31 he says, "But eagerly desire the greater gifts." He is saying become aware of the fact that God has given you a charisma. Charisma that is the Greek work for gift. God has endowed you with a spiritual gift. Desire it. Think about it. Use it, because you are going to find your fulfillment most clearly when you understand what it is. And then at the beginning of 14 he says after talking about love, "So, follow the way of love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts." So it's not love versus gifts. Its love is the only context for exercising spiritual gifts, because apart from love any gift is worthless. Ask any child, ask any adult who has been loved only with gifts what that feels like. The answer is empty, because the gifts alone are not as important as the love that is connected to it.

So, here comes one of the greatest, most beautifully written, most well crafted expressions of love ever ever written. I remember seeing some of the words of 1st Corinthians 13 at my cousins' wedding in the late 1960s, before I was a Christian. It was on a little piece of paper at the reception table and I remember opening it up and reading it for the first time and thinking, "Wow, who wrote this. This is really good." I mean I had no idea it was from the Bible. I was talking to Debbie Schmidt before hand and she said in Japan this is the chapter that is used in all kinds of weddings and its not connected to anything. It's just a beautifully written piece. So its really important as we read it to understand that it is connected to all this conversation about spiritual gifts and what that means for us as the church. So listen and let's pray and listen to this one more time. You have probably heard it umpteen times, but let's pray that God will help us to hear it in a different way today.

Lord, we ask your Spirit to guide us as we read this text, to help us understand what it is really saying as it pertains to us, as your people. Open our minds and hearts by the Holy Spirit through Jesus our Lord. Amen.

He says, and now I will show you the most excellent way. Now it's interesting, I don't know what the translation is like; is this the end of 12 or is this really the beginning of 13, we don't know, but let me stop there for a minute. He says, "Now I am going to show you the most excellent way." He is not saying it's, " a way" and he's not saying it's "the way". He is saying this is the most excessively, excellent way. He was subtlety talking to people who had taken their gifts and their talents to excess for their own gratification and he is saying if you want to be excessive about something and be healthy, here is the way to be both excessive and healthy, which is not an easy combination, okay?

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

When the Bible speaks of love, it speaks of action that is concerned with the good of another human being. On this Mother's Day it may be that every mom here has heard this well worn, yet painful remark. "I hate you mom." For mother's to be or those who children cannot yet speak, when this happens do not be thrown off course, because love is not just about being nice. Love is about building up another human being to their good for their maturity and we don't always get there just by being nice. Love can come in a package that's called comfort, but it can also come in a package that's called challenge. And really if you think about it moms or dads who are always nice and never challenging, probably are not loving a person, their children, to maturity. Love doesn't just do it one way. So listen carefully, when spiritual gifts in the body of Christ are exercised no matter what they are, the goal is always to encourage the maturity of others for the up-building of the body of Christ.

Now, in the first service I told an old joke and nobody laughed, but you know what I am going to try it again. Now here's the thing; you do not have to laugh at this okay? You don't have to laugh at this, but it's just that this joke makes my point, alright? And it's an old joke; it so old for you it might be new, okay? Here's the joke. A man is traveling through the countryside and his car breaks down and he goes to a farmhouse and asks to use the telephone. He goes in to the farmhouse and as he is sitting there he notices a three-legged pig walking through the living room. The farmer without solicitation just offers this, he says, "Sir, this is the most incredible pig you have ever seen. He saved my daughter from drowning. He saved my son from a fire, and he saved my wife from a fall. And the guy says, "Man, that is some kind of pig, but why does he only have three legs?" "Mr. you don't eat a pig like this all at once." I know some of you are fake laughing, that's all right. Listen, here is my point. The farmer's family really appreciated the pig. The farmer's family really spoke well of the pig. But they didn't add to the pig. They didn't add to the encouragement quotient of the pig. In fact, they subtracted from the encouragement quotient of the pig. The object of their affection was slighted and not built up because they were thinking of themselves first.

This is Mother's Day, okay? This is Mother's Day. Moms are the best and I want to tell those of you who are young enough to need to hear this just getting a card isn't enough. I mean it's great when mom gets a card. Dear mom, you are the best mom in the world. Thank you so much, da da da da. You know what moms really want? They want you. Do you know what it is like for someone to come along to a worn out mom and say "What can I do for you today mom?" "How could I build you up today?" Well, besides fainting and picking your mother up, you would bless your mom to no end, because its not just about speaking well; it's not just about a card, it's about what can I give so that my mother will be edified?

You know there are marriages in the church where people really appreciate one another. They really care about one another. They speak well of one another when they are not in each other's company, but in those very marriages somebody can be withering from loneliness and guys when we say things like; when our wives have the courage or just the aggravation to approach us and say, "I am not here. It's like I don't see you anymore." "Well you know I love you. You know how much I appreciate you. You know how much I am doing for you. You know I am working. You know I am working hard so you can be blessed, okay" When that happens, when that happens it is not the same as I need you. I need you. And when that happens what has to happen for guys, for us when we get in to this mode of where we are always doing doing doing thinking that that should be appreciated; sometimes we have got to change our lifestyle so that the people in our family get off so that is what is going to build them up and encourage them. So listen how Paul argues the point through negative comparisons in the first three verses, which is about all we have time to focus on today. I mean he just can't make it any plainer. So look with me at this text.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." Think about that. He could be talking about two different kinds of ecstatic heavenly experiences. He could be talking about the eloquence of people versus some language of heaven. But either way he says, that is not as important that in the exercise of this gift, if I do it without regard to building up the Christian community, if I just do it for some selfish expression of my own, then I am only producing a hollow sound. It's just like banging one of the cymbals, just randomly. It doesn't mean anything. It's not connected to anything and he was criticizing the Pagan practices of the day that people that is what they did. They just made all these hollow noises in terms of worship and nobody got anything out of it. It was just somebody just revving themselves up personally; getting in to their own thing. It had nothing to do with building or edifying anybody else.

Verse 2, he expands the first point and he says, "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains" he just lists four spiritual gifts, four of the greatest spiritual gifts and he goes on to explain. He says, "If I have all these things, if I new the revelation of heavens mysteries, if I had a faith like Jesus talked about and could literally move a mountain to one place to the next, if I had a special gift of faith that could make somebody heal and then have a miracle, and I did that without a heart of love, I would be absolutely worthless to the body of Christ." He says, "I am nothing." Think about that. He is saying my existence would basically be worthless; to do any of these great things without a heart of love. So again the ultimate sign of the Spirit at work, in a church, in a person is not gifts. It's love.

A decided shift away from charismota comes in Verse 3. He has been talking about spiritual gifts. Now he is talking about sacrificial service. Look at what he says; he is saying that it is so to the enth degree. He says, "If I give everything I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not loved, I gain nothing." What he is talking about here, he is saying, if I parceled out every possession I had bit by bit, so that the poor would be helped; some people think that he is not talking about martyrdom here when it says "I deliver my body over to the flames". He is adding to the first thing he said by saying, "Even if sold myself as a slave and was branded and marked as a slave by burning, and took all the proceeds of having been sold as a slave and gave that a way too, I gave everything I am and everything I have possessed away, totally sacrificed myself for the sake of the gospel, but had no love, I gained nothing." What he means there is when it comes to judgment day I will not have any profit. Remember that verse in Philippians; "To live is Christ, to die is gain" that we will gain something in eternity. He says, if I do all of this stuff with no love, I gain absolutely nothing. If one is to be a Christian everything, literally everything is second to love; second to a building people through your gifts and through your talents. So I ask you, what do you think is spiritual? What is spiritually significant about your life in relationship to others? Spiritual gifts, a brilliant mind, incredible talents, sacrificial ministry, all of these things done with a self-oriented focus and without a loving desire to see other people built up, is worthless.

So two quick applications. One; don't let spiritual experiences or ministry expression turn inward. Some of you have seen it in the church. I know I have seen it in the church. We can develop tunnel vision about our part of church life and we start to become very un-loving in terms of the total needs of a body; not consciously, but we just do it because we are too focused. We have turned inward on our experience. Don't forget that you are a part of a diverse body. Don't make the pursuit of spiritual experiences or ministry expressions a goal. Loving ministry together is the goal. Don't confuse the means, the gifts with the end; a loving expression of the body of Christ where all parts of working well together. And the second application is this; others who are nice and polite and loving and socially conscious and socially responsible folks, I ask you what action are you doing that spiritually benefits another human being and the rest of the spiritual community? What are you doing? Most of us can probably say, I can think of something that I am doing that builds somebody up in love. Not just giving your time, is it building people up and is it edifying them? Are you exercising a gift of the encouragement of others? Is anyone growing spiritually because of your work, your label of love?

Some of you may be saying, "Well how do I know what my gift is or how do I know whether or not I could be doing that to a better degree?" Well, that is why we have a big display at the end of the concourse that's advertising a three-week class, three Tuesday nights in June, two hours a piece, six sessions, six hours on three Tuesday nights, the first, third and fourth Tuesdays we are going to have another opportunity for people to discover not only what their spiritual gift is, but what their passions are and what their preferred work style is and that is called your serving profile and through the help of a coach you could be guided in to a more meaningful place of service. Or maybe you know all of that, but you need to just maybe migrate to something else and you need permission to do that. This is a great opportunity.

But let's wrap it up with this. Here is what the bottom line is. This is what Paul is saying in other words. If I could preach with the brilliance and the eloquence of the greatest masters, if I could lead a 1,000 voice choir and sing like Pavarotti, if I could feed every poor person in this city, if I could take the gospel in to every living room of this county, but didn't do it with a heart of love, I would fulfill nothing, I would gain nothing, I would be nothing, but with Jesus Christ lovingly connecting us each to himself and to each other, we can fulfill many things. We will gain many things and we will be something for God for eternity. So the challenge today is this; in everything you do, take the most excellent way in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, we thank you for your love and for your grace that is abounding and more; it's measureless, its broader, higher, wider, deeper than anyone can understand. And you have poured this love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. You have given us gifts so that we might fulfill our potential, but even more importantly so that others will be built up and edified and encouraged through those gifts. Lord, teach us, guide us in these days of transition and change so that the building will not just be the concrete, it will be the strengthening of the living stones called a church. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.