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Trinity Episcopal Church Hattiesburg, Mississippi Epiphany 4 January 28, 2006 Go To Trinity's Home Page

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. 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. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When 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. For 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

The Greatest of These
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop

     According to Bookseller World, the Holy Bible is the world’s best selling book – number one on the list. Number ten is Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann.[1] But a work that surely must be coming up on the list is the Harry Potter series by J. K. (Jo) Rowling. From Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone published ten years ago to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince published in 2005, Rowling’s works have sold in stratospheric numbers. A total of six books and four films have been released, and the world currently awaits the seventh and final Harry Potter book. The books have been translated into 40 languages and are sold in 200 countries worldwide.

     And almost since the first book hit the book stores, they have been highly controversial because they involve magic and wizardry and tales of good versus evil. Some people have denounced them because of the magical subject matter.[2] Others have seen Harry and the other characters as metaphors for larger issues – including religious ones. Many hail the books because they have lured kids away from the television and the video arcade to actually read a book; A U.S. consumer research survey reports that over half of all children between the ages of 6 and 17 have read at least one Harry Potter book.

     While the magical and therefore fictional elements of the stories are somewhat fascinating, and certainly do make for good cinema, the really spell-binding aspect of the stories that captures and holds our attention is the magic of the relationships. Tom Morris, a Harry Potterite and author of the book If Harry Potter Ran General Electric: Leadership Wisdom from the World of Wizards says that “there is real wisdom to be found in each of these books about friendship, adversity, success, leadership, honesty, courage, loyalty, love, and ethics that can help anyone live a better and more accomplished life.” [3] And it is a character from the pages of the Potter series who tells us this simply. At the close of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Albus Dumbledore says to Harry, “Love is the greatest power in the world.” [3]

     The debate over power is certainly not new in the church. What is clear from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians was the claim that some in their church had certain gifts – perhaps supernatural ones – that gave them special status in the community. Although they could not “dissaparate” or “apparate” like Rowlings characters, nor did they fly about on broomsticks or carry magic wands that we know of, they did have gifts – like the ability to speak in tongues. These were not signs of unique power that separated them from the “non-gifted” people. Paul told the Corinthians that they should be thankful for these gifts, but at the same time, they needed to be mindful that all kinds of manifestations of the Spirit are given to all believers, and that these were to be used for the common good, not to create some kind of stratification of their community.

     The apostle Paul wrote that of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest power. Rowling says the same thing all through the Harry Potter series. At the beginning, Harry’s life was saved by his mother who sacrificed herself to save her child when the arch villain Lord Voldemort tried to murder the Potter family. All through the series, Harry seems to always be the first to put himself in danger to protect his friends. He is willing to sacrifice it all out of love. And therein lies the message.

     Harry Potter chose to act in loving ways for the betterment of his friends. His love was his choice, not a duty or an expectation. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about love, the word he used was agape – a very specific and special word for love. The Greeks had other words for romantic (eros) or friendship love (philia). But agape meant self-sacrificing, totally committed love. It is a word that goes beyond feeling. It is a free-will act; a commitment without conditions. It is a love we give away; it is not dependent on love being returned.

     When Paul says that of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest, I think he means that all virtues like faith, charity, courage, justice, and friendship, all have their foundation in sacrificial, unconditional love. Love becomes the deepest force for change. It should shape everything that we do. And at the end, it is all that will really matter. What we accomplish by our various gifts, like speaking in tongues or prophesying, will be dwarfed by who we have loved and how we have loved. In the here and now – and for all of eternity – it is better to be focused on love than on anything else.

     Paul says that “when [he] was a child, [he] spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child” but that when he matured he “put an end to childish ways.” He then compares his youthful way of doing things to looking in a mirror dimly. In the Potter series, Harry and his friends are introduced to the Mirror of Erised. The Mirror promises to “show not your face but your hearts desire.” Dumbledore explains that the power of the mirror is that it shows people their deepest unfilled desire (“Erised is “Desire” spelled backwards). Dumbledore warns that people wasted away their whole lives wondering whether their desires would come true.

     I think that in many ways we are all like Paul as a child, looking into the Mirror of Erised. We get caught up in the desires of the world, looking for security, pleasure, adoration, achievement, and satisfaction. But these are not to be found here, or in mirrors, or magical formulas, or anywhere else for that matter – including pulpits.

     Love, the kind of self-sacrificing love that Paul describes, is the elixir that enables us to see ourselves as we truly are, and to reveal our true selves to others. It is a power that enables us to see others as God sees them. And most importantly, it is the power that enables us to give of ourselves the kind of self-sacrificing love that Jesus commends.

     Another way of saying this was penned in the 1950’s by a student studying in India: [4]

“If I have language ever so perfectly and speak like a pundit, but have not the knack of love that grips the heart, I am nothing.

If I have decorations and diplomas and am proficient in up-to-date methods, but have not the touch of understanding love, I am nothing.

If I am able to worst my opponents in arguments so as to make fools of them, but have not the wooing note, I am nothing.

If I have all faith and great ideals, and magnificient plans, and wonderful visions, but have not the love that sweats and bleeds and weeps and prays and pleads, I am nothing.

If I can heal all manner of sickness and disease, but wound hearts and hurt feelings for want of love that is kind, I am nothing.

If I can write books and publish articles that set the world agog, but fail to transcribe the word of the Cross in the language of love, I am nothing.”

     Let us strive – always and strive – to be something, not nothing.

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Jeremiah 1:4-10

Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.” Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Psalm 71:1-6

1 In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge; *
let me never be ashamed.

2 In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free;*
incline your ear to me and save me.

3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe;*
you are my crag and my stronghold.

4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,*
from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.

5 For you are my hope, O Lord GOD,*
my confidence since I was young.

6 I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;
from my mother’s womb you have been my strength;*
my praise shall be always of you.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. 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. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When 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. For 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30

Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. “When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Collect of the Day

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[1] http://www.booksellerworld.com/bestselling-booksever.htm
[2] While there are many sites condemning the Harry Potter books, a fairly balanced site to read about the controversy the book series has caused in Christian circles is http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/harrypotter.html.
[3] Thomas Merrill. “The Potter Principle.” Homiletics 19(1): 363-38, 2007.
[4] As quoted in Thomas Merrill. “The Potter Principle.” Homiletics 19(1): 40, 2007.

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Copyright © 2007, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
25 January 2007

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