Dec. 21 "Behold, I am bringing you good news of great joy"

Wednesday, December 21 | I Corinthians 13:1-12

Hope for Beloved Community

This passage reminds us of the centrality of love to Christian faith, Christian hope, and the life of the church. We hear of love in the first of the ten commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures, and of love as the common link between the two greatest commandments spoken by Jesus in the New Testament—to love God and to love neighbor. Here in 1 Corinthians, Paul reminds us again of the centrality of love. Love is a framework for interpreting the world and a key part of the goal of the church. Perhaps the most glaring paradox in the text is that the Apostle Paul felt the need to describe and define love to the church, the body of Christ commissioned to carry the story of love. The church at Corinth met consistently, performed its requisite practices, produced the most eloquent sermons and the most accurate prophecies. Yet there was still a lacuna in the spiritual belly of the church. It fell out of touch with its central message of love, proclaimed by both Jesus and the Torah. How could this be?

The story of the birth and life of Jesus is the story of the incarnation of divine love for the world, a love reflected in Jesus’s lifelong ministry of healing and justice. This divine love dwelt among the disinherited, called out to tax collectors, healed the sick, and cried out for freedom and justice for the poor. This story, and Paul’s description in 1 Corinthians, is the driving force behind the vision for beloved community, which comes into being wherever we recognize the inherent worth and dignity of one another and live into the spirit of accompaniment modeled by Jesus. The story of Jesus gives us hope for lives not completely determined by the laws of supply and demand, national identity, or racial bloodlines, as it presses to love a God who embraces the whole family of creation and commends us to love our neighbors as ourselves. It gives us hope for living together rooted in love, guided by justice, and made whole through reconciliation.

– Dr. Asante Todd (MDiv’06) Associate Professor of Christian Ethics