02/02/2025 ~ Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30 ~ Also the Feast of Presentation of the Lord ~ Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 84 or Psalm 24:7-10; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wotduEKNL-E ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1053427195

Agape

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and can endure all things. Love never ends.” — 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a

You may be tired of me saying I spent 23 years at one church in Upstate, rural New York. As I think you also know (you may be tired of me saying this too), my ordination and my standing is with and in the United Church of Christ. Similar to the NACCC, your denomination, the UCC has Associations.

Congregational churches gathering into Associations dates from the 1600s. Whereas the NACCC has one Association in Maine, the UCC has seven.

Unlike the NACCC, the UCC has an encompassing body known as a Conference. In New York I was, at one point, on the Board of the Conference. Now, churches have annual meetings. We shall have one in a fortnight. Just like churches, Associations and Conferences have Annual Meetings.

A year before I came back to Maine someone approached me at a Conference annual meeting a Conference Annual in New York and told me they felt like I was an institution in the Conference. I responded with a smile and said, “Change can be good for institutions. It must be time for me to leave.” A year later I did just that. I left. (Slight pause.)

At the first Conference board meeting I attended, a lawyer offered a short course on the ethical standards expected not just of church boards but of all non-profit boards. Many points were made; lawyers do that— cover a lot of bases.

But one thing stuck in my brain from that talk. Many non-profit boards are made up of specific segments from a broad constituency. I represented my local Association.

However, the ethical standard for a board member of any non-profit, said this lawyer, is once on a board, that constituency, that affiliation, from which you come is a moot point. Each individual board member is responsible for representing the whole— non-profit standard— each board member is responsible for representing the whole.

In New York and in Maine I’ve served on many boards of my local Association and I did and do try to represent the whole. Representing the whole does not mean you fail to bring your sensitivity, sensibility, insights, intelligence to what’s being considered. It does mean you strive to represent the whole as well as you can. That… is the ethical standard. (Slight pause.)

These words are found in 1 Corinthians: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and can endure all things. Love never ends.” (Slight pause.)

As was mentioned when this reading was introduced, there are six words in Greek for love. We speakers of English are confined to just one.

These are those Greek words with the short explanation for each. Eros is a physical expression of love; Philia— is friendship sometimes called brotherly or sisterly love; Ludus— playful love or the love of parents for children; Pragma— longstanding love; Philautia— love of self— not vanity, but protective love of self.

Next, Xenia is hospitality coupled with generosity and reciprocity. Last we have Agape. Agape is unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love. (Slight pause.)

It is fairly well known that in this passage Paul addresses Agape. And yes, as a community we should be aware that we are bonded in and by Agape, this unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love for one another.

But there is a larger idea behind Agape love. Agape love should not and does not end in this place, with those we know. The very meaning of the word should instruct us that we, this community of faith, who have bonded here in this place, who are bonded here in this place by unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love also need to move beyond this place.

In the practical terms of Congregational polity, each member of this church is affiliated with another church group— the Congregational Churches in Maine and also with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. So Agape love, as it relates to the church community, this unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love, extends to the Maine Association and to national level, both a broadening and an outgrowth of the universality of Agape love.

There is more. Agape love invites us to look at things with the eyes of another one of those Greek words for love— Philia love for all our brothers and sisters, for all humanity. But this is not just love for all humanity. Philia extends to love for all of God’s creation— all of God’s creation. (Slight pause.)

I need to add one thing. We Congregationalists have another name for Agape— did you know that? We call it covenant love. And covenant love understood well is quite demanding.

You see, what covenant love invites us to is… growth. Covenant love invites us to… learning. Covenant love invites us to… engagement. Covenant love invites us to… see new horizons constantly.

Covenant loves invites us to the idea that as we move forward we remember, honor the past… and understand it is past. Covenant loves invites us to deal with the realities of the present. Covenant love invites us to meet the challenges of the future.

Covenant loves invites us to see the whole. Covenant loves invites us to be responsible for the whole. Last, and perhaps the most important aspect of covenant love, is that it invites us to hold one another’s humanity and well being as precious. (Slight pause.)

It’s likely we all know and can probably recite by heart Paul’s famous words. (Quote:) “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and can endure all things. Love never ends.” The challenge for us is simple. Can we meet the standard proposed by Paul, this standard the Apostle called agape, called love? Amen.

02/02/2025
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Rumor to the contrary, the Bible does not tell us about faith, hope and charity, despite what the popular song says. Agape translates into Latin as Caritas. Caritas was then translated into the Anglo-Saxon language tree as charity. But when that translation happened the underlying word was still Agape, unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love. So that kind of charity is not about giving something to someone. I hope I have just illustrated that Paul’s challenge is much more demanding than mere charity. It is about total devotion and surrendering of self.”

BENEDICTION: Let us, above all, surround ourselves with the perfect love of God, a love which binds everything together in harmony. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.