Summary: Sermon for the the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Sunday, February 3, 2013 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. This is it. This is the Super Bowl. Think of what the players have done - the grueling summer workouts, the exhausting regular season schedule, the nerve-wracking playoffs. The now famous, “Flacco Fling” and that wonder-kid, Colin Kaepernick. All the hard work, all the emotions - it all comes down to four quarters of good old fashioned football. We all have our plans - the ribs, the buffalo wings, the chili, the nachos, the “beverages.” It’s game time. It all comes down to the players and the coaches. Well, until the referees get involved. Ugh, the referees. The zebras. You football fans - do you remember how poorly this season started with referees? Remember the infamous “Touchception” debacle in that game between the Seahawks and the Packers? When the referees couldn’t make up their minds if it was an interception or a touchdown? When it seemed as if all the rules were just tossed to the wind? In football, as in life, there are rules that we have to play by. There are rules that we need to follow. This isn’t news, right? There are rules everywhere. Stop signs. Paying your taxes. Or in football, you can’t pull on a facemask or block in the back. At your home, you might have rules with your kids: finish your vegetables, no TV until you’ve done your homework. Today, being Scout Sunday, we have a whole crop of rule-followers here in church. For Boy Scouts, the Scout Law and Oath are the set of rules that everybody agrees to follow. That a Scout is, among other things, trustworthy, loyal, brave, obedient, thrifty, clean, reverent. And that a Scout must, on his honor, do his best. And just as the refs will throw some yellow flags tonight at penalties, I know that the adult leaders of these Boy Scouts make sure that all the boys follow these rules as best they can. Rules are great and all, until we want to break them. Until that linebacker wants to dish out a late hit. Until we really want to lie instead of being trustworthy. Until we really want to blow through that stop sign because we’re late for work. Rules are great and all, until we want to break them. And strangely enough, we hear this morning, that it’s okay to break the rules. In St. Paul’s beautiful poem we heard on love, the passage from 1 Corinthians that is read at just about every wedding, we hear about tearing down the norms, and by living with a new rule. See, the prophetic powers, and the knowledge of mysteries, and the boundless faith are good and all, but they’re not the greatest thing. Love is. Love is what matters, not the rules or the things that are nice to have. You Boy Scouts, you know that following the Scout Law is a good thing. But because I’ve been camping with the Boy Scouts a lot in my life, I know that sometimes, you’re going to break the Law and Oath. For instance, I know that in Boy Scouts, you’re going to get a little dirty. Being clean is good and all, but sometimes you have to get a little dirty to build a fire or pitch a tent. Being cheerful is good and all, until you have to tell somebody bad news. Do not be concerned so much with following the rules. But focus on doing what is right. As Christians, we know this at our very core. Love is our guiding principle. All the rules take a backseat to loving our neighbor, loving our enemy, and loving God. And sometimes it would be a whole lot easier if we didn’t have to love. If all we needed was to understand some “spiritual mystery,” that would be easy! Sunday School would solve all our problems. But it’s this loving my neighbor as myself thing that’s tough. Even that neighbor that blasts hip-hop music until four in the morning. If all we needed was faith to remove mountains, that would be easy! We would just need to show up at church more often. But it’s this loving my enemy thing that’s tough; even loving a terrorist.
