WORSHIP RESOURCES
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Ordinary Time
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Love Is…
Additional Scriptures
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Luke 4:21-30; Doctrine and Covenants 154:7
Preparation
Throughout this service, there are responsive reflections where the leader states an issue or quandary, and the participants respond with a statement derived from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Make sure to project or print the responsive reflections for all to see. Presiders may want to explain this pattern during the Welcome.
Prelude
Welcoming Hymn
“Would You Bless Our Homes” CCS 629
OR “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love” CCS 367
Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.
Welcome, Joys, and Concerns
Call to Worship and Responsive Reflection: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Leader: Love is the easiest word to say and the most difficult word to live. From the word to the deed is a long way.
—Margaret Read MacDonald, “A Mexican Proverb” in
Peace Tales: World Folktales to Talk About,
Linnet Books, 1992.
All: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. (Verse 4)
Hymn
“O My People, Saith the Spirit” Stanzas 3 and 4 CCS 604
OR “Now Sing to Our God” CCS 108
Invocation
Response
Responsive Reflection
Leader: There are so many people who are convinced their way is “right” and others are “wrong.”
All: Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. (Verse 5)
Focus on Love
This was written by Beatrice of Nazareth between 1200-1268. During that time, she wrote a diary. Through a keen desire to understand love, she meditated devoutly and eventually was given what she wrote, the Seven Manners of Love. This is an excerpt.
Love…is…above her humanity, above human reason and intelligence, above all the heart’s operations, drawn exclusively by Eternal Love in the eternity of love, in the incomprehensibility, in the inaccessible breadth and height, in the profound abyss of the Divinity Who is “all in all things” and Who remains unknowable above all things, unchangeable, the plenitude of Being Who embraces all in His power, intelligence and sovereign work.
—Beatrice of Nazareth, “The Seven Manners of Love,”
In Her Words: Women’s Writings in the History of Christian Thought,
edited by Amy Oden, Abingdon Press.
Responsive Reflection
Leader: For some, God’s love seems distant and unapproachable.
All: Love never ends. (Verse 8)
Prayer for Peace
Peace Hymn
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God” CCS 190
Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.
OR “Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart” CCS 48
Light the peace candle.
Peace Prayer
Spirit of loving community,
Thank you so much for the gift of community! Communities are powerful. Communities can band together to discern your word and create beautiful change! Communities can also reject those on the fringes, those who are different from us, and those who hurt us. Jesus was rejected by the very community that studied your word. Yet, he found a group to accept him and still included those who rejected him in his loving sacrifice. God, help us to follow Jesus’s example of peace.
Before peace is healing.
Before healing is forgiveness.
Before forgiveness is a conversation at the table.
May we form communities where folks from all walks of life with varied opinions and life experiences join with the common goal of conversation, which leads to healing that leads to peace. We are so hopeful that our tables—big and small, boring and quirky, long-standing and young—can be the tables that bring the world to peace.
We are not blind to the divisions and conflicts and abused power in our world. We see them, but as communities of faith, we refuse to accept them. God, empower us to take our tables to the rejected, to bring healing, and to bring peace.
In the name of Jesus, the most loving host. Amen.
—Tiffany and Caleb Brian
Responsive Reflection
Leader: My neighbor spreads rumors about me, and I often want to do the same about them.
All: Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. (Verse 6)
Ministry of Music or Congregational Hymn
“O May Your Church Build Bridges” CCS 224
OR “God, Renew Us by Your Spirit” CCS 237
Responsive Reflection
Leader: I feel restless. There’s too much on my plate. I don’t have time to just be.
All: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (Verse 7)
Homily
Based on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Focus Moment
You are invited to find someone to visit with about the meaning and blessings of love. Spend a moment focusing on these questions and then seek out a partner, perhaps someone new to you.
Project or print these questions.
- When has love improved your life and discipleship?
- What are the key foundations of love that inform your daily life?
- In what ways has love strengthened a particular ministry we offer?
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
Confession and Responsive Reflection
Leader: If I speak in tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love,
All: I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (Verse 1)
Leader: 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,
All: I am nothing. (Verse 2)
Leader: If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body
so that I may boast, but do not have love,
All: I gain nothing. (Verse 3)
Silent Prayers of Confession
Communion Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Sharing in the Spoken Word
Based on the sacrament of Communion
Hymn of Preparation
“Here at Thy Table, Lord” CCS 517
OR “Is There One Who Feels Unworthy?” CCS 526
Scripture Reading: Doctrine and Covenants 154:7
Silent reflection after the Scripture Reading.
Invitation to Communion
All are welcome at Christ’s table. The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is a sacrament in which we remember the life, death, resurrection, and continuing presence of Jesus Christ. In Community of Christ, we also experience Communion as an opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant and to be formed as disciples who live Christ’s mission. Others might have different or added understandings within their faith traditions. We invite all who participate in the Lord’s Supper to do so in the love and peace of Jesus Christ.
Log in to Our Ministry Tools and search for Guidelines Lord’s Supper. If you have not used this library of resources, go to CofChrist.org/our-ministry-tools.
Blessing and Serving of the Bread and Wine
Disciples’ Generous Response
Hymn of Generosity
“My Life Flows On in Endless Song” CCS 263
OR “Somos el cuerpo de Cristo/We Are the Body of Christ” CCS 337
Statement
As we open our hearts to courageously and generously share by placing money in the offering plates or through eTithing, we join the movement of God’s compassion in the world. On this Sunday as we share in the sacraments, our offerings are dedicated to Abolishing Poverty and Ending Needless Suffering. This is how God’s generous compassion grows more visible in tangible ways.
If you have participants joining the worship online, remind them that they can give through www.CofChrist.org/give or through eTithing at www.eTithing.org (consider displaying these URLs).
Blessing and Receiving of Oblation, Local and Worldwide Mission Tithes
Responsive Reflection
Leader: 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 only a reflection, as in a mirror, 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. (Verses 11-12)
All: And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love. (Verse 13)
Closing Hymn
“When as a Child We Spoke” CCS 571
OR “Though I May Speak with Bravest Fire” CCS 166
Benediction
Unison Sending Forth
All: …and the greatest of these is love!
Postlude
SERMON AND CLASS HELPS
Year C—Letters
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (Ordinary Time)
1 Corinthians 13:1–13
Exploring the Scripture
Our congregational identity often is shaped by what we do well. There was a crisis among the disciples in Corinth. Community members were looking for recognition, status, or even control and power, based on their spiritual gifts. Paul knew the people well. We assume that Paul is critiquing those who were boasting of their abilities in speaking, prophecy, and philanthropic efforts. But perhaps Paul chose these examples, knowing they were the spiritual gifts the Corinthian disciples valued most.
Love. Paul uses his final resource right from the start. One easily could interpret this to mean that Paul puts love at the top of the list of spiritual gifts. But Paul is pointing to something else. Speaking—prophesying—giving. In the previous chapter, Paul proposes that love was “an even better way” to strengthen the gifts we have (1 Corinthians 12:31). These words describe what we do with our giftedness, the “what” of our gifts. Paul asserts that love is not so much the what, but the how. Love is the path we take to do what we do. Love is the way.
Love as the “way” is witnessed in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. The Greek word Paul uses for love is agape. That is Matthew’s word in talking about how Jesus taught his followers the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37–39). The good Samaritan story that Jesus uses to describe that love shows us love has less to do with feeling and more to do with action. As the popular 1990s Christian rap group DC Talk reminded us, “Luv is a verb.”
Jesus’s love (way) was a purposeful, intentional pathway to open doorways to justice, inclusion, wholeness, reconciliation, and healing of the Spirit, or shalom. This love never fails. It meets us again and again at the table. After we have failed it, willing to start over and put in the hard work it takes to unite and preserve a united body in a spirit of oneness, this love stands with those whose dignity may be at risk and tirelessly works to create spaces where all are seen, valued, and given a voice. This love seeks goodness for the other (love’s object=others) and then acts in ways that create pathways for that goodness to be clear—made real.
So how do we know if what we are doing is being done in love? Paul provides a helpful tool for discerning what love is and what love is not. With this list, one quickly can see where he or she stands.
|
Love is |
Love is not |
|
Patience |
Envious |
|
Kindness |
Boastful |
|
Truth-seeking |
Arrogant |
|
Bearing |
Rude |
|
Hoping and Hopeful |
Irritable |
|
Enduring all things |
Resentful |
|
|
Insistent on its way |
Almost immediately you can see in the list “Love is not…” how much these words are centered on the subject…envious (me), boastful (me), insistent on its way (my way)! Compare this with the orientation of love focused on the object, the other. Patience (with you), kindness (to others), truth-seeking (mutual, us, together). We could argue that Paul’s definition of love is the opposite of self-interest. What a powerful litmus test to help answer the important question, “Are there things going on right now in my family, my community, and my world, more important than me being right, being recognized, and getting my way?” When we insist on being right, being recognized, and getting our way, we eventually are left with nothing. We lose it all (v. 3).
What if love is the cure? What are the best steps for addressing the pain, brokenness, and suffering in our families, communities, and world? Perhaps love can be the way of our next conversation. Maybe we should consider:
- Will we enter our next conversation with our agenda and ideas for what is best for the other person and get upset when that person doesn’t immediately do what we’ve suggested?
- Will we begin the conversation with a yearning for good and goodness for the other and then adjust our behavior to ensure pathways are opened so that goodness can become a reality? But in the other’s way? And on the other’s timeline?
- Will we begin the conversation by looking for the other person to understand (and most likely agree with) us? Or will we rejoice in the mutual sharing of various perspectives that may lead us to a broadened understanding of “the truth”?
Central Ideas
- Love will strengthen what we do with our spiritual gifts.
- Love’s greatest yearning is for others to have goodness, and it acts to create pathways for that goodness to be made real.
- Even if we may have failed love, love never fails.
Questions for the Speaker
- What features of ministry and worship does your congregation value most? (Preaching? Food bank? Generous donations? Choir? Children’s ministry? Community service?) How might a healthy critique, looking through the lens of love, help create space where the giftedness of others in the congregation could form the body of Christ more fully?
- When has love improved your ministry?
- How has love strengthened the ministry and giftedness of someone or a particular ministry in your congregation?
- When has what you do felt more important than how you do it? And what did you lose by holding onto that belief?
SACRED SPACE: A RESOURCE FOR SMALL-GROUP MINISTRY
Year C—Letters
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (Ordinary Time)
1 Corinthians 13:1–13 NRSVue
Communion
Gathering
Welcome
The season after Epiphany includes the weeks between Epiphany and Transfiguration Sunday.
Prayer for Peace
Ring a bell or chime three times slowly.
Light the peace candle.
Spirit of loving community, thank you so much for the gift of community! Communities are powerful. Communities can band together to discern your word and create beautiful change! Communities also can reject those on the fringes, those who are different than we are, those who hurt us. Jesus was rejected by the very community that studied your word together. Yet, he found a group to accept him and still included those who rejected him in his loving sacrifice. God, help us to follow Jesus’s example of peace.
Before peace is healing.
Before healing is forgiveness.
Before forgiveness is a conversation at the table.
May we form communities where folks from all walks of life with varied opinions and life experiences join with the common goal of conversation that leads to healing and peace. We are so hopeful that our tables—big and small, boring and quirky, longstanding and young—can be the tables that bring the world to peace.
We are not blind to the divisions, conflicts, and abused power in our world. We see them, but as communities of faith, we refuse to accept them. God, empower us to take our tables to the rejected, to bring healing, and to bring peace.
In the name of Jesus, the most loving Host. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Dwelling in the Word
I will read a scripture aloud. As you hear the scripture breathe deeply and meditate on feelings that surface. Let them rest with you. After a moment of silence, I will read the scripture a second time. As you hear the scripture, listen and ponder on deep emotions that may surface and what that means in your life connected to this scripture.
Read Luke 4:21–30 NRSVue:
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 with a skin disease 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.
Pause. Read the scripture a second time. Invite group members to respond to these questions:
- What feelings came into you while listening to this scripture?
- How do you see yourself in this scripture?
Sharing around the Table
1 Corinthians 13:1–13 NRSVue
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 keeps no record of wrongs; 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 only a reflection, as in a mirror, 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 remain, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
The Corinthians were in what Paul deemed a crisis. Community members were attempting to use their status or spiritual gifts to gain power or control over others. Paul knew the people well and used his knowledge and rhetorical talents to change existing attitudes. In our scripture today, Paul looks to love as his definitive answer to bringing this community together. He proposes that love was “a still more excellent way” to strengthen the gifts we have (1 Corinthians 12:31 NRSVue).
Paul is not talking about affectionate love, Paul is speaking of the love that was witnessed in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. Paul uses the Greek word for love, agape. That is the love that was present in the Good Samaritan story Jesus used to describe that love has less to do with feeling and more to do with action.
Jesus’s love was a purposeful, intentional pathway to open doorways to justice, inclusion, wholeness, reconciliation, and healing of the Spirit. This love never fails. It meets us at the table over and over again. This love seeks goodness for others and then acts in ways that create pathways for that goodness to be made real.
Paul’s letter helps us understand what love is and what it is not. Love is patience, kindness, truth-seeking, bearing, hopeful, and enduring all things. Love is not envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, irritable, resentful, or insistent in its way.
You can see in the “love is not…” list, that the words center on the subject. When you are focusing on yourself, you are not sharing in love. The list of what love is focuses on the object. When we focus on others, we share in love. We could say that Paul’s definition of love is the opposite of self-interest.
Questions
- How might a healthy critique, looking through the lens of love, help create space where the giftedness of others in the congregation could more fully form the body of Christ?
- When has love improved your ministry?
- Think back on your life. How have you placed your self-interest above that of others and not reached out in love?
Sending
Generosity Statement
Faithful disciples respond to an increasing awareness of the abundant generosity of God by sharing according to the desires of their hearts; not by commandment or constraint.
—Doctrine and Covenants 163:9
The offering basket is available if you would like to support ongoing, small-group ministries as part of your generous response. You also may give at CofChrist.org/give.
The offering prayer for Epiphany is adapted from A Disciple’s Generous Response.
Revealing God, may we always be generous. You have gifted each of us with boundless grace and unending love. May our response to that love and grace be humble service to others, and may generosity be part of our nature. Amen.
Invitation to Next Meeting
Closing Hymn
Community of Christ Sings 362, “Prophetic Church, the Future Waits”
Closing Prayer
Optional Additions Depending on Group
- Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
- Thoughts for Children
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
Communion Scripture
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
—1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NRSVue
Communion Statement
All are welcome at Christ’s table. The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is a sacrament in which we remember the life, death, resurrection, and continuing presence of Jesus Christ. In Community of Christ, we also experience Communion as an opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant and to be formed as disciples who live Christ’s mission. Others may have different or added understandings within their faith traditions. We invite all who participate in the Lord’s Supper to do so in the love and peace of Jesus Christ.
We share in Communion as an expression of blessing, healing, peace, and community. In preparation let’s sing from Community of Christ Sings (choose from below options):
- 516, “Coming Together for Wine and for Bread”
- 521, “Let Us Break Bread Together”
- 523, “As We Gather at Your Table”
- 526, “Is There One Who Feels Unworthy?”
- 528, “Eat This Bread”
- 532, “We Meet as Friends at Table”
Thoughts for Children
Say: We all are called to love others. This is part of God’s work in the world.
One thing that can help us learn to love others is a practice called a body prayer. In this prayer, we will ask God to use us to bless others around us.
Stand up and make sure you have enough room that you will not hit anyone else as we pray. As we pray, we are going to be moving our bodies.
Move through the prayer, instructing the kids to join you in the motions as you pray.
Say: Reach high above your head with your hands. God, please use my hands to heal others.
Move your head from side to side and roll it around in a circle. God, help me to think and act like Jesus.
Open your eyes big and then close them tight. God, help me to see the world and its people the way you do.
Massage your ears with your fingers. God, help me to hear the needs of others and respond with love.
Open your mouth like you are about to yawn. God, help me to speak words of love and peace.
Finally, place your hands over your heart. God, let your love flow through me and help me share it with others.
Amen.