Ah, but I was so much older then; I m younger than that now. Bob Dylan wrote these

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1 Epiphany 4 Year C 2013 Sermon What We Don t Know Text: Luke 4: Ah, but I was so much older then; I m younger than that now. Bob Dylan wrote these words as part of his song My Back Pages. What a great phrase! It captures a truth about the human foible of thinking that we know more than we really do; it also captures something of the converse of that. This would be that if we are really self-aware and humble, the older we get, the more knowledge and experience we acquire, and the more we understand how little knowledge we really have! Mark Twain captured the sense of all this in his famously humorous way: When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he d learned in seven years. When we read the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we tend to think of weddings, or, if not that, we tend to hear it in a sentimental sort of way. Yet read in the context of what was going on in that community of faith in Corinth in the late first century, we can see that this is anything but a sentimental tract. Paul s soaring words about the magnitude of love that we are called to express as the Body of Christ are delivered as a searing and pointed challenge to a church experiencing interpersonal conflict, and struggling with some divisions, due in no small measure to arrogant behavior on the part of some. Oh, how these words which we find so comforting and inspiring must have stung those who needed to hear them the most! As a reader, one can tell that Paul was digging deep to really speak with passion and eloquence to reach hearts and minds.

2 Knowing that Paul is at least in part addressing a group of folks who feel that they have superior knowledge, it is interesting to think about his assertion that at the present time, in the words of the NRSV, we see things only in a mirror, dimly. We ourselves on our human journey cannot see the big picture that God sees; we cannot have all knowledge. And what knowledge we do have, Paul says, must be carried with love for without love in the picture, any gift we have is without meaning or value. Here is the paradox laid out in 1 Corinthians: You are gifted. Share your gifts within the Body of Christ, where those individuals and spiritual gifts considered by the culture to be the least important are the most important, and are therefore to be the most cared for. Share your gifts boldly, but only if you can share them with love, knowing that your gift is no greater or more important than any of the others. In other words: give what you have to give boldly and humbly, and only in the spirit of love. Assume there are many things that you know nothing of, only known in the present to the heart of God. Paul seems to think that it is as important to realize all that we do not know as it is to know what we do know! For Christmas, my son Chris and his partner Mara gave me this great gift: an online subscription to a publication that only reports good news. I can tell you, it is delightful to read. Most of the stories are substantive and many are very inspiring. Now, each week as I work my way through the Sunday Times (most of which, of course, is NOT filled with good news), I can also read stories from the Good News Network. The best thing this publication has taught me

3 is that we really do need to know that there is more good news than bad news, even though it does not seem like it. Knowing that, right there, can restore faith, joy, and hope. I read a couple of pieces this week that reminded me that in the Body of Christ we sure do need to remember that we see only in a mirror, dimly.and we might want to polish our dim mirrors a bit to improve what vision we do have. What do we know about the possible wonders of interfaith connection, when we hear so much about interfaith strife? Well, this past December, the London Muslim Mosque and the London Islamic School responded to an invitation from St. John the Divine Catholic Church of London to send donations to their food bank. The article about this reads as follows: Mosque members welcomed the request with joy. Ali D. Charbar, of the Mosque, said: To us, the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of brotherly love, and why wouldn t we want to be a part of it?...i wanted to get a megaphone and shout Can we keep this going all year, people? We are not Christians and don t celebrate Christmas but we are engulfed by the spirit and any time there s a jubilant harmonious feeling, whatever creed it is under, we thrive on it. Moe Lacerte, the organizer of the drive at the Catholic Church, said that as a result of asking the Muslim community to participate we ve never had so much to give. We will have extra; we ll be able to replenish our food bank here. Did you know that Islam is the second largest religious group in the United States? What do we know about Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?

4 An article dated Tuesday, January 8, 2013 has this to say: Thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volunteered for weeks following Hurricane Sandy, assisting the devastated families in digging out their flooded homes..thousands of these church members cancelled their Sunday services and arrived by air, bus and train from all across the country to help. I watched a short film about this, and I was struck by diversity of race and age of the volunteers and the huge number that seemed to be teens and young adults. They came to help with a disaster that took place in our back yard. Would we have guessed this, thinking about Mormons? What is a Christian? Who am I within the Body of Christ? Of what am I capable, for both ill and for good? What responsibility do I have to my fellow human beings, and what are my assumptions about them? Rami Nashashibi is the Executive Associate at the Inner City Muslim Action Network of Chicago. In an interview with Krista Tippet of On Being, my favorite thing on public radio, Mr. Nashashibi, a Muslim activist for justice and peace and a frequent speaker on Muslim identity, shared words that really broke 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 open a bit more for me. He was asked by a member of the studio audience how he addresses extreme right Christian evangelicals who claim that Islam is not a religion and that Mohammed never existed. His response was so very gracious: He spoke, as a Muslim American, of the unique opportunity in this country for conversation among people with a huge diversity of views in the context of a free, democratic society. He said that we dwell in the midst of the American experience of diversity the best place to have dialogue. Mr. Nashashibi said that when you actually share a table with another

5 human being, and that person sees how hurt, offended and aghast you are in reaction to their wrong assumptions about you, it cannot help but break down the barriers, and open up hearts. Like Paul said, it doesn t count if you don t do it with love agape love, love that seeks well-being beyond just our own. Today we will gather at a table, the table to which Jesus calls us. At this table, we can come to know ourselves, one another, and our neighbors in the world together; we come to honestly become aware of our own capacity for harm and for good, and to lay it bare before God. For me, this morning, it was a thoughtful Muslim who expressed so well the true meaning of this very table, a table at which we are called to cease making victims of one another. What we don t know is a lot! We don t always realize how capable we are of good, like Jeremiah and other prophets who first question their call---and we are called to challenge and stretch ourselves to do good. We don t always realize how capable we are of being brutal like the people who sought to throw Jesus over a cliff, and we are called to challenge ourselves to do no harm. Only God is all-knowing; God is also all loving, and we may rejoice in that we are all God s beloved children; we are asked simply to love in return and when it comes to knowing our purpose, the commandment to love is the only one we really need to know. Thanks be to God! (Resources for this sermon include the online periodical Good News Network from their religion section, as well as the February 3 rd broadcast of On Being on New Hampshire Public Radio.)

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