1 Natalie W. Bell January 31, 2016 Love 101 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 1 Corinthians 13:1-13: 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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 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. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 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. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, 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. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. What comes to mind when you hear these verses? When do you usually hear these words? For most of us the answer is at a wedding. These are verses used even by people who do not claim to have faith! Weddings are the typical context today for 1 Corinthians 13. But the real context of these verses the original setting Was something quite different than a wedding!
2 Remember when we were talking about Jesus one and only sermon in Nazareth, where afterwards they tried to throw him off a cliff? The reaction to Paul s words in 1 Corinthians 13 might have been similar. The people probably responded with shock and anger, because Paul is calling them out on their behavior in their church. He is basically saying, let me tell you what love is, By reminding you of everything you are NOT. You are not patient, or kind, you are jealous and boastful, you rejoice at wrong, you keep score on each other. Paul s words about love would have cut right into their hearts, because they were a church in trouble. They were fighting with each other over their spiritual gifts. People with different spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues, or prophecy, teaching or preaching they were arguing about who was more important, and boasting about their own talents, they were jealous of one another. Everyone wanted to be better than the rest, and to be right instead of being loving. Now this might sound strange to us today, but think about it this way. What if we threw love out the window, and started fighting about which ministry committee was the more important in this church? Is it worship or fellowship? Is it mission? Or building and grounds? And who is more important in this church? Is it the people who teach Sunday school, or those who serve behind the scenes? Is it the people who give the most money? Or the most time? You get the picture.this kind of struggle kills a church. And it s what was happening in Corinth. So Paul knew their struggles, and decided to remind them of something Jesus always told his followers: That the greatest commandment is to love God and one another And the way the world will know that we are His disciples is through our love for one another.
3 That will be the sign that we belong to Jesus Christ not what we do for the church, not what we give or how talented we are but how we love. Do you remember Matthew 25? Whatever you did for the least of these you did for me? When we demonstrate love we are actually not just loving a person, we are loving God. For when we give a cup of cold water, or clothing, If we visit a prisoner, or comfort the sick, or show hospitality to the stranger we are loving God. Paul reminds them that some things are more important than being right, or better than someone else. Love is THE most important thing for believers. Love is the foundation of every spiritual gift, every talent, every virtue. Without love, all the gifts we ve been given are nothing. Without love, we are kind of like salt that s lost it s saltiness, and should be thrown out, like Jesus says in Matthew 5:13. So what about you? Do you struggle to be loving? Do you compare yourself to others? Do you find yourself wanting to be right? How is the love in your life? Paul goes on to say true love (and in Greek this word is agape) And it s the kind of love God has for us, and the kind we re called to have for one another This kind of love requires maturity we cant act like little children, we have to grow up to really love. What does that mean to you, when Paul says when I became an adult, I put away childish ways? Do you think about how real love takes maturity? Now, Paul is clear that we won t have perfect love this side of heaven, We re kind of like people looking in a mirror we can t see ourselves as we truly are we see an image. We know in part.
4 Back then mirrors were polished bronze, so looking in a mirror would be rather dim. Today our mirrors are not dim, but they are also not an exact picture, right? Everything is reversed. One pastor I read said that love should come with a warning label reminding us that right now life is dim, and we can only love in part but one day it will all be clear, and perfect. Complete. Rev. Michael Bos, You re Nothing Without It, Day 1, 2013. One day, Paul says, when we get to our eternal home, We will finally see clearly. And love perfectly. In fact, all the spiritual gifts we ve been given will eventually end Because we wont need them in heaven--- but love will endure forever. We all know the importance of love in human life, right? We intuitively know how powerful it is, don t we? This week I was reading a pastor s comments on the power of love. He reminded us that victims of 9/11 didn t make final phone calls to people to say, I hate you, or you hurt me. They left messages of love. I love you Tell them I love them. Love was the thing on their minds in their final moments. Love is what gives meaning to our human existence. You're Nothing Without It," Rev. Michael Bos, Day 1, 2013. It s why so many movies and songs and books have love as the theme. It is essential to human life. But we seem to struggle with it. First of all, we confuse the grammar of love. We think it s a warm fuzzy feeling. But agape love is not a noun. It is a verb. An action. It s something you do, and it s hard work.
5 Remember Pastor Andrew Rankin s book we studied last year, called Do Love? That s his whole premise love is action, not feeling. Love is active, love is tough. And love is hard work. We all know how hard it is to really love, don t you? We all struggle with marriages, or friendships we struggle to love our family members, we struggle to parent our kids, and to care for our aging parents! Love is hard work. And Paul s description of love seems like pie in the sky if we were to hold ourselves up against it, don t you think? So I wonder, is it even possible to be patient, kind, not jealous or boastful, not arrogant or rude, not insist on our way, rejoicing in the truth, not keeping a record of wrongs Do you have the ability and power to do all of this? I know I don t. Not on my own power. Even if I dig down deep into my soul I will fall short. Human love is imperfect. We are broken and fallen, and prone to do wrong. Loving with our own power is bound to disappoint. So, what do we do? What if Paul s description of love is impossible.on our own. What if we have to look beyond our own love tank to the ultimate source of love? What if our faith in God is what enables us to love? What if faith is the instrument, and love flows through that faith? Think about that for a minute. What is love like, without any faith in something beyond ourselves? What is real love, if you don t know the ultimate act of love in Jesus Christ?
6 What if we love, with God s power in our lives? What does that look like? Mother Teresa was able to love the truly unlovable because of her faith she called herself a pencil in the hand of God. She knew she was an instrument of God s love. A vessel to pour out God s love. It was not her own power it was the power of God s Spirit at work in her. Who do you struggle to love? And how has God helped you love that person? How could God help you? When I think about loving challenging people, I think of prayer I start asking, sometimes begging God to help me love. I think of the person and say to myself: this person is a child of God. Beloved. God loves them, so can I with your help, God. I think that acknowledging that we don t have the power, Gives us the power of God in our hearts and lives. By letting go of the struggle, we let God love through us. I also struggle with love because with some people there is no warm feelings. When I think of them I feel frustration, or fear. Ever feel that way? How can I love through that? I can t. I have to go back to the Source. Asking, begging God for help to love. And then, it s a matter of just doing it. Like Nike s motto. Just do it. Some of the challenge of love is just doing it. Not believing in it, not feeling it. But doing it. C.S. Lewis once famously wrote in Mere Christianity, Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets.
7 When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. That takes maturity. To just jump in and act in love, even when you don t feel it. In his sermon, Love is for Grown Ups, the Rev. Robert Wright says that real love is an act of maturity. We can t love if we are acting like little children. Childish. Because, how do little children act? Well, their favorite word is Mine. And they are always sure of one thing they are right. Little children have plenty of selfish, unkind, impatient, jealous feelings. Christians on the other hand are called to omit the word Mine from our vocabulary, because all that we have is a gift from God. We are called to share and give and live together, not just for ourselves. The first church described in the book of Acts was so powerful and different from the world because they shared everything, they acted out of love. So how do we grow up in our love? Rev. Robert Wright suggests that we have to take more time with people. Don t be in such a hurry all the time. And we have to take time to listen. Not the kind of listening where we re preparing our next comment, but true listening, where we have the courage to hear truth, and learn, and even be transformed by what we re hearing from others. He says a business is measured by profit margins, but grown up Christians measured by the time devoted to hearing from God, and God s people. He says we re all getting older, but are we growing up? "Love Is for Grownups," the Very Rev. Robert Wright, Day 1, 2010. Isn t that a great question to ask ourselves? Are we just getting older? Or are we growing up? Are we maturing in our faith? Are we maturing in our love? Isn t that the point of Christian life?
8 This week I was reading some quotes about love, and I ran across this article called, What is love, from a kid's point of view? This is what they said: "When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." "When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth." "Love is when someone hurts you, and you get so mad, but you don't yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings." "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." "Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well." "Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day." "You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget." What Is Love From a Kid's Point of View, http://www.housetohouse.com/hthpubpage.aspx?cid=454 Love is something you have to say, And something you have to do. A lot. People do forget. And we can t just assume they know we love them. We say it. We do it. In 1999 there was a great movie made based on the book, Tuesdays with Morrie. It s a true story about a sports writer, named Mitch Albom, and his reunion with his former college professor who is dying of ALS. The book and movie are based on the idea that love is the foundation of human existence. We can t make it in this world without love. Albom is a multitasking workaholic, whose life is a series of hurried appointments, rushed phone calls, and last minute sprints to catch a flight. When he discovers that his former college professor and friend, Morrie Schwartz, was in the last stages of ALS, he honors a long-overdue promise to visit.
9 In these visits, Morrie teaches Mitch some important lessons about what matters most in life. Morrie is sometimes patient with Mitch, and other times, he confronts him with some painful truths. One day, Morrie is very frail, and is lying in a recliner in obvious pain. He grimaces and asks Mitch to rub his aching feet. "When we're infants," says Morrie, "we need people to survive; when we're dying, we need people to survive; but here's the secret: in between, we need each other even more." Mitch nods and responds with a quote that he has heard Morrie say many times. "We must love one another or die." Morrie loses patience with Mitch. "Yeah, but do you believe that? Does it apply to you?" Mitch is stunned and defensive as he confesses that he doesn't know what he believes. The world he lives in doesn't allow for the contemplation of spiritual things. "I just don't understand it," says Mitch. "We must love one another or die," says Morrie. "It's a very simple lesson, Mitch."Tuesdays with Morrie (Touchstone, 1999), produced by Oprah Winfrey and Kate Forte, directed by Mick Jackson, based on the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom; I agree! We MUST love one another don t you think? It was Paul s message to the Corinthians. It was Jesus message to his followers. It was God s message to the whole world in sending his Son Jesus. Because Love is the foundation of every gift, and every virtue. Love is challenging, and hard work, and it s imperfect this side of heaven. But we just do it. And we ask for God s help to do it well. We hold up the scriptures about love as a model, And we ask God to help us mature in our love. We do this individually, But we also do this as a whole church, right? Instead of arguing about who or what is more important or right, We ask ourselves as a church, are we acting out of love?
10 Are our programs done in love? Do our missions show God s love? And how can we show greater love as a church? We may see dimly now, but one day it will all be clear. And our love will be complete. Until then, may God help us to love God, and neighbor, And to love as Paul so beautifully described: a love that is patient; and kind; not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. A love that does not insist on its own way; is not irritable or resentful; does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. A love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Amen.