Sermon 2/1/04
Love is in the Air - 1 Corinthians 13
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Today's passage from 1 Corinthians is the favorite or at least in the 'Top 10' of many Christians. It is a beautiful chapter, and inspiring, painting a picture of love that we all desire, strive for, hope for in our own lives and relationships. We love love. We write about it, sing about it, dream about it, have plays and films about it. So we love this chapter about love. It's one that is often read at weddings, setting a standard for a young couple embarking on a new relationship, a sort of guide of what their life could be like together. Sometimes at wedding receptions, as an alternative to the clanking of forks on champagne glasses, guests are required to sing a song with the word 'love' in the lyrics if they want the newlyweds to share a kiss. Given our love of love, the possibilities are, of course, endless. Think of these popular songs titles: "Love is All", "Addicted to Love", "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough", "All for Love", "All My Love", "All my Loving", "I Will Always Love You", "Best of My Love", "Bye, Bye Love", "Can't Hurry Love", "Stop in the Name of Love." The list goes on and on. This text from Corinthians is appropriately timed, with Valentine's Day quickly approaching. Since the day after Christmas, stores have been equipped with candy hearts, chocolates galore, sentimental cards, all with the message to proclaim, "Love." We're all seeking love, and sharing love, in one way or another.
Perhaps some of you have seen the recent Hugh Grant movie, "Love, Actually." The title is shortened from the phrase that is the theme of the movie, "Love actually is all around." The premise, of course, is that despite all the words craziness, there is still a surprising, even overwhelming amount of love in the word, against all odds. The movie is a comedy in many ways, a feel good movie in most aspects. But where it distinguishes itself from the traditional sappy romantic comedy is that among the several stories the movie follows about relationships and love, several do not turn out with the happy endings. Yes, there are some of the couples that pair off happily ever after, but there are other stories too - the woman who realizes her husband has fallen for one of his young employees, not because of any seeming conflict in their spousal relationship. The young woman who loses a chance at love because she must instead choose a different loving life - one where she cares for her mentally unstable brother. The young man who is in love with his best friend's new wife, and realizes he must simply walk away.
I liked this movie because of its honesty - love doesn't always lead us to fairy tale endings. Sometimes, our best acts of love lead us to sacrifice and loss, as often as they lead to joy and happiness. Our reading from Corinthians gives us an honest look too - instead of passion and jealousy, true love, real love, is about wanting the best thing for the other person instead of for one's self. Not hurried and rushed, real love is patient. Not pushy and in your face, real love is absent of boastfulness and rudeness. Love is often used as a simple noun - as a state of being, or a destination point, a goal you can reach. But our biblical witness shows us that love is actually an action word, a doing word, a busy and at work word. Indeed, by the time we are done reading this chapter that we love so much, we can be overwhelmed with how much our loving fails to live up to the descriptions.
But fear not. When human love fails, God's love is steadfast. When our love is conditioned on the right kind of person, the right kind of beliefs, the right kind of lifestyle, the right kind of behaviors, God's love is unconditional, forgiving always of our weaknesses. Where our love is sometimes fleeting and fickle, God's love is forever. There is nothing we can do, no sin we can commit, no wrong turn we can make, that makes God stop loving us. I once heard someone suggest that if God is love, we can substitute the word love with the word God in this verse, and understand better. "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have God, 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 God, 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 God, I gain nothing. God is patient; God is kind; God is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. God does not insist on God's own way; God is not irritable or resentful; God does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never ends.
One of my favorite Christian singers, Michael W. Smith, has a song called "Never Been Unloved", that reminds me, reminds us, of how beloved we always are in God's sight. It goes like this: I have been unfaithful. I have been unworthy. I have been unrighteous. And I have been unmerciful. I have been unreachable. I have been unteachable. I have been unwilling. And I have been undesirable. Sometimes, I have been unwise, I've been undone by what I'm unsure of. But because of you, and all that you went through I know that I have never been unloved. I have been unbroken. I have been unmended. I have been uneasy. And I've been unapproachable. I've been unemotional. I've been unexceptional. I've been undecided. And I have been unqualified. Unaware, I have been unfair, I've been unfit for blessings from above. But even I can see the sacrifice you made for me, to show that I have never been unloved." With a God who loves us like that, we can have hope, we can be encouraged, we can believe that we can begin to love in this way ourselves, as we too reach out to the least, and lowest.
When we come to the communion table, we hear these words as part of our liturgy: "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. That proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven." We are loved, loved entirely, loved unconditionally, loved to the point that Christ would give up his life for sinners, for tax collectors, for prostitutes, for lepers, for the unclean, for the unrepentant, for the poor, for the rich, for the Pharisees, for the scribes, for men and for women, for old, for children, for me, for you.
With this incredible gift of love, with this incredible assurance that God loves us no matter how many times we screw up, we can begin to look at our own way of sharing love. Can we do all of the things Paul writes about? I doubt we can ever achieve such perfection. But imagine how many lives we can touch, how many hearts we can reach, how much love of God's love we can spread, just in the process is trying. Amen.
Benediction (From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2004, pg. 47) Go, as the body of Jesus Christ, knowing there is nothing love cannot face, no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance. Go in peace. Amen.