Love Never Ends

Transcribed from the sermon preached February 3, 2013

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

 
When asked why he thinks church is unique and special, Fred Goff said, I think the Church is the only organization I know of whose purpose is love.”
If we are doing our job, this is not a surprise. Hafiz, the Sufi poet writes,


Even a year short of fifty, I am still surprised at how hard it seems for people to be honest and nice. The other day at the gas station a man was yelling at his girlfriend and I thought he might hit her. I found myself wishing and praying she would have the strength to leave him. But I suspect this was not the first man to treat her bad, to give her a distorted image of love. She may not even have hope there might be better alternatives. Even among sophisticated folks, folks you would assume would know better just because of their privileged education and opportunities, there are those who have a hard time acting out of love.
A young man is doing his PHD at Cal and a few times a semester he and his fiancé have to attend some social function associated with the school. One evening I sat with him and listened to his frustration at how even as these folk write articles and dissertations that purport to diminish injustices in the world, give the marginalized a voice, and facilitate social justice and equality, they will often say or act with insensitivity, prejudice, or just plain meanness.
At parties, when his fiancé has been asked what she does for a living, and she shares that she is a secretary, the following are responses from the academic crowd: “Oh, I’m sorry you couldn’t do better than that.” “
"I guess if academia doesn't work out I could get a normal job like you" (normal used very negatively)
"Oh, well I guess we'll just assume you don't know any of the academic or political debates that we'll be talking about all night."

Then when this man was sharing a bit about his working class background at a dinner in front of his supervisor, his fiancé and a dozen others, one of his wealthy colleagues said, "Oh, so you're white trash, right?"
Two days later when I listened to him, he was still burning up inside. He expressed, “ I'm from places where people work with their hands and their backs, yes. I'm from places where getting a college degree is an achievement, not a formality. I'm from places where a university job is forward social mobility, not a "sacrifice" held to a moneyed family's professional expectations. “
I think that most meanness comes from fear and inadequacy. We feel threatened or not in control, and we lash out. We want to promote ourselves as special and good, and because we are not quite sure of ourselves, we try to knock other people down a notch. Love is a sign of strong character.
All of us are tempted to associate a negative characteristic of someone who is different from us to that persons group, whether it is race, nationality gender, class, age, or sexual orientation, Niner or Ravens fans. No matter who we are or what position or group we are a part of, it is tempting to promote ourselves and our group, and find fault with the other.
In Corinth, there is a little bit too much comparing going on for Paul’s taste. There are those who are claiming their talents are more important and should win them the privilege and honor, that their freedom in Christ enables them do what they want without consideration of others. There are those who think that their intelligence and knowledge, or their ability to prophesy grant them special access to God, and others who think their ability to speak in tongues means they are closer to the Holy Spirit. They are in a spiritual competition. It is worthy of note that Paul, as educated, male Roman citizen comes from a relatively privileged and free position. New Christians from an underprivileged, socially constrained position, say a female prophet, may find that liberating love of Christ empowers one to stand up and be counted. Paul is game for that, but he wants to remind the Corinthians that we are to stand up and be counted for love.
Paul commends them on all their gifts and freedom in Christ. Yes they are gifted and their gifts are important. And they are free to do as they please because of the grace of Christ. All of that is true, but Paul drives home two points. First, we each have unique and important gifts, but we are all part of the same body. We need each of the parts for the whole to function well. And second, there is a higher truth, a higher calling, a better sign for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: Love. No matter what our gifts or the other’s faults, our first and last goal in thought and action should be love. Love brings liberation.


Now this is a tough paragraph, and we can imagine some pretty good reasons to lose patience, to get irritated and resentful. And how many of us can or even should bear, believe, hope and endure all things. The tough guy argument would say that this love business is for passive wimps, that if we are patient and endure all things then we will just get mowed over by others. We might wish for instance, that the woman at the gas station would not continue to endure abuse, but be empowered by the mother of life and love to lose her patience and leave her man.
Yet living and acting out of love doesn’t mean passivity or not living and working for what is right. Love doesn’t mean we just let people get away with evil or wrongdoing, it just means that we don’t allow their wrongdoing to justify our wrongdoing, we don’t let their misconception and stereotype of who we are suck us into stereotyping and caricaturing who they are. Love means that even if they have painted us as the bad ones and they as the good ones, we can believe, hope and endure. Love also means that we can risk naming the truth, stepping out of the way it has always been toward the way it should be. We don’t just give up hope that a better life is possible, that justice is possible, that peace is possible. In all things, love hopes. It also takes courage and strength patience and hope to name the truth, to speak out against injustice, to work for peace rather than give up on love. It takes courage to not resort to propaganda and distortions of the truth even as the other side does just that.
Paul is not just talking about loving our enemies, but also those we love, those we work with, those we do church with. And here is hoping that those with gifts and talent will see that they have been blessed by God with those gifts not only to promote themselves but to uplift others also.
I said at the beginning of the sermon that I am still surprised at how people can be mean, but I am also still pleasantly surprised at how people can be kind and loving. One of the great strengths of this church are the people who are quite smart and gifted, and yet volunteer and dedicate themselves and their gifts to help and benefit others, without giving off the sense that they are greater than you for helping you. You may be in business and have made yourself and your family some security, but you are willing to share your gifts and time to benefit and help others, to make cookies, to take someone to the hospital, to make food for a shelter, to help someone with citizenship, to loan a house for a snow trip or fund raise for a women’s shelter. I appreciate for instance that though I am a minister of greater and lesser strengths, so many of you have lent your time and wisdom to help me perform my work and run the church. You are a great example, and I am proud and grateful that my boys have had the privilege of growing up among you. This is a great place to bring your kids. There are people living love here. It may seem that our theology is a bit unorthodox, but if you stick around long enough you will find there is great orthodoxy in acts of love and kindness. Love is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that she gave her son, that we would not perish but have eternal life.
Life is so much chance and luck. Did you deserve to be born in a healthy, wealthy or privileged household, or an unhealthy, poor and underprivileged household? There are birth defects or accidents, disease and aging, strange twists of fate and social forces that shape our live and our persons for good or ill. All we can do is work hard with the gifts and blessings God has given us, and endure with patience the trials we come across. This means that we can’t be too envious or arrogant about what we have or who we are; rather our gifts are to bless others, to love others as we would like to be loved. Gifts and talent, knowledge, language or prophecy come and go, but love remains. This also means that even though you may feel your talent or knowledge in one area or another are lacking, Maybe you are not a rocket scientist or a social butterfly, but you are still a great and important part of this church and our community in your ability to share and embody faith, hope, and love. Maybe you are not even so great at those three, but this is a great place to get coaching, cheerleading and practice. Loving others builds strength and confidence within us. The more we love others the more we grow to love ourselves. It is fun. Love is fun, it makes people smile, comforts, gives us hope, makes them and us feel good. Love builds trust, and trust builds up hope in the whole body. We know all of this already, don’t we? We know that when we have had the choice between retaliation with meanness or pumping ourselves up over and against other, or acting in love toward ourselves and the other, and we are strong enough to choose love, we feel better for it. This is maturity in Christ. As we discover we are loved by God, then we grow up into this love; it fills us up and spills over.
We know too that love never ends. It is an end in itself. It needs no praise for it is its own reward. It needs no long life, for it is eternal in the present. When we love we are connected with the eternal God of all time and place. With great hope we face even death, faithful that the God of love waits with open arms on the other side. 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. And now faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.
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