A Sermon
Based Upon 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
By Rev. Dr.
Charles J. Tomlin, DMin
Flat
Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Epiphany 5,
Year (B), February 15st, 2015
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. (1Co 13:8 NRS)
I once saw Shakespeare’s most popular play, Romeo and Juliet, performed at the
theater built near Shakespeare’s home in England at Stratford upon Avon. It was done so well and so beautifully, that
I haven’t ever wanted to ever see it again.
I want that memory to be the only
memory I ever have the tragic love portrayed in that version of Romeo and Juliet.
We all know that story, and like that story survives
because all true love can be both tremendous and tragic. According to Shakespeare’s interpretation, Romeo
and Juliet’s love for each other was tremendous, because they loved each other
and wanted to live no other way. But
there love was also tragic, because it was forbidden, and they made the tragic choose
to be united in death rather than be separated in life.
Whatever we take from Shakespeare’s play, we must agree that love still does strange
things to people. Love is a power so
strong, that people are willing to die for it.
But I wonder if Romeo and Juliet had been allowed to get married, would
their passion have endured the reality of their togetherness? It is one thing to have a love we can’t live
without, but do we have a love we can also live with?
Living with love is the test of true love. And this is the kind of enduring, unending, redundant,
selfless love, Paul writes about in First Corinthians. Love can be a passion, but love that endures
is more like the love we share and show day to day. In this way, love is not just a feeling that
‘kills us’, but it is how we live for
and live with another that really matters.
It is this living love that makes sense of life and leaves us better for
having loved, rather than not having loved at all. This kind of ‘living’ love includes, but is
much more than a physical eros, and
it is even more than the brotherly or sister love of philia, as in
Philadelphia. The love Paul recommends
to the Corinthians and to us, is a spiritual, unconditional love, self-giving love---a love which the Greeks knew
as agape, which for Christians, is the nature of the
divine love revealed to us, and
commanded, by Jesus Christ.
LOVE
GIVES MEANING TO LIFE
Love endures because love gives life its
meaning. We exist, not just to exist,
but to love and to learn to give and share love. There is no other purpose worth living for. Life is not finally about talking, preaching,
believing, doing, giving, or sacrificing, only for the sake of talking,
preaching, believing, doing, giving, or sacrificing. No, according to Paul, all the talking,
preaching, belieiving, doing, giving, or sacrificing means nothing if we do not
have love. Love is what we can’t live
without, because it is also what we live for.
To put it in Paul’s own words: “If I have tongues, powers, and faith, but do
not have love I have nothing. Even
if I give away all possessions and sacrifice my own life, and do not have
love,
I gain nothing (13: 1-3).
What do we gain in life? What do we show for all our living? What do we work for, care for, give for, hope
for? Love is the only thing, says
Paul. Love is what makes life worth
living and what makes us able to face life and death. Only when we live our lives for
something, and that something is love,
we live for nothing.
When we try to understand what Paul means, we have
to go back, once again, to try to understand why he wrote these words about
love. He was writing to tell a divided,
conflictive, and alienated congregation why they they existed. The church at Corinth had great potential
and possibility, but that was all going to be lost if they did not understand
that love was the reason they existed as a church. A church that is built on God’s love, can’t
exist without continuing to build their relationships on that love. Without love, they, just like we have
nothing to say, nothing to become, and
nothing to do, because only exist to bring God’s love into the world. Without love, the church has and is, nothing.
It’s the same for us. We are either a church that loves, or we are
not a church at all. Anytime we let any
talk, belief or deed, or plan, even one we would die for, if we allow our
difference to get in the way of loving and living together, we threaten our
whole existence as God’s people. Our
only reason is to love, or we have no reason and we lose all reason, just like
we end up with nothing. Only love, and
only an love that endures anything and everything, gives us existence and
endurance we need to keep existing, both as God’s community and church.
In a church in Greensboro, I had an elderly member
who grew up Amish in Pennsylvania. She
spoke a lot about her upbringing, and she loved to read and share her books
about Amish life and living. But what
separated her from that life today was not her lack of respect or love for the
community, but the failure of that community to love her, even when she was
young and making unwise, perhaps even unethical decisions.
I never knew exactly what those mistakes where, failure
which caused that church to shun her, but I really did not care to know. What I knew myself was the kind, loving,
caring person she became, and the heartbreak she still felt. I also knew that the real loss and failure was
not her failure to the community, but the failure of that community to find a
way to love and to keep on loving someone, even when they fail. Again, I don’t know the details, but I know
that if you lose love, even though you may keep all your ideals, standards,
beliefs and morals high---if you lose love--- you still lose. Maybe the Amish church meant well and did
right when they shunned her. She
certainly did turn out to be a wonderful person later in life. But I think it could have even turned out
better in that church community, just like it does in any community or
relationship, like a marriage, a family, or any other relationship. When people find ways to stay together, even
if they disagree, or even when they are hurt, it always turns out better when
love finds a way to win.
Maybe I’m dreaming of a kingdom that can’t be of
this world, but Jesus thought it could.
He also taught us to pray for it
and live toward it. I’m not judging,
because I love my Amish neighbors, but I’ve
never understood how the same Amish community, who can muster the incredible moral
strength it takes to forgive someone for murdering 5 of their precious
children, could then turn to shun someone who had one child out of
wedlock. It still happens. I know what they are trying to do. They are trying to protect their own children
from sin, but if they are not careful, by over protecting them, they might also be preventing them from learning
how to love.
To keep up the moral standards of a community, of a
family, of a church, at all costs---even the cost of love, is a cost too
high. Do you know what you have when you
lose love? Paul says you have nothing. Besides having nothing, you end up doing nothing good for the world,
because you don’t stop evil by getting rid of evil. Retaliation just makes the enemy grow. You only stop evil with love, the kind of
love that can even love an enemy. And
do you know the first enemy you are to love?
It is the enemy who is right beside you, even at church. You must love that enemy before love can
begin or go anywhere else. I know this
kind of love is hard, but we must love, because the greatest failure is and
will always be the failure to love. If
you have love, you win, no matter
what. But if you lose love, even when you are trying
to win, you still lose. You can only win
something, when you win with love.
LOVE TELLS
US HOW WE MUST LIVE
The love that wins is never mere words, but it must mean action. Love
is patient, kind, not envious, not arrogant, not rude nor resentful…. You get the picture. Love is a moving target, an action picture of
people on the move to do things for love.
When I read this text, I can’t help but hum that
popular songs years back, “The Things We Do for Love”. We might think of the kinds of stupid things
we once did, but Paul wants us to think of the smart things we should do---the
things we should do for the sake of bringing love and meaning into our lives,
into our church, and into the lives of those around us.
The ‘things we do’ for love are these kinds of
things Paul mentions here: patience,
kindness, not keeping records of wrongs, not thinking too much of ourselves and
too little of the other person. You
can fit Paul’s love language into most any relationship, be it social, family,
marriage, or church, and you don’t need psychologists, a psychiatrist, a social
worker, a book on the 5 loves languages
(And it’s a good book), or anything or anyone else to tell you what
should you do to keep love alive anywhere.
These actions Paul mentions will work, because love works. When people do
the work of love and not only talk the talk of love, love works. When both parties want and desire their
relationship to work, love will work because love always does the work it takes
to love.
Years ago, the great evangelist DL Moody held revival
meetings all over this country. It was a
different day, when people would come together and remain together until
something changed, or when something good happened. That’s why they weren’t just called
revivals, but they were called ‘protracted
meetings’. In one particular town,
Moody started preaching on love, and he continued to preach 8 sermons on this
one topic, love. After the eight night someone approached Moody to ask when he was
going to preach on another topic. “When
you start loving each other, then I’ll move on.” I don’t remember the details, but the story
makes a point I’ve never forgotten.
Until we show and live the love we talk, we not only have nothing, we are doing nothing. Love is worth our doing, or nothing is worth
doing at all.
The other thing we need to see again, is how Paul describes love as beyond feelings or emotions. Love that lasts is based on self-initiated action
for each other, not our reaction. “Love one another with mutual affection;
outdo one another in showing honor. Do
not lag in zeal….” (Rom.
12.10). In other words, I don’t love because
you love me, but I love you because I love and want you to love me too. You’re love matters, but my love for you
matters more, and we can only keep loving and acting on our love, when we show mutual affection, but the motivation
for love is in me and in the ‘things I do for love’.
This doesn’t mean that feelings aren’t important or
that we should not try to bring happiness to each other. What Paul when he says that love is based on
enduring actions of love, means that happiness is a by-product of how we show
each other our love through acts and deeds of love. The love that bears all, believes all, hopes
all, and endures all is a love that acts with self-less other directed love. Even though Paul says, love endures and does not end, he does not mean there is no limit
to love. “Where is the love you had at
the first?” Recall those sharp words to
Church at Ephesus. Love will last
because love is limitless. But even a
limitless love has its limits, too. If we
stop loving, love will end because there
is no more love. To say that love endures
shows us quality of love and
our capacity to love, but we still have the power in us to decide and determine
the quantity of how far
love goes---it goes only as far as are willing to show, act upon and do the
deeds of love.
LOVE IS
WHAT MATTERS
This brings us to a final word about enduring
love. Love endures, because it brings
life meaning, and our meaning in life depends on doing deeds of love for each
other. But what about the limits? Even God’s love, a love without limits, will
end at a dead end at the cross, unless we respond to that love, by also taking
up our cross and following loves’ way.
Do you know the way to love? Do
you want to know the way to love? I
don’t think it is as hard as some people are trying to make it in our crazy,
loveless, world.
Last November, I was having some work done on my
car, when the news came across the TV about Adrian Peterson being punished by
the NFL for abusing his child with a hickory switch. The mechanic, not knowing I was a preacher,
looked up at me and said, “I wonder what
they would do to my mother for the “butt” woopings she gave me. He didn’t say “Butt”. He continued:
“My Father died when I was 6, and my mother’s spankings didn’t hurt me a
bit. I smiled at him, and said, “You
know, it seems to me they are all missing the main point!” Of course, I’m not for abuse, but it’s not simply about whether a Father, a
Mother always gets it right, whether they choose to spank or not to spank, but
what it’s really about is whether they loved you enough to care enough to make
sure you or I got the discipline we needed so we would get it right.
I’m afraid, if our society, if we are not careful,
we are going to miss what matters most. I’m
not defending abuse but I’m saying that love is what matters, and love covers
all kinds of mistakes, sins, or human errors.
But that’s not the questions people are asking or searching for these
days. I’m afraid we are setting our
sights on things that matter much less than the things that matter most. But how do we know the difference? Paul says, only love knows.
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