Wellspring UMC; Fourth Sunday after Epiphany; January 28, 2007: “Love. Life Depends on It”:

-Romans 12:1-2, 9-21; I Corinthians 12:31-14:1a

If pastors, were to receive a dollar for every time they read and preached on this passage, the retirement funds for clergy would be greatly enhanced. After all, this is THE most popular passage for weddings. Paul’s famous ‘love’ passage.

How many of you have heard this passage before? When you hear it, what do you think of? What comes to mind? (Take responses)

What does this passage mean to you? (Take responses)

When I was in seminary, I remember a class where the topic focused on weddings. We were talking about what it would be like to preside over that special event in people’s lives, how the rehearsal should go, and what we might say in a homily. The professor began sharing with us the theological aspects of the ceremony, peppered in some of his own thoughts about marriage, then said something that surprised us all. “Never,” he said, “never allow I Corinthians 13 to be used in a wedding.”

We were taken aback at such a sacrilegious statement, then he began to explain the background of the passage, the context from which Paul spoke, and the intent of Paul’s message, and I must say that I could see his point... But if I had a dollar for every time I’ve used this passage in a wedding...

Just a few moments ago we shared a bit about what this passage means to us, and wrapped up in the meaning, as is the case with many beloved passage of scripture, are images, emotions, and expectations. We hear the words, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels and have not love...,” and not only do we zone out because we know the passage well, but we allow ourselves to drift off into that place, that time, those memories where this passage lives in us.

We drift off into reflections about ‘love’ and what it means to us. For some it moves them to recall a significant other or spouse, or memories of family, friends, and faith communities where those descriptions of patience and kindness arise, and the affirmation of love bearing all things is voiced. The ideals of love are lifted up, and we mentally and emotionally go there.

Some hear this passage and their response is opposite the norm. They can’t wrap their minds around such a description, because they’ve never received or even perceived anything close to this kind of love. They have been unloved and feel unlovable. They hear the ideal but receive a pipedream. It’s Greek to them.

Still others hear this passage and move beyond their thoughts and emotions, beyond their past. They reflect upon how that ideal is revealed in their lives, but then begin wondering how they might embody that kind of love more consistently. They examine themselves and their relationships, and they strive for such love to be evident and evidenced in their living.

The problem my professor had with using this passage at weddings was that we can hear this passage and easily make the leap that the human love we receive is what is described here. His argument was that this passage describes God’s love, which though it is the basis of all human love, is much deeper, wider, and all encompassing then what we can fully understand or receive. The love described by Paul is the center of all things. It is a love upon which life, true life depends.

When we look at the context of what is going on in Corinth, we find that the church there was going through some difficult times. In chapter 12 Paul counters this trend in that church that people were being pigeon-holed and labeled by their Spiritual Gifts and a hierarchy had developed among the body. A person who spoke in tongues was regarded as more important than the person who could not. The ones who performed miracles were more important than the worker bees who kept everything going. Can we relate this to today?

He uses this chapter as a way of stating that everyone is unique and everyone is important. No one gift is more important than another. No one person is more important than another, but all are members of the body of Christ. He presents the Truth that uniqueness is a gift from God, and that when we tap into that uniqueness and our gifts, then God is glorified and the Body blessed.

Paul then ends this section by listing many of the roles in the church and says, “But now I want to lay out a better way for you...” Love. He lays out a wonderfully, powerful description of love, and it’s not just any love, it’s the kind of love which is centered upon and founded in God. It is Christ’s love which is deeper, wider, and more powerful than anything we can give. It is a self-sacrificing, always-giving, always-seeking, life-revealing love. It is a love that, though all else may end, all else will die, NEVER ends. It is the best, the greatest, and the most powerful force in the world... And then he says, “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it – because it does.”

Did you hear that? Let me say it again, “Go after a life of love...” Go after a life that is the more excellent way. NOT the life where we seek our own interests or try to take advantage of the other. NOT the life that invites us to insulate ourselves and keep Christ to ourselves. Not the life that diverts our eyes and hearts from the pain of the world. NOT a heart that simply receives the love offered here and offered by God every day to us, but go after a life, opened to the gift of love. Open our hearts and souls to the gift so powerful that it floods our souls and overflows out of us. It seeps from our pores. It is evident in the way we live, speak, and even think.

“Go after a life of love,” Paul says, “as if your life depended on it – because it does.” YOUR life & MY life, depend on love. Whether we recognize or acknowledge it, whether we want it or not, whether we even understand what it all means, our lives depend on the love of Christ – freely given, but not always received. Free for all, but sometimes hitting on the lives and souls of closed hearts and minds. “Our lives depends on it,” Paul says.

But it doesn’t just stop there, because if you remember, Paul was writing to a church that had gotten caught up in who was more important than whom, and what was more important than what, and it was killing the church. When that happens in any community of faith, it kills, scars, and maims the Body, because it creates division – the antithesis of God’s intent.

“Go after a life of Love because our life depends on it,” Paul says. It’s not just the life of one but it is the life of the whole. Go after a life of Love because if we’re ever going to become that community of people who truly and honestly care as Jesus cares, then we have to go after the life that is described in this chapter.

We have to love one another and the world with patience, kindness, and humility. We have to accept that the Body is a diverse and changing organism...a living Word, witnessing to the world, and not just that, but the church is called to bear all things together, for love never ends. Paul is saying that when we love Christ and love the other, being willing to place ourselves, our desires, our idiosyncracies and dysfunctions on the back burner, then love...life...true life become a reality.

And why is this so important? Why does God desire that we go after a life of love in our own living? Why does God need the Church – Wellspring, the United Methodist Church, the Church Universal – to go after love with reckless abandon? Because the world and the people in the world are guided by a love, not based in the Creator but based in human creations. The will and the desires with which we struggle as Christians, are the gods of the world.

If you doubt it, turn on the news, or listen to conversations around the water cooler. Read the Last Word or go to the mall and people watch. Pull up some statistics about the divorce rate or homeless and hungry. Is that a love which is patient, kind, and not arrogant or rude? Is that a love that doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing?

We know the results. We see the results. The hard part is that we know the solution as well and know how hard it is to allow that solution to permeate every aspect of our living. The solution? Love. Love so much that we allow Christ in. Love so much that we allow Christ to speak to us and lead us to places where change is evident and discomfort the norm. Love so much that we follow God to the places where pain and struggle are everyday occurrences in our community. Love in such a way that others would hunger for Christ, simply because they see Christ’s love in us. “Go after love as if our lives depend on it. Go after love,” Paul says, “because the lives of God’s children of every race and stature of life depend on it.”

I was in the car with my sons the other night, and out of the blue my oldest said, “Dad, did you know that humans are all phases of matter.” I said, “What do you mean, Caleb?” He said, “Well we have muscle and bone, which is solid, blood and water, which is liquid, and we breath in gas.” I said, “Well I guess you are right.”

Then he said, “And everyone is like that. God made us all the same. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could see that and love one another.”

This passage, this blessing and guide for living, is intended for more than weddings. It is intended for life. Paul says, “Let me show you a more excellent way. Let me lay out a better plan...Love. Love as God loves. Love ALL THE TIME as Christ loves. Love, love, love, love. Then go after a life of love as if it depends on it...because it does!”