“Faith, Hope, and Love” ¹

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Give us, we pray, O God, thoughts higher than our own thoughts, prayers better than our own prayers, powers beyond our biological possibilities, that we may spend and be spent in the preaching and hearing of Thy Word. Amen.

This is the last Sunday of the Church Calendar. The Church year begins anew each year with the first Sunday of Advent, which begins next Sunday, the 27^th. And that makes sense. The church year begins with preparation, preparation for birth especially, but also preparation for the coming again of the King. It then moves into a celebration of the birth and life of Christ, including specifically the baptism of Christ. From there, we move to “regular time” whatever that means. I wonder, is there really any time that is regular? But shortly after that, we move into another time of preparation, Lent, preparing for the sacrifice of Christ, and then resurrection and victory over death. We then move into 6 weeks of Easter celebration, celebrating that God has beaten death, and the ultimate victory is in God. More regular time marks our summer and early fall, until we get to this Sunday, the last of the Church calendar, where we celebrate with assurance the future victory and timeless and eternal reign of Christ the King. Today is called Christ the King Sunday, and we celebrate things that are eternal. I can think of no more an appropriate day to read the following words.

This is one of the two scriptures that I have memorized without trying to do so. I do enough weddings, and one of the products of repetition is memorization. My guess is that many of you have at least pieces of this in your memory banks, ready to be recalled in at least some form. But let’s read it anew today. So, open now your ears and your hearts to hear what The Word of the Lord will say to us today. I Corinthians 13.

“Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living. Descartes too was mistaken; ‘Cogito ergo sum’ – ‘I think therefore I am’? Nonsense. ‘Amo ergo sum’ – ‘I love therefore I am.’ Or, as with unconscious eloquence…Paul wrote, ‘Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.’

“I believe that. I believe it is better not to live than not to love.”² Or perhaps not to love is not to live.

“Make love your aim, not biblical inerrancy, nor purity nor obedience to holiness codes. Make love you aim, for

“‘Though I speak with the tongues of (mortals) and of angels’ – musicians, poets, preachers, you are being addressed;

“‘and though I…understand all mysteries, and all knowledge’ – professors (and students), your turn,

“‘and though I bestow all my good to feed the poor’ – radicals take note;

“‘and though I give my body to be burned’ – the very stuff of heroism;

“‘and have not (love) it profiteth me nothing.’

“I doubt if in any other scriptures of the world there is a more radical statement of ethics. If we fail in love, we fail in all things else.”³

When I was about 20, I was fortunate enough to be talking to someone whom I consider a theological giant. I’d let you in on the identity of said giant, but you might tell someone, and then they’d find out, and I would know who is here today, and I would find you, and there will be payback, and that’s not fun for anybody. We were sitting there, discussing heavy theological stuff. And I brought up the conversation I had been having with a friend about absolutes. What were the absolutes in life, other than it is good to own a nice blue blazer. We were talking and I said something like, “Well, at least there are some absolutes, like not stealing, not lying, and stuff like that.” He hit me with the age old, what if your family is starving, and you’ve tried all other alternatives, would you steal them a loaf of bread. Then he looked at me right in the eye and said, “Son,” Oops. Remember, if you tell anyone… “Son, the only absolute is to love. If you do that, you’ve done it all. But don’t be fooled, love is complicated.” If we love, we will do the right thing, by the law, every time.

“…if we are not yet one in love at least we are one in sin, which is no mean bond because it precludes the possibility of separation through judgment.”⁴

“Of God’s love we can say two things: it is poured out universally for everyone from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God’s love doesn’t seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.”⁵

God loves us, deeply, completely, comprehensively. In that love we find our being and our freedom. Love defines us, in the eyes of God. I wonder why then, we feel like we need to re-define our brothers and sisters, as red state blue state, or liberal or conservative, pro-choice or pro-life. Without a doubt, it is a good, and Godly thing to talk about that stuff, especially with people with whom we disagree. But for God’s sake, for God’s sake, can we not see past those human made distinctions, and see what God sees? Fred is not a democrat. Ethel is not conservative. Ralph is not Pro-life. Sure they are, but in God’s eyes, Fred is a loved democrat. Ethel is a loved conservative. And Ralph is a loved Pro-Life. Too many religious people make infallible doctrine their aim. These are dogmatic, devisive Christians, more concerned with freezing the doctrine than warming the heart. If doctrine, and the constant desire to win whatever battle, can be exclusive, and it certainly can, love can only be inclusive.⁶ It doesn’t mean that we are all supposed to lay our differences down. It means that we are supposed to put on the right corrective vision wear, and see those differences through the lenses of love.

“Love, and you are a success whether or not the world thinks so. The highest purpose of Christianity…is to love one another. And the first fruit of love is joy, the joy that represents meaning and fulfillment.”⁷ If you have love, if you really accept it from God and let it flow through you to others, as we are commanded by the Bible, and by the words of Christ himself, if you love, then you know joy. This is not to suggest that we all ought to run around like happy idiots though our worlds fall apart. But to know joy is to know that you are loved, by God, and that no set of circumstances can take that away. “To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely – to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep stepping because something that sustains you (nothing) can give you and (nothing) can take away.”⁸

Love never ends. We find that in verse 8. On a day in which we are reminded of the eternal, specifically the eternal rule of God and reign of Jesus Christ, we are reminded of the statement, Love never ends. I believe that love is one of the things that cross the line between life and death. Which is to so, that I believe we can continue to love someone who has passed, even though they are gone. And because love is a connection that is formed between people that shapes who we are and how we experience life, we can feel and experience that connection, even though the person is gone. Love, giving love, and receiving love, alters who you are and how your heart works. When you experience that, you are forever linked by that connection, so that love never ends.

If you love, and if you know that you are loved, everything else will find its proper perspective. Is money important? Surely. Are your mortgage and your worries about your children important? Without a doubt. But, without love, no matter how those things turn out, your life will be a failure. With it, no matter how badly things go, you will be a success. It’s like another Paul said, “All you need is love.” McCartney by the way, not the author of the letters of the first century. I’d say we all have lots of needs, each and every one of us. Love isn’t the only need. But by gum, it sure is the first, most imperative, and without a doubt essential. Humans need love, it is not an option. After all, other needs are fine, but even money can’t buy me love.