“And now faith, hope, love abide these three,  and the greatest of these is love"  

   1Cor.13:13

We are delaing today with what biblical scholar and author Herbert O’Driscoll calls ‘the Everest of the New Testament.’    This passage stands out head and shoulders above the rest…the same way Psalm 23 does in the Old Testament.  Not only is this passage familiar to many but it almost seems to sum up the New Testament.  It is certainly popular – 1 Corinthians 13 gets invited to wedding ceremonies more than any other passage of scripture.  In my experience about 2 out of 3 weddings read this passage.  But there is something ironic about reading this passage at a wedding – an irony I cannot escape each time I read it. 

Paul wrote these words as part of a stern letter to the people at the church in Corinth.   They were a divided congregation,  split over a number of issues and divided into camps.  So they are getting lectured by Paul,  the same way your father might have lectured you for misbehaving at a restaurant,  or for fighting with you brother in the back seat of the car.  So to lift these words out of that context and plop them into a ceremony for the union of two people in holy matrimony is a bit ironic.  Now if I use my best ‘Hallmark card’ voice  ‘Love is patient and kind…’  I might get away with it.  But that is probably not the way Paul spoke these words in the first place.  I suspect he said it like this:  ‘Love is not boastful or arrogant or rude!  It does not insist on its own way;  it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.’

There is a danger in pulling scripture out of its context and quoting it without any reference to its original setting.  And the danger in this case is we turn Paul into a sentimental ‘Helen Steiner Rice’.   Nowhere does Paul compare love to starry skies or babbling brooks or the joyful song of the Meadowlark.  Paul does not even compare love to happiness or joy!   He doesn’t swivel his hips like Elvis and say ‘I can help falling in love with you’.   No,  the love Paul is speaking about is far more enduring and pervasive than some sentiment of the heart – he’s talking about love as an act of will!

1 Corinthians 13 is actually part of a 3-chapter discussion on the topic of spiritual gifts.  It would seem that the Corinthian congregation was arguing over what spiritual gifts were supreme.  There was a ranking of gifts going on.  You see, there were no Baptist, Pentecostal and Presbyterian Churches in Corinth.  There was just one Christian church called simply ‘the church at Corinth.  So there was a charismatic element in the congregation and they believed speaking in tongues was the supreme spiritual gift.  It was a sign that the Spirit was dwelling right inside of you!  And there were others who believed that prophecy and knowledge was the supreme spiritual gift…what could be more important than learning about God and sharing that knowledge with others?   And still others believed that helping others was the supreme gift.  Reaching out in meaningful ways to assist others,  tending to the sick,  feeding the hungry,  visiting the lonely -  surely this was the ultimate spiritual gift to have.   So they were divided into camps over this and there was a real competition going on.   

Paul writes to them and tries to get them to see that every spiritual gift is significant.  He compares each gift to a part of the body – speaking in tongues is the mouth,  prophecy is the mind,  mission and outread is the hands.  And ‘just as the body is one with many parts,  so it is with Christ’.  The hand can’t say to the foot ‘I have no use of you’ – without the foot the body is less than whole.   So each gift is indispensable and if one part suffers the whole body suffers.   And he concludes by saying ‘Now, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.’   And just when you think he’s reached the pinnacle of his argument here,  Paul concludes the chapter with these words ‘But strive for the greater gifts and I will show you a still more excellent way’.   Now this really gets the Corinthian congregation’s competitive juices flowing.  They like to hear that there are greater gifts…what are they Paul,  do I have one of them?

And then comes Chapter 13:  ‘If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels’   (and all the Holy Roller Charismatics lean in a little)  ‘but have not love,  I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.’    ‘And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and knowledge and if I have faith so as to remove mountains ‘  (and the entire Sunday School class leans in)  ‘but have not love I am nothing.’   ‘And if I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast’  (and the entire Mission committee leans in)  ‘but do not have love,  I gain nothing.’

And Paul goes on to say all the things that love is,  and all the things that love is not…and then he makes his most important point of all  (the part we usually leave out at a wedding ceremony)   He says ‘Now we see in a mirror dimly  (Corinth produced bronze mirrors and they reflect an image but dimly)   but one day we will see face to face’  and all these gifts you are fighting over will disappear….you won’t need them anymore.  You won’t need faith – when we see God face to face we won’t need faith.  You won’t need hope – when we reach heaven all our hopes will be fulfilled!  But the one gift that will remain even after we see God is love.   So faith, hope, love abide these three,  but the greatest of these is love.’  
And that, it seems to me,  is the important message for us today.  Love is the greatest of our gifts  because its fruit will outlast all the others.  Love is sown in temporal soil but is itself eternal.  And perhaps we already have an inkling that this is true.  Take this little quiz:

• Name the 5 wealthiest people in the world.
• Name the last 5 winners of an Academy Award for best actor.
• Name 5 people who have won a Nobel prize
• Name the last 5 teams to win the Superbowl.

Now answer these:

• Name 2 teachers who stood out as exceptional from your schooling days.
• When you hear the word friend,  what 3 people come to mind?
• Name the people who are largey responsible for you sitting in this pew today.
• Is there somebody who has long since passed away but in a strange way  is stillwith you today?

You see how love works? Even after we’re gone the love we sow continues to work its magic!  A member from my previous congregation was at her elementary school reunion once.  She saw a woman that she instantly recognized from her class year ago.  She went up to her and said ‘Hi,  you probably don’t remember me but I’m  (giving her name)’.   The woman said ‘Oh yes,  I do remember you,  you shared your Popsicle with me when our class was on a school outing.  I didn’t have money for a treat so you shared your Popsicle with me.’   I said to the woman ‘How long ago did that happen?’  And she said to me ‘Seventy-five years ago’.  You see how love works?
    Now we often speak of love as though it were a noun but in fact,  love is best understood as a verb.  It’s something defined by actions because it’s something we experience.  And that is precisely the reason for the Incarnation…Christ’s coming in the flesh to live with us.  God’s love is incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ.  Why?  Because love is best expressed in actions.

I am reminded of the young boy who awoke one night to thunder and lightning and he cried out to his mom and dad to come.
‘What is it honey?’  his mom said from her own bed.
‘I’m scared.  I need someone to come in here with me.’ He said
‘You’ll be alright’  said mom,  not wishing to get up.  ‘Just say a prayer to God.  Remember I told you that God is always with you.’ 
‘I know’,  he said ‘but right now I think I need someone with skin on’.

Someone with skin on – that’s the incarnation.  And the church is to be the incarnation of God’s love in Jesus Christ.  That’s why we exist.  That’s why Hidenwood has been on the corner of Hiden Blvd and Madison Lane for the last 50 years…to be a tangible expression of the love of God in Jesus Christ. 
As one theologian has stated ‘Jesus has no hands or feet,  but our hands and feet.’  If we don’t do it who will do it?  If we won’t go,  who will go?  The church exists to live out the love of our Lord in this time and this place. 

    So love must be the measure of all that we do.  We must not only educate but educate in love.  We must not only do mission work,  but do it in love.  We must not only be stewards of our gifts,  but do it in love.  We must not only speak the truth but speak the truth in love. 

Jack Cooper was an interim minister in my home church back in the late 60’s in a time they didn’t even call it by that name.  He held our church together between the leaving of one pastor and the coming of another.  I remember Jack telling us about a pastoral charge he had one summer when he was still in seminary.  He spent 4 months in this small congregation -  there are a lot of smaller congregations that don’t have a full time pastor so the church sends seminary students out for the summer.  It’s good training for the students and steady supply for the churches.   Well,  Jack had big plans for his congregation but he soon found it’s not easy to change a congregation -  they’re stuck in their ways,  they aren’t easily led away from the way they’ve done things for eons.   So he didn’t accomplish as much as he wanted and grew frustrated in his ministry,  so on the last Sunday he to give them both barrels.  He laid it all out in black and white everything that was wrong with this congregation.  And as the smoke rose after the benediction,  he walked to the the back door to shake hands as they left the building.   And nobody said anything much about his sermon -  they offered the usual niceties ‘nice sermon today’  ‘beautiful weather we’re having’  ‘all the best with your studies’  but nobody said anything really…until the last person.  The last person out of the building that day was the organist.  She had deliberately tarried so that she would be last to speak and as she shook his hand she said ‘Well Jack,  you spoke the truth today.  You hit the nail on the square on the head.  You named all our faults and shortcomings. It’s true, you got us down.’  And then looking him right in the eye she said ‘But we need to know that you love us’.  

You see anybody can speak the truth,   but can you speak the truth in love?  Because truth alone won’t transform,  but truth spoken in love – that’ll transform.  In fact almost anything done in love will transform.

Let me end with another story – a true story about Howard Kelly.  As a young lad he put himself through school working as a door to door salesman.  One day he went door to door he grew hungry and thirsty but he couldn’t buy anything because it was a bad day of selling and he only had 10 cents to his name.   So he decided he would ask for a meal at the next house he went to.  He lost his nerve however when he knocked and a lovely young girl answered.  So instead he asked only for a glass of water.  She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk instead.  He drank it down slowly and then asked ‘How much do I owe you?’

She said ‘You don’t owe me anything.  Mother has taught us never to accept pay for kindness.’   So he said ‘I thank you from my heart.’  And then left,  feeling stronger physically but also it helped strengthen his faith in God and people,  because he had been ready to give up and quit the job and his schooling.

Years later that same young woman came down with a rare disease.  The local doctors could not help so they shipped her off to the specialists in the big city.  Dr. Howard Kelly was one of those specialists and as soon as he saw the woman he recognized her.  He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life.  From that day on he gave special attention to the case and to her.  After a long struggle,  the battle was won.  Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill on to him for approval.  He wrote something on the bill and sent it on to her room.  She feared to open it, expecting it would take the rest of her life to pay it off.  But to her surprise on the bill he had written  ‘Paid in full with one glass of milk.’   And overjoyed she prayed:  ‘Thank you God,   that your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands.”

Amen