Our Mission: Known by Love (1st Corinthians 13:1-13)

 Sermon for Milledgeville & Centenary UMC...

[Slide] Our Mission: Known by Love (1st Corinthians 13:1-13)

I finally realized that my mother doesn’t really love me. I gave her a book to read. She said she didn’t like the main character. It was my autobiography.

We’re talking about love, regardless of what Van Halen thinks! Here are a few Love is… comics

[Slide] Love is… when you’re lost for words

[Slide] Love is… not leaving the bathroom in a mess

[Slide] Love is… visiting Grandma and Grandpa

[Slide] Love is… living in hope

We toss the word love around kind of carelessly. [Slide] We say we love French fries and burgers. We love a good baseball game. We love ice cream. I love rock and roll; put another dime in the jukebox, Baby! 

But what is love really? How is love defined?

Webster’s dictionary gives many definitions. [Slide] Love is…

• strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (philia/storge)

• attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers (eros)  [Slide]

• affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests (guilds/teams)

• warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion (Mania/Fandom) [Slide]

• Empathy; an unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another (agape)

• a score of zero (as in tennis)

I guess love is a many splendored thing, after all!

But what does the Bible tell us about love? The New Testament gives us the definition and it’s not from Paul’s so-called love chapter. It’s from the apostle John.

[Slide] This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1st John 3:16)

The ultimate expression of love is the cross of Jesus. His sacrifice is how we know what love is. To be known by love requires sacrifice. 

[Slide] You may know the story of the Franciscan priest Maxmilian Kolbe. A prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, he witnessed a man scheduled for execution pleading for his life. He had a wife and children. The priest had no family ties. He stepped forward and offered himself as a substitution. The Germans accepted his offer and was subsequently executed. [Slide] The man Father Kolbe saved was Franciszek Gajowniczek (Frahn-SEE-Check Guy-OV-nuh-check). He lived a long full life until 1995. He was 93. He dedicated his life to telling others about the sacrifice of Father Kolbe. 

[Slide] Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

Loving others means a willingness to be inconvenienced. It means shouldering another’s burden. It means to be with those who are hurting or in need. To be known by love is to sacrifice your time, talents, and treasure in service to others.

Love is compassion for others. [Slide] Buddhism’s leading voice says, “Compassion is a wish to see others free from suffering.” Jesus felt compassion for the poor and infirm, the demon-possessed and lost. He reached out and healed. He taught lifegiving words of hope. He liberated lives. 

We are known by love through selfless acts of giving and service. To be known by love is to be out in the community compassionately serving. 

Love is selflessness. The Apostle Paul urged the Church, 

[Slide] In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3b-4)

The church is filled with saints who serve in the background, happily and selflessly. Those who tidy up the narthex and sanctuary each week. Those who send greeting cards and encouragement. Those who vacuum and clean bathrooms. Those who care for children, visit the homebound, or hospitalized and other act selfless acts of compassion. These are not officers of the church, not part of a church program, but everyday disciples doing as Jesus does.

[Slide] The love chapter is part of a longer conversation about spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit has given each of you spiritual gifts to build others up. Paul says knowledge puffs up, love builds up. (1Co 8:1) You may know a lot about the Bible but unless you love selflessly, you know nothing. 

Paul describes what love and does to what love is not and does not do.

Love is/does   Love is not/does not

Patient Envious

Kind Brag 

Rejoices in Truth Puffed up (Arrogant)

Bears all things Rude

Believes all things Self-serving

Hopes all things Easily angered

Endures all things Resentful

Never ends Delights in Wrong/Injustice

Notice the symmetry? Paul gives us 8 positives (Do this) and 8 negatives (Don’t do that) Let’s look more closely at a few. 

Love rejoices in the truth. [Slide] Social Networks are filled with sanctimonious posts that look down the nose at those who don’t share their views. Social justice warriors look down at Bible thumpers. People who quote scripture aren’t always seeking to build others up. They seem to want to knock people down. Before you post something, ask yourself if you are trying to encourage lives or win a fight? Love builds up. Love does not need to win an argument.

[Slide] Love believes all things, hopes all things. I’m sorry. I can’t take this literally. I do not believe the Colts are going all the way to the Superbowl this year. I don’t believe in Bigfoot or the Lock Ness Monster. I don’t believe a lot of things. That doesn’t mean I don’t love. I think what Paul means is that love believes all of God’s promises. Love hopes in all God has planned. 

Love never ends. Other translations say love never fails. The Greek means to fall, as like falling on your face or fall from a great height. It can also mean the failure of the body, to decay. Love never loses its power. Love is everlasting.

[Slide] You might remember a 1998 Robin Williams film called What Dreams May Come. His character’s wife struggled with bouts of deep depression. He did everything he could to keep her steady. Sadly, she took her own life. His love for her was so great, like a mythic hero, he went all the way to hell to rescue her. He searched among the countless lost souls until he found her. They both went to heaven to live in beauty and ease. They decided to return to earth to live again. Believing in the power of their love, they trusted they would somehow find one another. The film closes with a boy meeting a girl on a fishing pier. 

[Slide] There is a fire in every human heart. It’s God’s love. It burns in unique colors as each person learns their way to give and receive love. 

Paul said that, of all the gifts of the Spirit, the greatest is not to ability to preach, or the miraculous ability to heal. It’s not the power to speak in angelic tongues or to prophesy. It’s not leadership or administration. 

[Slide] Love is the greatest gift of the Spirit, for when you love like Jesus, the fire of His love fuels your life. Like a steam locomotive, the fire of love drives us into compassionate service. Love serves humbly and faithfully.

[Slide] A mother of three worked tirelessly every day. She cooked. She cleaned. She mended clothing. One night she looked at her worn hands and her wrinkled face. She wondered if her children would ever understand how much she loved them. Not long after, her daughter noticed her mother’s cracked fingers. She asked her mother, “Do your hands hurt?” Her mother replied, “Sometimes they hurt, but these hands show my love for you.” Her daughter kissed her hands and said, “Then I love your hands the best.”

[Slide] Jesus commanded us to love one another. He said, “The world will know you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

We aspire to be the church that is known by love. Look upon your friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors and find ways to love them selflessly, with compassion, and with a never-failing hope that they, too, will know the fire of God’s love.