1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)
13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love 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. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
What's your favorite romantic movie?
How do you feel when you're around another couple that are obviously in love?
Who is the first person you remember loving in your life?
Are there different kinds of love?
Who are the people you love most in the world? Why?
What are your personal rules for love?
Intro: The sermon assumes that we are interested in love. People who are interested in more selfishness are free to leave now.
Love we are talking about is agape, a hybrid of feeling and idea that is a pure caring distinct from affection. "Charity" in KJV
The nature of love, the laws of love can be seen in two ways:
Descriptive
Love is defined by these things . . .
like there are laws of nature, or physics that describe what it is without prescribing action
Prescriptive
Once we love, we oughta . . . Traffic laws
Still comes down to what we do, surprisingly not the internal condition often addressed in New Testament.
Case Study: learning new hymn
Religious principles aren't nearly as interesting as their application.
Love is realized in its application. (first section)
we're always talking about love in the church, blah blah, blah...
all ya need is love
temptation with a bunch of prescriptions is to turn off,
instead: One step at a time. One small item at a time. One person, one experience...
learning new hymn - appropriate since love setting seems to address some issues in the Corinthian Church (tongues)
just for today, just for this moment in worship, I will try to love this song.
It's all case study. just for today, just for this moment is often all we can manage when it comes to love.
Patient
Kind
Humble
Flexible
Good natured
Forgiving
We are hymns. Not so melodic, strange transitions, words that don't always fit. Who will love us?
Gil Bowen, preacher and therapist, "So when all is said and done, love is not rapture and fire. It’s a hand steadier than one's own, squeezing harder than a heartbeat. Wine changes back to water. Endearment is exhibited by what once might have been considered insignificant kindnesses, but which, in the end, become the tenderest of ministrations."
Certainly one way to remember, but you'd always need to keep a mirror handy.
Unless it's for someone else.
(c) William H. Levering 2009
