Unconditional Love (2)
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
The Book of Common Prayer, 1979 Daily Morning Prayer: Rite Two
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6b
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer, 1979 Collects: Contemporary
O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer
Pastoral Prayer
Prayers for All Occasions Christ the King
Christ the King
Lord Jesus Christ,
in you we see the splendour of God in human form,
sharing our joys, sufferings and frailty.
In your resurrection and ascension
we see your majesty completed
and are silenced in wonder.
May we find in your service true freedom
and in your will our hopes fulfilled;
for you are one God with the Father and the Spirit,
and live and reign in eternal glory. Amen.
Unconditional Love
Unconditional Love
It was the first day of training camp. The year was 1961. 38 members of the Green Bay Packers football team arrived to start a brand-new season. The previous season ended horribly for the Packers who squandered a lead to lose the NFL championship to the Philadelphia Eagles.
This was a new season, however, and the players arrived at training camp with great expectations of playing better, smarter and more effective plays. Their coach, Vince Lombardi had a different idea.
Lombardi was known for taking nothing for granted. He walked into the room that day and held up a pigskin in his right hand and said, "gentlemen this is a football."
That my friends is where Paul is today doing in our text as he continues to teach the church at Corinth through his letter. He understood like Lombardi, that the game is won or lost on the fundamentals. And for the church, the number one fundamental is love.
Remember the church that Paul is writing to. Paul is writing to a church that is broken and disjointed. We know from his writings that this church has major problems. There is a high level of immorality among the leaders in this church. The Lord's supper is being used as a way for the wealthy to lord their riches over the poorer members of the church. And through the exercise of the gifts there is a caste system in place. There are some who consider themselves super saints the Holy ones, and there are others who are considered second-class saints, not as good as us. Like our current society this church is disjointed and divided.
As Greg Lowry pointed out in one of his sermons, "rather than celebrating what we have in common it seems nowadays we emphasize the things that separate us. In fact, I don't know of a time at least in my brief life when our culture has been more divided in America. Families are falling apart like never before and the result is people are looking for a place where they can belong. A community where they can feel safe. I family that they can belong to. A place where they can genuinely love and be loved in return. And you know what? That is exactly what the churches is.
I don't hear me wrong I know the church is not perfect. And I don't think were on a quest for perfect church. But we are to called to be a loving church. I invite you this morning to turn with me in your Bibles to first Corinthians chapter 13 verses one through six.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
This is a passage that is familiar to most of us. You may have had this passage read at your wedding, or at a wedding you've attended. I can say after doing hundreds of weddings, this is by far the most often selected Scripture to be read during the service. And I'm not suggesting that we should stop reading it weddings. In fact it is a great statement about love that should be between a husband and wife. However, remember when Paul wrote it he wrote it for the church. So let's look at for the next few moments what this type of love that Paul is talking about means for us as the body of Christ.
I believe that Paul tells us three things about love.
First he gives us a picture of the absence of love.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
In the first three verses he illustrates a life lived in the absence of love.
In verse one he says, "if I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."
Now I do not believe Paul has anything against gongs and symbols, so I have asked what is going on here. And as you dig a little deeper into this text you will discover that what Paul is talking about is not a symbol being used at the proper time in the middle of the song which adds depth to the music. He's referring instead to somebody beating on a symbol continually. If you have gone to listen to the bands in the park this warm summer evening, and the guy playing the symbols just kept banging on what would you think. You would think he's trying to draw attention to himself. It would be an utterly selfish act. Paul is telling us that a life lived without love is a life that is lived in utter selfishness. In case we didn't get it the first time he goes on to say that a life without love is like a gong that is being constantly run. It's annoying, it's distracting, and quite honestly it's useless.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
He goes on to say in verse two, if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries (which we know is impossible) and have all knowledge. And even if I have faith to move a mountain. But I do not have love I am nothing. I am less than nothing.
And to drive the point even further home he says even if I did the out all that I am. I get rid of it all. And I even deliver my body up to be burned. But I don't have love I gain nothing.
D.A. Carson said, "Without love I gain nothing. My deeds of philanthropy and my resolute determination to remain loyal to the truth, even in the face of martyrdom, cannot in themselves attest my high spiritual position or the superiority of my experiences with the Holy Spirit. In all of this, if there is no love, I gain nothing."
So how would Paul describe a life without love. It's a life that is useless, it is a life that amounts to nothing, and it is a life that adds no value to others, it is valueless.
Now Paul turns to what love is Paul says love is patient and kind.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.
What does this word patient mean. When Paul wrote it he used the word, makrothumia, it means self-restraint. The quality of a person who is able to avenge himself yet refrains from doing so.
Too many people spend their life living out the theory that revenge is a dish best served cold. What Paul is calling us to is a life that is self restrained that even though we could take revenge, we choose not to.
How many relationships could be saved if we let go of the idea that we have to get even. Can I tell you, no one ever gets even. What I've watched happen is people who try to get even always lose. Here's up happens, let's say you try to get even with someone who's hurt you. So then they try to get even with you. And with each one of the cycles it escalates into you have an all out war. And no one ever wins a war. All that happens is people get tired of fighting and asked for peace. But no one ever wins at war.
Paul not only calls us to self-restraint, but he calls us to be kind. But what Paul meant by kind was very different from what we mean by the word kind. He meant to be useful, to be willing to help, to do good. For Paul kindness was not an emotion. It was an action. So when he said love is kind he meant love reaches out and helps those in need.
Paul also said, Love does not envy.
Mrs. Felton asked the artist to paint a portrait of her covered with jewels. “Then put them on,” said the artist. Replies Mrs. Felton, “You don’t understand, I don’t have any jewels, but if I die and my husband remarries, I want his next wife to go crazy looking for the jewels.”
The word Paul uses here is zeloi. The idea behind envy is to be hot and boiling over with rage. You have heard people say, “I am boiling angry.” That kind of envy leads to Jealousy. That is why Jealousy is called the green eyed monster. Have you noticed that envy, leads to jealousy, which leads to fiery anger. It's a cycle. And it begins with this wanting something we don't have. And the more we want something we don't have, the more we get angry with the people who do have it.
Paul also says that love does not boast or is not arrogant. Which means it's not a braggart and it's not puffed up. And then he goes on to tell us what love is.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
This week I have struggled with what would need to change in me for me to love like that. What would need to change for that to be true for you.
Let me go back to the quote I gave you in the beginning of this message. From Greg Lowry.
In fact, I don't know of a time at least in my brief life when our culture has been more divided in America. Families are falling apart like never before and the result is people are looking for a place where they can be long. A community where they can feel safe. I family that they can belong to. A place where they can genuinely love and be loved in return. And you know what? That is exactly what the churches is.
I believe in my heart of hearts that’s exactly what people are looking for.People are looking for a place to love and be loved.They are looking for a place to be accepted.They are looking for true and genuine love.
Dream with me. What if the church could be that place. What if the church could be the place where they do not have to worry about jealousy, or anger, or revenge. What if the church could be that place. Where no one was consumed with their arrogance. Instead, we were all committed to helping one another. What if this church, could be that place. A place where they would hear the truth and be loved.
What would have to change, are you willing to make that change?
May it be so.
Amen.