I Found this information on a website when I looked up sermons on love. I felt the tug on my heart to write about love and what it really means in God's eyes. Let us love like he loves. All of the below are words from a man who wrote this sermon...none of them are mine, although I strongly agree with what he has to say.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding going or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. IF I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor 13
We can speak with the tongue of men and angels. We can have the gift of prophecy. We can fathom all kinds of mysteries. We can have faith that moves mountains. We can give all that we have to the poor and we can even give our lives in sacrifice and if we do not have love, it means nothing. So the first thing we learn about love is that it is essential. It's not an option for a successful life. When it comes to relationships, anything minus love equals nothing. Zero. Love is essential.
I think about a time that I was helping a person who was disabled and in a wheelchair, and I helped this person get up and down stairs and curbs and things like that, and when it was all over the person didn't thank me and it bothered me. I started to get angry inside. Here I was being Johnny Do-Gooder and they don't even thank me and I found out later that this person doesn't thank anyone for help because he feels like most of the barriers that are in his way as a disabled person are because society has not accommodated their needs. So he never says thank you as a issue of principle. Now whether that's loving or not, I am not going to worry about. What I am worried about is my response, because I got angry. We always have this sort of mixed experience even when we are doing something good and something bad is right there. Love is not easily angered. It always protects. It always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. In other words, love expects God to work and love is constantly hoping for change in people and love doesn't give up after one good try. It's going to try again and it's going to try again and it's going to try again. This is real love.
God loves us like this. God is patient with us. God is kind to us. He is not easily angered with us. These things are true. If we put Jesus' name instead of love in this passage, Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus doesn't envy, we see a picture of the kind of life that Jesus lived and so we have this assurance that this is the way God loves us. So that means that God accepts us right now as we are, but God loves us enough to not leave us there. He wants us to change.
God loved us so much that while we were still enemies Christ died for us. He gave his only begotten son, that whoever would take advantage of this and believe in him won't have to perish but can have an eternal relationship and purposeful life with him. We celebrate at this table love. We celebrate the vertical relationship we have with God. God loves us this much. This is how secure we are. Jesus died for us before we were his friends. Now that we have responded in some kind of way, how much more can we expect from the love of God? And it's also a time to celebrate our relationships with one another, because we are all going to take a piece of this and we are going to dip and that means that we are all part of one family. One family whom God loves this much and he then is saying love one another as I have loved you.
Let's pray. Gracious God, we thank you for these gifts of this table and for the big gift that stands behind it. Jesus Christ. Lord, who gave himself for us and that in Him we now have a relationship with you that can deepen and go on forever. We thank you that you accept us, that you accept us the way these words in 1st Corinthians tell us. This deeply, but we thank you too that you are out to work in our lives, to make us like you. And so we pray that you will do this work in us even as we use the words that you taught us, Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
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