Sermon: The Gift of Love
The Gift of Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
RUMC 14 Feb 2016
One major theme of music that is produced today is love. And on this Valentine’s Day, what I would like to do is show you a music video of a well-known love song from the Beatles. It is called “All You Need is Love”. This is an illustration of how society uses the example of love in music.
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Nothing you can know that isn’t known
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
All you need is love (All together, now!)
All you need is love (Everybody!)
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need (10x)
That should bring back some memories. If you listen carefully, many of the songs that we listen to in our daily lives are about the good feelings of love.
Not surprisingly, the Bible has a lot to say about the subject of love and how it can make a difference in our lives. My text is 1 Corinthians 3:1-13, otherwise known as the love chapter and you will see that love is a verb of action.
If 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. 3 If 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.4 Love 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; 6 it 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. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When 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. 12 For 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. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
This is the word of God. Thanks be to God.
When the Apostle Paul wrote 1st Corinthians 13, he wrote from jail. It is incredible that he would try to write something as inspirational as this was passage of scripture in such a difficult place, but he did and was able to show what genuine love is and isn’t.
When we use the word “love” it is done in the same way we talk about our favorite dessert or how we feel about a special person. For example, some people might say: I love apple pie. I love to watch old movies. I love my new car. I love my family.
In the movie, My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle, who received voice lessons from Mr. Henry Higgins, cried out in frustration and said, “Words, words, words. I’m so tired of words. I get words all day from you. Don’t talk to me of stars above. If you are in love with me, show me.” And that is what the Apostle Paul did when he said: I will show you a more excellent way.
What I would like to do is focus on three aspects of love found in verse 7:
- Love always protects
- Love always trusts
- Love always hopes.
1 Corinthians 13:7a–Love always protects.
From the days of Oliver Cromwell, the legendary English ruler, a young soldier had been convicted of some crimes and was sentenced to death. The young man was to be shot at the ringing of the curfew bell. When his fiancé heard he was about to be executed, she secretly climbed up into the bell tower, and tied herself to the huge clapper of the giant curfew bell. When it was time to ring the bell, only muffled sounds were heard. Cromwell demanded to know what went wrong. So he sent several soldiers to investigate and what they found was a young woman tied to the bell clapper, cut and bloodied. When the soldiers brought this woman to the general, he was impressed with her willingness to protect her loved one. Cromwell pardoned the soldier, and he was released.
You see, love protects our loved ones from harm. Sometimes love has to bear the pain of another. If necessary, it will carry the weight of other’s burdens. We often see this when one spouse has to care for the other or an adult child has to care for an elderly parent, especially if they cannot walk and need to use a wheelchair. To get in and out of bed, get them to the bathroom; take them to doctor’s appointment and to church. In these cases, love is more than a feeling, but a verb of action.
1 Corinthians 13:7b–Love always trusts.
Richard Hoyt of Holland Massachusetts is a 75 year old widower who lives with his 54 year old son Rick Jr. His son is disabled with cerebral palsy. Even though he cannot walk or speak normally, he is very intelligent. When Rick was 15 years old, he and his father participated in a 5 mile benefit run where the father ran and pushed his son in the wheel chair. After the race, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I am running, it feels like I am not handicapped.” For the next 30+ years, Rick and his father participated in over 1000 races–including 30 Boston Marathons, a number of triathlons and the Iron man. They even biked across the USA. The father recently retired from competitions, so someone else now takes Rick on runs.
But for father and son to have accomplished what they had done in the races, there had to be trust. Rick Jr had to trust that his dad would not put him in harm’s way, but to do the things that would be in his son’s best interest. They are a team. You see love believes the best about people and gives the benefit of doubt. Again, love is more than a noun or an adjective, but it is a verb of action.
In all relationships, trust is needed, but more so when one of the partners is physically dependent. I am reminded of one 87 year old man in a nursing home; he trusted that his wife would come visit him every afternoon. When they did get together, they didn’t talk much; they didn’t have to. They just sat together and that was enough.
1Corinthians 13:7c–Love always hopes
Prior to the Civil War, like many young people in that era, a young man and women had become engaged. When hostilities began, the man was drafted into the army and their wedding was postponed until after the war. Throughout the war, this young soldier wrote many letters, until he was severely wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia. Suddenly the letters stopped. His bride did not suspect anything as she read and reread his letters and counted the days when he would return. Finally she received a letter, but it was written in an unfamiliar handwriting. It read, “There has been another terrible battle. It is very difficult for me to tell you this, but I have lost both my arms. I cannot write myself. So a friend is writing this letter for me. While you are as dear to me as ever, I feel I should release you from the obligation of our engagement.” The young fiancé never answered that letter. Instead she took the next train and went directly to the military hospital. When she found her lover, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. She said, “I will never give you up. These hands of mine will help you. I will take care of you.”
This past week, I was with an elderly couple in their home where one spouse needed a lot of assistance. What struck me was the care, the cheerfulness, the stronger spouse had for the other.
Bishop Devadhar once told this story to a group of ministers: There was a wedding where the minister stood before a couple who were deeply in love. The pastor made the following comments in his wedding sermon. “You can’t imagine this today, but there will come a day when the two of you will be frustrated with each other. You may not feel like you love one another. You may not even feel like you like each other in the moment. But that is when you need to believe that despite all these feelings, that deep down, you truly love each other and to not let other things get in the way.”
The Beatles were correct when they sang “All you need is love”, but for love to work, it has to be a verb of action where we are able to protect, to trust, and hope–just as the woman who tied herself to a bell clapper, or the sacrifice Richard Hoyt Sr. made to race with his son, or the finance who frantically searched for her loved one. I would like to show you a video that was produced by a Thailand Insurance company; in it, a man puts love into action. During our service, we followed this video with an open discussion; I hope you will continue it here online.