Summer Of Love, Through The Glass Darkly Series

Summer of Love 10 Seeing clearly

By September of 1967 the residents of Haight Asbury had fallen out of love with the 100,000 hippies and flower children who had descended on their neighborhood for what had come to be known as the Summer of Love. The bloom was coming off the rose for the participants as well and many of the university students who made up the group left San Francisco to resume their studies.

On October 6th a mock funeral was held that was called “The Death of the Hippie”, organizer Mary Kasper explained the purpose of the funeral: “We wanted to signal that this was the end of it, to stay where you are, bring the revolution to where you live and don't come here because it's over and done with.”

And like the original Summer of Love we are drawing close to the finish of our summer of Love as we have spent the past 10 weeks in 1 Corinthians 13, the so called Love Chapter of the Bible.

And through the summer we’ve been taking the opportunity to read all 13 verses together. This morning we are going to read it in unison. Please stand with me as we take the opportunity to read God’s word.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Thank you, you may be seated.

Last week we looked at the childish things that we need to put away as we mature in our faith and this morning we are going to focus on verse 12, 1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

In the NIV we read 1 Corinthians 13:12 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.

In the King James Version we read 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And while “through a glass darkly” is more poetic, and has been the title of a number of novels, several poems, umpteen television episodes and at least one movie it really doesn’t convey to us the meaning that Paul had in mind 2000 years ago.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of seeing through a glass darkly, I picture myself peering through a darkened window. Which along with being just kind of creepy is historically impossible because when Paul wrote this letter there were no glass windows, either darkly or not to peer through.

The Romans had glass, but it was used to make containers. Angela actually has a cross with Roman glass that came from Israel and dates back to the time of Jesus. But the technology wasn’t there to create sheet glass.