LOVE FOUND A WAY
I CORINTHIANS 13:1-13 (NRSV)
FEBRUARY 3, 2013
FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY, YEAR C
HARRISBURG, AR FARM HILL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
INTRO. Have you heard the story about the actor who was playing the part of Christ in the Passion Play at Eureka Springs, up in the Ozarks? As he carried the cross up the hill a tourist began heckling, making fun of him, and shouting insults at him. Finally, the actor had taken all of it he could take. So he threw down his cross, walked over to the tourist, and punched him out.
After the play was over, the director told the actor portraying Jesus, “I know he was a pest, but I can’t condone what you did. Besides, you’re playing the part of Jesus, and Jesus never retaliated. So don’t do anything like that again!” Well, the actor promised he wouldn’t. But the next day the heckler was back worse than before, and finally the actor exploded and punched him out again.
The director said, “That’s it. I have to fire you. We just can’t have you behaving this way while playing the part of Jesus.” The actor begged, “Please give me one more chance. I really need this job, and I can handle it if it happens again.” So the director decided to give him another chance.
The next day he was carrying his cross up the street. Sure enough, the heckler was there again. You could tell that the actor was really trying to control himself, but it was about to get the best of him. He was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth. Finally, he looked at the heckler and said, “I’ll meet you after the resurrection!” (From Melvin Newland, “The Most Excellent Way,” a sermon on I Corinthians 13:1-3, posted on www.sermoncentral.com).
When we think about how God looks at us, it’s pretty clear that love controls everything else about how God sees us. Since we are supposed to be like God and reflect who he is, that should be the controlling factor in our lives as well. Yet it seems that nothing is as misunderstood as love. H. Orton Wiley said that many people would say that love is self-surrender, but that is not love, but is weakness; and some people would say it is self-assertion, but that is not love either, but is selfishness. If there is going to be any chance of people seeing what love really is in us, then there must a balance between that self-surrender and self-assertion. John Wesley said that sanctification was nothing more nor less than pure love. Paul had experienced that love. What does he tell us about it?
I. LOVE IS OVER ALL (1-3). What reigns supreme? If you ask a lot of people that question on this particular day, they might say the Ravens or the 49ers. When it comes to that, I think the Ravens, but that’s another story, right? Last November, the answer might have been Obama or Romney. When we are honest, we might say our spouse, the job, money, or a variety of over possibilities. But what really reigns supreme? Paul claims it is love! Love is over all!
A. Love is greater than the wonderful (1-2). There are plenty of things in life that cause wonder in us. I saw on the news the other day a story about a surfer coming down what was possibly the highest wave ever surfed by a human being. That brought wonder out in me, as well as a thought or two about human stupidity and recklessness. George Beverly Shea used to sing:
VERSE 1
There’s the wonder of sunset at evening, The wonder as sunrise I see;
But the wonder of wonders That thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me.
REFRAIN
O, the wonder of it all! The wonder of it all! Just to think that God loves me.O, the wonder of it all! The wonder of it all! Just to think that God loves me.
VERSE 2
There’s the wonder of springtime and harvest, The sky, the stars, the sun;
But the wonder of wonders That thrills my soul
Is a wonder that has only begun.
REFRAIN
Whatever takes your breath away, whatever makes your heart go pitter-patter, love is greater than it.
B. Love is greater than self-sacrifice (3). In verse 3, Paul declares, “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.” Can we take him seriously? Is he for real? Remember, this is the same man who said, “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), whom church tradition said was martyred during the time of Nero through beheading. Maybe he knew what he was talking about! What about you and me? Maybe we don’t have to take it to the furthest extent, at least not yet. But what if we gave all? What if we emptied out our piggy banks, our bank accounts, sold off our possessions, sold off our homes, gave the poor and needy the shirt off our back and the food off our plate? If that does not come with love, it means nothing!
I. LOVE IS OVER ALL.
II. LOVE IS IN ALL (4-7). Maybe there is more to this love thing than we thought! Not only is love over all, Paul tells us it is also in all. Many of you have not seen my handwriting, and it is not a pretty thing to behold. During our marriage, I have done a lot of the grocery shopping, and my handwriting has caused its share of frustration between Carol and I. This can happen in notes of all kinds, but it seemed to show up a lot on the grocery list! “It looked like you wrote this” and “I meant that” were common expressions of affection! To deal with this problem, I came up with the computer-generated grocery list. It is a document I typed on the computer that has a column of 30 or so common food and other items, and we circle or check mark or write short notes by. I print it off the computer, I make a lot of copies, and I repeat when necessary. Lists are good things, and that’s what Paul has in verses 4-7. There are two kinds of love attitudes pictured in these verses.
A. The first is how love is seen in our attitude toward ourselves. We see this in such expressions as love “is not arrogant, does not insist on its own way, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, endures all things.” If we do not understand who we are in Christ and cannot accept who God has made us to be, it will be a struggle for love to be in all! When Carol and I first were married, we moved to Cincinnati, Ohio so I could attend Bible college there. One man who went to the church we first attended told us the story of his wife. She was a Christian, but then doubt entered her life. She doubted God. She doubted her faith. She doubted her ability to make it through the day. She doubted herself into the mental hospital, which was where she was living as a patient for as long as we knew her husband. Our wrong attitude toward ourselves makes it impossible to love as God would have us to love, and so often it finds expression in violent and life-altering ways. We only have to think of human tragedies such as Newtown, Oklahoma City and Littleton, Colorado to remember how twisted the attitudes of people can become.
B. When love is not in all, not only does our attitude toward ourselves get tragically warped, many times our attitudes toward others become poisonous as well. The tragedies mentioned above are just a few indications of how, so often, those who do not love with a right attitude toward themselves find it impossible to love with a right attitude toward others. Paul talks about love being “patient, kind, not envious, not irritable, resentful, not rejoicing in wrongdoing.” When love is not in all, it becomes so much more easier to run the train off the tracks and run over the people in our lives. About 20 years ago, I visited a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky with another minister. We were part of the same church, and were visiting a lady who was sick in the hospital who was part of our church. Some of her family was there, and for some reason, the woman’s husband and one of her daughters got into an argument. We eased them out into the hallway, but the dispute continued. Security had to be called, the two were separated and told not to come back unless they could settle down. Before she stomped off down the hallway, the daughter proclaimed to her father, “I’ll have it out with you over my mother’s grave!” I have never forgotten those words. How did their lives get so twisted, their relationship so diseased, love so non-existent, that words like that were spoken? Love must be in all in our attitudes toward ourselves and toward other people for love to be real.
I. LOVE IS OVER ALL. II. LOVE IS IN ALL.
III. LOVE IS THROUGH ALL (8-13). During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier’s fiancée had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking. When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. Cromwell’s heart was touched and he said, “Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not ring tonight!” (Our Daily Bread , posted in love illustrations, www.bible.org). When love can place itself in the very jaws of death, it is not only over all and in all, it is through all!
A. Love is superior to other things (8). One indication of how love is through all is shown in verse 8 where Paul says, “Love never ends.” Love has awesome staying power. Love will not give up.
Love reaches for the hurt and takes bold steps without self-interest. It can accomplish unbelievable things merely because it is so void of self-interest. Some time ago, a teenager, Arthur Hinkley, lifted a 3,000-pound tractor with his bare hands. He wasn’t a weight lifter, but his friend, Lloyd Bachelder, 18, was pinned under a tractor on a farm near Rome, Maine. Hearing Lloyd scream, Arthur somehow lifted the tractor enough for Lloyd to wriggle out.
Love was the real motivation.
(Calvin Miller, “Rethinking Suburban Evangelism,” Leadership, 1988, p. 68, posted in Love - selfless illustrations on www.bible.org). What else could have accomplished the impossible before serious injury or death resulted - only the superior love of a friend that saw them through it all.
B. Love is eternal (8-13). One simple picture of eternal love comes from an elderly lady my family knew when I was young. My dad did handyman work for Mrs. Hoover, a widow lady, and my brother and I would help with what we were capable of doing at our age. One day, I was sitting with Mrs. Hoover on her front porch, enjoying a drink of soda in the hot sun. She was reminiscing about her one and only child, an adopted son named Bob. Bob did not show up very often - he lived several states away - and did not seem close to his mother. She told me of how life was during World War II. Her husband had some kind of disability and could not work. Their situation was not good. She and her husband would get Bob up and feed him breakfast, then send him off to school. They would eat as little lunch as possible, then eat a bit of supper so Bob would not notice how they were denying themselves, slowly starving themselves, so he could eat. In a small way, that reveals how love is eternal. The love of the Hoovers for their adopted son would not end, it could not be denied. It was eternal.
CON. Love is over all. It is in all. It is through all. What does that show us about Jesus? Well, he is our greatest example of love. He is our model. He is our example. We are to imitate him. Thomas à Kempis, in his classic The Imitation of Christ, reminds us that modeling the love of Jesus involves such things as submitting to God’s will, enduring the loss of comfort, and taking up our cross (“The Imitation of Christ,” www.wikipedia.org). Who shows us how to do those things? Is it not Christ? Isn’t it Jesus who shows us how to submit to God’s will, not Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco or San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick? Isn’t it Jesus who shows us how to endure the loss of comfort, not President Barack Obama or candidate Mitt Romney? Isn’t it Jesus who shows us how to take up our cross, not Bishop Gary Mueller or District Superintendent Bud Reeves? Wouldn’t they be the first to say, “Follow me as I follow Christ?” If our love is to ever come close to being over all and in all and through all, it will not be as a result of our ability or effort. It will be because of Jesus!
Charles Wesley said it so well:
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of Heav’n to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation,
Enter every trembling heart.
Do you want to love your spouse? Follow Jesus. Do you want to love your kids, your parents? Follow Jesus. Do you want to love your country, your job, your self? Follow Jesus. If you let it, love will find its way in your heart and your life and you will never be the same. Let go and let it happen!
Based on a sermon by Omar Lee, Church Herald and Holiness Banner, May 28, 1993, 17
