An enchanting story is told of an elderly woman who lived her life by the motto, “if you can’t say something nice about someone don’t say anything at all.”  (I imagine we have each encountered someone like this, maybe we are someone like this.)  Somehow this kind woman could always find something nice to say about anyone, no matter who they were or what they were known for!  Now this proved to be a creative challenge for her grandchildren, and they would test her often saying “what about so and so?”, and she would come up with something nice.  Then one day, they thought they really had her.  “Grandma”, one child asked with a wicked grin, “what about the devil?, what do you have to say about him?”  She thought for a moment, the children waited and then she replied, “well, you have to say.. he’s always on the job- isn’t he!”  

If there is any biblical word that needs virtually no explanation for us today, it is “temptation”.   We know of it from biblical stories of Adam and Eve, King David, and others.  We know of it from books like the “Scarlet Letter” and from just about any “block buster” movie we may rent.  And too much so, we know of it from newspaper headlines.  Almost by instinct we come to learn that “temptation” is a negative word, meaning a desire to “be bad” or disobedient. 

Temptation today it is often thought of as an alcoholic reaching for one more drink, a teenager doing something stupid in order to fit in, someone pursuing an affair.  Often these are things that other people can clearly see would be bad for them, yet somehow they can not see it for themselves.  To those who are tempted, it can be very difficult to see the downside of what is so appealingly set before them.   

Jesus, however, could clearly see the shortfalls in what was being offered him by the devil.  His eyes were open to the reality of the consequences of his choices. As we consider the temptations before Jesus, it may seem like what he faced in no way reflects temptations we may face.  Yet every temptation has the same underlying tension.  To treat God as less than God, and treat ourselves as something more than human.  It was real for Jesus and it is real for us. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes “the Bible is not like a book of edification, telling us many stories of temptations and their overcoming.  To be precise, the Bible tells only two temptation stories, the temptation of the first man and the temptation of Christ, that is the temptation which led to man’s fall, and the temptation which led to Satan’s fall.  All other temptations in human history have to do with the two stories of temptation.  Either the Adam in me is tempted-in which case we fall.  Or the Christ in us is tempted – in which case Satan is bound to fall.” 

A good friend of mine defines temptation as a choice between “freedom and oppression.”  

We speak of temptations as a desire to be disobedient, yet at the heart of temptation is something greater, to treat God as something less than God and to treat ourselves as something more than human.  In temptations we choose between God’s will, which leads us to live in the freedom that is intended for each of us, or choosing to live in oppression of our own design, and a distortion of the truth. 

As we consider the temptations that Jesus faced, it may be difficult for us to believe that he was truly tempted, because he never did give in.  The Christ in him responded always.  The part of him that knew his essential identity so he always put God’s will above all else.  He chose to live in the freedom of the bounds of belonging to God. 

As we face temptation, the Adam within us sometimes prevails and we find ourselves living in a form of oppression that results from our choice.  Sometimes that which looks so appealing and perhaps even freeing at first can in fact narrow our world and close in things around us. 

While we may not be tempted to turn stones to bread, are we not tempted to question whether God will give us what we need for our daily journey?  While we may not be tempted to test God and gravity by jumping off a building, don’t we at times question or doubt God’s helpfulness in times of difficulty?  Asking where was God during that last crisis?,  Do we forget God’s promise my grace is sufficient for you.

It will always be tempting to give in to the ways of the world, in an effort to achieve whatever goals we may have set for ourselves for our personal or professional lives.  There are appealing shortcuts that will present themselves.   It is hard to worship and serve God only.  That is our calling.        

We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “lead me not into temptation”.  For good cause.  It is most difficult to be in times of temptation and choice.   Many times we are going to make the wrong decision.  Jesus was led by the holy spirit to temptation for him to gain a greater sense of his identity.  He came away knowing more fully who he was and what he was called to be and do in his ministry.  He was not going to have power and possessions and prestige, he was going to have servant hood, poverty, and humility.  

In his time of greatest temptation he was alone and hungry in the desert, standing at the edge of his ministry.  The rest of his life was before him, a book filled with only blank pages.  What will be its nature and shape?  How will he relate to God and rely on God? Temptations will come to us with the same challenging questions that will shape our identities, no matter where we are in life.  Let us not shun temptations, but acknowledge how real and trying they are, and enter these times with a trust and confidence that the Holy Spirit is among us and within us actively showing us that which is of God.  Amen.     

“Rarefied Air”  (Luke 9:28-36)

Intro to theme:  Last week I mentioned my flight instructor Jake, he used to like to joke that “altitude can change your attitude”.  It was it his house that I first time I saw poem “High Flight” and I’d like to read it for you now.   READ POEM.    “Reached out and touched the face of God.”  It can be hard to describe “mountain top experiences”  but I’d like to consider them in the sermon this morning. 

Intro to reading:  Today is Transfiguration Sunday.  The week before we start the season of Lent.  This is the familiar yet mysterious story of Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountain top.  At this point in his ministry, Jesus knows what is before him Jerusalem, he knows his time is short and that the disciples really don’t get it yet.  He takes three disciples with him as he goes up to pray.  //

Prayer of Invocation

(Slide of Taranaki)  Who has seen this mountain?  Everyone, right?  We’ve all seen it from the ground,  right?  Has anyone climbed it?  I got this far. (SLIDE)  And those who go higher can see this.  (Slide from top of Taranaki) Great view, wow.  To get up above the clouds.  Love it.  A different perspective.  What is the view like from up there?  (Was it worth the hike?)   It can be hard to describe some events, and even when you do try you can tell people just don’t get it.   

Astronauts from around the world have tried to describe what it was like for them to voyage into space and return to Earth again.   The book’s author asked many people who had flown into space to reflect on how the journey changed them emotionally and spiritually.   Some said the experience was simply beyond words.  Some did try to describe the changes and their words are fascinating. 

An astronaut from Saudi Arabia said “the first day or so we all pointed to our countries.  The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents.  By the fifth day we were aware of only one earth.”  A Russian writes “During a space flight the psyche of each astronaut is reshaped.  You become more full of life, softer.  You begin to look at things with greater trepidation and you begin to be more kind and patient with the people around you.”   (I have heard some people wanting to send a loved one up for a rocket trip for just this very reason).  And an American wrote:  “We left as technicians and returned as humanitarians.” 

These space travelers have seen things that not many, if any, of us will see first-hand.  They have gone beyond the veil of the earth and peeked further towards the edge of the universe than all others.  It is great and fantastic stuff and many times there are no words for the experience.  From the pictures and words we can get a glimpse of what it must have been like for them.  But we still have to use our imagination for the universe is so vast that it always defy full explanation or definition.   

Back to our mountain top with Jesus and the disciples.  The miraculous mysterious things that happened on the mountain are precursors to taking up the cross.  We can learn a great deal from how Jesus dealt with this time of transition in his life.  He knows full well what lies before him in Jerusalem.  He knows that those who follow him do not fully understand.  Yet he invites his three closest disciples to go with him up the mountain and pray with him.  It is interesting that Jesus chose to go up the mountain to pray.  We know and believe that God is everywhere and that you can pray anywhere and Jesus would know this too.  But he goes up to the mountain top.

Perhaps there is a good reason for this.  From here his line of sight, his vision would be much different.  From here one can look across the Jordan valley and see where the river flows into the dead sea, and on a clear day you can see all the way to Jerusalem.  For Moses this would have been the place to see get a view of the promised land, to see where to cross the Jordan, to dream of what could have been.  This would have been the place.  Not only is Jesus getting a glimpse of the big picture of the landscape, he is gaining a deeper insight into what his calling as the Christ means. 

Our story this morning is a moment of God most definitely reaching toward Jesus and all of us with a glimpse of heaven.  Jesus is in a time of transition and transformation as he has begun his ministry, Peter has declared that Jesus is the Christ.  Jesus has explained for the first time that to be the Christ means that he must journey to Jerusalem and die.  It will not be an easy road before him but he accepts that and know his journey to the cross will be difficult. 

In this moment, when heaven and earth touch Jesus is transfigured by a shining light and suddenly appear Moses and Elijah.  These two represent the essential parts of the Jewish faith namely the law and the prophets.  Jesus is being comforted and encouraged by his spiritual roots, his culture, his heritage comes to him in his hour of need and this becomes a timeless moment.  Don’t we at turning points in our lives take comfort from people or places from our past taking the time to look where we have been to help guide us as we go forward. 

For a movement heaven and earth do touch and Jesus shines.  Even though the disciples are sleepy they can still see it and they don’t know what to do or say.  When the moment changes and passes Peter is so swept up in it that he wants to build a set of booths and try to live up there and stay in that wonderful moment.   He wants to stay in that rarified air of the mountain top. We can understand that, the temptation to hold on those once in a lifetime moments forever.  Peter doesn’t realize the reality of what Jesus has explained that God’s work is not yet done, they most all go down together and carry on.  They must leave the mountain and go through the valleys before them and continue toward the cross. 

Here you can help me fill in the blank, what goes up? ……… Must come down, 

Hikers come down, airplanes must land, spacecraft return to earth.  OH, if only we just stay up there! 

They descend from the peak changed somehow, wondering what words will suit the experience and then God speaks saying the words uttered at Jesus baptism, this is my child, my beloved, listen to him”  It is a clear call for us to recognize Christ in our lives, to know that following Christ will mean times of ordinary moments and time of extraordinary.  Most of the time we live day to day, yet God does and God will break into our lives providing moments and glimpses that we hold on to and make sense of over time.  As we go forward into Lent we do so knowing that God is with us in all our times of transitions and transformations.  

We don’t need to leave the ground, but can we imagine our spirits soaring when we reach out to touch the face of God and we find God is already there, already touching our face ready to begin a new and intimate relationship, where we need not hide any of ourselves, and change begins.  This Lenten season we will be transformed, reflecting the light and love of our God and we will see that same light and love in our neighbor as well.  Amen. 

Intro to theme: Hopeful Sorrow

What are the two certainties in life?  Death and Taxes!  We are quick to complain or about taxes.  But death, that is a topic rarely discussed with honesty and sincerety.  

Our New Testament reading comes from I Thessalonians. This letter addresses some specific concerns raised by a young church started by Paul. Paul had been teaching that Christ would return soon and carry everyone up into heaven. Paul, and many early Christians thought that they would live to see this, that they would be there for the completion of God’s Kingdom. Now members have died and so the question arose “what will happen to those who have died before Christ comes again?”

 “Hopeful Sorrow” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

(Show the clip from UP – best four minutes.)

Death has long been, and continues to be, one of the hardest things for people to talk about.  We know Death happens to everyone.   As rational, thinking, folks we know that.  It is part of being alive.  From early on in our lives, we come to learn that plants, animals, and people grow up, grow old, and one day die.  At least that is the supposed to be the natural course of events.  We know that there is an eventual end point to our earthly growth, there comes a time when our baptism is complete, yet it is very rare that we will talk freely about it.  Try to think about the last time you shared your honest feelings about our own death with someone else saying “here is what I believe, or “this is what I am afraid of”, or “here is what I hope is true, here is what I know is true.” 

For the most part, death scares the heck out of us.  We don’t know for sure and we can’t prove in any scientific way what comes next so there is an understandable apprehension about what shape and form that any life after life might take.

Death and dying, it makes all the difference in the world if it’s happening to you or someone you love.  Not all of us are dealing with the reality of death and dying right now.  Some of us are fine and healthy, and members of our families are as well.  And we proceed in life with a sense of immunity.  That death is not going to happen to us, at least not for a long time so we can speak freely, casually, even philosophically about death, because it is a reality that is not very real to some of us right now.

For some for us death and dying are very real to us.  We know the pain of having lost someone dear to us.  We know the feeling of being left behind, or left alone.  Some of us may know what is to be dying, living with a very real sense of time being limited and striving to make the most of each day given.  Death will, and death does enters every life at some point. 

I remember one of my earliest enoucounters with losing someone I cared for deeply.  When I was a teenager I took flying lessons from a wonderful man, named Jake.  He had flown all his life and his greatest joy was teaching others.  As it turned out, I was the last student he taught.  He always assured me of any mistake I would make he had seen it hundreds of times before.  Anyway when we were flying  Jake could tell when I was tired or just not getting it, and he had this routine that I looked forward too.  Sometimes, at the end of a lesson, if it had gone really poorly, (or if it had gone really well)  There was this pattern that developed.  I knew what was coming.  He would reach over put a hand on my shoulder, give me a wink, with the other hand push the yoke forward diving the airplane to just the right speed, pull back on the stick until we went like this and then toss it over to one side till the airplane did an aileron roll.  It was an absolute thrill for us both.  He loved it and I loved it.  And we would laugh.  There is nothing quite like an airplane doing a circle in the sky like that.  

A few years later Jake was diagnosed with cancer.  It spread quite quickly and in time he needed large amounts of morphine to numb the pain in order to get through each day.  I was living in California at the time and one trip home I knew would be the last chance to see him.  It was hard to see him so different, unable to get up or even say much.  When it came time for me to leave he tried to reach for my shoulder, couldn’t quite lift his hand that high.  But he looked me in the eye and gave me a wink, and that was it. He said goodbye with a promise filled wink.   The tears came fast as I drove away. 

Tears are a very real part of any death.  There is a sorrow on the part of those who are left behind, and there may be tears from the person who is leaving.   Saying goodbye for the last time is something we don’t learn to do anywhere.  There is no way to practice.  And sometimes death comes without the chance to say goodbye beforehand.   

Death at any point in life brings up many questions.  What is next?  Is there life after life?  What can it be like?  We don’t know fully, on this side of the grave,  we don’t have satisfactory answers.  There are many things to ponder, and doubts can be very real. 

Death and dying, it makes all the difference in the world if it’s happening to you or to some that you love.    That’s the situation in the book today, of Thessalonians.  Christians in the first century, who were expecting the risen Christ to come soon, to usher in his kingdom with all of its glory and triumph, these Christians were suddenly confused because other people in their church were beginning to die.  They didn’t know what to make of it.  And it confused their faith and it gave them concern as to what Easter really meant.  They had thought the resurrection had destroyed death.  And they would now see Christ coming on the clouds, but with the death of their loved ones they are unsure. 

That’s what was perplexing these Thessalonians, in a post resurrection world.  Paul says two things.  The first thing is we sorrow, obviously, yet how many people say I have to be strong, I can not break down I have can’t ask questions.  Resurrection doesn’t mean that death has somehow disappeared, that death is now our friend, what it means is that death has been defeated.  But that the fullness of that defeat is not yet complete.  And so we sorrow.  

The Bible says in the presence of death we sorrow.  But the other thing that Paul says is that though we sorrow it is not as those who have no hope.  Hopeful sorrow, the resurrection says, though death may grasp us, it will not hold us forever.  Hope is what helps hold our sorrow, it does not replace it, it does not cancel it, but it undergrids it.  The pain of death can never cut so deeply as the grace of God in our lives.  Hopeful sorrow, the conviction that there is more to life and death than what is seen.  That when the kingdom is complete we will all be together. 

Paul says we will be with the Lord forever.  Honest grief, hopeful sorrow is what helps keep us from giving in to despair.   We sorrow, but not as those who have no hope.  We are to encourage one another.  In a moment, we role of those who died in the past year sharing sorrow that they are no longer with us, hopeful in the promise that one day we are all united again. 

This spirit of always being hopeful is captured beautifully in a story about a woman who had been diagnosed with cancer, and had been given three months to live.  You may have heard this before but see if can’t stir you again.  This woman’s doctor told her to start making preparations to die, so she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes.

She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what Scriptures she would like read and what she wanted to be wearing. The woman also told her pastor that she wanted to be buried with her favorite Bible. Everything was in order, and the pastor was preparing to leave when the woman suddenly remembered something very important to her. “There’s one more thing,” she said excitedly.

“What’s that?” came the pastor’s reply.

“This is very important,” the woman continued. “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.” The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to say.

“That shocks you, doesn’t it?” the woman asked.
“Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request,” said the pastor.

The woman explained. “In all my years of attending church socials and functions where food was involved, my favorite part was when whoever was clearing away the dishes of the main course would lean over and say, ‘You can keep your fork.’ It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming. When they told me to keep my fork, I knew that something great was about to be given to me. It wasn’t Jell-O or pudding. It was cake or pie. Something with substance. So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand, and I want them to wonder, ‘What’s with the fork?’ Then I want you to tell them: ‘Something better is coming, so keep your fork, too.'”

The pastor’s eyes were filled with tears as he hugged the woman goodbye. He knew this would be one of the last times he would see her before her death. But he also knew that that woman had a better grasp of heaven than he did. She knew that something better was coming.

At the funeral, people were walking by the woman’s casket, and they saw the pretty dress she was wearing and her favorite Bible and the fork placed in her right hand. Over and over, the pastor heard the question, “What’s with the fork?” And over and over, he smiled. During his message, the pastor told the people of the conversation he had with the woman shortly before she died. He also told them about the fork and about what it symbolized to her. The pastor told the people how he could not stop thinking about the fork, and told them that they probably would not be able to stop thinking about it, either. He was right.

Who are we?  We are people of hope, living examples of a community faithfully seeking God, knowing that questions and suffering come and will come, but that through it all, God is the source of our hope Believe that the best is yet to come.  .that place which is beyond this life, that place for which nothing in this life can prepare us…that place which Jesus himself has prepared for us.  Our “abiding place”, our everlasting relationship with God.  Jesus leads us there.  Amen.

Amen. 

Intro:  Our New Testament lesson is from the fifth chapter of Luke.   Jesus has just begun his ministry of teaching and people are beginning to notice him.  They are starting to follow.  Word is spreading, not only is he a great teacher, now we discover he also knows how to fish.   Let us listen for God’s word to us.   (READ)    

Fish stories amuse us.   My in-laws used to fish a great deal, and they are part Irish so I’ve heard some good ones.   I’m sure in every family, or set of friends, there is someone who can tell a good tale of “the one that got away”, and describe in great detail the wild adventure that was the last fishing trip.   When it comes to “tall tales” I’m not sure which holds first place, fishing or golf.   It seems like there are all kinds of “almost miracles” that happen everyday.   I almost made this putt, or I almost caught the biggest trout in the lake.   I’m not a fisherman, but I do love to listen to fishing tales once in a while, there is such passion and animation in the telling, even if the facts may trouble one’s logical and rational side.   It is fun to hear of an “almost miracle” no matter how unbelievable it may be.   We can listen, laugh and then we keep going on with life as usual.  

But that’s not the kind of miracle story we have in Luke.  Jesus has just begun his public ministry.  He is going about the countryside teaching and preaching.  It is early in the morning and he already has a crowd following him.  He comes to the shore.  You can hear the tired and frustrated chatter of the fishermen coming in from fishing all night.  It’s been a worse than average night of work.  You hear the gravel as the boats are pulled up on shore—the nets tossed on to the beach to be sorted and stored.  They should smell fishy but they don’t.  The breeze is still from the land towards the lake.

Jesus needs to find a way to get a little distance from the press of the crowd so that he can share his message with all who want to hear.  Jesus asks Simon to let him teach from the boat.  It is an inconvenience.  Simon and his coworkers are tired.  They fished all night.  They did not catch anything.  Nothing makes a person more frustrated than to work all day and get nothing accomplished.  Now Jesus interrupts ending of their day.  Take me out a little way so I can see the crowd and the crowd may see me better, Jesus asks. 

We do not know how long Jesus preached.  We do not know the sermon.  Maybe he was working on an early version of the Sermon on the Mount.  Maybe he was refining his series on the Lost Sheep, the Lost coin, and the Lost Son.  But when Jesus finishes he tells Simon and the workers to let down their nets.  Now Simon shows some frustration.  Look, we are the fishermen.  We know what we are doing.  We fished all night.  Nothing.  Now you come meddling, asking for favors and telling us how to run our business.  They may have had no interest in listening to him at all.  When you are tired and frustrated at your work, the last thing you want is some upstart stranger telling you how to do it right. 

Yet for some reason Simon and his workers obey.  Who knows what it was about how Jesus talked with them, or what he said, but they go ahead and set out with their boat and net.  And the catch is magnificent.  So great that Simon and his workers have to call for help from the second boat.  Simon and his friends are really lucky.  This will make them rich for the day.  This is a dream catch, breaking nets, that almost sink the boats!  It is the hope that kept him going out day after day, that one day there would be more than he could ever pull in.  It would be like winning the lottery.  But Simon doesn’t react with joy.  This is not a little miracle story.  Simon knows that he is in the presence of the mystery and power of God and in that presence everything in his life is up for grabs and Simon begs Jesus to leave.  Get away from me, for I am a sinful man.

Little miracles are enjoyed.  The ones that come by and say hi, that don’t shake things up too much.  But if the truth be told, we may not really want the great miracle of the presence and power of God which suddenly makes everything you ever thought you knew about the world, everything you thought you knew about fishing, the invasion of the Holiness of God which makes everything you thought you knew about yourself, suddenly inadequate, and incomplete.  Here in this boat suddenly Simon was face to face with the moment which forced him to have to make a decision about whether or not to really believe in the presence and power of God involved in our lives or to deny what had happened to him, return to shore and pretend that it never happened and forever to live the rest of his life trying to pretend it never happened.

Right then, he would be shaking.  His muscles overtaxed with the demands of hauling in this huge catch.  But more so his soul shaken with the awareness of God that was standing right there before him in the person of Jesus Christ.  This was more than the best catch ever, it was a very real sign of God’s abundance and overwhelming action in his life right then, right there before his eyes.  This miracle was for Simon Peter, the fisherman.  There were more fish there than he ever imagined.  He could do things he never thought possible, if he followed Jesus’ word.  When he thought all his efforts would bring up nothing, Jesus says “go out again”, against what makes sense, against what all your training and experience might tell you, go where I send you says Jesus, and wait with your nets, you will be surprised and shaken. 

Little miracles of strange and delightful events which allow us to go on about our daily lives comforted with the thought that maybe our world really is surrounded by a greater power, love and mercy.  We enjoy those.  But the great miracles which come to confront us with the majesty of God, those are more troubling because the stakes seem so high.  Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.  And Simon and his coworkers left everything and followed.

Little miracles we like, but big miracles which suddenly change the whole way you look at your life, at the way you look at how the world treats you, changes all your plans for the future, which come to you and has all the feel of being compelled by something in a new direction, we don’t really want those miracles very often.  We don’t want them or if we suddenly begin to tremble with excitement at the adventure of being called into this whole new world, saying yes send me, there are others who will not celebrate with you.  Most of us are used to how things are and it’s Ok to keep it this way. 

Little miracles, like even Jesus turning water into wine, we like them, we don’t have to change much.  The wedding party can keep going.  When the party is over we can all go home and get on with our lives.  What happened to Isaiah and to Simon led to a lifetime of change.  Maybe we put so much attention on the little miracles because we are not sure what we would do with the bigger one.

Sometimes we can see things with our own eyes and still miss the reality of what is before us. Sometimes we can be so bound up with our expectations of what is, or focused on what we think is important, that we can be caught off guard when the bigger picture comes into focus.  God gets out of the temple and into the world where the deep need is.   Into each of our lives Jesus comes at some point, calling to us saying “come into the deep water come out a little further than you are used to going, take a few risks and throw out your nets.  See what is out here.  Go, do what you already know how to do, but do it in a new way, in broad day light, and out where the water is deep.   This call may cause us to shake, and awaken to new possibilities and realities as we become a loving and beloved community of faith.  Amen.  

 “Love is  NOT”  (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

Intro:  Chapter 13, in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, is probably the most famous statement about love in the world.  As we try envision what the city of Corinith is like.  Think Las Vegas.  Let us listen.//

The thirteen verses of first Corinthians chapter 13, are probably the best known words Paul ever wrote.  This chapter is to the New Testament what the Twenty-third Psalm is to the Old Testament.  It is known, loved, enjoyed, and memorized by many people.  Everyone is familiar with at least some of the rhythms and some of the imagery of this passage.  One often hears it read at weddings and we feel the sentiment of it and we enjoy the beauty of it.  It is perhaps one of, if not the most, popular portions of the New Testament.

Too often, this passage is read in isolation from its broader scriptural setting.  All or part of the reading is lifted up and taken out of its original context.  We don’t have to go far to see some of these words written in fancy calligraphy put up on a wall somewhere.  In offices or in homes we see in big print, LOVE IS, patient, kind and does not boast.

Because the words are soaring and beautiful, they seem to point beyond the ordinary and possible. The problem is that just holding the beauty of the words in a picture frame obscures the practical, exhorting force that Paul intends.  If Paul heard how people say “Love is patient, love is kind and does not boast”, with a soft dreamy look in their eyes, I think he would get really cranky.  (As Paul was want to do). When the words are taken from the whole, and the understanding of the Corinthian situation is left behind, the transforming power is weakened if not lost.

The letter he wrote was in response to questions the Corinthians raised about what they should do in response to some of the issues they were facing.  Paul is not writing a philosophy paper about some abstract ideal of “what is love”.  The discussion of love comes in practical terms as he speaks to their concerns.  He is writing to a conflicted congregation, caught up in a distorted spirituality, and engaged in intense power struggles.  These people were trying to live out their Christian faith in the midst of a city where many more people thought the “God of love” was Venus.  

Paul was trying to bring a new way of thinking to the anxious and fractured members of a specific group of early Christians.  In the chapter immediately preceding this, the passage, Paul addressed the Corinthian concern over proper beliefs and the distribution of spiritual gifts.  In chapter 12 he used the analogy of a human body to try and get the Corinthians to views gifts of the spirit with a new perspective, as parts of a unified body of Christ.  Now Paul adds the single most important component necessary for that “spiritually gifted body”, the lifeblood of love.  Just as the individual organs of the body can not function without blood flowing through them, humans are nothing without love flowing through us. 

Paul uses the first person throughout his letter as he writes about love.  He is talking about himself as an example for them. Without love, speaking in tongues turns him into a noisy and incoherent nuisance; he or anyone with profound theological insight and total faith amount to nothing, if love is not present.  Even extravagant gifts to the poor or those who suffer to boast of gain, have nothing, and have done nothing if there is not the backdrop of love as the motivation for everything. 

He is not saying that spiritual gifts are useless, or that dramatic sacrifice is to be disregarded.  The exercise of gifts, and the practice of sacrifice in themselves simply do nothing for the doer.  It is love manifest in the person that makes these actions meaningful.  

While Paul is giving ideas and advice, he avoids offering a complete and comprehensive definitions of love.  Reading about love or defining it, Paul says is like looking into a dim mirror.  You don’t get the full picture.  The real thing happens only face to face, with one another, with God.  It is in the searching for, the seeking for God’s love that we find it, on the journey with one another.  That’s what Paul is saying.  Look at me, and what I do.  Love is as love does.  Here is an example of love.  Christ is the perfect example of love in action.  It is in the doing that love is manifest and real. 

As human beings we are created in the image and likeness of God.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, faith finds God showing “steadfast love.”  Always present.   In the New Testament, while love is not God, God is love.  So love is part of our basic make up, or stuff.  It is the lifeblood of a relationship and connection to God.
 
Paul write “So faith, hope, love abide, these three: but the greatest of these is love.” It is the meaning of life. Or at least the first hint of a whisper of a clue of finding it. As we look at these familiar words that Paul wrote, an interesting idea I’ve seen is for us to put ourselves into those verses and see how our love and lives reflect what Paul speaks of.  For instance, starting at verse 4, if we substitute the word “I” for “love”, the passage reads like this: “I am patient; I am kind; I am not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way; I am not irritable or resentful; I do not rejoice in wrongdoing, but I rejoice in the truth. I bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. My love never ends.” How true are those sentences for each of us? How well do they match up with the way that we really are?  (Don’t answer for anyone else sitting next to you.  But think it through sometime.)    Since God is love try it with God as well, God is patient God is kind.  See if that shifts your perspective on God at all. 

What those words show us is that love is something we do. It’s not just some feeling.  In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus praised a group of people by saying: “I was hungry and you gave me food.” Notice that Jesus didn’t commend the people by saying: “I was hungry and you felt sorry for me.” No, I was hungry and you gave me food.  Love means doing what’s necessary, what’s needed. But really love means even more than that.  It is a disposition, a way of living life.  Paul brings this in at the end, Faith hope and love abide, these three and the greatest of these is love.  Hope expects what faith believes.  Hope holds on because it has faith in the strength and persistence of God’s love for us. 

Faith and hope never stand alone.  They are all fulfilled in love.   As Paul writes the Corinthians with their very real very human problems and temptations.  He says their task is to take that truth of God’s lasting love that is present now.  To take it and make it ever more real in their lives.   That is our call as well.  The table is here to enfold us God’s in  perfect love that came to us in Jesus Christ, to feed us and to give us a glimpse of love that endures forever.  God’s love.  Amen.