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    • Feb8Sat

      God's Love/ True Love/ False Love

      1 Corinthians 13 February 8, 2025 by Sebastian Meadows-Helmer
      Filed Under:
      Pr. Sebastian

      Back in High School, a song popular with myself 

      and my classmates was

      Haddaways: “What is Love, (baby don’t hurt me) 

      don’t hurt me no more.”

      This Eurodance classic was made even more popular a while later 

      by comedian Jim Carrey, just Google “Jim Carrey head dance” 

      and you’ll know what I mean.

      While the lyrics are pretty banal, 

      The song’s quite catchy, and that iconic electric organ riff still gets me doing a head dance 30 years later.

      Yes, I grew up in the 90s….

      So when I picked up our sermon text this week, 

      Paul’s famous ode to love from first Corinthians, 

      it just popped up in my head “What is love?”

      Because that’s what the passage is all about…

      true love, real love, and also false love.

      Now, we often connect 1 Corinthians 13 with wedding ceremonies, 

      but really, it goes much deeper than just describing 

      the romantic feeling of two individuals about to tie the knot, 

      it really is an admonition, 

      a set of guiding principles for a community of believers.

      The Congregation in Corinth was known to be all puffed up, 

      they were proud of their spiritual gifts 

      and thought highly of themselves as Christians.

      However, Paul needed to remind them 

      that there are a variety of gifts, each one is important, 

      and that they should be respectful of the lesser parts; 

      after all, they were one body in Christ, 

      and divisions were undermining their witness.

      Paul also needed to help them deal with their power struggles 

      and disagreement over religious practices. 

      Part of his argument was appealing for the need for true, 

      God-like love in the midst of the community.

      Now it’s all too easy to describe ideal love from a distance,

      And to set it up on this high, unattainable pedestal,

      But we all know, the devil is in the details,

      Once you get into the nitty gritty of real life,

      Always loving in a Christlike way is really, really hard.

      We know God is Love, so that’s a good place to start.

      But what is true love?

      It’s not just the sappy, puppy love.

      We need to look at Christ!

      V4 

      Christ shows us that

      Love is patient, and kind, 

      not envious, or arrogant or rude 

      Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing 

      but rejoices in the truth. 

      True, godly Love endures. (V8)

      it goes on and on

      While all other things come to an and.

      The importance of Love isn’t something that Paul 

      or even Jesus invented,

      It goes back to the Law of Moses and the commandments to

      Love God with all our might, 

      and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

      We see God’s love modelled in the purest way by God’s Son,

      Who loved humans to death on the cross.

      Now like I said, all nice and good, 

      Love is pretty straightforward to describe in its ideal form,

      And it’s relatively easy to love someone who agrees with you 

      To love someone you get along with,

      But it gets a lot harder

      When you’re dealing with a person who really annoys you or hurts you,

      It gets difficult when you’re asked to love your Enemy.

      What Paul is getting at is this:

      Whatever we count as important, whether it’s money, power, possessions or status,

      Or any knowledge or gifts or talents, 

      All of them mean nothing in the grand scheme of things

      If they are not undergirded by love.

      It doesn’t matter if you’re the smartest or most talented Christian,

      If what you do and say and think 

      is not informed by love of God and neighbour.

      This requires a lot of humility.

      You need to put the other person first, 

      and check your ego at the door.

      You need to be able to listen and walk a mile in their shoes.

      Because love is patient and kind and merciful.

      We are called esp. to patience and humility 

      in loving those who are different from us,

      The stranger, the alien in our midst, 

      those we define as “other”,

      Whether progressive or conservative, 

      environmentalist, capitalist or any other category.

      We need to resist efforts to divide “us” from “them”, 

      but acknowledge in love the common humanity 

      and self-worth of all God’s children.

      And this applies for us personally, but also for us as society 

      and as community of faith as well.

      As people of faith, people of St. Matthews, 

      we need to embody God’s love in our thoughts, words and actions.

      It is a goal, a vision that we strive for as a

      “Loving faith community”.

      Love needs to provide a basis for our life together.

      We love through our physical space sharing, 

      by helping cancer patients, the hungry and lonely, 

      by welcoming aspiring musicians and music-lovers.

      We love through our socials and our committees.

      But sometimes we might be called to go beyond that, 

      esp. in these stressful times, with what’s going on down South.

      We may draw inspiration from the Quaker groups 

      that filed a lawsuit over the end of the policy restricting Immigration arrests in houses of worship.

      Perhaps it means taking a harder stand against bigotry or lies or consolidation of power amongst the oligarchy.

      Will more be called out from us in the weeks ahead? 

      I think it’s possible. 

      As people of faith, we need to be clear what the Bible really says about love. It is not selfish or self-serving. 

      It’s not there to scapegoat minorities.

      Love isn’t arrogant or narcissistic.

      Love is about washing feet, and being a voice for the voiceless, 

      and sharing your coat if you have two.

      v13

      Faith hope and love remain 

      But the greatest of these is love.

      May our words and actions be guided by our God who is true Love.

      Amen

      *Hymn of the Day 644 “Although I Speak with Angel’s Tongue”

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