this was an abbreviated sermon because we had a short communion service before heading from the sanctuary to our fellowship hall to pack food bags for Kids Against Hunger. It was a pretty straightforward sermon. The reference to the Book of Order's reminder that the church should be a community of love may lead to a summer preaching series on exploring the church's purpose as delineated in our Book of Order.
I usually preach I Corinthians at a wedding or funeral. It was interesting to preach it in a different context.
“All Mysteries and All Possessions”, February 2, 2025; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; I Corinthians 13
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. 3If 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; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love 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. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When 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. 12For 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. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Move 1: Paul makes it clear,
not just to couples getting married who choose to read this beautiful passage from I Corinthians at their wedding
Paul makes it clear to all of us that the foundation for all our relationships
indeed, the foundation of God’s relationship with all of us is love.
As Paul bluntly puts it:
our words have little value if they are not undergirded with love
even if we can know all things and understand all mysteries, if we do not have love that knowledge is of no use
and if we have every possession we could even begin to want and do not have love, the possessions do not matter.
Move 2: our call to love grows out of God’s love for us.
a. Brennan Manning in his YouTube video Live at Woodcrest reflects on what it will be like one day to see God face to face. Brennan feels like the one question God will ask him is "Did you know how much I loved you?" (Brennan Manning, Live at Woodcrest, referenced in “Engage” curriculum [PCUSA], www.pcusa.org/evangelism, 33)
do you know how much God loves you?
When you come to the lord’s table today, you will have an idea -
God loves you so much God sent Jesus to live among us, because God wanted to be with us;
God loves us so much God sent Jesus to die for us because Gods love knows no bounds
God loves us so much God raised Christ from the dead to gives us new life and new hope.
That is how much God loves you.
move 3: we Respond to God’s love by sharing God’s love with others.
a.. We often speak of love as a noun, but in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that we just read, Paul uses love as a verb,
1. In verses 4-8a, “love” is the subject of 16 verbs in a row;
it happens in every phrase.
2. This does not come through clearly in English translations,
We read love is patient and love is kind.
Loves described by some rather static adjectives
3. But in the Greek, Paul literally makes the claim, “love shows patience”
“Love acts with kindness.”
4. Love expresses itself through action.
b. The greatest thing we can offer a person, or a group, or the world is our love.
Not a dreamy, wishful kind of love, but love that comes with humility and service,
love that comes with care and concern for others.
c. Indeed, Sharing God’s love is our calling as the church.
our Book of Order reminds us that "The church is to be a community of love,….”
Conclusion: So today we live into our calling.
We come to our Lord’s Table to receive God’s love;
then we go downstairs to share God’s love by feeding others.
God’s expansive love coming and going - to us and through us.
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