Epiphany 4                          1Cor. 12:27-31                                  2/1/04

                                      "The School of Love"

Divide congregation into four groups:

Group 1: Sings "Amazing Grace"

Group 2: Prays the Lord Prayer (slowly)

Group 3: Chats sociably

Group 4: Speaks in tongues (gibberish)

Each group is to consider its task the most important.

Pastor reads 1Cor. 13:1-13 (moving to pulpit toward end of reading)

And the greatest of these is love!

Paul was writing to a well established, active church. They did many things right, but they got off track. They forgot that as the body of Christ each person was to use his/her gift with a sense of humility and in cooperation with the other members of Christ’s body. No gift was more important than another. All are needed and all need to work together. Listen to what Paul says before these well known verses, "12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸ And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?". Then he says, "But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And now I will show you the most excellent way." This is the context in which the great love chapter is presented. The Corinthians were competing and arguing over who had the best gifts and who was most important. They all wanted to be stars or leaders. Today, the problem in a church may be different - no one may want to take responsibility or lead or even get involved. The principle is the same however. Love is the key.

Love isn’t in competition with other gifts. It doesn’t seek to dominate. It doesn’t seek to have its own way. Neither does it hold back and wait for someone else to do what is needed. It doesn’t feel it is too busy or too important to find time to contribute.

We can give $1000's, work ourselves into exhaustion, and/or be recognized for our goodness, but if our loving actions are not done out of, from and because of love, what we do is ultimately empty and meaningless.

Neither does love stand alone. It is not something we do instead of teach, preach, heal, pray, worship, lead, speak in tongues and do good to others. Rather love is to be the basis for all that we do. This is the case because all that we do is to be a response to the incomprehensible love that God has shown us in Christ. Our response to God’s unconditional, unbounded love is to share His love with others in Christ name - first with our fellow church members, then with those beyond our doors in the community and world. Love then binds all of the gifts together and makes them Christian. It is to permeate the life of the church. It is to be what sets the church apart from all other institutions and groups. Whether a group of Christians is holding a meeting, having a worship service, praying visioning or socializing, love is to be given, received, demonstrated and experienced. This is not easy and we will never get it completely right, but we continue to work at learning what God’s love is like and practice demonstrating it to others.

The church is the School of Love.

It is to be the place we come to to learn what love is and how we can give it. We learn first how to receive it. We come as children, all open and vulnerable, and we receive love from teens and adult members around us.

We come as young and middle aged adults - individuals and couples - experiencing the stresses of working, raising children, caring for older family members, and responding to demands all around us. In the church we receive support from our peers.

We come as older adults, suffering the increasing limitations of aging, the pain of loss and a world changing too quickly to comprehend. In the church we receive help and caring, understanding and affirmation.

As we receive, we learn to give. We give first to each other. We learn to accept the differences in each other. We learn to put our wants aside to see that the needs of others are met. We choose Christian behavior - being patient, kind, humble, honest, hopeful, faithful - because it is the loving way to live. We care for others, not because we feel some positive emotion toward them or because they have done something to please us, but because God calls us to behave this way. We choose to practice love this way because of the love we have received from God.

In this School of Love we learn from the perfect teacher. God’s love is so unconditional that He gave His Son to die for us, though He knew that at our best we couldn’t even begin to meet His standards. But, God’s perfect love isn’t wishy-washy or indulgent. God teaches us that perfect love sets boundaries. It gives but within limits that help us grow. It gives us what we need, sometimes even when that is anything but what we want. God’s perfect love challenges us to love as God loves, but forgives and accepts us as we falter and fail.

And all of this is meant to be an on-going lesson for us. As with any school, the lessons we learn in God’s School of Love are meant to be taken out into the world. God calls us to live out His perfect, unconditional love in our families, with our friends and co-workers, toward our enemies and out in a world hungry for all the love God can give through us.

We may think that our love isn’t that important - that whether we practice and give love won’t change the world. We aren’t like to be asked to give our bodies to be burned or be asked to give all we have to show our love. It’s unlikely we will be asked to leave our homes and a promising career like Albert Schweitzer did when he went to Africa to care for the poor at the hospital he built at Lambergine, but we can take his words to heart as we try to live out 1Cor 13 and act out our part in the body of Christ. Schweitzer was asked who was the greatest person alive. His response was that the greatest person alive was someone in some obscure corner of the world who goes in love to visit a sick friend. He could also have included shovels snow for a neighbor, brings a can of food for the food closet or gives a dollar for world hunger. We all live in some obscure corner of the world and we can all be the greatest person alive by living out love and by working with the other parts of Christ body to show God’s love to others.

We can compete or argue over which gift is greatest and who is most important. We can make excuses for keeping our gift to ourselves. Or we can attend God’s School of Love and learn to use our gift in love, thus experiencing the blessedness of being part of the body of Christ. Amen